Back in the day I was like a lot of people that used tried and true methods to convert my video and DVD to a pocketable version. Back then this was a multi-stage operation that took a lot of time and a lot of manual intervention. Now, obviously times have changed and even the non-guru (I never was anyway) can take a DVD from their collection, pop it into the PC and within an ever shrinking period of time have that video on their Pocket PC, Smartphone, iPod, etc. The trick is as always finding that “go to” program… you know the soft, fuzzy blanket you can turn to no matter what and it will solve all your problems.
INTRODUCTION
The problem is simple. The solution however is not. Everyday the movie industry makes our lives a little harder. They introduce protection to keep you from really being able to use that DVD you purchased. Finding the right program to handle all of your varying needs is hard! Finding one that can do what you need quickly and in the most user friendly manor is even harder. Read on to see if CarryDVD can painlessly get movies from the disc to your mobile device.
How about 400% faster than prior versions? How about an intelligent software that claims to be capable of recovery from a mid-backup failure like a power outage? That seems pretty hot to me!
WHAT’S HOT
The CarryDVD download is about 6.5 MB and installs using a standard installer. I chose to download and install the extra codecs as well so that added an extra 15 MB (Divx). Word to the wise: Install the xvid codec and dixv found on the program’s download page. You’ll be glad you did.
SETUP
CarryDVD has a lot of features, a lot of which there just isn’t going to be room to cover. Sorry folks, it’s cold harsh world out there and you’re just going to have to figure some of it out on your own! Or, You can check out the review of CarryDVD 2.8 by Dan Freeman for some of the more in-depth options.
PRODUCT FEATURES
Some of you might remember I mentioned that I downloaded the codecs. Turns out things work a lot better when you actually install them. Doh. Well at least they gave me a handy reminder. A quick install later (xvid is about 700kb) and I was on my way.
This screen shot here is an indicator of what a pain this program is about to become. You might notice the window stuck in the back is an installer. You might also notice that the window in front shouldn’t be in the front right now. Well sorry to say folks but that window feels the need to ALWAYS be in the front. Think of it as a six year old who always has to be the "leader". There’s really only two options here – move it way off to the side and out of the way or turn it off. I chose to turn it off for the time being since its a preview window for a DVD that is still in its case.
nothing upsets me more than window that blocks everything else and won’t go away by itself. Well almost nothing… but we haven’t gotten to that part yet.
A n ote to developer:
Starting CarryDVD for the first time, you’re met with what I can only figure to be a slight variation on the old school Winamp skin. With Vista having just been released and OSX on the market I have a hard time looking at programs that quite obviously needed to employ the services of a graphics designer. Pretty sells. Just ask any glamour magazine.
There’s also no file/options menu(s). Sort of frustrating in the beginning but I grew to prefer it this way. All the menus are available with a simple right click on the application. Selecting your source DVD is also quite simple – click the green box next to "Open DVD" and the program will load up whatever DVD is in the drive. If like me you have multiple drives, you can select the source in the Special Settings menu.
The (although handy) tool tips feel the need to pop-up almost incessantly and they don’t want to go away until you click the little "x" in the corner. Multiple times already this has killed a drop down menu that I’m scrolling through or blocked access to a button I want to hit.
Take note that the friendly tool tips, once popped up stay on top of any other applications you may be running much like the preview window. If they weren’t handy to have available this would be the first thing I told you to switch off. Best bet is to hit all the possible areas for a tool tip, then shut them off.
Put a little "?" button next to the stuff you want to make a tool tip for. The pop-up boom of 1997 is over.
Another note to developer:
This is the bulk of what you have to work with while preparing your DVD to be extracted and stored locally. Everything on this window has a purpose but I’ve highlighted the ones that are most important for the folks like me who want to click and go. Your first step should be to select the DVD and your screen size. Those two options are going to be a requirement for everything else we do.
Once you have the size and movie selected, the next step is to choose the type of video encoding you want. Windows Media Player is only capable of so much so if you don’t have a third party application like CorePlayer (TCPMP) or the new Divx mobile player it’s best to stick with WMV. While you’re in this area, if you own a slow DVD Drive you might want to check the "Buffer to Disk" box in this screenshot.
In the middle right hand side is the slider you use to select video quality. This is the big one that determines what your video quality is going to be like on the device and just as important – how big the file is going to be! I recommend using the preview window to help figure out the screen size and clarity as they are good indicator if something is really not right.
Hitting the "Play" button brings you to some final settings. Remember these are going to also have an effect on your overall file size so I would recommend leaving them fairly close to what the program has them set at. Selecting Apply begins the process. When it’s all done you can find your video in the install directory.
So, How’s the finished product? Take a look for yourself. One of these was done at just below medium, the other on low. Can you tell the difference?
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The help has definitely improved since the last review of this product. You’ll now find a full featured CHM file with everything you need to know about the application. If you can’t find the answer there you can visit the vendor’s website where you will find email support as well as a frequently asked questions area (FAQ). type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
As mentioned previously, there are quite a few options not covered in this review. Along with the basics of backing up your movie in a click-and-go type fashion you can choose the tools button which will allow you to manually control the screen cropping, start and stop times (so you can avoid the credits) as well as brightness and volume. There’s a lot of power in the details. CarryDVD is definitely not for me. I’ve used better… plain and simple. The application hung on me a couple times during testing, some conversion sizes seemed excessive and overall it just felt very clunky. It is a very solid application however and I think with some graphical updating, a little less intrusiveness of the windows and some minor tweaking to the conversion sizes it could easily become a highly recommended program. Unfortunately, I just can’t bring myself to do so right now.
HELP SUPPORT
OPTIONS
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
BUGS AND WISHES
PURCHASING
PROS
CONS
Program graphics circa 1997
Overbearing Windows
Extremely CPU intensive on slow systems
Value
Ease
of Use
Features
Overall
OVERALL IMPRESSION
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