DVD Catalyst 4.1 Guide
Bluray Guide
(Note: Part of this guide is based on the older “Beta Bluray Guide” located here: http://www.tools4movies.com/2011/08/dvd-catalyst-4-1-bluray-guide/)
*Foreword:
As of version 4.1, DVD Catalyst 4 is capable of converting “unprotected” Bluray.
We never had the intention to include support for Bluray because of the continuous stream of updates to the format. The company that controls most of the what and how regarding Bluray (I will not mention names) has a history of stabbing its customers in the back by including malicious tools on music CD’s, ignoring official specifications for video media and removing advertised features from hardware, and continues these practices with Bluray.
With nearly every major movie release on Bluray, people experience complications and/or are required to update their Bluray playback hardware or software, and as a small company, we just don’t have the time to deal with the issues and complications caused by a company that only cares about profit and not the customers that made them as big as they are.
After a lot of requests from DVD Catalyst users, we did include Bluray support in DVD Catalyst 4.1, however, in order for it to work, you will have to use something else alongside it.
*DVD Catalyst 4.1 Bluray requirements:
*Of course you will need a computer with DVD Catalyst 4.1 and a Bluray drive.
*Because DVD Catalyst 4.1 will only work with unprotected Bluray’s, you will need one of the following tools alongside it:
AnyDVD HD (21 day trial available)
This is the solution we recommend. AnyDVD’s creatores, Slysoft, have been known to be on the ball when it comes to updates, so if you happen to run into complications with a brand-new movie, an update that fixes the issue is usually around the corner. AnyDVD HD runs in the background, and acts as a layer on top of the Bluray drive, enabling programs like DVD Catalyst 4.1 to convert directly from the drive. AnyDVD HD isn’t cheap, but it is the best tool for the job.
DVDfab Passkey for Bluray Lite (free but doesn’t work with newer Blurays)
Similar to AnyDVD HD, but free, Passkey Lite runs in the background as well, enabling a direct-from-bluray conversion. As a free version, it works good, however, it does not offer support for the latest movies.
DVDfab Passkey for Bluray (trial version available)
Also similar to AnyDVD HD, enabling direct-from-bluray conversions, cheaper than AnyDVD HD.
MakeMKV (free while in beta)
Unlike the tools mentioned above, MakeMKV copies the Bluray movie/tv show to your harddrive in MKV format. There is no quality-loss, however, it does take up quite a bit of spac. After MakeMKV converts your Bluray to MKV, you can convert the MKV with DVD Catalyst 4.1
* And of course Bluray’s you want to convert to video files for your device.
*Setup:
If you don’t have DVD Catalyst 4 yet, we recommend having a look at one of the “Getting Started” guides first: http://www.tools4movies.com/category/guides/step-by-step/
While not required, it makes things easier if you at least get one conversion under your belt, or at least read through the steps to see how DVD Catalyst works. The guides look like a lot of work, but the process is really simple. The guides just includes a lot of screenshots to make it easy to follow. In short its as simple as installing and starting DVD Catalyst on your computer, select your device, insert DVD and tap Go. The guides just use a few 10oo words to explain that in full detail 
Start DVD Catalyst, and you end up with something like this:
If all you want to convert is MKV files, you are good to go at this point. If you want to convert Bluray directly, we have to enable Bluray first.
Enable the Power User checkmark at the bottom right (next to the Facebook button)
Which enables the Global Settings Button at the top left (giving you access to DVD Catalyst 4′s unique and powerful advanced settings)
If you click on that, the “Global Settings” area will open, providing you access to 100′s of quality, performance and automation options, all there to make it as easy as possible for you to convert your movies. In there, find the Bluray Tab:
There, enable the Bluray checkmark. If you do not have AnyDVD HD you can tap on the link there to download a free 21 day trial version.
Download and install AnyDVD HD, (requires a reboot of your computer).
AnyDVD HD has a lot of options to play with, but if you just convert movies, there is no need to change anything.
After installing AnyDVD HD (and the computer reboot), insert your Bluray movie into your Bluray, and it will start scanning the Bluray.
