[Rich A]

Originally Posted by Mamba

I wasn't impressed with RatDVD. Great concept but poor execution....pretty much requires a dedicated machine due to high CPU usage and extremely long encoding times (most of the night on average hardware). Their main site has been "under construction" for months and the last version update is 12.06.05, which makes one wonder if it's a dead product.

I got involved with RatDVD from the beginning. It's original concept was to have a "vessel" to be used to transfer entire DVDs over the web quickly. The fact that RatDVD has a "player" is an added bonus. Keep in mind the RatDVD application works both ways. You can use it to make a full (every feature) compressed RatDVD file that is VERY small and easier to transport via the web. It is a Loss LESS compression. AND because it works bi-directional, once you receive the file via the web, it can be put back in RatDVD and turned back into the full normal DVD Title set.

It's sort of a loss less super zip for DVD Disks. This is one reason why it takes so long to compress. It's using special compression that can be un-compressed without ANY loss of data. I'm not exactly sure about Divx and other compressions as if they are loss less or not. BUT they can't compare at all with the amount of compression or the quality of the RatDVD compressed DVD. Plus RatDVD is really more like an exact image of the original DVD .. all the features, subtitles etc. can be included.

All that compression and quality come at a cost .. TIME ..