Review: DVD2Pod video conversion software

Many popular handheld devices can now play video, but there’s still very much a legal minefield when it comes to ripping DVDs to them in the same way that we do with our music CDs.

DVD2Pod seems, initially, to offer a solution. 'Select any movie, DVD or video file and DVD2Pod does the rest,' claims the blurb on the packaging.

Sounds ideal. Except in this instance, it seems that the phrase 'any movie, DVD or video file' doesn’t mean 'any' at all.

Shop-bought DVDs are out, for a start, although in truth, we wouldn’t expect a commercial application to copy protected DVD movies, since it is illegal in the UK.

We asked Avanquest why the wording on its packaging was so misleading.

A representative told us that DVD2Pod is an 'international' product, which is also available in territories where DVD ripping is allowed, pointing us to a copyright disclaimer on the box in the tiniest writing we have ever seen.

DVD2Pod can be used with DVDs you have created yourself, such as home movies or programmes that have been recorded using a set-top DVD recorder.

Sadly, we even got mixed results with this. Some discs worked fine, while others repeatedly crashed the program.

When it comes to video files, DVD2Pod’s 'any' boast also seems a little inaccurate.

In fact, the application will only convert mpeg2, DivX and Xvid files out of the box, although a recently released 1.02 update adds support for other formats, including Quicktime, mpeg1 and wmv.

You’ll need to have the correct codecs installed on your system first, though.

DVD2Pod is fairly easy to use. But since there are similar video converters available (including freeware and shareware) that are cheaper and have wider support for different video formats, DVD2Pod seems a little irrelevant.