DVD Converter (DVD Ripper) is your best partner to convert DVDs to most popular video formats on Mac OS X. It also helps to convert DVD and playback on iPad, Apple TV, iPhone, iPod with high quality. 7x24 email support. All your questions will be replied within 24 hours or shorter. Contact email: support@seasky.co. It's an excellent free DVD decoder for Windows Me/XP/Vista/7/8/10 and macOS. DVD Shrink is a free piece of DVD decoding and copying software. According to its official site, it's and will always be Windows freeware. It's free and Windows-based, so macOS users won't be able to use it to decode DVD. DVD Converter (DVD Ripper) is your best partner to convert DVDs to most popular video formats on Mac OS X. It also helps to convert DVD and playback on iPad, Apple TV, iPhone, iPod with high quality. 7x24 email support. All your questions will be replied within 24 hours or shorter. Contact email: support@seasky.co. Convert DVD for playing or editing on various devices. AnyMP4 DVD Converter for Mac supports over 200 formats converting, including AVI, FLV, MP4, M4V, MKV, MOV, 3GP, MP3, AIFF, FLAC, WMV, OGG, TS, HD MP4, HD AVI, HD MOV, etc., so that the converted DVD or video/audio formats can be used for various devices like iPhone 12/12 Pro/12 Pro Max/12 mini/11/11 Pro/11 Pro Max/XS/XS Max/XR/X/8/8 Plus/7.
According to a report from The Numbers®, Frozen 2, the top-selling DVD in 2020, reaches up 1.25 million sales in the US, followed by Jumanji: The Next Level (1.09 million) and Joker (0.76 million). Although the desire for physical media has been on the decline with the explosion of streaming media, DVD and Blu-ray still have a significant market share. Last year, more than 16 million people bought or rented home entertainment content, among which 8.8 million people purchased DVDs and Blu-ray discs. And it is estimated that the number might go larger this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home policies.
Since you are landing here, I guess you are a DVD collector with hundreds and thousands of discs and wondering how to relieve the space from shelves of DVDs that you preserve for years or just purchased from Amazon. Apparently, ripping them into digital files would help you a lot as long as you are using the best DVD ripper.
Disclaimer
Before we dive into the DVD ripping software review, we need to address the elephant in the room – DVD copy protection. According to the case Real Networks v. DVD CCA, any use of circumvention tools for infringing purposes is illegal and forbidden, while, to make a personal backup copy of the media content is permissible under some conditions. But note that this differs from country to country. Therefore, go check your local laws before you use these DVD rippers.
Operating system: Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7; Mac OS X 10.6 and later
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As the sibling of the famous DVD ripper WinX DVD Ripper, VideoProc Converter, although born as a video editor and video converter, is also endowed with the same talent of copying and ripping DVD discs. It is competent to rip all old and new DVDs with copy-protections, copy full title to MKV, VIDEO_TS folder, and ISO image file, and convert the ripped DVD video to more than 370+ formats. For tech-savvy users, VideoProc Converter gives you full control over the video resolution, the bitrate, the frame rate, the video codec, and the subtitle track. For beginners, it has well-rounded presets (categorized by output devices and video playback platforms) for you to rip a DVD in minutes.
If you are a senior DVD collector owning thousands of discs but have no idea which software is powerful enough to rip so many DVDs, VideoProc Converter is surely capable of helping you out. By the level 3 hardware acceleration tech, VideoProc Converter rips DVDs in the fastest manner. Since knowing that most DVD owners want the best of the best, it allows you to improve 480P DVDs to HD and modify DVD movies by cutting, cropping, adding subtitles and effects, syncing video and audio, etc.
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#1. If you don't know the type of your DVD file system, just keep the default setting, and VideoProc Converter will detect the right title for you automatically.
#2. Tick the box before NVIDIA/Intel/AMD and select multi-core usage, and you can enjoy real-time faster ripping speed.
#3. Toggle on the Safe Mode, and VideoProc Converter will take care of the whole ripping process and prevent it from stopping accidentally.
