Anydvd HD 6.1.5.5 released

[Webslinger]

AnyDVD HD History

6.1.5.5 2007 05 21
- Fix (HD DVD & Blu-ray): AACS decryption was broken in 6.1.5.4
Some titles did not playback correctly (black screen).
Sorry, sorry, sorry!

6.1.5.4 2007 05 20
- New (HD DVD & Blu-ray): Support for new version of AACS
- New: AnyDVD ripper displays the volume label of the discs
- New: AnyDVD ripper and AnyDVD HD ripper are now unified
- New: AnyDVD ripper warns, if destination directory is not empty
- New: AnyDVD ripper creates destination directory, if it doesn't exist
- New (HD DVD & Blu-ray): Support for new titles
- New (HD DVD): Workaround for mastering error on "Relentless Enemies"
- New (HD DVD & Blu-ray): Added warning dialog, if HD DVD or Blu-ray
processing did not work
- New (HD DVD & Blu-ray): Added workaround for "eject" bug in Sonic DLA
- New: Added timeout to prevent hang on exit in some situations
- Fix (DVD): AnyDVD ripper did not work correctly with multiple angles.
If you want more control (stream selection, main movie only
selection, ...) we recommend to use CloneDVD2 available at
http://www.slysoft.com instead of AnyDVD ripper.
- Fix (DVD): Sony Arccos Decryption bug introduced in 6.1.4.3, sorry
- Some minor fixes and improvements
- Updated languages

To Download Anydvd HD 6.1.5.5 click this



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Should anyone experience issues installing Anydvd HD (most people don't), do this:

1.
a) Keep your license key file backed up safely
b) Uninstall Anydvd (start-->all programs-->Slysoft--->Anydvd-->Uninstall)
c) Reboot
d) Try running a registry cleaner program at this point like CCleaner
e) Download Anydvd http://static.slysoft.com/SetupAnyDVD.exe
f) Exit all Slysoft programs (including Anydvd, Clonedvd2, Clonecd, Clonecdtray, Clonedvdmobile, etc.). Check Windows Task Manager if you have to.
g) At this point disable your antivirus and firewall programs
h) Reinstall
i) Reboot
j) Install your license key (if required) http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=732
k) At this point enable your antivirus and firewall programs


2. If you use Vista, read this

[SuperGoof]

Hi James,

It looks like recent versions of AnyDVD have some Enable/Disable issues:

If I insert a blu-ray disc while AnyDVD is enabled, everything is fine: it scans the disc and renames 'AACS' folder to 'SLY!'. But if I then disable AnyDVD, 'SLY!' folder stays. And vice versa: if I insert disc when AnyDVD is disabled and then enable it, 'AACS' folder stays and does not get renamed to 'SLY!'.

These issues do not seem to affect playback though: PowerDVD plays disc in all cases, and plays separate .m2ts files only if AnyDVD is enabled.

Can you please have a look at this.

[James]

Originally Posted by SuperGoof

Hi James,

It looks like recent versions of AnyDVD have some Enable/Disable issues:

If I insert a blu-ray disc while AnyDVD is enabled, everything is fine: it scans the disc and renames 'AACS' folder to 'SLY!'. But if I then disable AnyDVD, 'SLY!' folder stays. And vice versa: if I insert disc when AnyDVD is disabled and then enable it, 'AACS' folder stays and does not get renamed to 'SLY!'.

These issues do not seem to affect playback though: PowerDVD plays disc in all cases, and plays separate .m2ts files only if AnyDVD is enabled.

Can you please have a look at this.

Sonic DLA installed?

[SuperGoof]

Originally Posted by James

Sonic DLA installed?

Yes, Drag-to-Disc (same thing). I even suspected this somehow linked to your Sonic DLA related change.

BTW, I suffered from BSODs when ejecting Drag-to-Disc formatted discs last year, but their most recent versions seem to be fine in this regard. Just curious: were those BSODs by themselves or because I also had AnyDVD installed? Actually, I tried to uninstall AnyDVD and still had BSODs as far as I remember.

[James]

Originally Posted by SuperGoof

Yes, Drag-to-Disc (same thing). I even suspected this somehow linked to your Sonic DLA related change.

BTW, I suffered from BSODs when ejecting Drag-to-Disc formatted discs last year, but their most recent versions seem to be fine in this regard. Just curious: were those BSODs by themselves or because I also had AnyDVD installed? Actually, I tried to uninstall AnyDVD and still had BSODs as far as I remember.

As the Roxio / Sonic kernel mode programmers are as intelligent as a piece of bread, I suspect DLA / DragToDisc manages to crash on its own pretty well.
Just read the readme.txt of DLA, this alone is scary as hell.
The major problem was, that these morons are unable to understand (or read?) the Microsoft documentation.

