14 DAY TRIAL // There was a time when I was wondering how those NFO files could be created. And almost every time I tried to open them the traditional way, by double clicking on the file, the error displayed saying System Information cannot open the NFO, which really made me steam. But I would calmly close the application and open it by pressing the F3 key. This was easier than opening the information in some kind of NFO viewer.
NFO files are generally used by warez groups in order to claim the crack or serial origin for the pirated software. They are also very popular in movie piracy for providing information on the attributes of the movie: aspect ratio, audio/video format. And when it comes to DVD ripping the author includes the RIP information and informs if the video, audio, features, menus, extras or subtitles have been tampered in any way.
So the bottom line is that an NFO file is purely informative and plays the role of the most common README.TXT file.
ArtCine NFO Creator is a .nfo file creator and helps the user make notes only regarding video files. The direct link with IMDB allows fast retrieving of information about the movie. All you have to do is type in the name of the movie, and click the top blue bar. All the information about the movie will be automatically exported to ArtCine NFO Creator.
The creation of the NFO file can be automatized in the sense that you can define constant field values that can later be used with a simple press of a button. The action can be achieved by going into the Settings menu and defining the RIP Information and Post Information. This way, when reaching the RIP and Post Information tabs in the main window all you have to do is press the "Load saved constant field values" and the fields will automatically be filled with the defined values.
The eight tabs available give the user the possibility of putting in the resulting NFO information about the movie, video attributes (compression mode, TV system, aspect ratio, framerate, number of subpicture attributes - number of subtitles and subtitle languages), audio attributes (coding mode, sampling rate, number of audio channels, bitrate, number of audio streams and audio languages), release note, plot summary, and ripper note.
Adding movie information is extremely easy as the application connects directly to IMDb and automatically retrieves the data appended to the movie. All the user has to provide is the title of the movie. If the result is ambiguous, choose the right one and press the blue bar in the topmost part of the window.
Additional features present in the application are the possibility of saving the output result both in HTML format or NFO. For HTML there are a number of options that can customize the page. They will be saved by the software so there is no need to define the values every time. These include choosing a background color, font type, color and size. All the information will be neatly included in a table and there is the possibility of setting the color of the table border and set the border width.
Working with the application is nothing complicated and you can even use it in order to create a movie database of your collection. The flexibility of the application allows the user to save the information on the movie in both HTML and .nfo formats. It can be a useful tool for appending some extra information to your DVD movie collection.
I was more interested in the first tab of the application window, as you can automatically retrieve the data from IMDb, including the rating, genre, release year, runtime, director, international titles and language. The fields regarding the subtitles, the studio and the type of the DVD (DVD 5 or DVD 9) have to be typed in manually by the user.
The Good
Extremely easy to use free software. The best features are the automatic retrieval of data from IMDb and saving the file in HTML format.
The Bad
I did not think it necessary to include RIP Information and Ripper Note among the available tabs. It would have been better to leave these two out as this is one of the reasons for which not too many users are downloading the application. Its association with ripping and the movie piracy is not at all beneficial.
A little more flexibility in what concerns the purpose of the application would definitely add more value to the software. I would have liked for instance to use such a tool to make a database of my softwares and music.
The Truth
Pretty good application, but unless you are ripping the DVD movies in order to save some space on your computer, it is not worth using. I would rather use a regular movie database software in order to keep track of my movies and append a rating according to my standards.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
