As Steve helpfully pointed out, you can pay $7 for the 3ivx decoder which- with a small registry modification- enables playback of *.mp4 files in good old Windows Media Player:
Unfortunately, Nero hasn't seen fit to distribute a standalone "Nero Digital" decoder, which is not exactly a great way to promote a new file format.
We should be able to download a small set of decoders and watch our *.mp4 files in any application we want.
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that you're forced to install the annoying Nero Showtime application on any PC you want to watch your *.mp4 files from. AAC is a part of the MPEG4 spec, but it's not widely used. It defaults to multi-channel AAC encoded sound instead of your typical (less sophisticated) Dolby Digital or MP3 encoded sound. Nero calls their format "Nero Digital", but it's really just advanced MPEG4. All of the above packages technically produce MPEG4 output, but no DivX compatible decoder I found- and I tried many- could deal with the Nero Recode file format. MPEG4 video files, with a *.mp4 extension. Now, there is one thing you should know about Nero Recode: it produces somewhat. If you want a fuller overview of the Nero Recode software, there's a good review at CDRInfo. Ripping to MPEG4 is what I'm most interested in, but Recode can do much more. by far the easiest and most automatic encoder to use.When compared to the DivX and XVid encoders, Nero Recode was. The experts at CDFreaks loved Nero Recode. This is a huge time savings when you're encoding a 2 hour movie!īut don't take my word for it. In comparison, I just ripped about 10 different DVDs with Nero Recode and it's been a painless point and click operation every single time- without a single crash! And my god, the speed! Recode produces encoding framerates of nearly 90fps* the peak encodng rate of Dr. Both apps crashed on me fairly regularly, and both apps required too many tedious, trial-and-error trips into obscure options and settings dialogs. DivX (payware) to rip DVDs before with somewhat. The tradeoff is higher CPU decoding requirements (rarely an issue on any remotely modern PC), and a lot of re-encoding time. I know it sounds implausible, but I can tell you from personal experience that it works, because MPEG4 is a more modern and efficient codec than MPEG2. avi file that has DVD-like video and sound quality. For example, you may start with ~9gb of raw, decrypted DVD data, and end up with a 700mb. The goal is to reduce the file size without losing (too much) quality. Quick clarification: by DVD rip, I mean re-encoding a MPEG2 DVD using some variant of the MPEG4 video and audio codecs.
I've long considered Nero the definitive DVD and CD burning software I had no idea they also offered a DVD ripping solution. Steve Makofsky turned me on to some software I already use: Nero Burning ROM, but more specifically, Nero Recode 2, which is a part of their expanded "ultra" Nero suite.