Free DVD Ripper for Mac: Handbrake. HandBrake is an open-source DVD ripper especially designed for users to convert DVDs to iPad, iPhone, iPod and QuickTime supported video formats. The latest version of Handbrake is 0.9.5, which is released on Jan, 13, 2011. Besides DVD, it can also convert videos like AVI and MP4 (Version 0.9.3 or later). Sep 24, 2021 Handbrake for Mac is one of the widely used free DVD rippers or video converters in the market. If you just need to rip homemade DVDs, this is the best choice. This is an open-source program that you can use to convert the video including DVDs into popular output formats.
Summary: What is the best DVD Ripper for Mac? How do I rip a DVD to my Mac for free? If you are looking for these solutions, you are on the right page! It details the top 6 best DVD Ripper for Mac users who anticipate the best way to rip DVD Mac for free. Read on to take the best pick!
The Most Complete DVD/Blu-ray/4K UHD Solutions
DVDFab 11 offers the world’s most complete DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray backup solutions to help users make home backups to their DVDs, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays in the ways they prefer.Are you looking for the best Mac DVD Ripping free program to rip DVD on Mac for mobile play or sharing on social networking sites? First, let's face the reality. Collecting DVDs was a pleasant thing in the past, but the digital era has put it in the shade. How do you deal with the hills of DVDs in your room? Want to play DVD movies on a computer without an optical drive? It is time to find a movie ripper for Mac or Windows and convert DVD to digital formats compatible with your devices. Let's check some basics before diving into the list of best DVD Ripper Macintosh software.
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1. Why to Rip a DVD? What Will We Benefit from it?
Why do we use DVD Mac ripper programs to convert DVD to MP4 Mac? What can we get from DVD ripping? Here are the best answers.
- DVDs are cumbersome. They can take a lot of space in your room. So imagine what your room will be like if all these DVDs disappear - more tidy and more space, right?
- If you copy DVDs to a hard drive, you will win a chance to manage your movie library by genre or year. That is one of the greatest pros of DVD rip.
- DVDs are super easy to get scratched. So a good Mac DVD Ripper free program can help you back up them.
Simply put, DVD ripping Mac freeware helps you save more room, access your DVDs more easily, and keep your disc longer without any scratches. Then, how to watch one of your favorite DVD movies during your journey free and easily? Convert DVD to digital with Windows or Mac Ripper DVD software. Ripping a DVD to mainstream video and audio formats makes a DVD playable on any computer or mobile device. So, if you've got stacks of DVD movies and other discs that you want to watch on your MacBook computer, looking for the best free DVD ripper for Mac is what you need to do. In this article, we will introduce the best DVD ripper for Mac uses.
2. How to Choose the Best DVD Ripper for Mac?
Almost allfree Mac DVD ripper software on the market claim that they can help you rip DVD to MP4 Mac. But it is hard to believe that they can meet all your demands. So we list the below points for your reference to pick out the best Mac DVD ripper.
- DVD ripping speed: DVD videos are usually large. So good DVD ripper software can save you a lot of time by offering a fast ripping speed.
- DVD output quality: You will enjoy yourself a lot if you are watching a high-quality video. Otherwise, your eyes or your mood may be affected.
- DVD Output formats: Good DVD ripping software Mac program should be able to offer as many output formats as possible so that you can play your video on different devices.
- Customize your video: If a DVD converter for Mac can let you edit your DVD videos before ripping them out, then you will get a video with your own style.
When selecting the best DVD Mac rippes, take these factors into consideration. Wish you can find a program able to rip copy protected DVD Mac.
DVDFab DVD Copy
| DVDFab DVD Ripper
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Now, the bundle of DVD Copy and DVD Ripper is on sale. You can get them both by saving up to $29. For more FAQs about DVD Ripper, go to its product page on the official website.
3. Top 6 Best Free Mac DVD Ripper Programs
In this section, we will discuss the top 6 best DVD ripping software for Macs, detail their features and functions, compare their pros and cons, so that you can get the best DVD converter Mac programs.
1: DVDFab DVD Ripper (Best Option)
How to watch DVD movies easily and freely on portable or mobile devices? When it comes to ripping copy protected DVD Mac or Windows for free, DVDFab DVD Ripper is the best choice for you.
