ratDVD
Occasionally I create DVDs and want to share them with other people. This requires one of two basic solutions: sending a burned DVD through the mail or creating an ISO file and posting it online somewhere for the recipient to download. Neither of these scenarios is perfect. Sending DVDs through the mail requires extra time and the expense of postage. Sending an ISO requires a long upload time followed by a long download time (even if a solution like BitTorrent is used). The other alternative is to output the video in a compressed format like WMV and send a link to the file location. This last alternative is great if all I'm trying to send is a video. If I invested time in creating menus for the DVD, added some extra stuff to my movie and generally put time into the whole package, sending just a link to a video download won't cut it. ratDVD bridges the gap for this problem, acting as a tool to compress an entire DVD into a smaller package, menu navigation, special features, alternate language tracks, AC-3 audio and all. The file size is still bigger than a video-only download, but DVD sizes are cut dramatically. Depending on the settings you choose, quality suffers little with the end result being a virtual DVD available for playback from the hard drive or converted back to a DVD playable in any consumer drive by burning a disk. The creator of the software made it with the intent of compressing commercial DVDs, but the net effect is a great app for reducing the file size of your own stuff too. [Windows 9x/2k/XP $0.00]