CeBit #2: Engelmann Media #2

[N.B.]

As I promised, more to come:

Today I want to focus on the upcomming projects from Engelmann Media.
I know that this company is surely one of the most hated, since the release of CDRWin5, but please, give them a chance !
Demos are for free, so give ehm a shot or at least read further
For those people who do not know the story about CDRWin5, I will tell you:
CDRWin is/was one of the best CDR programs out there. It is small, fast, reliable and comes with Cue sheet support.
Jeff Arnold, the man behind CDRWin was involved into other projects and bizz already some time ago, and so the development of CDRWin stopped.
This is true for version 3 and 4. Which are still "pushed" forward by GoldenHawk. The only thing being update in this versions are the drivers,
to support latest hardware but that´s it. So Engelmann Media tried to release a new verion, version 5, which was more likely a dissaster.
The core of the cdr engine was from Padus (DiscJuggler) since Engelmann worked closely together with them. The rest of the program like the GUI came from Engelmann.
Bugs, crashes and some other things made the users hate the program, and hate Engelmann. Especially the hardcore users were disappointed since Cue sheet support was dropped as well.
Yeah, and that is almost the whole story. Engelmann surely made a BIG step back, at least in the opionon of the community.
Now they are trying to release other, better software to make a good name in the community. The main problem is now: that most people do not trust them anymore ...
So, do whatever you think, but please read further, mayber you get interessted


GameJack

The main purpose of this program are 1:1 copies. It does the older and not so tricky protections physically, and the more advanced one, as StarForce with the built in virual drive.
Right now version 3 is available and the interessting part is: it comes with ClonyXXL which is a protection scanner. So, it goes like: you insert the source CD, start the prorgramm, ClonyXXL scans the protection from the source CD, you insert a blank into the burner, press start and that´s it !
Sounds to good to be truth, doesn´t it ? To be kind, GameJack had its bugs, especially the virtual drive was a mess, but now, at least on my test system it runs pretty fine.
Most troubles are whiped away, even the hibernation mode from Windows is supported, so ...
Worth a try people ! Go to gamejack.org and download the demo ... and of course, please leave feedback about your experiences with this piece of software.


MovieJack

This program has a quite good name on the german market already, I am not so sure if people from foreign countries do accept it that good. Anyhow
There are new versions on the way, which will surely improve the handling, speed and reliability. Version 2.5 to be precise. Which brings in DivX !
Yeah, right, Engelmann setteled a deal with the guys from DivX and I guess they got the exclusive deal within the EU. Anyhow, the important thing:
There will be a easy to use, DVD ripper, being capable of DivX. Sounds great ? Hopefully it is. MovieJack is quite easy to use, and already quite mature.
Surely some bugs are still there, but it is becomming reliable. They only thing that hurts a bit is the less good quality but this might end with the support of DivX !
I am sure more people then just me are waiting for v.2.5 ! I would like to give you a release date, but there isn´t any yet. Within the next weeks afaik. We will see.
One thing for sure: if MovieJack 2.5 is as stable as v.2 and the DivX support works, you should check it out !
Let me continue: for MovieJack is a pro version in the pipe.
Which is a real one in all solution. It encodes videos, splits team, transcodes them and many more things. So it is like the swiss army knife, just for dvd ripping.
No need to mention that v.2.5 pro comes with DivXPRO support as well as with a built in burning engine, to burn the created movies onto a blank.
DVD 1:1 copies are possible with the pro version as well, for the 2.5 and 2 this will be delivered via a update or a plugin for free.
So, my point on MovieJack 2.5 is right now: get the demo version once v.2.5 is released. If the program fit your needs, check out v.2.5 Pro.


DVDRWin

First I wanna say: hopefully the sad story of CDRwin5 won´t repeat itself. Engelmann got their knowledge on burning since they develope GameJack for example.
So I trust in that part of the program. What is new, is the support of 1:1 DVD copies, which is built in MovieJack as well. I guess they can do this as well.
The only problem I see right now is the user interface. It surely won´t be as CDRWin4 or 3, so I am interessted in how it will work out. Since most people are already a bit spoilt by the UI of programs like Alcohol,
it won´t be easy to compete with the others. Another issue is the release date. Elby, VSO and Alcohol are working on their DVD cloning programs as well, so ...
Who will win the race ? We will see ! Hopefully DVDRWin comes with a good UI, so it finds acceptance in the scene, since it won´t come with features that the alternatives do not offer.
One thing for sure: the technology behind GameJack is stable, as you may test by yourself. Since the same knowledge is used in DVDRWin, it should be the same.
Surely the same thought goes well for Elby, VSO and Alcohol as well, but afaik Engelmann has the greater ressources, so...

Yeah, no more speculations, we all will see !


Enough for today ! Still not everything out of my brain

More to come !


Thanks for checking ! Cheers !

[ChickenMan]

Thanks for the feedback NB, interesting reading, keep it comming m8.

Cheers,
CM

[woody]

Originally posted by ChickenMan
Thanks for the feedback NB, interesting reading, keep it comming m8.

Cheers,
CM

Yes,I look forward to these yearly Cebit reports. I understand a lot of this is through the eyes of Engelmann.It is still interesting to read his views,and see what is in store for the future of Cd/dvd software.