Which DVD ripping software do you recommend?

[jetlife2]

It seems that I have to choose the copy to hard drive option rather than the ripping option. After copying, there are two folders: AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. Inside VIDEO_TS, there are files with .ifo, .vob, .bup extension. Which one gives me the menu option?

If you did the Full Disc Copy, Drag the top level folder (the folder containing these two: video_ts and audio_ts) to DVD Player. It will play the menu like the DVD.

Also, you can now rip mp4 from these folders in the future, instead of from the original disc.

 

[senina]

I am moving. Don't want to carry lots of original DVD with me. I tried handbrake but it cannot copy well probably due to copy protection. Lots of pausing and distorted images. What software do you recommend? Please note that I bought the DVD in Japan and the USA. The software needs to be able to handle DVD from different countries.

If you'd like to rip DVDs from different countries, the DVD ripper must feature removing the region code. Maybe you can try WinX DVD Ripper, the totally free ware, not the platinum version. Apart from bypassing region code, this clean DVD ripper can also remove DVD CSS, UOP, RCE and Sony ARccOS encrpytion techniques.

 

[Maxwill]

If you don't care about output options, MakeMKV can be the best free tool to rip commercial DVD with copy and region protection, however, it only allow you to output a large MKV file, in addition, it does not offer any addition way for you to compress that large file. I search MakeMKV for Mac alternative and find many alternatives to it on this page:http://alternativeto.net/software/makemkv/?platform=mac
I downloaded them and tested the top 5 options, I satisfy with Pavtube ByteCopy best, I can use it to convert DVD to many different file formats for using on my iPhone, iPad, Apple TV.

 

[hirsthirst]

I have burned over 500 DVD's Movies with the excellent "Mac DVD Ripper Pro".

I use this and find it excellent too, I've only found a handful of my DVD movies out of c.300 that wouldn't copy with it.

I use the default High Quality 'recommended' file option to rip directly to my Synology NAS & drag back the 500MB > 2GB mp4 files into iTunes on my Mac to sync with iPad (iTunes preference to copy media to Mac library untucked).

DVD movies usually take about 25 minutes to copy.

PlayStation 4 'Media Player' will also play the same files very happily directly off the NAS if I'm watching on TV.

 

[jhfenton]

MakeMKV to make 1:1 copies and then Handbrake to convert to a desired format and shrink the size of the file.

This is my protocol too. I use MakeMKV to rip blu-rays (or rarely, DVDs) to large .mkv files choosing the audio and subtitle tracks I want. And then I use Handbrake to encode the audio and video into smaller .mkv files that I put in my Plex video library. I used to use H.264 encoding, but I switched to H.265 about a year ago. The ripping step is fairly quick. The encoding typically takes 6-14 hours per movie. My end result is usually 4-8GB for a typical movie at a reasonably high quality.

 

[MSastre]

Mac DVD Ripper Pro. Excellent results.

 

[frankgrimes]

Personally I'm a huge fan of Handbrake takes a bit to get used too but once you do it's excellent. I don't know if it will work with a MAC but I think so.

 

[Skald]

I have used MacDVDRipperPro followed by Handbreak to prepare my DVDs for viewing on my iPad, and I like both. I have been unable to rip only a couple of DVDs, both obscure film noir B-movies. The error message from MacDVDRipperPro suggests that either 99.9% of the sectors are bad from scratches (but the DVDs are pristine) or some unusual DRM poison pill is the problem. Fortunately, in my experience, this is a very infrequent problem.

 

[tshort]

IVI (available on the Mac App store for $10) uses handbrake in the background, but provides a nicer interface, and also updates the metadata (which I have MetaZ for as well). Unlike MetaZ, IVI can mark videos as HD vs. SD. makemkv also works with BluRay.
So, several different methods:
1. Handbrake only (if you don't care about metadata)
2. Handbrake + MetaZ
3. IVI (one-step)
4. makemkv + Handbrake (also works with BluRay)
5. makemkv + Handbrake + MetaZ
6. makemkv + IVI (can mark videos HD/SD)

I also used to use iDentify (aka iDentify 2/iDentify 551) to update the metadata including HD/SD once it was in iTunes, but it appears that iDentify is now retired.

 

[jlc1978]

IVI (available on the Mac App store for $10) uses handbrake in the background, but provides a nicer interface, and also updates the metadata (which I have MetaZ for as well). Unlike MetaZ, IVI can mark videos as HD vs. SD. makemkv also works with BluRay.

If you buy IVI from the developer it includes direct DVD import unlike the App Store version.

 

[bt22]

I am moving. Don't want to carry lots of original DVD with me. I tried handbrake but it cannot copy well probably due to copy protection. Lots of pausing and distorted images. What software do you recommend? Please note that I bought the DVD in Japan and the USA. The software needs to be able to handle DVD from different countries.

I would recommend MakeMKV and Handbrake...

 

[ChrisChaval]

I am moving. Don't want to carry lots of original DVD with me. I tried handbrake but it cannot copy well probably due to copy protection. Lots of pausing and distorted images. What software do you recommend? Please note that I bought the DVD in Japan and the USA. The software needs to be able to handle DVD from different countries.

Handbrake should work fine in most cases , please make sure the latest version of libdvdcss is installed

DVD players might use one specific country code assigned during the first couple of runs though ...