Once complete, start DVD Catalyst 4. (starting dvdcat first or afterwards doesn’t make much of a difference, but we prefer to have it scan first)
DVD Catalyst will find the Bluray movie, and start scanning it:
After scanning is complete, DVD Catalyst 4 will show the tracks it found on the Bluray:
Since we just want to convert the movie and not the special features, we select the tracks we don’t want and remove the “enable for conversion” checkmark.
Now if your device is selected, just tap Go to start the conversion.
Once complete, just transfer the movie file DVD Catalyst created from your Bluray movie onto your Droid, Xoom, Transformer, Playbook.
And thats it.
For MKV files (or any non-DRM video file for that matter), AnyDVD HD is not required. After installing the Beta, you just drag your MKV files onto DVD Catalyst and after scanning, start a conversion.
Summary:
For some reason my guides always turn out to be a bit longer than expected, so a summary might help. In short, what we did above is the following:
*Run DVD Catalyst 4 and enable Bluray support.
*download and install AnyDVD HD to handle Bluray.
*start a Bluray conversion with the DVD Catalyst 4.
From this point on, the only steps needed to convert your Bluray movies (or DVDs and video files) is as easy as can be:
1. start DVD Catalyst 4.
2. insert DVD/Bluray or drag your MKV/AVI/DIVX/XVID video files onto the program
3. tap Go.
it doesn’t get easier than that.
Side notes:
1-click conversion tool opinions:
Many people believe that “easy” conversion tools are too simple or limited. While in most cases this is true, the thing is, DVD Catalyst 4 is different. The idea behind DVD Catalyst 4 is “automation”. Over the last 7 years, the concept of video conversion software has not changed a bit. They all still use a step by step interface, and while some new things have been added, the concept is still the same. DVD Catalyst 4 is the only conversion tool that includes innovative technologies and creative thinking on how to make it as easy as possible. Rather than forcing users to manually configure each aspect of the conversion manually, DVD Catalyst 4 remembers the changes you make, and will use them for all the conversions you use it with. After install, many of the most commonly used settings, such as black-bar removal, volume adjustment are already set, so all that is left for you to make use of it is to simply start a conversion. For the more demanding user, Power User mode and Global Settings provide access to 100′s of features and options that let you control every aspect of the conversion, many not found in any other application. Automatic language/subtitle selection, volume maximizer, brightness/contrast/hue/saturation. On top of that, DVD Catalyst 4 is the only conversion tool that doesn’t care if you want to convert 1 movie or 100. No need to set up each individual conversion, just drag a folder of video files onto the program, and start a conversion. All the basic settings such as video/audio quality, screensize and video format are set, but also the more advanced features you might have enabled.
Digital Copies
iTunes rented/purchased movies, Amazon rented/purchased video files and so-called “Digital Copies” you get with some DVD’s and Bluray movies can not be converted. These files are protected with an activation system that prevents applications such as DVD Catalyst from accessing the files properly.
nVidia CUDA / ATi Stream / DXVA.
With the increasing power of video cards (the part in computers that sends information to your screen, makes 3d games look nicer etc) it is possible to use these technologies to handle some of the work of the computer processor (CPU), including video conversion.
All over the web, you will find products similar to DVD Catalyst being advertised as having CUDA support, which supposedly speeds up the conversion process by 500%. Unfortunately, these claims are not always accurate. The performance boost is directly tied to the type of video card you have, and unless you have a super-high-end model, the speed improvement will be significantly less. The thing is, if you have one of these expensive video cards, the rest of your computer system will use similar high-end parts like Quad or 8-core processors, skewing the statistics.
On top of that, the way many of these products make use of these technologies is more focused on speed rather than quality and consistency, so while the conversion might be faster (not as much as you would think) either the quality of the created movie files is less or you end up with files that are considerably larger in file size.
That is not to say that we have been ignoring these technologies. On the contrary, we have been working on support for these, however, we are working on a different approach, which combines the speed improvement with the quality that DVD Catalyst uses have come to expect and appreciate. If you prefer speed over quality, just select one of the “Fast” profiles in DVD Catalyst 4.