Designed with a rich profile library, this best DVD Ripping software for Macintosh and Windows has the power to rip and convert any DVD/ISO/folder to any mainstream video/audio formats like MP4, MKV, AVI, FLV, M2TS, MOV, MPEG, etc. Even more, the metadata information of the source, especially TV shows, will be fixed and then applied to the resulting videos in the conversion process. What counts is that this Windows and Mac freeware DVD ripper works seamlessly with Enlarger AI, which is able to upscale video from 480p to 1080p or from 1080p to 4K.How long does it take to rip a DVD with DVDFab DVD Ripper? Just 3 to 5 minutes. If you have multiple DVDs to rip, this Windows and Macintosh DVD ripping software also supports that.
Pros:
- Convert DVD to Digital playable on 247 preset devices
- Rip audio from DVD in the highest quality
- Rip subtitles from a DVD and add subtitles to video
- Auto-detect and decrypt DVD Copy Protection
- Offers full trial, free and paid versions
- Gives you full control of your video via the built-in video editor
- Large library of conversion presets for all portable and mobile devices
- Easy to use, 100% clean and safe
Cons:
- Enlarger AI is sold separately
Up to now, DVDFab DVD Ripper has been titled the best DVD Ripper Mac and Windows program to rip and convert DVDs to 1000+ video and audio formats. When working with Enlarger AI, it will give its full play.
As to how to rip a DVD, here is a detailed step-by-step guide for your review.
HandBrake
How to convert DVD to MP4 free Mac? HandBrake is one of the most welcomed free DVD converters for Mac, Windows. and Linux. It is not only a Macintosh DVD ripping software, like converting DVD video to AVI, MP4, WMV, etc, but also a video converter. It can convert MP4 to WMV. Also, HandBrake can queue up multiple DVDs or video files to rip or convert.
But this free DVD ripper for Mac does have some shortcomings. First, can HandBrake rip copy-protected DVDs, like DRM? No. Second, how long does it take to rip a DVD with this DVD ripper for Mac free? Frankly speaking, its ripping speed is slow when a DVD video is large. Third, you can only convert DVD to MP4 and MKV formats with this MacOS X DVD ripper. Fourth, this DVD ripper software works well but is not easy to use. And if there is a copy-protected DVD, you have to download and install another tool to bypass copy protection.
Pros:
- Acts like a video converter rather than DVD ripping free Mac
- Easy to work when dealing with video conversion
Cons:
- Fail to handle DRM
- Slow ripping speed
- Convert DVD to MKV and MP4 only
- Similar to DVD Shrink for Mac
MakeMKV
How to rip DVD on Mac? Here, we come to the third DVD ripping software. MakeMKV is an easy free DVD ripper for Mac. With this Macintosh DVD ripping software in hand, it will never be a problem to rip a protected DVD. Besides, you can also preserve all video/audio tracks and subtitles with meta-information. Another remarkable advantage of this Mac ripper software is the whole ripping process is pretty fast with good quality. What is even better, it is available as a free DVD ripping tool. Putting all these advantages together, this free Mac ripping DVD program may be your first choice for backup or storing your movie contents on Mac.
But as you can tell from its name, this DVD ripper Mac software only offers one format - DVD to MKV only. Another thing that should be noted is that only a little compression happens during the DVD to MKV converting process, so the output file size can be very large, which means you will have trouble importing the DVD movie into your iPhone or iPad.
Pros:
- Can rip protected DVD Mac
- Customize your video
- Fast DVD conversion speed
Cons:
- Only ripping DVD on Mac to MKV
- Output large video size
MacX DVD Ripper
What is the best way to rip DVDs Mac? MacX DVD Ripper is a functional free Mac DVD ripper program. As a professional DVD copier and converter, it can freely rip DVDs to Mac-specifics formats like MOV, M4V, H.264. Besides, this free ripper software for Mac has the capability of dealing with most commercial DVDs with encryption schemes. In other words, it can help you copy protected DVD Mac. Importantly, all most all DVD formats are supported by it.
But most people are stunned by its unfriendly interface when they tried it for the first time. Though you are allowed to change the resolution and do other settings, you can not re-size its interface window.
