Massaging DVDs

A couple of tools that can be used to move around DVDs (and video files in general). All the tools are free, many of the open source. Some of them might include additional programs (like toolbars), but they can be deactivated during install. Sorry for the list being Windows centric, but I was a Windows guy for the longest time.

• AutoGK – Auto Gordian Knot – the mother of all encoding utilities. It merges a lot of utilities in one package and makes them interoperate. Secunia PSI reports that the media player classic it contains has some vulnerabilities, but it can safely be deleted (it isn’t a vital part of the package)
• DVD Shrink – to get a bigger video DVD on a smaller one. Download it from here. Very easy (and straight forward) to operate. Even with the highest quality settings it is quite quick on modern hardware.
• VirtualDub – one of the best linear video editors out there. And it’s FLOSS!
• AviDemux – a cross platform alternative to the previous. I mentioned it in an earlier post.
• CDBurnerXP – does everything Nero does for free. Can be flanky sometimes a simple restart of the program solves the issues
• DVD Decrypter – to get ISO’s of video DVD’s. It is reported that DVD Shrink sometimes works better on these ISO’s than directly from the disk.
• 7zip – archive utility which can peek into ISO’s (there are others out there with the same ability like IZArc)
• Videolan VLC media player – play back everything,including files and DVD’s
• Daemon Tools – to mount ISO’s

Image taken from samantha celera's photostream with permission.