ratDVD

The ratDVD logo

ratDVD is a proprietary media container file type that supports the same features as DVD-Video. Unlike other container formats like Matroska, it is designed to accurately mirror the exact feature set of standard DVDs, facilitating round-tripping back to the DVD-Video format. It is typically used to reencode a DVD movie, maintaining all menus and features while reducing significantly the overall size. A typical DVD (usually above 4 gigabytes) can be compressed to about 1 or 2 GB, with some loss in video quality due to recompression.

The file type is supported by a freeware application of the same name released only for the Microsoft Windows Operating system, and is apparently no longer being maintained by its creator, with the latest version dating from 2005. There is speculation that ratDVD was only a preview version (albeit fully functional) of the now commercially sold fluxDVD. While ratDVD contained the features that allowed the home user to create their own archived DVDs, this function has been removed from fluxDVD, allowing only content owners to make and sell fluxDVD archives.

ratDVD works by compressing a full DVD using a proprietary codec named "XEB". The resulting ratDVD file can then be played directly in a computer (as long as the needed codec has been installed) by a DirectShow-compatible DVD player, or converted back into standard DVD format. ratDVDs are zip compressed archives containing XML, IFO, VSI, and XVO files.

Advantages

ratDVD gained some popularity due to several reasons, in particular the fact that it was very easy to use, and was available at no cost (although it remained proprietary software). The ability to greatly compress DVDs while retaining the complete structure (such as menu titles, multiple camera angles, ...) has especially appealed to communities interested in sharing content over network connections.

Criticism

The author has stated that he will release ratDVD as open source some time in the future, probably under the BSD license, but currently its closed-source nature has sparked some discussion about possible license infringements related to the use of code released under GPL, such as libdvdnav. ratDVD has an option to not install both of the GPL modules it is shipped with, however playback of ratDVD files does not work in that case. Critics have also complained about ratDVD not being a standardized format.

ratDVD is available only for the Microsoft Windows operating system, and dependent on Microsoft DirectShow. Additionally, it is not directly supported in popular Windows DVD players, instead requiring people to use the ratDVD program or Windows Media Player to play ratDVD files. More recently, many users have reported being unable to open their ratDVD files at all in versions of Windows later than XP.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Container format (digital) definition and article
  • Comparison of (audio/video) container formats
• List of multimedia (audio/video) codecs
  • Open source codecs and containers
  • Comparison of video codecs
  • Comparison of audio codecs
• Competing technologies
  • DivX Media Format (DMF) from DivX, Inc. (uses .divx as extension), includes support for menus
  • Matroska (MKV) open source (uses .mkv as extension) includes support for menus
  • OGM ("Ogg Media", standard video container for Xiph.org codecs), supports everything ratDVD does except for menus
  • MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4

External links

• ratDVD site
• Discussion about ratDVD and GPL issues
• fluxDVD - A commercial application, the successor to ratDVD