Pros:
- Support almost all formats
- Multiple setting options
- Decrypt commercial DVDs
Cons:
- Not allow resizing
- Unfriendly interface
Mac DVD Ripper Pro
What are the features of this Mac OS DVD ripper? You can use it to rip a DVD in case a DVD disc is scratched, broken or lost. The main movie of DVD except the ads and trailers will be extracted from a DVD for your offline enjoyment. Which format this Mac ripper supports? You can convert DVD to M4V with this DVD ripping software. There is also AI-supported support to help improve video resolution, but it is paid.
Pros:
- Convert DVD archive with MDRP
- Ignore ads in DVD ripping
Cons:
- Consume lots of electricity
- Rip the main movie from a DVD only
- Subtitles cannot be turned on or off in this generation
WinX DVD Ripper
Which format can you digitize a DVD with this Mac DVD ripper Pro? MP4, AVI, WMV, MOV, FLV, MP3, etc. You can convert DVD to digital in such formats and watch DVDs easily on a hard drive, USB, NAS, PLEX, etc. Can WinX DVD Ripper rip a copy-protected DVD? Yes. It is able to decrypt 99-titles, and read damaged DVDs. How about the output video quality of this WinX DVD ripper Mac? Just a little quality loss during file compression.
Pros:
- Rip copy-protected DVDs by some protections
- Rip DVD to digital in many formats
- Play DVD movies on Android, iPhone, etc.
Cons:
- Rip DVD to MP4 with quality loss
- Not support DVD to MPEG in a free version
Among all the 6 best DVD ripping software for Mac, the last one - DVDFab DVD Ripper is what we highly recommend due to its powerful and considerate functions. Next, we are glad to show you a tutorial on how to rip protected/unprotected DVDs with it. If you aim to rip DVD to iPad for offline playback, click here.
4. How to Rip (Protected) DVDs with DVDFab DVD Ripper?
Now, I will take DVDFab DVD Ripper as an example to show you how to rip DVD Mac even if a DVD is copy-protected.
Step 1: Download this best free DVD ripper on Mac
To use this best free Mac DVD ripper, download it on Mac or Windows. Is DVDFab safe? Yes, it is virus-free.
Step 2: Select the 'Ripper' module and load your DVD
When you launch this Macx ripper DVD, select the “Ripper” tab since DVDFab 12 includes many modules which cannot only rip a DVD, but copy DVD to computer or hard drive, convert MKV to MP4, burn video to DVD, etc. If you have a free trial of all these functions, go for the free version of DVDFab 12 - HD Decrypter.
Step 3: Select Chapter, Audio, Subtitle
Usually, there are more than one DVD chapter, audio, and subtitles in a DVD video. You can select some of them to rip with this free DVD software Mac, or rip the whole DVD instead. When there are no subtitles in a DVD movie, you can add subtitles to video using the option 'Add External Subtitle'.
Step 4: Set the output video format
Convert DVD to digital by clicking the option 'Choose Other Profile' in this best ripper for Mac.
Go ahead to click 'Format' and 'Video'. Then, you will see the options of AVI, FLV, M2TS, MKV, MP4, TS, M2TS, WebM, and WMV.
How to convert DVD to MPEG? Here, set the output format as 'MP4'. Then, click 'Advanced Settings' on the main interface of this DVD ripper program Mac and set the 'Video Codec' as 'MPEG'.
Step 5: Edit DVD on Mac
Besides settings the parameters of Video, Audio, and Subtitle, there is also a 'Video Edit' button in this best Mac DVD ripper.
Then, you can add text, image, subtitles to your DVD video; crop, trim, rotate, speed up or down, zoom in or out your file; adjust video properties like brightness, contrast, saturation, and preview the source and the out in this panel. You can edit multiple DVDs on Mac with this DVD ripper. If you want to convert Bluray to digital and edit it in this way, ask for Blu-ray Ripper.
Step 6: Set the output destination
Where are you going to save the ripped DVD, Mobile Device, Folder, or YouTube? Set the options below based on your needs. DVDFab DVD Ripper for Mac supports all the destination output.
