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Best Free DVD Ripper
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Introduction
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While a CD ripper is commonly used for copying raw digital audio from a CD to a file encoded in MP3 or other audio formats, a DVD ripper is usually used for copying the audio and video content of a DVD to a file encoded in AVI, MP4, MPEG, WMV or other video formats. The ripped file saves in a hard disk or other media device for further editing, backup, sharing or playback without the need to load a DVD. If you have a collection of DVD movies or music videos and want to extract a chapter or make a full backup copy from a DVD to a video file in selected format, these are the free DVD rippers you might be looking for. After testing several free DVD rippers, I find it’s really hard to say which one is the best. Perhaps A supports numerous outputs. But it only rips part of the protected DVDs. Maybe B is powerful enough to rip the latest protected DVDs. However, the features are difficult to understand for beginners. Hence, you are welcome to comment below with your own experience. Let’s work together to make this category better and better. |
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Discussion
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Handbrake: general-purpose, open-source, cross-platform and multithreaded DVD ripper The program has a relatively small file size for all the features that it offers. Despite the slow speeds it transcodes at using the CPU to do the job, the transcoded video is surprisingly good quality for the amount of time it takes to rip. However, if you have a graphics driver installed that supports Open GL, it will take a rather small fraction of time to transcode the content. Handbrake produces an MPEG-4 file which is compatible with a wide range of media players. Note that you’ll need to have the right codecs installed for the type of file you wish to convert however such as DivX, Xvid, OGM, 3ivx, etc. A very great feature is Handbrake is designed with preconfigured profiles for Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod and Apple TV. It also provides numerous video and audio parameter settings for advanced users to alter the file size and video quality accordingly. However, unencrypted-protection methods including CSS are not supported internally and must be handled externally with third-party software and libraries. That is to say, Handbrake can rip SOME of your commercial DVDs. |
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WinX DVD Ripper: fast rip DVD to MP4 WMV MPEG Music iPod iPhone Android HTC Samsung The most attractive feature, to me, WAS its ability to rip encrypted DVDs. I tested WinX DVD Ripper with quite a few encrypted DVDs last year, old and new, and it worked without any problem. But it looks like the developer “weakened” its decryption capacity in the recent versions. That is to say, if the DVD you want to rip is encrypted by Disney X-project DRM, etc, the program is not able to read it. Two options: 1. Use other programs to decrypt the DVD to hard drive first, and then make use of WinX. (Two steps.) 2. Wait for the next update. It might work like it used to. |
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DVDFab HD Decrypter: remove all the DVD protections and copy DVD to hard drive Just like WinX DVD Ripper which has a premium edition, this HD Decrypter is just a free portion of the DVDFab application. You need to purchase other advanced features in order to output more formats, such as ripping DVD to MP4, WMV, iPhone, iPad, etc. Due to this reason, it looks like a "big" program. But actually it is very easy to handle. |
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DVD Shrink: easy-to-use solution for shrinking original DVDs onto recordable media The latest version is 3.2.0.15 built in July 2004. The UI looks “unfashionable” today. But personally, I like its considerate and friendly design very much. It lists the DVD structure including Menus, Main Movie and Unreferenced Materials. This means you can easily choose which parts of the DVD you want to include for ripping and shrinking. It’s a nice feature for you to leave out unwanted bonus features, audio data for languages, etc. DVD Shrink offers built-in decryption algorithms to “read” encrypted DVDs. Unfortunately, as it stopped updating in 2004, some recent copy protection methods are not supported. I tested Transformers 2 and UP. It freezed when analyzing the DVD info. Non-encrypted DVDs work perfectly. |
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Format Factory: rip DVDs and mucis CDs to video file as well as create ISO images This program supports converting videos to mobile devices as can be seen on the top of the Video column on the left side. 20+ mobile devices or mobile device compatible formats are available, including Apple, Sony, Google, Nokia, etc. It's really convenient for some folks who wanna playing various videos on their portable devices. (However, when loading ISO file as source video, it failed.) In addition to converting videos, FormatFactory also acts as a DVD/CD ripper. But the output format seems a little bit limited. It only supports ripping DVD to ISO/CSO file. What's more, it can’t rip DVDs with CSS according to my test. (But perhaps it supports some old CSS protected DVDs, I guess.) |
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Freemake Video Converter: multifunctional media converter to rip DVD to AVI, MP4, WMW, MKV, MPEG But when comes to another ability – ripping DVD, I’m afraid, this application is not all satisfying. It can rip DVD to AVI, WMV, MP4, MPEG, MKV, FLV, SWF, 3GP, but it doesn't support encrypted DVDs. It crashes on almost all my commercial DVDs such as UP and Thor. I feel sorry if this review doesn't fit "the Best Free DVD Ripper" category. I just personally wish the developer can improve its DVD ripping function and make it as powerful as its video conversion ability. |
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Other freeware products to be reviewed:
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Related Products and Links
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You might want to check out these articles too: |
The current version no longer works on Power PC (PPC).
