DVD Catalyst GT

With the explosive growth of mobile devices, the need for making entertainment mobile has grown as well.  The proliferation of portable DVD players, MP3 players, and Windows Mobile devices along with ever increasing performance demands from these devices are a testimony to this trend.  The challenge - as it has always been - has been combining functions and features into a single device to prevent having to carry multiple devices.

Over the past several years, many developers have released DVD ripping applications which allowed users to copy a DVD to their hard disk for playback directly on their PC, iPod or Windows Mobile device.  While the legality of such software - especially in the United States - has been a subject of debate, the developers have continued to produce these applications with ever increasing performance and quality.

As part of this growth in DVD copying was and continues to be DVD Catalyst.  With the award winning 2.0 version currently available - and a new version on the horizon - DVD Catalyst has been one of the stronger applications in this genre.  The problem facing DVD Catalyst has been the same however for all of the applications:  complexity.  Simply put, there are dozens of variables that can go into the ripping of a DVD or the conversion of a video file to another format.  For new users, the overwhelming amount of features in DVD Catalyst 2 can seem a bit intimidating. 

With this in mind and a goal of ease-of-use in mind, the makers of DVD Catalyst have released DVD Catalyst GT.  In a nutshell, it is the quickest and easiest DVD conversion software application I have had the opportunity to use to date.  Unlike it's more sophisticated older sibling, DVD Catalyst GT makes conversion of a DVD or video file as simple as a few mouse clicks.  While it does have some small customization ability, the idea behind GT is to make it simple - literally for anyone to use.  This means that GT does not have many of the advanced editing features of DVD Catalyst but has all of the features that the majority of users will want and need.  For the professional, DVD Catalyst 2 is still the best choice.

In addition, GT also provides you the ability to crop a video to be viewed on different devices ranging from Windows Mobile devices to Sony's PSP or an Apple iPod.  This is all done in a preview window, allowing you to see exactly how a file is going to look on your device before you convert it.  It is a nice touch to a well written and easy-to-use application that can make DVD ripping and file conversion simple, fun and rewarding for any level of user.

DVD Catalyst GT is installed on your desktop PC and requires approximately 20MB of hard disk space.  Since there is no Windows Mobile component to the installation, there is no space requirement on your device.  The only storage you will need on your device is for the output files created by GT.  After installation and GT is started, you are provided two options:  "I want to Convert a DVD" or "I want to Convert a File".  As the names suggest, Convert a DVD is to be used to rip a DVD and make it into a file on your hard disk while Convert a File is designed to allow you to convert an existing video file on your hard disk to another format.  For example, you could convert an AVI file to WMV (note that in order to convert file to WMV, you will need the Windows Media Encoder which is a free download from http://www.windowsmedia.com)

Figure 1:  The DVD Catalyst GT Start Screen

To use the convert to DVD function you must first have the DVD in your computer's DVD drive then select the convert a DVD option.  The main display of GT is split into two sections:  The preview pane on the left and the conversion settings in the right hand pane.  On the preview pane you will see the DVD playing, which is automatically started by GT.  It is on this pane that you select the type of device that you are going to be using to view the video file.  For example, you can choose a Windows Mobile 5 device, an Apple iPod or a Sony PSP and you will see how the video will look on that type of device.  The selection of the device is critical as the codec that GT will use will be based on your selection.  If you choose a Windows Mobile 5 device, GT will automatically use the Windows Media Video (WMV) codec so it can be played on your device.  The same is true for iPods or PSPs as it will put the video in the proprietary format of these devices.  This automatic step by GT takes the guesswork out of how to configure or which codec to use when converting a DVD.

Figure 2:  DVD Catalyst Configured for a Windows Mobile Device

Figure 3:  DVD Catalyst Configured for an Apple iPod

You will also note that there is a PocketPC DIVX output option as well instead of Windows Mobile 2003 or 5.0.  This will allow you to convert the file into a properly proportioned file for Windows Mobile devices using the DIVX codec which can then be played on your device with the TCPMP player.  The TCPMP player can be downloaded directly from the DVD Catalyst website at http://www.dvdcatalyst.com/support/downloads/.

Once the format is chosen on the left-hand pane, the file name, location, video and audio qualities can be adjusted on the right-hand pane.  By using the slide bars, you can choose how high you want the video or audio quality and can see in the information window above how big the file is going to be based on your settings.  So, for example, a 300Kbps file is going to be smaller than a 600Kbps file.  You will also note in the information window four options for cropping the video file.  By default GT will automatically crop the video viewing to fit your device.  However you can override this to make it full screen or have no cropping at all.  By doing this it is possible you will cut out some of the video edges so be sure to use the preview window to see exactly what you will get before doing a conversion.  Once the settings are to your liking click the Start Conversion button to have GT begin converting the DVD to a file on your PC.

Figure 4:  Auto Cropping of The Video File...

Figure 5:  Full Screen with no Borders on the Video File

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