Tools4Movies, the official home of DVD Catalyst » DVD Catalyst

DVD Catalyst 3.90.1

Mitch — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:17:56 +0000

A small bug in 3.90 in regards of black bar removal came to light today, and was causing some major havoc with some DVD conversions “(FAILED)”. DVD Catalyst 3.90.1 takes care of these issues. In addition, the black border removal code has been tweaked a bit for better results.

Of course the new profiles and the file-transfer code of DVD Catalyst 3.90 are still there as well.

Click on the cat-eyes in DVD Catalyst 3 to update. Files are currently uploading, so if you still see 3.90 as the latest version, try again in a little while.

DVD Catalyst on the MAC, sort of

Mitch — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:21:06 +0000

DVD Catalyst is currently only available for Windows-based computers. While some people have reported that it works on Linux by use of the Wine windows-compatibility layer, not all the features and options work.

To use DVD Catalyst on an Apple computer or laptop, there are a few options to make things work.

Bootcamp.

The best way to run DVD Catalyst on a MAC is to use Bootcamp. Bootcamp is a tool on Apple computers that enables you to install a WIndows version next to (Snow) Leopard. After you install Windows on bootcamp, when you turn on your MAC, you have a choice between starting Windows or OS X. Once you are in Windows, you can install DVD Catalyst normally, and everything will work as it should.

Pro’s:

Fast conversions (faster than when you use DVD Catalyst on a Windows computer with similar specifications)

Cons:

When you start up in Windows mode, you don’t have access to your files in (Snow) Leopard

Virtual:

Besides bootcamp, you can use a PC emulator such as VM Ware Fusion, Parallels Desktop or VirtualBox. These programs create a “virtual” PC on your MAC that you can just run like any other MAC application, and you can install operating systems such as Windows and Linux in them. If you install Windows in a virtual computer, you can run and use DVD Catalyst. Unfortunately, while these virtual computers do have access to your MAC’s DVD drive, not everything is accessible. These programs do not properly redirect some of the security features of the drive, so playback/conversion of commercial DVDs, as well as playing some of the newer games (Ubisoft) that use DRM will not work properly. To convert DVDs with DVD Catalyst (or any other software) this way, even with programs such as AnyDVD, will not work properly because of this.

To make it work with a virtual computer, basically the DVD contents first needs to be copied over to your MAC’s harddrive using tools such as Mac the Ripper or MAC DVD Ripper Pro and then using the shared-drive setup of your VM Ware Fusion/Parallels/VirtualBox setup, you can convert these files using DVD Catalyst.

Pro’s:

No need to dual-boot. Just run the virtual Windows-computer as a program on your MAC. Both VM Ware Fusion as well as Parallels even make it look like it runs on the MAC itself.

Cons:

Does not work directly from protected (commercial) DVDs. DVDs need to be ripped to hard drive first, then made accessible to the virtual computer.

Slower. Besides the additional time required to copy the files from the DVD, the conversion runs in a virtual computer while (Snow) Leopard is also running, providing less computer power to the conversions.

Requires (besides Windows) third-party programs to run Windows (VM Ware Fusion and Parallels are not free) as well as copying the DVD.

Why is there no native version of DVD Catalyst for the MAC?

We (I) have been working on it, but due to the differences between Windows and OSX, it requires a major rewrite on our part. DVD Catalyst is a 1-man job (Its just me doing everything) and the development tools used to create DVD Catalyst are not available on the MAC. So to make a MAC version of DVD Catalyst, a different programming tool (and language) needs to be used to make things work. This is very time consuming, and while maintaining DVD Catalyst 3 for Windows at the same time is more time than there are hours in the day. A start was made on DVD Catalyst for the MAC, however, due to a lack of time, it has been put (and still is) on hold. No release date is known at this point.

XBOX 360 (Part 1)

Mitch — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 17:23:23 +0000

Being a (late) first-generation gamer, I grew up with computer systems such as the Atari 2600, Colecovision, ZX Spectrum, MSX, C64, Amiga 500, and various Nintendo and Sega consoles. When it comes to games, I have a fairly short attention span, so with the console systems, I ended up picking up 2-3 $40 games a week. Then a friend of mine introduced me to the PC world. Most of the games he played were demo’s obtained from included CD’s found on the magazines he purchased. The demo’s contained a portion of the game, basically to provide an idea of what the game was like. Most of the demos were actually long enough for me to entertain myself, and by the end of the demo, I was no longer interested in the game anyway, so I ended up working towards obtaining a PC myself.

With the move to my first PC (a Pentium 120Mhz, 32MB with Windows 3.11) I started jobs in the computer field. Working for a small computer store, I was privileged to obtain the latest and greatest computer upgrades for a greatly reduced price, so like a kid in a candy store, most of my wages actually went back into the business I worked for. Working in sales, I was my own biggest customer. At the time I considered myself a pretty good sales rep, especially because when talking to customers about certain options and parts, I usually ended up purchasing the parts in question myself.