Operating system: Windows, Mac
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The next DVD ripper we are going to talk about is WinX DVD Ripper. You must be familiar with this brand if you started using DVD ripper a long time ago. It has set the industry standard for DVD ripping. By its special compatible CSS mechanism, it decrypts Disney X-project DRM, Sony ARccOS Protection, DVD region lock, and user operation prohibition. So it can rip DVD on Windows 10 and Mac without fuss. Another thing makes WinX DVD Ripper Platinum a robust ripper is the tech of hyper-threading and multi-core hardware acceleration (up to 8 cores), which empowers you to rip a full DVD to MP4 H.264 in 5 minutes.
Besides MP4, it can rip DVD to AVI, MPEG, M2TS, and any format accepted by TV, hard drive, laptops, and mobile devices. To keep everything you want, it backs up almost all content in your DVD including all chapters, subtitle track, and tag info. And if necessary, you can do some edits before ripping, like say, trimming, cropping, or adjusting audio volume.
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Official website: https://www.winxdvd.com/dvd-ripper-platinum/
Operating system: Windows 10/8/7
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Format Factory is a powerful multimedia processing tool competent to convert videos, images, and documents. And DVD ripping is just one of its functions. Just as the name suggests, it is compatible with a truly wide array of formats. Besides DVDs, you can use to rip BD, and music CD. In the ROM Device/DVD/CD/ISO option, Format Factory offers 5 ripping utilities for converting DVD to video file, Blu-ray disc to MKV, CD to audio file, DVD/CD to ISO/CSO, and ISO to CSO. You can pick the output format as you like from its format arsenal freely.
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Official website: http://pcfreetime.com/formatfactory/
Operating system: Windows 10, 8, 7 (64-bit)
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VidCoder comes in handy if you want to rip DVD or BD to widely supported and playable video formats MP4 and MKV. Like most DVD ripping software, VidCoder offers both customizable ripping settings and dumb-easy presets. If you are an experienced user, you can control the results as you wish, such as the format, video size, resolution, and quality. In most cases, we just keep the default settings and then wait for the ripped video.
The core encoding engine is written by HandBrake developers based on the Net Framework. You don't need to install Handbrake but have NET 4.7.1 pre-installed on your PC. Otherwise, VidCoder won't start running and will prompt you to download and install it.
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Official website: https://vidcoder.net/
Operating system: Windows (64-bit only), Mac, Linux
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HandBrake is an open source video transcoder that also functions as the best free DVD ripper. It supports DVD, Blu-ray discs, and ISO image files without copy protection. For advanced users who prefer customize output settings, this software gives you maximum free to tweak on your DVD videos – video encoding modes, resolution, bitrate, subtitle tracks, title/chapter selection, video dimensions, filters, etc. Besides, it has handy presets categorized by devices, web, Matroska, production, and general use.
Although it comes with easy video editing features like rotate, flip, sharpen, and denoise, you cannot preview what you have done to your video in real time. It takes a long time to render the ripped video and then unitizes the system default media player to play it. Beginners may spend hours and even days adjusting DVD ripping settings before they get the whole media content from the disc successfully.
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Official website: https://handbrake.fr/
Operating system: Windows (64-bit only), Mac, Linux
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VLC is well-known as a media player available on both computers and mobile devices. It supports a wide arrange of media formats, of course, including discs. You can browse to open DVD, Blu-ray, audio CD, and SVCD/VCD with VLC, and convert them to MKV, MP4, TS, and more. Since it won't rip DVD with smart presets, you need to manually adjust settings of codecs, resolution, frame rate, and select title, audio track and subtitle track. To rip DVD/Blu-ray in the original quality, output settings have to match the source content, so you must be well aware of the source information.
Compared with HandBrake, VLC is much simpler for beginners and semi-pros. Follow the lead of its intuitive interface, you can load, rip, and export the DVD video easily. But note that, you are only allowed to select one title/chapter at a time. If no title that contains all chapters in the DVD, you have to rip DVD chapters one by one, and finally, merge them into one video. Alas, it gets users baffled again.
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Official website: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
Operating system: Windows 10/8/7
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Since developed as a pure DVD ripper, Magic DVD spends every effort dealing with DVD, and that's why there are no extra features like video editing in it. Most users are confused by it its brother Magic DVD Copier. Actually, they come with almost the same functions, but Magic DVD Copier is more expensive and has one more feature - burning videos to blank discs.