Step 7: Start to rip DVD(s) on Mac
Click the button 'Start' and DVDFab DVD Ripper will strive to rip DVD to digital based on which format you have selected before. How long does it take to rip a DVD with this DVD ripper for Mac. DVDFab works fast and will finish the tasks within just 3-5 minutes.
Note: If you want to know more detailed information about how to rip DVDs to other formats, you can click here.
Final Words
Have you had a full picture of how to rip DVDs on Mac? DVDFab is the best free UHD/Blu-ray/DVD ripper for Mac and Windows 10/8.1/8/7. With the help of it, you can convert DVD to any mainstream video formats like MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, MPEG, etc. You can also rip DVD audio in high quality with this Mac DVD Ripper. It works fast to convert DVD to digital without any quality loss. You can upload DVD to YouTube, USB, or save it on your computer. Most importantly, it can rip copy-protected DVDs in batches? Do you like this DVD ripping Mac freeware? Start a free trial, start a pleasant DVD rip experience.
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This is an updated list of 2021 best free DVD rippers for MacOS (Big Sur incl.). You can free download any free DVD ripping software for macOS and rip DVDs on Mac freely as per the detailed steps here.
The advent of Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV+ changes the way of home entertaining from physical media to digital video. So the internet is abuzz with views of physical discs heading for the graveyard, especially when Apple and Microsoft gradually phased out DVD drives from Mac and Windows. Ah, there is a U-turn. You can revive your movie library by digitizing them with the help of a DVD ripper for Mac.
Ideally, a good DVD ripper can extract digital files from DVDs to hard drive in such a way to free up space in your room and protect cherished discs against scratch or damage. It further extends the viewing option to your Macbook, iMac, iPhone, iPad, or any other media players. Therefore, you won't drop the DVD in the disc drive, download an MPEG2 decoder, or take along the bulky DVDs any more. For that reason, we handpicked a list of 10 best free DVD ripper software for Mac, at no cost at all. Keep reading.
Download Best yet 100% Free DVD Ripper for Mac
MacX DVD Ripper Free - Convert any DVD without a Hitch! [Most Recommended by Users]
- Copy and digitize any DVD to MP4, MKV, MOV, H.264, HEVC, ISO, etc.
- Convert DVD content for playing on Mac, Hard drive, TV and mobile devices.
- Unique! Support any new DVDs, 99-title DVDs, damaged DVDs, etc.
- Hardware acceleration supported: It takes 5 mins Only to rip a full DVD with original quality.
Top 10 List of Free DVD Rippers for Mac
| Name | Best for | Overall Rating | More Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| MacX DVD Ripper Mac Free Edition | Support old/new, 99-title, workout, damaged DVDs. Rip a full DVD in 5 minutes. | ||
| iSuper DVD Ripper for Mac | One of the only DVD rippers available on Mac App Store. | ||
| Handbrake | Open source DVD ripper and video transcoder for Mac, Windows, Linux. | ||
| Makemkv | 1:1 copy DVD to MKV with subtitle tracks. | ||
| VLC | Free media player and DVD ripper with libdvdcss installed. | ||
| Mac the ripper | User-friendly interface and create DVD backup without quality loss. | ||
| FFMpeg | A free and open-source software project consisting of a large suite of libraries. | ||
| Cisdem | Convert DVD and video files between 300+ formats. | ||
| DVDFab | Upscale DVD quality from 480p to 1080p. | ||
| AVC | Rip DVD & CD to different formats and devices. |
What Is the Best DVD Ripper for Mac
There are plenty of free DVD ripping software for Mac, which claims to rip any DVDs to any formats, say DVD to MP4, MOV, MPEG, H.264, etc. But most often, you endure a whole day long sitting aside your Macbook, trying to get the contents off DVDs yet find it crashes constantly, makes scratching high frequency sounds, gets choppy video on output, or keeps giving messages like no valid source found, etc. Therefore, you shall take 'something' into consideration prior to download a free Mac DVD ripping software. Here are the 5 decisive criteria that make up the best one.
macOS Compatibility: macOS Big Sur and M1 Macs weed out 32-bit apps, causing many non-Apple apps incl. DVD rippers hang at launch. So make sure you download a 64-bit DVD ripper on Mac if you've upgraded to Catalina and Big Sur.
