This is a review of "CloneDVD mobile" by SlySoft. "CloneDVD mobile" will convert feature lenght DVD movies or your home movies into media suitable for a number of Mobile Platforms including our favorites, Windows Mobile Smartphones and PocketPC. Slysoft has a number of software packages available including the famous CloneCD, AnyDVD and CloneDVD. AnyDVD is a companion product that allows access to CSS protected DVDs directly from your DVD drive. MGN only provides this information for the end users convenience, however, every end user must judge the use of such features with respect to the laws of their country. Now let's move on to "CloneDVD mobile".
Slysoft lists "CloneDVD mobile" features as follows:
CloneDVD mobile converts your DVD movies quickly and easily into a format that your mobile equipment (Sony PSP, Apple iPod Video, iAudio X5, Creative Labs ZEN Vision, etc) can play. You can also convert your DVDs to other file formats, such as DivX, XviD, AVI, MP4, etc.
Features:
Convert movie DVDs to play on mobile video equipment like the Sony PSP, Apple iPod Video, iAudio X5, Creative Labs ZEN Vision, etc
Convert movie DVDs to other file formats like DivX, XviD, AVI, MP4, etc.
Utilises a high quality picture conversion engine
Supports multi-angle movie DVDs
Video Preview shows an overview of all selectable DVD titles
Target size freely adjustable
Supports chapter trimming
Very easy to use: Our unique Filmstrip assistant will guide you step-by-step through all settings - easy for beginners
Picture snapshots while converting
Logging window available
Stable, fast and does not require an ASPI driver
CloneDVD mobile is powered by FFmpeg, the well-engineered open source project. More information about FFmpeg can be found at www.ffmpeg.org.
Installation: The trial download installed easily on Windows XP without any problems. The download size is 5.19 MB. The trial is fully functional and expires in 21 days. The trial is converted to a registered copy through an easy registration process.
Use: In my opinion, this has to be the easiest DVD to mobile convertor on the market. The following series of screenshots show how easy the program is to use.
Screentshot 1 shows the opening menu. Select the type of platform you are going to convert for and click next. In this case I choose the Smartphone setting which covers both SP and PPC platforms.
Next select the DVD you want to process. In my case I select "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" which I have mounted on drive:M. As opposed to other programs this software will select the most logical files to encode. Convertors like PocketDivxEncoder assume you have some knowledge about what vob files to choose. With CloneDVD mobile you can choose between multiple view angles if availabel on the DVD. I suggest try view angle 1 as a good bet.
Next you can choose the audio language and any subtitles you prefer. I will stick to English for this one.
Next it is time to choose your resolution and quality. There is a dropdown menu that allows resolution choices of 220 x 176, 320 x 240, and 480 x 360. These are the Smartphone (includes PPC) choices. The other menu types such as PSP offer different screen resolutions. Here are a couple of different settings. There is a little bug in the ouput size on this menu as the output will be about double the indication. Most full lenght movies will be around 130 MB+/-. See tips below for file transferring.
Ok we are ready to let the program do the work, click Go and it starts transcoding.
Your CPU will click away at 100% - not bad to make it work a little. My Athlon 64bit rests far to often.
After 32.02 minutes on my setup the processing is complete and ready for transfer to my SD card.
You are done creating the new file which will be youname.avi. The file will be around 130MB large. That is a real choker for ActiveSync transfers. I highly recommend you buy a cheap (less>$20) SD card reader to read either your SD or minSD cards. Most miniSD cards come with an adapter to use in a reader. The transfer only takes a few minutes at the very most using this method.
Conclusion: I give this program the MGN seal of approval with 5 out of 5 stars. I had given the program 4.5 Stars however the new updates move the program to outstanding and easy to use.
Pros: You can try before you buy it. It is easy to use, the output quality is on par with other transcoders I have used and it is well supported by Slysoft. They already issued a helpfull update based on user feedback. This program is great for converting full length feature movies to play on your mobile device. I suggest TCPMP as a player (free) for your phone. Registered owners receive one year technical support plus free lifetime upgrades.
Cons: There appears to be a minor bug with the size of output file on the resolution selection menu. This is minor and we will report it to them. It is so user friendly that certain high end tweaks (eg. custom screen size) are not available to the user.
SlySoft has offered MobileGadgetnews readers a discount on any Clone software purchased between now and February 25, 2006. Just use the coupon code
"mobilegadget" without the quotes to get the following discounts. The program costs $39 if bought separately, however if you bought it combined with say, AnyDVD, each program would be priced at $29.50. You would get the additional MGN discount of $10, making your cost for both $49.
product coupon value
---------------------------------
single license (39$) 5.00 US$
2 license bundle (59$) 10.00 US$
3 license bundle (78$) 15.00 US$
4 license bundle (95$) 20.00 US$
Example: the regular price of our 3 license bundle "AnyDVD + CloneDVD + CloneCD" is 78.00 US$. After using the coupon the remaining amount will be 63.00 US$. The big bundle with all
4 products is 75$ instead of 95$.
The SlySoft website:
SlySoft Products CloneDVD mobile2/16/05 CloneDVD mobile update see post below for detail.
2/12/06 CloneDVD mobile update