Back to Magic DVD Ripper, it has 4 ways to rip the disc – copying the disc fully, ripping the main movie, splitting DVD9 into DVD5 discs, and compressing the DVD to tit on a single player disc (but with 55% quality loss). On top of that, DVD Magic Ripper can help you convert DVDs including encrypted DVDs to playable formats on smartphones, iPods, PSP, PS4/PS3, etc. Besides common video formats, it also enables you to convert DVD to VCD or SVCD.
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Official website: http://www.magicdvdripper.com/
Operating system: Mac, Windows, Linux
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Although MakeMKV is a video converter, it offers less optimal formats for the ripped DVD video. It grabs all the contents from the disc and saves them in an MKV file. After you insert a disc and load it to MakeMKV, the ripper detects and presents all the tiles and source information in a fast manner. If you don't know which title to rip, just choose the one with the biggest size. This DVD and Blu-ray ripper choose MKV as the only output format because it contains all the data you need: video, audio, chapters, track language, etc.
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Official website: https://www.makemkv.com/
Operating system: Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista
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This is an audio and video transcoder that can be applied to grab videos from unencrypted DVD, VCD, CD, and BD. You can tell from its interface that this is an aged tool – old-school UI design with loads of settings panels. Honestly, this is not friendly to newbies. It costs you much time understanding the function of each panel and setting the start and end of your desired part, because it doesn't read the discs by titles, instead it roughly grabs all video files and merges them into a long video.
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Official website: https://www.mediacoderhq.com/
Operating system: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista
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The DVD ripping software from Freemake is recognized as the best DVD ripper for Windows for almost 10 years. It is pretty easy to extract subtitles, video, audio, menus from DVDs and Blu-ray discs. It has assisted millions of users with varied goals - archiving, copying, transferring online, or playing DVDs on portable devices. As long as the media content is non-corrupted, Freemake can rip any type of DVDs including DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL, DVD-R/RW, and DVD+R/RW, as well as region-locked and copy-protected DVDs and Blu-ray.
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Freemake DVD Ripper 'Downloading installation files failed' Error
Even though you can download the.exe file from its official site, you are always stuck by this error. That's because Freemake DVD Ripper has been expired and merged into another software called Freemake Video Converter.
Official website: https://www.freemake.com/
For anyone who in a rush, we've made this comparison table of the 10 best DVD ripping software on the market. Check it out and pick the best one for you in just a second.
DVD Ripper | Ratings | OS | Free or Paid | Supported Input Files |
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VideoProc Converter | Windows, Mac | Free and paid | Copy-protected DVDs, ISO image files, CDR | |
WinX DVD Ripper | Windows, Mac | $59.95 | Commercial and homemade DVD, ISO image file | |
Format Factory | Windows | Free | DVD, Blu-eay, CD, ISO | |
VidCoder | Windows | Free | DVD and Blu-ray without encryption | |
HandBrake | Windows, Mac, Linux | Free | DVD and Blu-ray without copyprotection | |
VLC | Windows, Mac, Linux | Free | Unencrypted DVD, SVCD/VCD, Blu-ray, Audio CD | |
Magic DVD Ripper | Windows | $49.95 | Most homemade and commercial DVDs, and encrypted DVDs | |
MakeMKV | Windows, Mac, Linux | Free | DVD, Blu-ray | |
MediaCoder | Windows | Free | Unencrypted DVD, VCD, Blu-ray, CD | |
Freemake | Windows | Free with watermarks | Common and region-locked DVDs, Blu-ray |
DVDShrink is an obsolete Windows freeware to copy and back up DVDs, and it doesn't perform very well in Windows 10, 8, 7. Although it claims that it won't charge anything, it asks you to donate and redirects you to other sites. And after browsing the entire website, I did not find any download button.
Aurora was once the hot DVD ripping software on Windows XP and Windows 98, but it hasn't been updated since 2006. So it is not the best DVD ripper on modern computers.
DVD ripping and copying both read and extract data from physical discs to a digital format, but differ in the way of achieving this goal. DVD ripping is a compressed process and strips out some special features, thus ripped videos are smaller than the one copied. While copying is to duplicate the original discs bit by bit. So when you play the copied DVD video, you'll feel like playing the original DVDs and dealing with menus, trailers, etc.