To play the latest games, I constantly had to update my computers. Until I had a fairly decent computer system with a fancy video card, I tried to install the latest Need For Speed and it pretty much laughed at me for even trying. At that point, I stopped the constant upgrades to my PC. It was futile. For every new game I had to spend 3x the price of the game to make it play.

I picked up a first generation XBOX pretty much at the end of its life cycle. The wife wanted to play “Fable” so we actually got it for our anniversary, including the guide book so she could get the most out of it. For me, of course I picked Halo as my first game, as well as the Need For Speed game that did not play on my PC.

Due to my work as DVD Catalyst developer, I did upgrade my system since, and am currently using a Dell e1705 laptop that is capable of playing some of the newer games still. The market for continuous upgrades still exists, but because I am using a laptop as my main system, upgrades are limited to memory and hard drive alone. (the processor as well as the video card have been replaced though)

A few weeks ago, my wife picked up an XBOX 360 for my birthday. It was on sale ($299 Elite Spring Bundle), and while I did not really had an interest in obtaining yet another system due to the cost of games, I am actually quite happy with it. While its main purpose is games, the added value of integrated Netflix, MediaCenter connectivity, and the capability of playback of a variety of video files, including the ones I created for my iPod Touch, it just makes the evenings a bit more fun altogether.

I have not even tapped into all the capabilities of what it can do, however, I did activate and test the Netflix Streaming part and hooked it up to my Windows 7 Media Center as well. I tested a few different videos I had on a USB pendrive, and it played those without issues as well.

A few samples:

http://www.tools4movies.com/xbox360/ateam_trl1.zip

http://www.tools4movies.com/xbox360/ateam_trl2.zip

http://www.tools4movies.com/xbox360/DespicableMe.zip

http://www.tools4movies.com/xbox360/HowToTrainYourDragon.zip

http://www.tools4movies.com/xbox360/MyGirlfriendsBoyfriend.zip

http://www.tools4movies.com/xbox360/NoCountryForOldMen.zip

http://www.tools4movies.com/xbox360/ScottPilgrimvsTheWorld.zip

http://www.tools4movies.com/xbox360/theexpendables.zip

http://www.tools4movies.com/xbox360/TheSorcerersApprentice.zip

http://www.tools4movies.com/xbox360/TheSquare.zip

Files are encoded using the HD 720> XBOX360 profile in DVD Catalyst 3. Just extract the video file from the zip and copy them to a pendrive. Plug the drive into your XBOX, and play the file.

UP

Mitch — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:49:41 +0000

Pixar’s UP utilizes a new DVD protection system that makes it not work in DVD Catalyst and many other conversion tools.

Besides the 99 tracks, the DVD itself does not provide the proper information during scanning, which basically makes it show no playlength.

To convert this particular DVD, the best solution is to install a trial version of AnyDVD, which will take care of the protection.

Once AnyDVD finished scanning the DVD, start DVD Catalyst, and it will find the correct track for conversion.

More information on AnyDVD can be found here

DVD Catalyst Free

Mitch — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:15:59 +0000

DVD Catalyst Free

build 1.7

Convert DVD to your iPod, your iPhone, Pocket PC, PSP, Droid, Nexus One or Zune for free. DVD Catalyst Free is the ONLY free 1-click DVD conversion utility available, and enables you to create video files for your portable devices without the need to read through complicated guides or to install a variety of different programs.

Before DVD Catalyst Free, the only option for free DVD conversions was to use guides found on community websites. These guides usually require the user to install a couple of different applications, all designed to perform a single task, and then follow the steps in order to get to the end-result. While these guides do offer a lot more control over the actual conversion quality, the problem is that it takes a lot of time and trial-and-error to get things figured out for new users. In most cases, forums where these guides posted, there are numerous newbie users who are confused or have problems with one step in the process. As a result, we decided to create DVD Catalyst Free.

DVD Catalyst Free takes care of all the steps in those guides, and eliminates the need to install additional software. It is based on DVD Catalyst 3, and while it lacks many advanced features, it retains the 1-click user interface, and the most popular device profiles.

Besides converting DVDs, it can also convert video files from and to a variety of different video formats, without the need to install codecs. No additional software is required for DVD Catalyst to do it’s thing.

Features

Multi-Award Winning, DVD Catalyst has won major awards for every major version released.
Works without the need to install additional software. (for some devices (PocketPC, Android) a decent (free) video player applicationmight need to be installed.
Converts recorded DVD, as well as commercial Movie and TV show DVDs.
Converts DVDs using a “track” system, which displays all the video content on the DVD, including special features, trailers and easter-egg tracks.
Supports subtitles, language selection and Closed Captions
Converts ‘on-the-fly’, no huge storage space is needed, only the filesize estimated for the created video files.
Supports ‘batching, multiple DVD drives, multiple video files, or a mix thereof are all converted in order. Add as many as you want, and let DVD Catalyst run overnight.
Automatic DVD, DVD Catalyst detects new DVDs on insert, and ejects them when done.