 

[albusseverus]

Make MKV no longer backs up DVDs from a different region for me. I'm sure it used to. I get DVDs that aren't available in my country from all around the world and it doesn't work.
Any suggestions? I'm happy to buy movies. And I need a Mac solution, much as I'd love to own a Windows box…

 

[jlc1978]

Make MKV no longer backs up DVDs from a different region for me. I'm sure it used to. I get DVDs that aren't available in my country from all around the world and it doesn't work.
Any suggestions? I'm happy to buy movies. And I need a Mac solution, much as I'd love to own a Windows box…

I haven't tried that recently but one solution if you are ripping different regions is to get an external drive and set it to the region code of the dvd.You can't keep switching region codrs fue to hardware limits but if you have a lot from one region it would be worth it since dvd drives are cheap.

 

[albusseverus]

I haven't tried that recently but one solution if you are ripping different regions is to get an external drive and set it to the region code of the dvd.You can't keep switching region codrs fue to hardware limits but if you have a lot from one region it would be worth it since dvd drives are cheap.

thanks for replying
I have an external drive, but it's governed by the usual rules of 4 changes, then you're stuck. I've read about drives that can ignore the Region, but have no idea how to get one of those.

 

[kazmac]

I am moving. Don't want to carry lots of original DVD with me. I tried handbrake but it cannot copy well probably due to copy protection. Lots of pausing and distorted images. What software do you recommend? Please note that I bought the DVD in Japan and the USA. The software needs to be able to handle DVD from different countries.

MacX DVD Ripper Pro. I rip a lot of my foreign dvds using this software as it allows for deinterlacing (which is pivotal for PAL and some foreign NTSCs. The more action the more crucial this is). I have many region 3 films along with region 0/1.

EDIT folks have already mentioned the region switching limit. I haven't ripped a lot of region 1s recently because my drive is set to region 3.

 

[jlc1978]

thanks for replying
I have an external drive, but it's governed by the usual rules of 4 changes, then you're stuck. I've read about drives that can ignore the Region, but have no idea how to get one of those.

If you do a lot of ripping from only a few regions you could buy a second extrrnal drive and set it to the second region. DVD drives gotten pretty cheap especially compared to blu ray drives.

 

[albusseverus]

If you do a lot of ripping from only a few regions you could buy a second extrrnal drive and set it to the second region. DVD drives gotten pretty cheap especially compared to blu ray drives.

I'm starting to think that's the solution. I don't do a lot, and less and less these days, but I have a lot of DVDs, many of which I'd like backed up just in case.

 

[tibas92013]

You are way ahead of me in number of uses, but I too have been pleased with Mac DVD Ripper Pro.

One problem which surfaced was that I "burned-out" my Apple Superdrive that I bought in the year 2013 but it was covered by the "Apple Care" on my MM(Late 2012) in which I received a brand new Apple Superdrive from Apple last June.

I was very satisfied with the performance of the old Apple Superdrive in which it burned a ton of original DVDs before pooping-out and buying AppleCare for my MM(Late 2012) turned-out to be a good choice.

 

[jlc1978]

Install libdvdcss to cope with the region locks. Handbrake will encodes the DVD successfully. But if there are some other copy protections, you can try some shareware like DVDFab Decrypter, MacX DVD Ripper Pro, AnyDVD, etc. These shareware can crack these measures and rip DVD to various formats.

MakeMKV does that just fine.

 

[albusseverus]

Are there instructions for installing libdvdcss for Sierra? I've had no luck with it in recent OS releases. Can anyone confirm they are using libdvdcss for recent versions of Handbrake and Sierra?

Make MKV used to work for any disc. It does not anymore. In fact, I have to use a workaround to get it to backup anything at all, BD or DVD region or no region.

Both of these apps are slowly becoming useless to me, by design it seems.

 

[jlc1978]

Make MKV used to work for any disc. It does not anymore. In fact, I have to use a workaround to get it to backup anything at all, BD or DVD region or no region.

Both of these apps are slowly becoming useless to me, by design it seems.

What problems are you having? It works fine for me.

 

[RobinInOR]

Are there instructions for installing libdvdcss for Sierra? I've had no luck with it in recent OS releases. Can anyone confirm they are using libdvdcss for recent versions of Handbrake and Sierra?

Make MKV used to work for any disc. It does not anymore. In fact, I have to use a workaround to get it to backup anything at all, BD or DVD region or no region.

Both of these apps are slowly becoming useless to me, by design it seems.

I'm using both handbrake and makedvd on the current Sierra.
I used homebrew to install it - I needed homebrew for something else

Install Homebrew
I installed homebrew to make modifications to allow Handbrake to work - I needed to install libdvdcss.

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Install libdvdcss
brew install libdvdcss

 

[albusseverus]

What problems are you having? It works fine for me.

Handbrake no longer works with DVDs, have to MKV first. MakeMKV won't work with discs from different regions - previously it did.
Make MKV no longer backs up discs, have to Open in Disc mode, so as far as I'm concerned, it's one step away from not working at all anymore.
[doublepost=1490752499][/doublepost]

I'm using both handbrake and makedvd on the current Sierra.
I used homebrew to install it - I needed homebrew for something else

Install Homebrew
I installed homebrew to make modifications to allow Handbrake to work - I needed to install libdvdcss.

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Install libdvdcss
brew install libdvdcss

Thanks for that. Do you backup discs from more than one region?

Really don't want to get into Homebrew, I like to run as standard as possible, but I can see it's probably necessary for libdvdcss, that's been defying straightforward installation for the last few OS iterations.

Does libdvdcss help with more than 1 region? DVD? BD? Make MKV as well as Handbrake?

 

[RobinInOR]

Thanks for that. Do you backup discs from more than one region?

Sorry, I only do US, so can't help you with multi region. There are other instructions on these forums for installing the lib without homebrew, maybe you can search for those and see if they work for you. I used homebrew because I was also doing some php/apache setup that was easier with homebrew. First time I've ever used it, doesn't seem to be too invasive. I also like to stay as vanilla as possible.