One example... Microsoft says:
The FSCTL_DISMOUNT_VOLUME control code dismounts a volume.
...
Dismounting a volume is useful when a volume needs to disappear for a while.
For example, an application that changes a volume file system from the FAT file system to the NTFS file system might use the following procedure.

To change a volume file system
Open a volume.
Lock the volume.
Format the volume.
Dismount the volume.
Unlock the volume.
Close the volume handle.

A dismounting operation removes the volume from the FAT file system awareness. When the operating system mounts the volume, it appears as an NTFS file system volume.

This isn't so hard to understand, is it?

But DLA ejects the disc (!) when it receives this control code. In other words: It is impossible to make modifications on a sector level and notify the filesystem about these changes. C'est la vie.

I can only recommend to get rid of this Sonic / Roxy crap. To read BD discs on XP, you can use the Toshiba HD DVD driver. At least this one works like it should.

[James]

Originally Posted by SuperGoof

These issues do not seem to affect playback though: PowerDVD plays disc in all cases, and plays separate .m2ts files only if AnyDVD is enabled.

Both PowerDVD and the AnyDVD HD ripper are not affected, as they do not use the FileSystem to access the disc (yes, a wise decision).

[SuperGoof]

Originally Posted by James

... But DLA ejects the disc (!) when it receives this control code. In other words: It is impossible to make modifications on a sector level and notify the filesystem about these changes. C'est la vie.

While I had many problems with DragToDisc and so do not have a high opinion of their programmers, I have not seen the disc to be ejected by itself with or without AnyDVD running. I do not know what is exactly the change you have made, but at least on my machine it made things worse. Before that change 'SLY!' and 'AACS' folders appeared and disappeared as expected. Can you consider to rollback this particular change?

Also, what programs do you recommend for general burning and DVD authoring (in case I get rid of Roxio, that is)? For burning I first used Roxio 5 OEM version which came with my computer (it was in 2003, I think), then switched to Nero 6 (in 2005), then back to Roxio (in 2006), when I discovered that Roxio 8 "Home", based on Sonic RecordNow, can burn files and folders with unicode names, and that it correctly handles VIDEO_TS folders without reauthoring them. Also I find it convenient to use packet writing software like DragToDisc to quickly copy files which I have to bring from work to home and vice versa. For DVD authoring I use DVD MovieFactory. It seems to produce better quality MPEG2 streams than anything else I have tested. It is quite slow though.

[SuperGoof]

Originally Posted by James

Both PowerDVD and the AnyDVD HD ripper are not affected, as they do not use the FileSystem to access the disc (yes, a wise decision).

Do you mean that they do not use Microsoft Windows' FileSystem API functions, e.g. CreateFile function, to access the disc? They still must use UDF file system stuctures on disc to be able to navigate the disc.

[James]

Originally Posted by SuperGoof

Do you mean that they do not use Microsoft Windows' FileSystem API functions, e.g. CreateFile function, to access the disc?

This is exactly what I mean.

[James]

Originally Posted by SuperGoof

While I had many problems with DragToDisc and so do not have a high opinion of their programmers, I have not seen the disc to be ejected by itself with or without AnyDVD running. I do not know what is exactly the change you have made, but at least on my machine it made things worse. Before that change 'SLY!' and 'AACS' folders appeared and disappeared as expected. Can you consider to rollback this particular change?

No, because the FSCTL_DISMOUNT_VOLUME causes "unexpected behaviour" on Adaptec / Roxio / Sonic filesystems. Maybe they fixed it in your version of drag to disc, but it is impossible to check for the filesystem version.

If you let AnyDVD run *all the time* (highly recommended!!!!) and insert the Blu-ray disc *while AnyDVD is running* (highly recommended!!!!) AnyDVD doesn't need to issue a FSCTL_DISMOUNT_VOLUME, and the files will be consistant.

Originally Posted by SuperGoof

Also, what programs do you recommend for general burning and DVD authoring (in case I get rid of Roxio, that is)? For burning I first used Roxio 5 OEM version which came with my computer (it was in 2003, I think), then switched to Nero 6 (in 2005), then back to Roxio (in 2006), when I discovered that Roxio 8 "Home", based on Sonic RecordNow, can burn files and folders with unicode names, and that it correctly handles VIDEO_TS folders without reauthoring them. Also I find it convenient to use packet writing software like DragToDisc to quickly copy files which I have to bring from work to home and vice versa. For DVD authoring I use DVD MovieFactory. It seems to produce better quality MPEG2 streams than anything else I have tested. It is quite slow though.

Just get rid of DLA / Direct To Disc and use the Toshiba HD DVD filesystem.