I know that the AVI files frenzy is already fading out. But I cannot help being a little nostalgic. And truth be told, they are not obsolete. DVD video is now the standard in video (mine is for a long time). And only the HD DVD (High Density/Definition DVD) can surpass the DVD video quality movies.

Recently, I’ve put my hand on a software that is capable of doing all sorts of tricks. All you need is to have a DVD video inserted in your DVD drive. The name of the software is AoA DVD Ripper. The version is 4.1.0 so its lifespan is pretty limited until now. The price is $34.95 and the interface looks amazing.

It is not too crowded and the options are fairly distributed inside the application window. The three steps to complete the job are displayed in the left side of the main window. In the upper part, the most important option is Settings. The lower part of the window covers some technical issues we are going to present later.

You may ask…What is the software good for if it costs that much? Well, you can rip a DVD movie into several video formats among which there is the classic AVI, VCD, SVCD, WAV (for audio extracting) and WMV.

Once you have fed the DVD drive with a disc, go to step one which is loading the DVD into the software. In step two, there is the copy mode which has three options: fully copy the DVD, extract only a movie clip or copy certain chapters. If it weren't for the last two options, in my opinion, the software would have been almost worthless.

The software will automatically detect the audio tracks of the movie and the subtitles. The only thing is that you can copy only ten minutes of the movie. This is the only restriction of the software. You may wonder right now what else you can do with the software because converting only such a small part will not give an accurate idea on the software.

The software also has a button that will copy the DVD on your hard disc. The copy will be accurate and will contain absolutely everything there is on the original disc (menus, features, interviews, subtitles, audio tracks, etc.). The button is somehow hidden (or maybe I was too tired to see it), and it is located in the far upper right corner of the application window.

All you have to do is to specify the source and the output folder and then press Start. The good part is that this option has no restrictions and you can make as many backups to your DVDs as you want or need.

In the Settings menu, the user can make some choices such as shutting down the PC after the job is done, or select the file split mode in System tab. The Output section will give you the possibility to opt for the desired framerate (29.97, 23.976, 24.0, 25.0 or 30.0, PAL or NTSC), resolution (width and hight of the image), audio quality and the default audio volume.

AVI Settings tab is one of the most important of the software as it gives you full access to configuring the compression codecs for the resulted video file. The recommended codec is of course, DivX. If you do not have it installed on your machine, check the Help menu in Using AoA DVD Ripper>Advanced Settings for a link to a copy of the latest DivX and Xvid versions. The default audio encoder is MP3.

The Advanced Options will allow the user to enable or disable removing the interlace from the video.

The Good

The software is super-easy to use and it is great for making back-up copies of the DVDs in your collection.

The Bad

I would have liked to be able to convert at least one chapter of the DVD, but unfortunately, the software has restricted the movie conversion to ten minutes in the trial version.

The Truth

I really enjoyed working with this application. The ease of use and the simplicity of its functions converged into producing a result that is comparable with many famous softwares on the market.

Saving the DVDs from damaging can be done in a snap and it does not take too long.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: