Hi-Jack
11-12-05, 08:00
Splinter is the man behind ratDVD, a utility that allows you to convert a full DVD into a 1.xGB size for playback on PC/HTPC and hopefully soon, on Xbox and DVD players on the market. In order to introduce the ratDVD system, which is a project started about a half year ago, MPC has released articles on our News Section and now, we'd like to run some questions with Splinter in order to see what's happenning next and how he sees ratDVD compete with the other available tools.<br /><br><div><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> Considering ratDVD is available since a while, do you feel it has been accepted on the scene well enough?<br /><strong>Splinter:</strong> I really don't know. <br />Based on the amount of mails I get I think many people are using it. People translated it into almost 30 languages. There are now 7 localized web sites. Doing a Google lookup for ratDVD just now shows 1.8 Million hits. I think that is pretty impressive for being in version 0.78 and starting out just half a year ago.</div><br /><div><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> Did any brand confirm yet to support ratDVD in their Hardware?<br /><strong>Splinter:</strong> One vendor is working on it and another one is currently evaluating it. There needs to be some work done both in ratDVD and in the player itself. You'll see first results on that in ratDVD probably in January/February and a player later next year.</div><br /><div><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> Why is it based on Windows only and depends so much on Microsoft?<br /><strong>Splinter:</strong> Good question. <br />Would I start again it would probably be different but when I started this it was just a small fun project of myself because I was tired of all the compression formats/containers out there which only give you VHS functionality and I wanted to show that this can be done better. I was a windows programmer and I didn't think that this would become this big. You will see that the architecture somewhat changes in version 0.8 and this will also make porting to Linux, etc. much easier.</div><br /><div><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> Why is ratDVD not open source yet? Would it not Improve development speed and porting to other operating systems like Mac and Linux?<br /><strong>Splinter:</strong> Well, the part that is most interesting to people, everything about input and output is already available as source code on my site. I'll probably open the XEBencoder.exe, which is the main program for ratting and unratting once I did the architecture changes I am currently working on – so after version 0.8/0.9. Because then it makes real sense to port it to Mac and Linux. Doing this today would mean to do major parts of the work twice. But I am more than happy to work with experienced Linux guys already today – in fact I am doing this already for the encoding part.</div><br /><div><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> Quality Wise, would you say the strong compression in ratDVD performs better then shrinking like DVD Shrink?<br /><strong>Splinter: </strong>Sure. Try compressing a DVD to 1.x GB with DVD-Shrink and tell me what you see. MPEG-2 was just done for this. And DVD Shrink is not even using all options that MPEG-2 could offer. No, higher compression and transferring it over the internet, ratDVD is clearly the way to go.</div><br /><div><strong>Hi-Jack: </strong>How does ratDVD really achieve that? Is the movie uncompressed partially on playback meaning you store more data and use better compression?<strong><br />Splinter: </strong>Absolutely, MPEG-2 or let's say the basic patents behind it are more than 20 years old. There has been a lot development since and the codec ratDVD uses is based on this new knowledge – same as other high performance codecs such H.264. This allows ratDVD to store more details in less space.<strong><br /><br />Hi-Jack: Will this not cause the need for stronger hardware to uncompress on the fly?<br />Splinter: </strong>Yes, that's why you need to have a decent hardware to play back ratDVDs on a PC. 1,5Ghz is an absolute minimum. <br />Integration with consumer players can only work with the very latest chipsets.</div><br /><div><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> When returning from ratDVD to DVD, doesn't that mean there's considerable loss of Quality?<br /><strong>Splinter:</strong> Not necessarily. As with DVD Shrink or other MPEG-2 based programs you have some loss because you are typically writing to a 4,7 GB media which means you have to apply some compression to the original DVD but besides this it is your selection of features, quality and the content of the original DVD that defines the quality of converting back to DVD. This is not much different from DVD-Shrink.</div><br /><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> What big plans are there for 2006?<br /><strong>Splinter:</strong> Surprise… but one thing I can say is that version 0.8 and 0.9 will include something absolutely new in regards to speed and quality – and they should arrive in the first quarter of next year. <div><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> Will ratDVD remain free?<br /><strong>Splinter:</strong> Sure.</div><br /><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> If you should pick the best solution to backup a DVD, would you pick ISO or ratDVD, and why?<br /><strong>Splinter:</strong> No surprise there – I would pick ratDVD because I think it is better to handle 1.x GB than 7-9GB. <div><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> What is the greatest advantage of ratDVD?<br /><strong>Splinter:</strong> To hold a complete DVD in one directly usable, highly compressed format that can be "unratted" back to the original DVD. Without loosing<br />ANY features of the DVD that is.</div><br /><div><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> What is needed for a manufacturer to support ratDVD files?<br /><strong>Splinter:</strong> Here we need to differentiate between the more high-end Media Center solutions and the lower end DVD or networked Players. For the Media Center solutions ratDVD can basically be used as it is. For the lower end devices there is a lot of firmware stuff to be done and only the latest chipsets can be used. I am currently working on some code that will make it easier for the manufacturers to embed ratDVD playback into their devices.</div><br /><div><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> Anything you like to add?<br /><strong>Splinter:</strong> Yes, one thing. I am happy about every ratDVD user and I love to hear about any idea how I can improve it. If people send me e-mails they should know that I read every one of them but it is just too much to reply to every single one. Keep in mind that my main focus is coding!<br /><br /><strong>Hi-Jack:</strong> Tell me about it :-) Thx for you time.<br /><strong>Splinter:</strong> My pleasure!</div><br /><div><strong>More Info:</strong> <a href="http://www.ratdvd.com/">www.ratDVD.com</a> <br /><strong>HowTo: </strong><a href="http://www.ratdvd.dk/dvd_to_ratdvd.htm">http://www.ratdvd.dk/dvd_to_ratdvd.htm</a> </div><br /><BR>