System Requirements

IBM-compatible PC with a minimum 500 MHz Pentium-class microprocessor and 128 MB RAM
Windows 2000/XP/XP64/VISTA/VISTA64/7
40 MB hard-disk space + space for the created files

Included device profiles

Apple iPhone. (All versions) Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. This is the same format Apple uses for its content on iTunes.

Apple iPod Touch. (All versions) Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. This is the same format Apple uses for its content on iTunes.

Apple iPod Nano. (3G, 4G) Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. This is the same format Apple uses for its content on iTunes.

Apple iPod Video. (5G, 5.5G, Classic) Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. This is the same format Apple uses for its content on iTunes.

· Cellphone 3gpp. Compatible with most cellphones with video capability.

· Zune 4. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality.

· Zune 8. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality.

· Zune 30. Files are created with the WMV video codec to ensure compatibility.

· Zune 80. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality.

· Zune 120. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality.

· Playstation Portable. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. Files need to be stored in the “VIDEO” folder located directly on the memorystick.

· Windows Mobile. Files are created with the DIVX video codec to produce the best quality. For playback, a DIVX-capable video player application such as TCPMP is required. You can find many versions of TCPMP on www.tools4movies.com/tcpmp

· Windows Mobile VGA. Files are created with the DIVX video codec to produce the best quality. For playback, a DIVX-capable video player application such as TCPMP is required. You can find many versions of TCPMP on www.tools4movies.com/tcpmp

· Palm Treo. Files are created with the DIVX video codec to produce the best quality. For playback, a DIVX-capable video player application such as TCPMP is required. You can find many versions of TCPMP on www.tools4movies.com/tcpmp

· Palm Centro. Files are created with the DIVX video codec to produce the best quality. For playback, a DIVX-capable video player application such as TCPMP is required. You can find many versions of TCPMP on www.tools4movies.com/tcpmp

· Audio only MP3. Converts only the audio portion of your videos/DVDs, basically turning them into audiobooks.

NEW in 1.7:

Google Nexus One

HTC Droid Eris

Motorola Droid

Options

DVD Catalyst Free is created to provide a simple way to convert movies for portable devices. Besides a basic quality adjustment, it does not have configuration options to modify settings set by the device profiles. Selecting a device profile automatically sets parameters required for creating video content compatible for the selected device, but nothing else.

To be able to modify additional profile settings, such as audio quality or black-bar removal, please upgrade to one of our other products, found on www.tools4movies.com. Besides offering more configuration options, they offer faster DVD conversions for most DVDs as well.

Selecting a device profile automatically selects the proper video format required for playback on the selected device. Some devices, such as PalmOS- and Windows Mobile-based devices do not have proper video playback, and for these devices, additional software is needed to be able to play the created video files. Please refer to the “Included device profiles” section for details on this.

In addition, the device profile sets the screen size of the device, which is used to optimize the video to make it fit, while preserving the best possible quality. The video will just be resized to fit within the screen size set by the profile, without further modifications. Depending on the device, as well as the video content, you might have black borders when viewing the video on your device. To eliminate this, please upgrade to one of our other software products.

The video quality is also automatically set by the device profile, but you can freely adjust this to fit your needs. The default setting for each device is selected based on providing a good quality at a reasonable file size. A quality indication (Q-value) gives you an indication of what quality to expect. Usually a value of 8 provides good quality. If you increase the video quality, keep in mind that the resulting quality can never be better than the quality of the original video, and going over 12 will not really be noticeable.

Allshadow Video Review of DVD Catalyst 3.84

Mitch — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:32:12 +0000

Mike from Allshadow just posted up a nice video review of DVD Catalyst 3.84.

Check out this video for a good overview of many of the features in DVD Catalyst 3+ with Booster Pack. Now the Cat takes advantage of multiple cores/processors better than before with faster conversion and better performance all around. Updated frequently, DVD Catalyst 3+ will convert video for any popular device. Check out the video and tell us what you think in the comments if you want a chance at winning a free copy!

DVD Catalyst 3.84 Release Notes

Mitch — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:32:52 +0000

Important:

Due to issues with the protection system, the trial version has been changed to convert 20% of Movies, TV Shows and Video files.

NEW:
Verizon/Motorola Droid Profile added, existing profiles modified to use actual device resolution (854×480)
New HTC Android models added (Hero, Milestone)
Forced Subtitles Checkmark added (was always enabled in previous versions)
CPU indicator checkmark (turn off to gain a little extra performance)
Checkmark to turn off renaming files if they exist.

