10/09/07 SONY releases

[setarip_old]

Looks like SONY hasn't come up with any new variations of its "ARccOS"copy protection scheme.

RipIt4Me v.1.6.4 easily handled both the drama "Reign Over Me" and the kid's CGI "Surf's Up"...

[SamuriHL]

That's an older version of R4M. Is that the last version that called the external FixVTS? Good to know that even an older version still works on the newest titles.

[setarip_old]

As I've posted in other threads at the Doom9 Forum and elsewhere, in my estimation (and confirmed by others more knowledgeable), it's the most stable version.

I believe v.1.6.5 still called FixVTS...

[SamuriHL]

Ok, thanks for the info.

[blutach]

Originally Posted by setarip_old

As I've posted in other threads at the Doom9 Forum and elsewhere, in my estimation (and confirmed by others more knowledgeable), it's the most stable version.

I believe v.1.6.5 still called FixVTS...

I may not be more knowledgeable, but I disagree.

Regards

[SamuriHL]

Originally Posted by blutach

I may not be more knowledgeable, but I disagree.

Regards

To which part?

P.S. Sorry for taking this thread off-topic. I was simply curious about the R4M version.

[blutach]

Sorry, missed the word "not".

I see a massive changelog thru versions 1.6.5 and above. 1.7.1 was stable, AFAIK.

Regards

[SamuriHL]

I have to agree with you, blutach. I've never seen any stability issues mentioned with 1.7.1.

[setarip_old]

I see a massive changelog thru versions 1.6.5 and above.

None of which has made any difference versus the ability of v.1.6.4 to succesfully rip any and all copy protections on R1 DVDs to date - with the mutual exception of the very recent "Blade - House of Chthon" and related DVDs...

[bourtzovlakas]

Nobody says 1.6.4.0 is no good...
But you are saying that it is the most stable...
That means that you consider later versions to be un-stable...
Can you give an example?

[setarip_old]

@bourtzovlakas

Hi!

1) The most important point to me regarding my use of RipIt4Me as well as any other software is, "If it ain't broke don't fix it". In using RipIt4me since its first public release, I found it was necessary to apply updates through and including v.1.6.4, in order to deal with periodically introduced new protection schemes.

No subsequent version provided the ability to deal with any additional R1 DVD protection schemes and, therefore, provide no "value added".

2) If I remember correctly, according to the history ("massive changelogs thru versions 1.6.5 and above", per "bultach"), you'll find references to bugs/problems introduced (and either resolved or being worked on to resolve) in v.1.6.5 and above.

3) At some point subsequent to v. 1.6.4 (v.1.7.0, I believe), the authors replaced the proven, rock-solid FixVTS with the incorporation of its functions.

To summarize, based on my very extensive usage with R1 DVDs, v.1.6.4 of RipIt4Me was the final version ever needed, since it properly processed ALL protection schemes other than the very recently introduced nonsense on the "Blade - House of Chthon" DVD.

Another way to put it would be that, in my usage, versions 1.65 and above provide no ADDITIONAL abilities to rip R1 DVDs versus v.1.6.4.

Please feel free to substitute the above explanation for the word "stable"

[SamuriHL]

Thank you for the thorough explanation. I get where you're coming from now.

[setarip_old]

Thank you for the thorough explanation.

You're quite welcome ;>}

[bourtzovlakas]

Version 1.7.1.0 (March 22, 2007)
- Added code to detect whether the DVD appears to be protected. This is displayed in the main window during Step 1.
If the DVD isn't protected, there's a new button in Step 1 to open the DVD with DVD Shrink directly.
- Added handling of missing titles in video_ts.ifo as experienced in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Greece).
- RipIt4Me now terminates AnyDVD "the right way" (by sending a WM_CLOSE message to its main window in the tray, instead of killing the process).
- In any VTS that's excluded from the rip, the replacement IFO now only contains 1 title and 1 PGC.
- Attempted to fix a crash that could occur when a VTS had too many VOBUs. This was possibly responsible for the crash on "Vientos de Agua". Please, try and report? Thanks!
- Fixed a PUO problem in the analysis code that could cause some PGCs to not be cleaned appropriately.
- There was a serious problem in the analysis code related to Sprm[5] (TTN number). Now fixed.
- In Movie-Only mode, a bug in Step1 could cause the IFOs to be copied in the last used target directory (instead of a temporary directory in %TEMP%).
- The psl import code now works when the path includes "(" or ")".

Version 1.7.0.0 (28 February 2007)

- When a cell is removed, the next cell's STC discontinuity flag is now set. This might help with playability problems with certain players when tiny cells are removed.
- If the DVD is episodic with episodes in different VTSs and the user selects "movie only" or "movie+menus", Step 1 offers to switch back to "Full DVD" when the user presses OK.
- Attempted to make the copying of the original IFOs faster. In case of failure, we re-try 10 times.
- Fixed a potential crash during the cell cleanup when the IFOs are a bit messed up (cell command declared, but non-existent).
- Fixed a small problem in the analysis code that could cause errors in the Stargate DVD.
- The first time 1.7.0.0 is run, the user is prompted to increase maxvobdur to 300 (if it is not already so). This is a one-time offer. Please accept it.
- The lock on the RipIt4Me.log and DebugLog.txt files are now released at the end of the Wizard and 1-click modes so you can open/move them if you wish.