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Editor
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This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Viola4u. Registered members can contact the editor with any comments or questions they might have by clicking here. |
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Tags
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DVD ripping software, free DVD ripper, free DVD converter, DVD to hard disk, backup DVD to PC, free DVD ripping software, rip DVD free |
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Comments
Anyone try:
DVDaux @ http://www.dvdaux.com/
or
DVD ISO Master @ http://bdlot.com/dvd-iso-master/
Both freeware.
A good friend of mine stated both programs successfully made perfect copies of
Toy Story 3.
Thank you for your recommendation.
However, I ripped a DVD of mine to iPod video using the default setting of DVDaux. The output video can't be imported to my iPod (iTunes). :(
Didn't know about the first one. Seems like a new product.
The second one is not a dvd ripper... it just makes an image of the DVD as ISO file, which any basic disc burner can do.
@Anupam
With all due respect, any disk burner cannot make iso copies of encrypted discs. Especially Disney discs.
-Rick
I wish I'd read the comments before wasting time on WinX. It is definitely not free! After wasting time and bandwidth downloading and installing, I tried to rip my first DVD to my NAS box.
Owning a large DVD collection I was taken in by the idea it was both fast and free.. not so.. the very first DVD caused a pop up demanding $39.95 to be able to rip it. I've sent them an email telling them I'm never going to buy a product that claims to be free when it clearly isn't. This is false advertising. Why is it still on this review list when EVERYONE says it doesn't work? It looks like a scam to me. Quite frankly I believe a company that advertises in this way is unlikely to provide a working version even after taking the money. Avoid like the plague!
Dear Mark, I also wish someone would suggest me a free and powerful DVD ripper which is able to remove all copy protections and has all features people want. :-(
I'm sorry to see the doubts about this review. WinX doesn't work. DVD Shrink doesn't work (someone PM me that "I can confirm it does work as stated on Windows7"). DVDFab is just an apparent freeware, etc.
As a matter of fact, if you read the comments below, you'll find the solution to rip your DVD by "combining" some of the above freeware.
--- the editor of this section
Did you also read the comments below that offer ways to get around this issue which is common with all free DVD rippers and not just WinX? MC - Site Manager.
Yes I agree MC it is freeware after all. I often find i need to combine 2 freeware products together to get the results I want like in this case 2 DVD rippers to get the results I want or 2 video editing software's to create the results I want and with it being freeware I feel it is quite acceptable to have to merge products together to achieve results i want sometimes.
I just tried DVDFab (for 64-bit), and after installing, before I could do anything else, the program tried to go online again, to run something called regoperator.exe. Apparently something to do with registering for the paid version, if I understand it right. And it does this each time I open the program.
Since I'm not sure what this regoperator application is about, and I found it really creepy for the program to go online after I presumably downloaded the program already, I refused, and then got the option to enable HD Decrypter, which I thought was the free version of this program, so did that. But on my first attempt to use it, it already failed, because it couldn't read an otherwise perfectly playable DVD.
Seems like a lot of people have had good luck with this program, but it doesn't seem to be working for me, at least not using the 64-bit version (9.0.1.1 - Nov 24, 2012).
I have downloaded and installed the apparent FREEWARE of DVDFab. After converting a DVD the output has the DVDFab logo up in the right hand corner of the movie. That does not get a mention (at least I could not see that written anywhere as a condition of using the unregistered version.) And when the program loads, it also opens a browser page to take you to the buy version. All a bit of a nuisance to go through all the time to download, install, rip and convert to find the files can't be used without the logo in the corner.
Thanx for alerting us to this issue with the logo, Adam12. I don't have that problem so far, but from the DVDFab forum I'm gathering that this only happens when you use some of the features of the program. According to one thread, the watermark only happens when the video is re-encoded, like when you compress a video. And some people are talking about ripping from Blu-Ray and having this problem.
In any case, I would not call this freeware. Way too much nagging to buy the full version. I think DVDFab calls its free version shareware.
Nevermind. Apparently my computer needed to re-reboot for this program to run. Still don't like the nagging to buy and register when I open the program, but I did successfully copy a DVD, and that's all that really matters in the end.
DVD Shrink stopped working for me when I went over to Windows 7. According to Wikipedia:
"The Vista family of Microsoft Windows (Windows Vista, Windows 7) may have issues running DVDShrink due to changes to the graphics system; users will need to run the application under compatibility mode for Windows XP to avoid the application from hanging."
I'm wondering if anyone has tried [commercial reference removed], which they claim works like DVD Shrink.
Don't blame Shrink, blame flippin MS
I have come across quite a few programs that need the XP compatibility setting. Whilst in there, tick some of the checkboxes to avoid MS BLOAT (graphics, etc).
You may have to experiment as to which checkboxes to tick.
I have not found a program that cannot be persuaded to work using this technique.
There are old products, I current I use GMT DVD ripper, It is totally free, very good:http://www.77freeware.com/freeproduct/ahd_free_dvd_converter.aspx
I have tried WinX but all it does, when I try to use it is to refer me to buy their Premium product; it's quite useless folks!