Fixed:
Integer issues on some DVDs including The Dark Knight
Failed conversions due to non-standard characters in the User profile folder.
2-Pass conversions

Included device profiles:

Clearview miPC Infinity
Apple AppleTV (Fast)
Apple AppleTV (HQ)
Apple AppleTV (HD)
Apple AppleTV (HQ HD)
HD ( 720) Apple TV
HD ( 720) Apple TV HQ
HD ( 720) eGreat 720
HD ( 720) eGreat 720 HQ
HD (1080) eGreat 1080
HD (1080) eGreat 1080 HQ
HD ( 720) Zune HD
HD ( 720) Zune HD HQ
HD ( 720) XBOX 360
HD ( 720) XBOX 360 HQ
HD ( 720) PS3
HD ( 720) PS3 HQ
HD ( 720) WD HD
HD ( 720) WD HD HQ
HD ( 720) NMT XVID
HD ( 720) NMT XVID HQ
HD ( 720) NMT H264
HD ( 720) NMT H264 HQ
Apple iPhone (Fast)
Apple iPhone (HQ)
Apple iPhone 3G (Fast)
Apple iPhone 3G (HQ)
Apple iPhone 3GS (Fast)
Apple iPhone 3GS (HQ)
Apple iPod Classic (Fast)
Apple iPod Classic (HQ)
Apple iPod Nano (Fast)
Apple iPod Nano (HQ)
Apple iPod Touch (Fast)
Apple iPod Touch (HQ)
Apple iPod Video (Fast)
Apple iPod Video (HQ)
Apple iPod TV-Out
Toshiba TG01
Toshiba TG01 (HQ)
Generic 3GP Cellphone
Audio Only Movie to MP3
Tivo to MPEG
Tivo to MPEG Copy
Generic VCAST Cellphone
Verizon Droid
Verizon Droid HQ
Verizon Droid HQ2
Motorola Milestone
Motorola Milestone HQ
Generic MPEG4 Cellphone
Generic AVC/H264 Cellphone
Nokia Nokia 3GP
Nokia 9300
Nokia Nokia AVC (N95)
Nokia Nokia 5800
Nokia Nokia MP4
Dingoo A320 (AVI)
Generic Windows Mobile PocketPC (TCPMP)
Generic Windows Mobile Smartphone (TCPMP)
Smartphone Generic DIVX (TCPMP)
HTC Touch (TCPMP)
HTC Touch 3G (TCPMP)
T-Mobile myTouch 3G
HTC Touch Viva (TCPMP)
HTC Touch Pro (TCPMP)
HTC Touch Diamond (TCPMP)
HTC Touch Diamond2 (TCPMP)
HTC Touch Dual (TCPMP)
HTC Fuze (TCPMP)
HTC TyTN II (TCPMP)
HTC P6500 (TCPMP)
HTC P3570 (TCPMP)
Verizon XV6900
HTC Touch Cruise (TCPMP)
HTC Touch HD
HTC Touch HD2
Nokia 810
Nokia 810 HQ
HTC Touch LEO
HTC Touch Pro2
HTC Imagio
HTC Imagio HQ
Verizon VX6975 (Imagio)
Verizon VX6975 (Imagio) HQ
HTC MAX 4G
HTC Touch HD (HQ)
Generic WMV
Generic WMV HQ
Generic DIVX HQ
Generic AVI HQ
Generic MPEG2
Generic MPEG2 HQ
Microsoft Zune 4
Microsoft Zune 4 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune 8
Microsoft Zune 8 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune 30
Microsoft Zune 30 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune 80
Microsoft Zune 80 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune 120
Microsoft Zune 120 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune HD (HQ)
Microsoft Zune HD (TV )
Microsoft Zune HD (TV HQ)
Zune Zune HD (TV)
PocketPC PocketPC 2000
PocketPC PocketPC 2002
Microsoft W Mobile 2003
Palm Palm Treo / Centro
Palm Pre
Palm Pre (HQ)
PocketPC Palm Treo 7XXw
Palm Treo 7XXp (TCPMP)
Epson P2000
Epson P2000 AVI
Epson P4000 AVI
Creative Zen 4GB
Blackberry 81xx Pearl
Blackberry 83xx Curve
Blackberry 8330 Curve
Blackberry 87xx Series
Blackberry Storm
Blackberry Storm2
Blackberry Storm (HQ)
Blackberry Storm2 (HQ)
Blackberry 89xx Curve
Blackberry 89xx Curve (HQ)
Blackberry Tour 9630
Blackberry Tour 9630 (HQ)
Blackberry Bold
Blackberry Bold (HQ)
Misc Meizu M6 Miniplayer
Microsoft W Mobile 2005
Philips GoGear Opus SA5295
Microsoft W Mobile 5
Microsoft W Mobile 2006
