I have a forthcoming project where I need to convert DVD-Video to DV, edit it, and convert it back to DVD-Video. There seems to be three programs that can handle the initial conversion: Cinematize Pro, DVDxDV Pro and MPEG Streamclip (HandBrake only outputs to MPEG-4 and H.264).

I found DVDxDV Pro to have too simplistic an interface and a lack of encoding options. I also had problems with interlacing in the DV output that I could not fix and the quality suffered greatly as a result. MPEG Streamclip provided many more options, but the DV output seemed to be cropped slightly even though this wasn't set. It's quality was also noticeably worse when compared to the original DVD. I'm not sure if these problems were linked but no combination of settings seemed to fix them. However it is free and is definitely worth a try.

Finally I tried the Cinematize Pro demo. This has a comprehensive set of options for video and audio output, as well as subtitles, in a well laid out interface. The quality of the DV it produced was extremely high, almost indistinguishable from the original DVD, and had no other problems. It also has an excellently written manual. The only thing I would really like to see is single frame stepping when setting in/out points.

Out of the three programs I would definitely say that Cinematize Pro has the best combination of ease of use, flexibility and certainly quality of results, and I hope to purchase it soon.