Fast Speed: Some DVD converters rely on CPU while some others can accelerate the speed twice or more with GPU's concurrent computing. If you have hundreds of DVDs to be digitized, choose a DVD ripper with GPU acceleration enabled.
High Quality: DVD transcoding involves in codec compression that leads to quality degradation inevitably. Good DVD ripping software manages to create high-quality movie file with almost imperceptible loss of quality (preferably the bitrate is around 1500kbps), by virtue of advanced video transcoding kernel.
Ease to Use: Great tools will feature intuitive interface, with features that are clearly marked and locally placed, leaving little room for guesswork. Preferably, Mac users can go DVD to digital process within 3 clicks, regardless of the computer skills.
DVD decrypting ability: DVD studios adopt copy protection schemes, incl. well-known CSS and region code, to prevent illegal redistribution of commercial DVDs. When facing with the schemes, free DVD rippers no longer hold water but end up with errors like halfway encoding, unwatchable rips, etc. Click to see the complete DVD ripping errors & fixes >>
So the ability to defeat encryption codes is a key factor to consider when searching for a good DVD ripping software for Mac.
No.1 - MacX DVD Ripper Mac Free Edition
MacX DVD Ripper Mac Free Edition is a free DVD for Mac (macOS Big Sur) that offers excellent DVD ripping performance. What makes it the top way to rip a DVD on Mac is its ability to read DRM-protected discs. It supports almost all the common and latest encryption schemes on the market, including CSS, Region Code, RCE, ARccOS, Disney X-Project DRM, etc. No third-party tools or extra actions required.
It can freely convert DVDs to HEVC, MOV, M4V, H.264, MKV, AVI, ISO, any other formats you need. With just clicks, you can watch DVD movies on QuickTime, iPhone, iPad, iTunes, Apple TV, other mobiles, TVs, or save DVDs on SSD, NAS, USB, cloud storage. There is a full range of basic editing features to let you cut, crop, merge, add subtitles, etc. 4 unique DVD backup modes are provided for those who want to save a lossless DVD copy.
With GPU acceleration, hyper-threading, and multi-core CPU techs, ripping DVD on Mac is super fast. On a newer MacBook or iMac, it's able to rip a full DVD to MP4 in 5-10 minutes. That's about 300% the speed of Handbrake. The High-quality engine and De-interlacing engine are built-in to produce remarkably high quality.
Free download the DVD ripper on Mac >>
Free download the DVD ripper on Windows >>
No.2 - iSuper DVD Ripper
iSuper DVD Ripper is a useful tool to convert homemade DVDs on MacBook Pro, Air, iMac. It's safe and free to download from the Mac App Store. You can use it to rip non-protected DVDs to MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, MKV, FLV, M4V, HD MP4, HD AVI, HD MKV, HD WMV, and extract the DVD audio in MP3, AAC, WMA, etc.
For un-encrypted DVDs, iSuper DVD Ripper is very helpful to extract the contents from the disc, add some simple video effects, and convert to different output formats. If you want more features to, for example, rip DVDs with copy protections or make an intact copy of DVD in ISO image or DVD folder, you will need to purchase its upgrade version at $26.25.
How do I rip a DVD to my Mac for free?
- To rip DVD on Mac with iSuper DVD Ripper, download it from the Mac App Store. It may require your Apple ID or tough ID to finish the download. Then start the free ripper.
- Insert the disc to the Mac drive or an external disc drive, click the Load Disc button on the top to import the disc.
- Select the DVD chapter you want to rip and click on the menu profile to select an output format.
- You can crop, edit, adjust the video settings if needed. Once finished, select an output folder on your Mac and click the Convert button to start ripping the DVD on Mac.
No.3 - HandBrake
Handbrake is an open-source DVD ripper for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It can freely convert DVD to MP4 and MKV in H.265, H.264, H.265 MPEG-4 and MPEG-2, VP8, VP9, and Theora. There are several profiles for Apple, Android, Roku, PSP, Xbox, Web, etc. Handbrake only rips DVD that is homemade or unprotected. It cannot rip commercial DVDs without third party-tool like VLC or DVD decrypter, not to mention the Disney newer protections.