Microsoft W Mobile 6
Microsoft W Mobile 2003 VGA
Microsoft W Mobile 2005 VGA
Microsoft W Mobile 5 VGA
Microsoft W Mobile 2006 VGA
Microsoft W Mobile 6 VGA
Microsoft PocketPC DIVX (TCPMP)
Smartphone Smartphone DIVX (TCPMP)
PocketPC DIVX VGA (TCPMP)
Asus eee 7″
Asus eee 9″
Asus eee 10″
MSI Wind 9″
MSI Wind 10″
Generic Netbook 7″
Generic Netbook 9″
Generic Netbook 10″
Generic Netbook 11″
Generic HD Media Player (Average)
Generic HD Media Player (Good)
Generic HD Media Player (Best)
Archos A404 H264
Archos A604 H264
Archos A605 H264
Archos A605 XVID
Archos 105
Archos 405
Archos 5 (with H264 plugin)
Archos 7 (with H264 plugin)
Archos AV500
Archos AV700
Misc Camera2DIVX
Misc Cowon A2
Cowon Q5W
Cowon A3 (DIVX)
Cowon Q5W (H264/AVC)
Cowon iAudio 6
Cowon iAudio 7
Cowon iAudio X5
Cowon S9
Cowon O2PMP (DIVX)
Cowon O2PMP (H264/AVC)
Cowon D2+
iRiver Spinn
iRiver LPlayer
iRiver E100
iRiver P7
iRiver Clix
Samsung Omnia
Samsung i8510 INNOV8
Samsung Omnia II
Samsung Omnia HD i8910
Misc Cavalry CAPP6
Misc Disney MixMax
Motorola KRZR
Motorola RAZR
Motorola SLVR
Motorola MOTOKRZR K1m
Motorola MOTORIZR Z6tv
Motorola MOTORAZR maxx Ve
Motorola ZN5
Motorola MOTORAZR V9m
Motorola MOTO Z6c World Edition
LG VX 8700
LG VX 8350
LG VX 9400
LG enV
LG EnV Touch
LG EnV Touch HQ
LG Chocolate
LG VENUS
LG Voyager
Samsung Gleam
Motorola DEXT MB220
Samsung Eternity
LG Vu CU920
Sony-Ericsson p910
Sony-Ericsson SE Xperia X1a
Sony-Ericsson Aino
Sony-Ericsson Satio
Samsung FlipShot
Samsung SCH-u540
Samsung SCH-u550
Samsung SCH-u620
Samsung Alias SCH–u740
Creative Zen Vision
Creative Zen Vision M
Creative Zen Vision W
Misc GP2X
HandheldPC Jornada 720 (TCPMP)
HandheldPC MobilePro 900 (TCPMP)
HandheldPC MobilePro 900c (TCPMP)
HandheldPC Sigmarion 3 (TCPMP)
HP IPAQ 22xx
Nokia N770
Nokia E72
Nokia N82
Nokia N800
Nokia N900
Nokia N900 HQ
Nokia N70
Nokia N73
Nokia N91
Nokia N93
Sony Playstation 3(PS3)
Sony Playstation 3(PS3) HQ
Sony Playstation 3(MPEG)
Sony Playstation 3(MPEG) HQ
Sony Playstation 3(COPY AUDIO)
Sony Playstation 3(COPY AUDIO) HQ
Sony Playstation 3(AVC)
Sony Playstation 3(AVC) HQ
Sony Playstation 3(H264)
Sony Playstation 3(H264) HQ
Sony Playstation P(PSP)
Sony PSP (PSP)
Sony PSP HQ
Sony Mylo2
Sony Playstation P(PSP) HQ
Sony PS3(AVC)
Sony PS3(AVC) HQ
Sony PS3(H264)
Sony PS3(H264) HQ
Sony PS3 DIVX
Sony PS3 DIVX COPY AUDIO
Sony PS3 DIVX HQ
Sony PS3 DIVX HQ COPY AUDIO
Sony PS3 XVID
Sony PS3 XVID COPY AUDIO
Sony PS3 XVID HQ
Sony PS3 XVID HQ COPY AUDIO
Sony Walkman NWZ
Sony Walkman X
Samsung S8000 JET
Samsung S5230 STAR
Misc Samsung U800
Misc Sansa Connect
Misc Sansa Fuse
Misc Sansa View
YouTube Flash Video
Misc FLV
T-Mobile T-Mobile G1 (Fast)
HTC HTC Dream (Fast)
T-Mobile T-Mobile G1 (Standard)
HTC HTC Dream (Standard)
T-Mobile T-Mobile G1 (HQ)
HTC HTC Dream (HQ)
Android HTC Hero
Android Acer Liquid
Acer neoTouch
Samsung B7620
Generic XVID_MP3
Generic DIVX_MP3

DVD Catalyst and DVR-MS / WTV Files (XP, Vista and Windows 7 Media Center)

Mitch — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:56:46 +0000

While most DVR-MS files work fine with DVD Catalyst, there are some complications with HD DVR-MS files as well as WTV files.