Version 1.6.8.0 (7 February 2007)

- In the Jump To Menu function, if the target menu was in the title domain, but not a title itself, things could go bad. This is now fixed.
- Fixed a problem that could allow the parsing to occur even though the disc wasn't ready!
- In the jump to menu function, if sprm(2) (subpictures) is set to a value that can't be obtained with a SetSTN command, sprm(2) is set to 62 ("not set").

Version 1.6.7.0 (1 February 2007)
- Made an important change to the analysis code. It runs a bit slower, but we're hoping that it will do a better job with complicated DVDs. The analysis is more thorough and will in some instances (eg games) take a while longer, so for these DVDs, please be patient. There will be little impact for regular DVDs.
- Added code to check whether DVD Decrypter imported the PSL file or not. This occurs right after the key strokes are sent to import the PSL, at the start of the rip, then again at the end of the rip by inspecting the log. An error is issued if the log indicates that the PSL file was not imported. This has been a major source of bug reports in the past so we hope this will now be a thing of the past.
- Fixed a problem that could cause an infinite loop during the "Updating INFO" stage in Step 1.
- Fixed a small bug introduced with the improved scanning of BOVs. For bad DVDs such as Shottas, the app could crash because it relied on the bogus VTS_VOBU_ADMAP.
- Improved the PSL importing code to better behave under Windows VISTA. Because of the window animation under VISTA, windows and open dialogs open much slower than under XP. The new code waits for windows to be ready before sending keystrokes.

Version 1.6.5.0 (25 January 2007)

- Improved scanning for Buttons Over Video (BOVs). The first and last navpacks for every cell are always scanned. There is a new "Stride" setting which controls how many navpacks are skipped when scanning for BOVs. In other words, if Stride is 10, RipIt4Me inspects 1 navpack out of 10, for cells that are smaller than the limit you have selected. This makes the scan faster and allows scanning longer cells.
The stride parameter is in the preferences (default 30 VOBUs (navpacks)). A new default has been set for the maximum cell duration to allow a full scan (now 300s). For further information, see section 3.2.7 and 3.2.8 of the guide.
- Titlesets that are completely unreferenced are now completely excluded from the rip (even the IFO/BUP files). This will avoid Decrypter error messages such as "IFO/BUP Patching failed", make the rip faster, and make the cleanup process much simpler.
- As well, if a Titleset is excluded from the rip, its individual files are no longer checked for validity since they're excluded anyway.
- The code has been improved to handle huge IFOs found in game DVDs.
- The UDF parsing code now makes sure that the number of VTS is less 100!
- For DVDs with very larger numbers of buttons, an error could happen that wasn't caught by the new error catching code, which caused an analysis error in Deal Or No Deal.
- Fixed a problem in the analysis, which caused all the VTS to be removed in some DVDs!!!
- Fixed a crash that was reported by several users at the end of the cleanup phase. Thanks for posting the debug logs! That helped a lot.

RipIt4Me 1.6.4.0 was "broken" in some aspects...
...judging from the bugfixes of later versions, as mentioned in the changelog...
More usefull features were added...
Stability was improved...
I am not the one who says so...
The developer of Ripit4me does...
...and he definitely knows more things about his/her program, than you and me...
Wouldn 't you say?

[setarip_old]

@bourtzovlakas

I've expressed myself as clearly and thoroughly as I possibly can.

Note: You omitted the following from your listing:

Version 1.6.6.0 (26 January 2007)


Quick bug fix for the Win9x mess. Sorry about that.
1.6.5.0 wasn't working under win 9x. It should work now.
If there's not enough room in the target directory for the ripped files, the user can now decide to abort or continue;
Added strings for update dialogs.
NOTE TO POTENTIAL TRANSLATERS: STRING 260 WAS MODIFIED FOR THE NEW FEATURE ABOVE.

[bourtzovlakas]

I ommited several changes from the listing...
i included the most intersting ones...
Are you using Win 9x?
IIRC, no freshly introduced bug has "survived" in the following version...
So you can safely use v1.7.0.0...

What about the rest of the changelog?
Don 't you find it interesting enough to comment on it?

[setarip_old]

Please see posts #1, #11, and, particularly, #15 in this thread...

[blutach]

Setarip_old only has his experience to go on - R1 only and not every DVD there (I don't know if he has the Stargate series, for example, which according to the changelog had issues).

Categorical statement about the app and its applicability to the rest of the users (eg other regions) based on one man's collections are inappropriate and wrong, IMHO.

Why you wouldn't use the latest (and last) version is beyond me.

Regards

[SamuriHL]

To be fair, blutach, he IS only stating his opinion AFTER I asked him about it. I did NOT intend for this to become such a huge discussion. I had thought it might be the last version to use the external FixVTS and maybe that was why he was using it, but, I was mistaken. If he is happy with that particular version of the software and it works for him, I see no reason for him to change it. And maybe the statement that it's the most stable version is a bit strong, but, again, that's his opinion and he does have a right to it IMO. Just something to think about.

[blutach]

Nor do I. But just because he considers it the most stable, doesn't make it so. He is not representative of the whole community and what he says flies in the face of objective evidence put forward by bourtzovlakas, for example.

Regards