Handbrake is one of the best free choices to rip a DVD to MP4 on Mac. Why? Because it supports AMD VCE, Apple VideoToolbox, Intel Quick Sync Video, and NVIDIA NVENC GPU acceleration for H.264/HEVC encoding. Generally, Handbrake auto enables HW acceleration for DVD ripping tasks and switches to pass 2 for better encoding. That means Handbrake will rip DVDs to MP4 fast on a Macbook or iMac equipped with a powerful video card.
How do I use Handbrake to rip a DVD on a Mac?
- Go to its official site to download and install the freeware. Handbrake works with Mac OS X 10.12 to Big Sur.
- Insert DVD disc into Mac's DVD drive and run Handbrake. Click the Source button to load the DVD. To rip protected DVDs, download libdvdcss on Mac to remove the CSS.
- Click 'Browse' to set where you want to save the output files. Then click 'Presets' and select an output format.
- What's the best setting for Handbrake ripping a DVD? Unless you aim for a target filesize or speed, we recommend you use Constant Quality with an RF of ~21, Contant Frame Rate, Very Slow encode speed, High Encoder Profile, and 3.1 Encoder Level.
- Apply other filters if needed. Once finished, click 'RUN' to rip DVDs for free on Mac now.
Tutorial: download Handbrake for Mac to rip DVD movies >>
No.4 - MakeMKV
To rip protected DVDs on Mac for free, MakeMKV is among the top solutions. It's an easy free DVD/Blu-ray ripper for Mac, Windows, and Linux to free rip DVD to MKV format. MakeMKV remuxes the movie content from DVD MPEG2 to MKV without affecting the quality, reserving all video/audio tracks and subtitles with meta-information. That also means the whole DVD to MKV converting is pretty fast. Therefore, MakeMKV is your premium choice to backup and store your movie contents on your hard drive, NAS or USB.
However, the output MKV files tend to be really big in size. Normally, a converted DVD movie takes 6 GB on the hard drive and a Blu-ray movie takes 30 GB. This is not good especially when you import the DVD movie into iPhone, iPad, devices with limited storage. In addition, don't expect the ability to customize the DVD video.
How do I rip a DVD on Mac with MakeMKV?
- Free download MakeMKV on Mac. It's completely free to rip a DVD disc to Mac during the beta-testing phase, and if you want to decrypt Blu-Ray disc, you will need to pay $50.
- Open the software and insert the disk. It accepts both DVD and Blu-Ray discs. Then click 'Open Disc' to load in the information.
- MakeMKV will scan and identify the titles correctly and pop up a list of disk chapters. Choose the chapter, normally the longest and biggest title.
- Select a folder on Mac to save the output MKV files and click 'Make MKV'. It shows a fast DVD to digital processing speed on Mac, with an average of 30 minutes to rip Blu-ray disc. The output MKV keeps high video and audio quality, but MKV file is enormous (6.73GB MKV file for a 7.84GB DVD in our test).
No.5 - VLC
Among the many ways to rip a DVD on a MacBook Pro, Air, or iMac, there is no doubt the easiest one. Whether you're on Mac, Windows, Mac, Linux, and even mobiles, chance that you have VLC player installed on your system. VLC is not the most powerful DVD ripper for Mac, but it can get the job done. It offers a handy option to convert DVDs to H.264, H.265, MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4, DIVX, H.263, VP8, WMV, MJPEG, Theora, and Dirac.
Like Handbrake, VLC itself supports homemade DVDs only. The good news is that you can use the extra library to decode a protected DVD with VLC. On Mac computer running El Capitan and later, you need to open the Terminal window by hitting Command + Space keys and execute the command brew install libdvdcss to download and install the library (http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.2.11/macosx/libdvdcss.pkg).
How do I rip a DVD on Mac with VLC?
- Free download VLC on Mac if you haven't installed it. It works on Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later.
- Insert the DVD to Mac and open VLC. On the top menu bar, click File and select Open Disc. It has no problem loading any non-protected DVDs. For commercial DVDs, you need to download libdvdcss, or it'll keep recording the menu video repeatedly.
- At the bottom left corner, check the box forStream output and click the Setting button.
