DVD Converter by VSO 4.0.0.68

Overview

Smartphones and tablets aren’t only for playing Angry Birds and visiting Twitter/Facebook, they have too many capabilities and it seems that they are trying to replace computers and laptops. The average user watches movies in his new device more and more often, making it crucial for software companies to keep up with his needs; VSO-Software does try to satisfy all users, and in this particular area it successfully manages to do so with DVD Converter Ultimate. This fully-featured program can convert DVDs, folders with DVD structures and ISO files into various formats for playback in several different devices.

Installation

The installation is pretty easy to complete. Just run the installer, follow the wizard and in under a couple of minutes the program will be ready to use. In one of the steps there is an option that asks you if you want to let the program send anonymous usage statistics to VSO-Software (no personal data collected).

DVD Converter Ultimate is a trustworthy program and doesn’t contain any additional software (malicious or not).

Supported operating systems are Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8.

Interface

The simplistic interface makes it easy to navigate and find the options you’re looking for. In fact, all the available features are gathered in the toolbar for better organization and quicker access: Add File(s) (Load from disc/Load from DVD folder or Load ISO file), Remove Selection, Settings, Help/Tools and Output format selection drop-down menu. In the rest of the window you can see the items included in DVD you loaded (video/audio tracks, subtitles, menus, etc.).

Pros

You can load a movie from a disc, a DVD folder or an ISO file and then choose the format you want it to be converted into. The user can choose himself the output container format he wants (AVI, MKV, MP4, DVD) along with a desired video compression format (H.264, Xvid, VP8, etc.), or he can just find his device in the device list and let the program automatically apply the best settings for it. Supported devices are Smartphones (iPod 1-5, Samsung Galaxy S II-IV, Samsung Galaxy Note 1,2,3, as well as generic Android smartphones and generic 3GP phones), Tablets (iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab 1,2,3 and Samsung Galaxy Note), portable devices like Archos and older iPod generations, and game consoles (PS3, XBOX 360). When converting to DVD (which means that you actually create a backup of the movie) you can select between NTSC and PAL standard plus pick the wanted aspect.

You can see a live preview of the movie while the conversion task is taking place. This way you can check at any moment if there are problems in the movie.

Basic video editing functionality is implemented in the program and the user can perform actions like trim video parts and edit subtitles.

Multiple conversion tasks can take place at a time. DVD Converter Ultimate can take advantage of multi-core processors and finish the process in less time. In addition, if the graphics card supports NVIDIA CUDA technology then the conversion process can be completed 3 times faster.

When the program has finished converting, it can use its built-in burning engine to burn the results to a disc.

Cons

DVD Protection cannot be bypassed (you need additional software for that, such as AnyDVD).

Alternatives

Some alternatives are Any DVD Converter (paid), HandBrake (free) and Format Factory (free).

Conclusion

In a few words, this program is of great value if you regularly convert DVDs for playback on portable devices (as long as they’re not protected; but even in this case you can still remove protection with another program and use DVD Converter Ultimate to convert them).