Not one person in one year in the comments has had a positive review of WinX DVD Ripper. Leads me to believe the review is biased (for whatever reason...ahem) since the free WinX software clearly will NOT copy decrypted DVDs.
I have used DVDFab and DVDShrink off and on for 6-7 years now and DVDFab is excellent for simply duplicating and decrypting onto my hard drive. Plus for burning on normal DVDs DVD shrink still mostly works! DVDFab should be on the list and WinX removed - esp. since the author updated this article a few months ago...hmmm. ;-)
At least some of the article is informative but the comments are more accurate. Totally wasted my time on WinX just to try something new. I will stick with what works for me.
I agree with most of what you said (and do).
Here is the most reliable way to do this -
1) Use free DVDFab to decrypt to hard drive
2) Use Shrink to shrink it (TO YOUR DRIVE)
3) Use Nero to burn your DVD (NOT SHRINK)
What works well for one person may not work well for another as regards with DVD ripper software some may work better in different country's . Everybody wants different things from their software and have different priorities of whats important ,the amount of times I've read review for some software i really really love and another persons review is ranting how awful it is. When I go hunting for reviews on software I always prefer reviews where comments are allowed such as this site because the review is only one persons ( or a handful of peoples ) point of view. In reading all the comments you get a fuller picture from alot of users this is the beauty of community sites like this.
I agree if they expect you to buy their products when the free one doesnt even work on old dvds they have lost the plot!
Downloaded the free version of WinX DVD Ripper after reading in the review that it can rip encrypted/protected content. Not true, requires the not-for-free version (platinum version) to rip encrypted/protected DVD's.
I also had the same problem when ripping some of my own encrypted DVDs, but not all DVDs. As a matter of fact, this happens on all free DVD software mentioned in the article.
Option 1, upgrade to the platinum version which has more advanced features.
Option 2, use DVDFab decryter to decrypt your original DVD onto your hard drive, the use the above programs to rip it to the video format you need.
If any of you would like to use DVD Shrink (or other programs), and be able to handle the very latest copy protections, I have a solution.
http://www.dvdfab.com/hd-decrypter.htm
Use the above program, to decrypt your original onto your hard drive.
Then you run DVD Shrink to shrink it.
The use Nero to burn it.
You will note that in the last 30 minutes, I posted a reply to Advizor54 lamenting that the latest Win DVD Copy, no longer works.
I used DVD Fab to decrypt onto hard drive, and then ran WinX DVD Ripper, to convert it to MP4 (I would have preferred .avi but I don't see that option ?)
WinX DVD Ripper, ran OK, now that the protections were removed by DVD Fab.
Came here to help you out about your question on Dottech but see you have already been here. Here is a modified version of my Dottech post.
Don't know where you can find an old version or if that would even help, but they give away platinum versions of that program very often, sometimes under another name like MacX. The Cnet Cheapskate posts those deals quite often.
Another option is All Free DVD Ripper. Their website always looks suspicious but everything checks out good with virus total and I have never had a problem with their software. I don't currently have this installed so I can't say about avi, but I do remember it worked pretty quickly. This might be a better solution than the DVDFab workaround.
For regular video conversion and not DVD ripping I prefer either MediaCoder or VidCoder because of their ultra high quality. Both will probably work with the DVDFab workaround. VidCoder is basically an enhanced version of Handbrake. MediaCoder is a little quirky but will do avi files.
Sorry, I had to edit your long comment, and take some part out. The program which you suggested was commercial, and the freeware mode that you mentioned in it... is available as a separate free program on the same site, and I have replaced the link in your comment with that free program.
The same program has been mentioned in the review too, under the heading of "Other freeware products to be reviewed:"
I have just tried Format Factory and WinX DVD Ripper. WinX didn't have the ability to read any of the discs I tried (regular Blockbuster sold DVDs) and Format Factory never loaded at all. This site is now 0-for-2 in its recommendations.
I just downloaded the latest Win DVD Ripper (5.5.7)
It gave me the same message, that it cannot handle encrypted protection.
I think they have deliberately nobbled it, just to get you to buy the Platinum version.
The DVD in question is many years old, so it is not the latest fancy protection, causing a problem.
I recommend that you all give Win DVD Ripper a miss, unless you know of a previous versions web site, with a 'working' (non nobbled) version, available for the public to download.
A ripper does not necessarily mean that it should be able to remove copy protection on DVDs. In some cases, removing copy protection on even owned DVDs can be considered illegal. So, caution is advised.
Anyways, to remove copy protection, a few programs like DVD43, and DVD Fab Passkey Lite have been mentioned in the comments, plus DVD Catalyst, in the programs to be reviewed section. These can be used together with the rippers.
Try downloading DVD43. It decrypts everything and allows the programs you mentioned to read the DVDs without having decryption of their own. It is great!
I'm sorry for this. Frankly, I've tested several free DVD rippers. It's hard to find one that can handle ALL DVDs independently.
What I recommend here is the Best one among them, considering features, easiness, speed and performance.
If you have any good findings, please feel free to let me know. Thank you in advance! :)
--- Best Free DVD Ripper Editor