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Founded in April 2001, labDV is publishing valuable information to Digital Video enthusiasts as well as beginners. This exciting project has helped to build a team on benevolent contributors who continuously publish new articles, new reviews and new guides (all reachable from the left navigation tree).

Most of our helpful documents are available from the library index.

We have setup one of the most relevant software database, including DivX and MPEG encoders as well as authoring tools, DVD rippers, codecs and more (see the software database). Registered VIP members can download the software from labDV servers, which are very fast, providing more than 1,024Kbits/sec per user.

Thanks to revenues from the VIP subscription we've sponsored and hosted several open source projects such as the world most popular DVD ripper DVDx.

We're also hosting:

• Leon's Lab, personal Leon's pages with analog capture and SVCD techniques,
• Sefy's DVD Backup Guide, a lot of guides and help ripping DVD with different tools,
• VCDwizard, a cool freeware (VCD-Imager GUI) to make (S)VCD with play-back control (chapters).

Guide: TMPGenc DVD Author

Pegasys, well known for their MPEG encoding software TMPGEnc, tries now DVD authoring with TMPGenc DVD Author v 1.5 (TDA).

DVD Authoring is very easy with TMPGEnc DVD Author.

Create your own DVD's with motion menus in only a few minutes following our guide, in french.

Review : Sony DRU710/DRX710. DVD Dual Layer 16x recorder

Sony's 7th generation DVD recorder technology pushes the speed boundaries further than anyone else. DVD+R discs can now be written at break-neck 16 speed (learn more on recordable DVDs). DVD-R is still running at a slower but still whopping 8x. And Dual layer technology is fully supported. The DRU710/DRX710 can handle the 8.5 GBytes discs without problems.

We reviewed the DRX710 in the field as soon as it hit the stores. Our field reporter is out in the USA and brings you this as a first.

Read the exclusive labDV review.

Review: Mediachance's DVD-LAB

Today there are a lot of different tools available that allow you to create DVD's from video or photo material.All of them offer a common set of functions that allow you to create a DVD.

Most of these tools are so simple to operate a baby can do it. Problem is that those programs are limited to a baby's level , and that's where the problem starts. If you want to make something original, or want to avoid having 20 DVD's that look all the same menu-wise these programs max out very quickly.

Sure there are tools out there that allow you access to the full potential but they come with a hefty pricetag. DVD-Lab breaks that habit by being low-cost and powerful. Read all about there.

Software: DVDx 2.3 released

The newest DVDx 2.3 version has been released, thanks to Dragongodz efforts.

This new 2.3 release brings very helpful changes:

• some GUI changes
• multi-angle DVDs are supported
• optimized support to benefit from dual processors and Pentium4 Hyper-Threading
• fix video codec setting issues (MS-WMV9 VCM, Huffyuv and FFvfw)
• much less internal MPEG encoder overflows
• small speed increase
• added Danish and Polish language files
• installer is now multi-lingual
• authentication from hard-drive now fixed
• added output text file for debug purpose

labDV has increased its efforts on DVDx development and support, many thanks to Dragongodz.

The new version is available from DVDx web site download page.

Software: DVD Shrink 3.2 released

The newest DVD Shrink 3.2.0.14 has been released in labDV software downloads:

• Added Quality Settings tab in the backup dialog, with option to enable AEC "adaptive error compensation" algorithms.
• Updated to NeroSDK 1.05, which includes support for burning DVD-9 dual-layer media. Added DVD-9 target size in preferences window.
• Removed "burn with DVD Decrypter" checkbox and replaced with a selectable backup target.
• Added burn with CopyToDVD as a backup target, this appears if CopyToDVD is installed.
• Added automatic support for splitting ISO files if they are saved to a FAT32 partition.
• Added support for replacing a title with a custom image. A default image from Guy Incognito is installed.
• Added "InstallPath", "InstallApp" and "InstallHelp" keys to the DVD Shrink registry.
• Added "March by ZeF69" toolbar.
• Fixed bug where Panscan and Letterbox subpicture streams could be erroneously discarded in some circumstances.
• Fixed bug if volume label exceeded 32 characters.

Current labDV guide for DVD Shrink isn't obsolete yet but we'll update it soon.