This post is a followup to the quite dated tutorial I wrote in 2005, called How to rip a DVD: A Tutorial. At that time, DVD decrypter and AutoGK were the tools of choice, but they’ve been supplanted as technology has improved by more user-friendly, automatic programs.
As of 2011, I would recommend using Handbrake, an open-source multithreaded and cross-platform ripper which works on Windows and Apple Mac OS both!
Step 1: Download & Install
Please download and install Handbrake to get started. At about 6MB, it shouldn’t take more than a minute.
Step 2: Launch the DVD Ripper
Put in your DVD and launch Handbrake. You should be greeted with an informative screen similar to the following:
By default, nothing is selected yet. There are a few options you can set, such as your preferred subtitle capture language and dubbing language preferences. I prefer the movies in original audio with English subs.
Step 3: Select the Source
I just popped in a Coen Brothers DVD, so when I click on the “Source” dropdown, it shows up there right away. Unfortunately, you can’t directly rip a commercial DVD this way. You need to dump it to disk with DVD Decrypter, after which you can select a DVD rip saved to a folder on your harddrive:
After some time (“Processing Title: 1 of 15…”) you will see the main screen populated with information. If you get stuck on the “processing title” bit, remember you need to open a folder you saved from DVD Decrypter (the decryption will take 20-30 minutes for a feature film).
Step 4: Choose a Title
Titles are like the chapters of a DVD. Usually there will be a single long title that contains the movie, like the 1 hr, 56 minute “Title 1″ I am selecting:
Step 5: Choose Output Settings
You have a lot to choose from. You can pick one of the Handbrake presets for iPod/iTouch/iPad, or customize one of your own. I’m going to use the “High Profile” setting to watch on my PC, but override the target file size to 2 CDs, or 1400 MB:
Step 6: Encode the video
Just click the “Start” button to kick things off, or “preview” to make sure you’re OK with the quality:
It’s going to take me about 52 minutes to encode this; on my i7 with 4 cores x2 hyperthreading, CPU usage is at 100%.
Finally…
If anything goes wrong, there’s an entire Handbrake community who can help you out. Why don’t you start by looking at their How To Request Support for HandBrake thread?