If your goal is to rip and store the DVD in the best quality, it is better to choose DVD standard video format MPEG2 that keeps the original resolution 720p @29.97fps. But note that you'll lose subtitles, VMG files and more info. While for 1:1 copy in an uncompressed way, ISO and Video_TS Folder are your best choices.
When you rip and convert movie DVDs for playback on tablets, smartphones, or TVs, the best format should be widely supported and playable. MKV is the most recommended among DVD collectors because it includes subtitles, video and audio tracks, menus, and chapters.
It depends. The DVD video length and size, the target format, the computer configuration, and the DVD ripper you use all combine to affect the ripping speed. Generally, it takes 12 - 30 minutes to rip a standard DVD movie. However, the time can be shorter or longer based on the DVD ripping software you use and whether it utilizes hardware acceleration and multi cores to improve the speed.
Taking VideoProc Converter as an example, with the hardware acceleration engine enabled, it only takes 10 minutes while keeping the CPU usage around 20% to rip a Disney movie DVD (109 min, NTSC 720x480) to MKV.
DVDs are still commonplace even after the invention of Blu-ray. It's a great budget choice for people who don't plan on spending too much money on physical media. It delivers relatively good viewing experience while maintains a lower price compared to Blu-ray. And it's cheaper than Blu-ray for good reasons. The video and audio qualities of a Blu-ray disc are superior compared to DVDs. And DVDs are much less durable than Blu-ray discs. It's not an easy thing to keep DVD discs in good condition as it's just incredibly easy to leave scratches on them. One thing that all DVD collectors should do is have their precious DVD collection backed up properly. If you want to do that, you are going to need DVD decoders.
A proper DVD decoder program should be able to do different things. Some DVD decoders can help you back up your DVDs by directly copying the DVD content to your computer, or convert the DVD data to an ISO image. Some can even create a digital video from your DVD disc. There are various kinds of DVD decoders on Windows and macOS that you can use. If you want to give this a try, check out our recommendation of the top 5 free DVD decoders for Windows and macOS and how to use them in the content below.
Leawo DVD Ripper is made for the purpose of helping users decode and rip their DVDs to common video and audio files for playback on different devices. It can decode basically all kinds of DVDs out there thanks to its advanced DVD decoding technology. It's a great DVD decoder for Windows XP/7/8/8/1/10 users to decode their DVD collection. Also it supports both Windows and macOS so Mac users can also use the program to decode DVDs. Leawo DVD Ripper is a powerful DVD decoder Windows 10/8/8.1/7 and macOS users could try but it's not free, technically, but it does have a free version which allows users to decode and convert the first 5 minutes of a DVD movie.
Most of you might know VLC as a free video player. In fact, VLC is also capable of DVD decoding and ripping. This cross-platform video player can decode and play DVDs as well as rip and convert DVDs to MP4 videos. It's an excellent free DVD decoder for Windows Me/XP/Vista/7/8/10 and macOS.
DVD Shrink is a free piece of DVD decoding and copying software. According to its official site, it's and will always be Windows freeware. It's free and Windows-based, so macOS users won't be able to use it to decode DVD. But it works pretty well for Windows users. It helps them copy their DVD movies to their computers as a DVD folder or a DVD ISO. It also has DVD burning capability which allows users to burn the DVD backup it creates to DVD discs.
AnyDVD is a DVD decoding application that runs in the background and removes restrictions of DVD. With AnyDVD running in the background, you can use other programs to play or copy a DVD that has copy protection or region code on it. Such kind of DVD disc is usually unreadable or playable by normal media players but AnyDVD is able to disable all those restrictions and allows you to access them with other programs. The program offers a 21-day period for users to try out the program before purchasing. It's a Windows based program so there's no macOS version available.
MakeMKV is most famous for decoding Blu-ray and DVDs and converting them to lossless MKV videos. It supports both Windows and macOS. And the DVD ripping functionality is provided to users for free. You won't be charged when using the program to decode and process your DVD collection. And the best part about MakeMKV is that it rips your DVDs to an MKV video with no quality loss. The only drawback about it is that the lossless file would be significantly larger than normal video files.
