14 DAY TRIAL // The vast majority of the applications on the market capable of DVD ripping sometimes come with restrictions regarding the original content, not offering the chance to create a legitimate backup of your favorite movies. Luckily, there are plenty to choose from and you can go with an application that bypasses the various protections of the original discs, allowing the much-desired backup.
cladDVD is a small software (installation file is about 750KB large, while installation folder does not exceed 1.2MB in size) that comes prepared for copying original content to your computer and creating backups of genuine DVDs. The freebie will remove analog copy protection (MacroVision Scrambling) and the region encoding.
It has a very easy to handle interface providing two ripping methods: either to a single VOB file (PGC Mode) or to multiple VOBs, just like the original (DVD Mode). In both cases, there will be absolutely no compression of the video file. The difference between PGC (Program Chain key) mode and DVD mode also consists in the fact that the former permits frameserving (the transfer of video from one program to another), very useful if you want to rip the DVD to a different format using an additional tool like Virtual Dub.
The moment the disc is loaded in the optical unit, you can start the scanning process in order to gather all available details on the DVD. cladDVD.NET provides info such as the DVD region, name of the volume or audio and subtitle tracks available. Regarding the last two details, unfortunately you cannot customize the ripping and give up on those you don't need.
In DVD mode, cladDVD.NET makes it easy for the user to choose the files to be ripped, as it provides automatic selection of the main movie as well as the entire DVD. Sure, the user can choose whichever files in the list, but with these two options, you can gain time and reduce effort.
The list of in-stock options of the software is skimpy, but enough to carry out the job without giving you a headache. There is light key search mode or a more aggressive one if the former does not work right, you can enable it to detect mastering errors (although this is not recommended), choose to remove MacroVision scrambling protection or rip the DVD region free. At the bottom of the list, there is the destination folder to choose for saving the output (hint: click on the walking diskette to browse for the desired location).
With all configuration in place, there is nothing left to do but to start the ripping process. cladDVD.NET does a wonderful job at ripping the movies and storing them on your disk. The speed is amazing as during our testing it took a little over 17 minutes to rip a DVD 9 disc with 8.3GB on it, which is not bad at all. During the ripping process, the user benefits from details on the progress like the amount of data already scanned and copied to disk, the speed of the operation, elapsed and remaining time.
Everything can be stopped at any time the user desires and processed data will not be lost, but you can neither continue from where it was interrupted. Upon re-initiating the process, everything will be overwritten without any warning from the application.
cladDVD.NET makes for a good ripper, easy to work with and to configure, and every feature included works fine. On the other hand, the application is shy with the options provided to the user and all it can do is rip the entire movie or specific elements in it. Configuration is related to the way protection keys are searched and the type of protection to be removed from the original disc or region encoding.
Despite the lack of multiple options to give the software more flexibility and with a pretty old last version, cladDVD.NET works on Vista as well as on XP, and handles the jobs with the same responsibility on both operating systems. It would be nice to see a new edition of the software containing answers for today's necessities in original video backing up, like support for the HD battle winner, Blu-Ray and burning options for the resulting file, or at least the possibility of compressing all the files to image format.
The Good
The ripping process is quite fast and starting it requires less than 5 seconds if you leave the configuration to default. It displays all the title sets, audio tracks and subtitle tracks included in the DVD.
You can automatically select either the main movie without any bonuses and extras or the entire DVD for ripping, as well as specific files.
The Bad
There are no disc burning options or converting to a compressed image, features that come in very useful when backing up movies.
You cannot opt for only a specific audio or subtitle track to be included in the result.
The Truth
cladDVD.NET may be an old-timer, but the latest version keeps up with the modern operating systems, working on Vista the same as it works on XP.
For a free tool that has not been continued for ages, cladDVD.NET resists modern environments with absolutely no stress, but fails to answer modern user requirements. Updating it to rise to current standards would guarantee its success once more, especially because it is absolutely free.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