Due to the way DVD Catalyst was created, it’s possible to “hack” or trick DVD Catalyst into getting these to work properly. Please note that while the information below has been reported to work without any issues, it does not mean that there are no issues.

First some information on WTV files. WTV files are simply DVR-MS files, which in turn are MPEG2 files. WTV is a wrapper around DVR-MS to add some additional information, similar to ID3 Tag information in MP3 files, or the tags in MP4 files.

While most video file formats can contain some basic information, cool things like Album art, cover images and such are only found in a few. DVR-MS does not have the capability for this, so, rather than to modify the whole Media Center f0rmat, Microsoft simply created a shrinkwrap around the files that does support additional information.

Unfortunately there are not many programs that can handle this wrapper. Thankfully, Microsoft did implement an “unwrapper” method to transform the WTV files into normal DVR-MS files again.

WTV to DVR-MS : just rightclick on a WTV file, and an option to “convert to .dvr-ms Format” shows up. Left-click on that, and a DVR-MS file will be created of the WTV file. Since it’s just copying the file without the WTV wrap around it, this process is fairly quick (depends on your harddrive speed)

Now to get better DVR-MS support in DVD Catalyst, you will have to perform the following steps:

#1: Download and install the DVD Catalyst Boosterpack

http://www.tools4movies.com/dc3b.zip

#2: Start DVD Catalyst 3 and close it. This activates the Boosterpack in DVD Catalyst.

#3: Download a special DVR-MS fixed version of mencoder from the following website:

http://babgvant.com/files/

#4: Make sure DVD Catalyst 3 is not running and do the following:

In Windows, click on Start > Run (or for Vista/Win7, hold down the windows key on your keyboard and tap the R key)

In the Run dialog, type in:

%appdata%

and click OK.

#5: Extract the files from the downloaded Mencoder file, and copy ONLY mencoder.exe and libx264-56.dll into the “DVD Catalyst3″ folder

It will ask if you want to overwrite the mencoder file, which is OK (it needs to)

#6: Close everything, and start DVD Catalyst. All should work fine now.

What does this trick do?

The Boosterpack is incompatible with all DVR-MS files, so as of 3.81, DVD Catalyst uses a work-around for them. When you use DVR-MS files with DVD Catalyst and the Boosterpack installed, it will use the Boosterpack for all conversions except DVR-MS files. When it converts a DVR-MS file, it falls back to the original conversion engine.

By replacing the original conversion engine (the steps in this post), the work-around for DVR-MS files will use the replaced conversion engine, and for all other conversions, DVD Catalyst will use the Boosterpack.

The reason why this cumbersome method is required to make it work is because the DVR-MS version of mencoder does not support all of the options that DVD Catalyst uses. Certain DVD access methods are not available, as well as some conversion formats, so by using the Boosterpack, those missing elements will not cause any issues.

Get DVD Catalyst 3 for free when you spend $20 on PDATopSoft (till Nov16)

Mitch — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:49:31 +0000

PDATopSoft is running a special with DVD Catalyst 3.

Purchase for $20 (or more) on your favorite software there, and get DVD Catalyst 3 as a bonus for free ($9.95 value).

The offer lasts until November 16, 2009

link

DVD Catalyst 3 – Version 3.83.5 Update – Release Notes

Mitch — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:44:35 +0000

DVD Catalyst is always under development, and while it has been a little while since the release notes have been updated, there have been a few minor-version updates, un-announced, since the last posted one.

DVD Catalyst 3 v3.83.5 is currently available on most of the normal locations, including the various sales-websites. You can obtain it by either using the original link you received upon purchase, or simply click on the cat-eyes to update.

What is new?

Since the last posted release notes, plenty of new device profiles have been added, including the newer Blackberry models, the Verizon Droid, HTC Pro2, Touch2, HD2, Leo, and the new Sony Aino and Satio phones. WHile many devices use similar profile settings, Sony (as usual) always does things different, and for their new models, a new screen resolution was added in DVD Catalyst 3, 640×360.

Besides the new profiles, a few things were added/changed as well.

With 3.83(.0) we added the CPU indicators. Small animated bars at the bottom right that shows you how busy your computer is. While it looks cool, it does take up a little power away from the actual conversion, so just to be able to squeeze a little more performance out of your computer, we added an option (Global Settings > Advanced) to turn them off.

In 3.83 some issues were reported in regards of 2-pass conversions. These have been adressed and fixed.

Some DVDs, such as The Dark Knight, caused some weird error messages in DVD Catalyst, and these have been adressed as well.