In case you haven't used this kind of software before, I will be showing you how to decode a DVD using several of our recommendations above. Leawo DVD Ripper is a free DVD decoder Windows 8.1/8/7/10 users could try. Follow the steps below to decode a DVD with the help of Leawo DVD Ripper. Note: Leawo DVD Ripper is one of the modules inside Leawo Prof. Media.
☉ Decrypt and rip DVD discs with disc protection and region code
☉ Convert DVD to MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, FLV, and other 180+ HD/SD formats
☉ Convert DVD main movie to videos for space saving
☉ Convert 2D DVD movies to 3D movies with 6 different 3D effects
☉ Fast conversion with NVIDIA CUDA, AMD APP and Intel Quick Sync acceleration technologies
Step 1. Start Leawo Prof.Media up and click DVD Ripper from its main interface to open DVD Ripper.
Step 2. Place the source DVD disc in your CD-ROM and click Add UHD/Blu-ray/DVD in the upper-left of DVD Ripper's interface. Continue to click Add from CD-ROM and when a new option shows up with the title of your DVD disc on it, click on it to load DVD data to DVD Ripper.
Step 3. Use the 3 buttons provided on the following interface to pick different videos in the disc for ripping later. The Full Movie button selects all the videos for ripping and Main Movie button only selects the main movie from the video list. Custom Mode allows you to select multiple videos manually from the list. Click the OK button in the bottom right to add the chosen videos to a new list.
Step 4. Click the button on the left of the green Convert button. By default, you will see the 'MP4 video' label on the button. A menu will show up below the button after clicking on it. Continue to click Change on the menu to open the Profile page. All the output video and audio formats are shown on this page. Select a format you want to convert the chosen videos into and click on it to set the target format as the default format.
Step 5. Click on the previously-mentioned Convert button in the upper-right corner to display a sidebar. On top of the sidebar you can see the default output path which can be reset if you want. Click the '…' button next to the output path to select a new folder for storing the output videos. And then you can start decoding and ripping the DVD by clicking the Convert button at the bottom.
MakeMKV has a clean and simple interface. And just like its interface, the DVD decoding and ripping process would be simple. Follow the instructions below to decode and rip a DVD with MakeMKV.
1. Enter the DVD disc you want to decode to your optical drive and kick off MakeMKV.
2. Click on the DVD drive icon to start loading DVD data to MakeMKV.
3. Select the videos, audio tracks and subtitles you need from the content list on the right side.
4. Set where to save the output video in the Output Folder box by clicking the folder icon next to it.
5. Click the MakeMKV button on the right to start decoding and ripping the DVD disc.
If you've decided to go with DVD shrink for decoding your DVDs, here's how to use it.
1. Insert the DVD you want to decode and fire up DVD Shrink. Click the Open Disc button below the menu bar and then choose the DVD drive with your DVD disc in it and then click the OK button. DVD Shrink will start to scan your disc and show you all the content in it after it's done scanning.
2. Choose the right compression ratio from the ratio drop-down menu. After setting the compression ratio, select the audio tracks and subpictures you need from the respective lists on the right side of the interface.
3. Click the Back Up button from the toolbar at the top and a Backup DVD window would pop up. Click on the box under Select backup target to see more output options. Select 'ISO Image File' from the drop-down menu to copy the DVD to your hard drive as a DVD ISO file. To copy the DVD folder to your hard drive, choose 'Hard Disc Folder'. Set where to save the DVD backup file by clicking the Browse button and then start the DVD decoding and backup process by clicking the OK button.
To help you pick the best DVD decoder, here's a comparison chart that shows you what the three DVD decoders can and can't do. Check it out carefully and pick the most suitable DVD decoder for yourself.
As you can see from the chart, all 3 DVD decoders have their own merits. You can choose one according to what you need from a DVD decoder. Choose one and get the DVD backup process started.
Leawo DVD Ripper | MakeMKV | DVD Shrink | |
Decodes protected DVD | √ | √ | √ |
Removes DVD region code | √ | √ | √ |
Converts DVDs to videos | √ | √ | x |
Converts DVDs to audio files | √ | x | x |
Saves DVD to ISO | x | x | √ |
Copies DVD to DVD folder | x | x | √ |
DVD burning capability | x | x | √ |
Price | 29.95/1year | € 50 for Blu-ray decoding/free for DVD decoding | Free |