Category Archives: Windows Software

Any of the Windows operating systems and other software not specifically named.

DVD Ripping software

I had a task set for me to rip some DVD’s so that they could be watched on our TV, iPhones, iPads, PC’s and on a Mac and preferably via a an x-box.

So I set out to try for the very first time some DVD ripping software. (So I was late to this party!)

Now I have to say that after two days I think it is a minefield of marketing rip-offs. To save you reading further Magic DVD Ripper is my winner. But if you want to know what else I looked at have a quick read. It might save you some wasted downloads.

AVS software. Buy “Unlimited LifeTime licence” that is limited to only one computer for the life of that computer.  Get a new PC and it expires just like Microsoft Windows licences. What crap.The software to convert files is as slow as a wet week in any case. Don’t waste your time. And watch out for the ‘independent reviews’ that provide links to buying this as they are all on a commission basis.

Wondershare software DVD Platinum product looks ok but alongside Aimersoft DVD Ripper you can see that they are exactly the same software with a different skin. This raises the questions of why and which is the original? My watermarked file (note that you dont find out about the watermarks in the trial until you go to save the ripped file.) did not render correctly in any case. Note that I am new to this and the fact that the frames seemed to hesitate and jump with ghosting struck me as being a poor quality rip. Tried Aimersoft but it is ripping at a rate that would make snails look quick.

AnyDVD, espoused as really good, nagged the heck out of me with constant reminders that I only had 21 days left of a 21 day trial within 5 seconds of the install completing. Every time the screen changed it nagged. For crying out loud, let me use the software and not undertake a olympic practice session in clicking OK buttons on annoying prompt boxes.  In the end it ripped the TV series DVD into a mountain of small files that split the episodes up into fragments. Quality output but and annoying process and I am not sure how to join the files back together and slow as well.

Next I tried the appropriately named, ‘Next DVD Ripper’ which seemed to run really well but the output was crap. Tried on a cartoon/animation DVD and got gross pixelation as if the digital broadcast was failing on the cable TV. Could not playback properly on anything. Tried again with TV series episode and got average picture and lipsync issues that were so bad I could not tell who was speaking.

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum. Given the similarity of the name with the Wondershare/Aimersoft clones I wonder if the back-end is similar. It will, once you work out how to modify the settings, rip a decent copy although I am sure that I am hearing a bit of wow/flutter as if it is an old audio cassette tape on a worn deck in the sound quality. Probably ok but it still did not shake me from Magid DVD Ripper. But I will at least provide a link to this as a worthy runner up.

HandBrake is an opensource ripper, but it is not quick and does not do some of the things I would like. I think I needed to tweak settings more but gave up.

Magic DVD Ripper.  Ripped the TV episodes to mpeg-2 format in rapid time and they work perfectly on the TV. Next tried ripping to an iPad format and tested.  It does not convert existing files. It only rips from DVD, so converting a file requires another product, but it is quick with ripping and gives great audio and video quality without messing with settings.

So the next task is a video file format converting application to take the TV/DVD quality mpg’s from Magic and convert them quickly and easily to iPad and other formats for viewing on the move.

In case you wondered, our TV is the Panasonic Viera 3D with the Synology Media Station linked over our ethernet 1G LAN. We also have an Xbox 360 on an older TV in another room that I’ve managed to hook to the Synology as well for music. I’ll be trying video’s next weekend.

Windows server 2008 install error

Installing a new server with Windows Server 2008 to a blank hard drive and during the install process it fails at the disk format stage with

“Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation”

There is a Microsoft KB article KB927520 about this and I figured that the obvious issue was that the drivers for the main board SATA controller did not match with the MS supplied drivers.

There are a couple of issues with this:

  • the suggested solution to download/update the drivers cannot be undertaken on a bare metal system, particularly when the network card is yet to be enabled to allow for communication
  • the Intel mainboard came with a special self-booting driver and management disk, but it failed to read the DVD because it could not recognise its own controller until the drivers were available, a real catch-22

So having tried a number of options, I opted to grab one of our 2003 Server install disks just to verify that there was no actual hardware issue. Having successfully installed Windows Server 2003 I then loaded the Intel CD to do the BIOS and system updates.

Once that was loaded I checked the disk via the Disk Manager utility and converted it to Dynamic, as I would be doing a software mirror later and then I loaded the Windows Server 2008 disk to try again.

Guess what, it all works like there was never an issue. Upgrade option worked a treat.

As a side issue I was mildly peeved to have a new Feb 2010 server delivered with a new motherboard that required patches and updates that were dated September 2008 which implies that the last time Intel did any on board updates was around 3 years ago!

Windows Recovery Console Admin Password

Trying to launch the Recovery Console from the Windows Server disk gave me a bit more trouble than I expected this morning.

The issue I think arises from the initial setup of a server being done with a basic password and then the server is promoted into a domain controller role and gets effectively another password for the Administrator account. The user will use the Administrator password and ‘knows’ that the password is correct, but when entering this password at the Recovery Console login gets an invalid password message and after 3 attempts the computer logs out and restarts.

The issue is that the Directory Service Restore Mode Administrator password is still the original old administrator password from years ago when the server was first installed.

The solution is well documented at the Petri IT Knowledgebase which is where I sourced the correct commands for changing the password.

If you have a server that you cannot boot then this will not help as you need access to the GUI to do this. I have not tried but you may get some success by using a password clearing utility along the lines of my recent experience with my Windows 7 netbook and earlier Windows XP password lockouts.