Recently, an issue with failed conversions was linked to having a non-standard character in your username. DVD Catalyst, by default, looks for the Video folder in your user profile on your computer. If you have a username such as “Nancy’s computer” the video folder would be something like “C:\Users\Nancy’s computer\Videos”

Because not all devices can handle all characters in a filename, DVD Catalyst uses a filter to rename the files to make them compatible. This caused the ‘ in the foldername to be renamed as well, resulting in a non-existing folder where the conversion would store the file, and thus the conversion crashes.

Lastly,

We still receive emails from people who experience virus messages from DVD Catalyst or even that DVD Catalyst is missing from their computer. While this has been fixed a few releases ago, not everyone who uses DVD Catalyst updates to every new version released (if it isn’t broke, dont fix it), people still run into these issues.

The reason why this is happening is because we used a program to “wrap” DVD Catalyst into a protection application. This application puts a layer around the program it protects, and gives it capabilities of making it expire after a certain time (trial version), and it also compresses the program, making it smaller to download. Unfortunately, for some reason, some virus scanners (Norton, McAffee) found that any program wrapped with this one particular application was infected. Even though the application was clean, it resembled a small portion of code of a virus, and rather than actually scanning the file completely, these virus scanners just mark it as being infected (thats how they get their speed)

While we tried communicating with various Antivirus companies, as well as the developers of this particular application, they all force us to install and purchase their products or updates before providing any assistance. With some they require the install of one of their trial versions, but due to the complexity of getting rid of it afterwards we offered a few different options instead, all which got ignored.

So, as a result, we are no longer using the “wrapper” application, and unfortunately, we had to modify the trial version into a conversion-limited (20% of each movie/video) rather than the 7-14 day limitation we have used for 5 years.

DVD Catalyst 3 always gets scanned upon release by www.virustotal.com, a website that scans files for virusses using 40 of the top antivirus applications.

The Proposal

Mitch — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:57:32 +0000

Picky, but does work with a little fiddling.

The Proposal features a nice version of Sony’s ARCCOS protection system, and of course causes DVD programs to trip. To make The Proposal work in DVD Catalyst 3, you will need to do the following:

Start DVD Catalyst without the DVD in the drive.

Go into Global Settings > Advanced, and enable the “Ask for DVD track selection”.

Insert the DVD, and after the 99 tracks have been “found” by DVD Catalyst, it will bring up a selectionbox (thanks to the above setting). In there, select the first track.

DVD Catalyst will scan just the one track, and from there continue as usual.

DVD to Samsung s8000 JET

Mitch — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:29:45 +0000

To convert DVD to your Samsung s8000 Smartphone, select the Apple > iPhone profile in DVD Catalyst. The created files will play just fine, however, to get the best possible quality, click on “Modify”, and change the screen size to 720×480, and increase the video quality to at least 700kbps (1000 recommended)

Based on specs found on http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_s8000_jet-2835.php

edit:

Unfortunately, the JET is a little picky in screen resolution. While it does have an 800×480 screen resolution, it can not handle this as a video file resolution. Use 720×480.

DVD to HTC Leo

Mitch — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:25:24 +0000

While not officially released, based on the hardware, previews and rumours, it’s safe to say that the device will work nicely with video encoded using the HTC Touch Pro2 profile in DVD Catalyst.

Screensize as well as supported video formats are identical.

DVD to Sony Ericsson Xperia X2

Mitch — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:21:36 +0000

Based on specs found here

http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_x2-2926.php

I would suggest to use the Sony Ericsson > SE Xperia X1a setting. These settings match the video specifications for the Xperia X2.

DVD to Acer M900 Smartphone

Mitch — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:17:25 +0000

Effective control

Efficient. Practical. Productive. Keep pace with your emails wherever you are. The Acer Tempo M900 with a sliding physical keyboard makes mobile business effortless.

Tear down the walls of your office

The Acer Tempo M900 features a large 3.8” WVGA touch screen, Windows Mobile 6.1, Outlook Mobile and a sliding physical keyboard that – quite literally – puts your office in your hands. And don’t worry about data security – the embedded fingerprint reader makes sure only you can access your smartphone and the data you move with it.

In DVD Catalyst just select the HTC Touch Pro2 profile.

The specifications for video on the HTC Touch Pro2 are the same as for the Acer in terms of formats supported (H264/AVC) and screen size.

DVD to Acer F900 Smartphone

Mitch — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:14:04 +0000

High performance style

Add freedom to your life. Acer Tempo F900 lets you browse and interact with the web as easily as you do in your office or at home.

Style meets simplicity

Style meets simplicity in the Acer Tempo F900.
The style of a large 3.8” WVGA touch screen, with an easy to use virtual keyboard and a widget-based home screen; the simplicity of browsing the web and interacting online anytime, anywhere as if from your office or home.

