Ripping Software
“Ripping” is the act of extracting the contents of a DVD or Blu-Ray disc. The reason it is called ripping, and not copying, is because the information on retail movies has copy protection. The software that extracts the files does so by circumventing this copy protection, essentially ‘ripping’ it away so that the files may be copied without issue. This section covers the applications that will ‘rip’ your protected movie files from DVD and Blu-Ray media.
Something to note is that when you rip a DVD or Blu-Ray to your computer, you are copying all of the contents of that disc to your hard drive. This includes all the different audio tracks (different languages, commentaries) as well as all the special features (trailers, extra scenes, featurettes). If you don’t want to waste space with features you don’t need you will want process the files further, which we discuss in the encoding section.
RipIt
RipIt is, without a doubt, the easiest tool you can use to make digital backups of your DVD collection. Simply put, you open the application, insert your DVD, click ‘Rip’, and come back a few minutes later to an ejected DVD and a perfect copy of your movie on the computer. You can then keep the full disc images (saved as a VIDEO_TS folder) or you can then use Handbrake, mentioned in the encoding section, to convert it further.
Additionally, the guys at ‘The Little App Factory,’ are so confident that their software will work on every single undamaged DVD that you rip, that should you come across a DVD that just won’t copy, they will go out and BUY that disc and figure out a way to make it work. If that isn’t dedication, I don’t know what is.
Note: This does not rip Blu-Ray movies. You will need to use MakeMKV (below), in order to do that.
Price: 10 Free DVD Rips / $19.95
Website: Link
RipIt: Tutorials & Featured Posts
(2011.08.25) Ripping a DVD with an Apple Computer
MakeMKV
MakeMKV is the first piece of software on a Mac that can rip both DVD movies and, most importantly, Blu-Ray movies. It is still in beta, but I can report that it works perfectly for ripping Blu-Ray films from a Blu-Ray drive. The process is a little less streamlined than RipIt, but if you follow our tutorial you should be able to rip your entire Blu-Ray collection in no time. When it is no longer in Beta mode it will cost $50.00, but for the time being, it is completely free!
Additionally, you have the option to only rip the main title track instead of ripping the entire Blu-Ray disc. Considering that Blu-Rays can be between 25-50GB when the main movie is only between 8-12GB, this can mean a huge saving of space!
Price: Free while in Beta / $50.00
Website: Link
MakeMKV: Tutorials & Featured Posts