In DVD Catalyst just select the HTC Touch Pro2 profile.

The specifications for video on the HTC Touch Pro2 are the same as for the Acer in terms of formats supported (H264/AVC) and screen size.

DVD Catalyst 3.83 (3.83.1) Update

Mitch — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:51:23 +0000

DVD Catalyst 3 Updated to v3.83.1

Overt the last few days, we have been updating the installer files for DVD Catalyst 3 on the various websites to 3.83.1

Again, as the previous 3.8x updates, a few things have been added/changed to make DVD Catalyst even better than before.

First off, some of the previous versions of DVD Catalyst were flagged by virus scanners. This was mainly due to the trial-protection and compression tool we used on DVD Catalyst to make it expire and to make the download a little smaller. Communication with the company of this particular product resulted in nothing, so we were forced to make a major change;

* DVD Catalyst 3 Trial no longer expires, however, it only converts each item to 20%. We really did not want to go this route with our trial version, however, because of the cost of trial-maker applications, as well as their irregular behaviour in regards of virus scanners, we decided to eliminate the use of an application not developed by us to do this. The 20% conversion time in the trial is something we choose to still give a fair idea on how the program performs and what quality you get for video files, while still keeping it a trial version. Its a lot better than 5 minutes (which usually gets you just past the intro credits of a movie)

NEW:

* Preview Fix addon. Similar as the DVD Catalyst Boosterpack. The preview-fix updates the preview engine to eliminate issues of switching Windows Vista/7 to Classic Mode during preview. The preview engine can also be used for processing files/DVDs, and can improve compatibility with some of the more trickier DVDs on the market.

* Use Source folder for Destination. A new option in Global Setttings, which ignores the selected output folder, and will put the created video file into the same folder location as where the original file is located.

* HD 720 and HD 1080 profile groups added. These profiles can be used to convert DVD and video for playback on HD capable devices. Do keep in mind that to preserve quality, DVD Catalyst does not upscale video to a higher resolution than the original video by default, so a DVD will not be converted to a HD resolution, however, the video will look great on an HD TV. If you use sources (AVCHD recording, Bluray Rip, TV torrent etc) that have HD resolutions, these will be kept, or scaled as needed.

FIXES:

* Aspect ratio issues. With the previous version of DVD Catalyst 3 (3.82) an issue with the aspect ratio adjutsment in Preview was causing complications. This has been resolved.

*Failed DVD conversions directly after starting a conversion. This was an issue with some DVDs that did not have a proper DVD structure set to describe the audio language. This has been fixed.

*Subtitle issues. If a mix of video files and DVD tracks were in the queue, subtitles could end up on the wrong video. (video file subtitle on a DVD track for example) This is also fixed.

And more.

DVD Catalyst 3 3.83.1 is currently available from all the download locations.

You can update by clicking on the cat-eyes in DVD Catalyst itself, or use the download link you received upon purchase to update.

DVD Catalyst Fake Virus Issues

Mitch — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:39:17 +0000

For some reason, DVD Catalyst might get flagged by a few virus scanners as something infected. This is a false positive.

The problem lies in a protection system we use to reduce software piracy, and to create a trial version that expires. The protection-software we use is sometimes used by software-pirates to create malicious software (cracks, keygens etc), and as a result, some poorly designed virus scanner applications think that because DVD Catalyst uses the same protection that it is malicious software.

We are currently in communication with the protection-software company, as well as looking around for other solutions that will remedy this problem.

Please note, DVD Catalyst is NOT infected. Virus scanners use methods to predict if a program is infected, and usually work in a way of better being safe than sorry, and thus flag applications that partially include some little code that a virus uses.

For any questions or suggestions feel free to contact us by email.

Our sincere apologies for any confusion this might cause.

Mitch,

DVD Catalyst

DVD Catalyst 3, SWISS Army Knife for video editors

Mitch — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:22:38 +0000

The wife asked me to edit some recordings she had saved on her TiVo to make some room.

I figured I just use TiVo Desktop to pull the recordings to the computer, and then load them into Adobe Premiere Elements, but unfortunately, Premiere did not like the TiVo files.

No sweat, then I just use DVD Catalyst’s Tivo to MPEG function to make it work. Premiere should handle simple MPEG2 video files without any problems, right?

Well, not really. While the converted files played fine and in sync on the computer, Premiere had issues with the audio sync.

So, I converted the mpeg2 files to High Quality DIVX, and that worked better with Premiere.

So, I made the clips my wife wanted to keep, and transferred them back to the Tivo without quality loss.

DVD to Nokia E90

Mitch — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:51:46 +0000

For great looking video on the Nokia E90, use the following:

Select iPod Video (Fast)

click on Modify

change the screen resolution to

800×352

The resulting files will play fine and look great on the Nokia E90