- First, click Browse and a window will pop up to let you name the converted DVD and select an output folder on Mac to save it. Next, open the drop-down menu at the Encapsulation Method and choose an output format. You can rip DVD to QuickTime for Mac. Below are some basic options for video and audio settings.
- Then click Open to convert DVD on Mac with VLC. See the detailed guide on ripping DVD with VLC on Mac.
No.6 - MacTheRipper
MacTheRipper, also called for MTR, has long been a popular tool that helps Mac users to create backup copies of DVDs. It has many versions, and MacTheRipper V2.6.6, V3, and V4 are the most downloaded versions. You should note that only Version 2.6.6 and earlier is free and supports protected DVDs (UOPs, ARccOS, RCE, CSS, APS, etc.). But it doesn't work on Mac OS X newer than Snow Leopard. You need to send gift on its official forum for a license to use MacTheRipper 3.0 and MacTheRipper 4.1.
There are 3 modes provided to rip DVDs on Mac: Auto Full Disc Extraction mode, Auto Full Disc ISO Extraction mode, and Full Disc Rip And Rebuild mode. You can't use it to convert a DVD for QuickTime, Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, other devices as it only extracts DVD and won't convert DVD to video. It's the best choice to save a DVD backup copy on Mac hard drive for later burning.
How do I rip a DVD on Mac with MTR?
- Download the latest version of MactheRipper on your Mac, install it for ripping DVD on Mac.
- Insert your DVD disc into your Mac and launch the Mac The Ripper application.
- MTR will detect and scan titles in the disc. If RCE Region Protection was detected, it will ask you to modify the 'RCE Region' number. The RCE Region should be set to the region the DVD was purchased in. For example, the US is Region 1, while Europe is Region 2.
- Click Extract to starting ripping DVD on Mac with MacTheRipper. The converted DVD will be saved as a folder on Mac.
No.7 - FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a powerful, free and open-source command-based project used to handling videos, including ripping DVDs on Mac. FFmpeg supports most video formats, from the most obscure ancient formats up to the latest ones. The libavcodec, libavutil, libavformat, libavfilter, libavdevice, libswscale and libswresample libraries contained in it can satisfy any needs when ripping a DVD on Mac.
However, the command lines require a steep learning curve, making FFmpeg an unfriendly choice for beginners. For advanced users, you can simply brew install ffmpeg GUI on your Mac, input a command line to do many flexible tasks. For example, to rip a DVD with FFmpeg, browse for the DVD files in the Finder and get the .vob file name you want to convert in the VIDEO_TS folder:
To rip DVD to MP4:
ffmpeg -i concat:VTS_02_1.VOB|VTS_02_2.VOB|VTS_02_3.VOB|VTS_02_4.VOB|VTS_02_5.VOB -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:0 -codec:a libvo_aacenc -ab 128 -codec:v libx264 -vpre libx264-ipod640 movie.mp4
To rip DVD to H.265:
ffmpeg -i 'concat:VTS_01_1.VOB|VTS_01_2.VOB' -vcodec libx265 new-video-h265.mp4
No.8 - Cisdem Video Converter
Cisdem Video Converter for Mac, though not free, is an all-in-one solution for various audio and video processing operations. It has a strong DVD ripper built-in to rip both homemade and protected DVDs. Most encryptions currently applied on discs are supported, including CSS, region code, RCE, RPC, UOP, and more. Simply load any disc, you can rip it to MP4, MKV, MOV, H.265 MP4, H.264 MKV, and etc. More than that, 300+ ready profiles for Apple devices, Android devices, TVs, etc. are here to make things easier.
The overall DVD ripping speed on Mac is fast with its advanced accelerating tech. You can further adjust the video parameters like resolution, frame rate, aspect ratio, etc. to get the best output quality. However, it won't let you copy DVD intactly to formats like ISO image. Therefore, it can hardly reserve 100% output quality.
No.9 - DVDFab DVD Ripper
DVDFab DVD Ripper for Mac has free and paid versions. With the free version, you're allowed to rip DVDs to MKV and MP4 at 480P only. Don't expect ripping the DVD at a satisfactory speed, as the free version relies on the CPU for encoding. You may also find that newer DVDs are not supported. But if you upgrade to its paid version at $84.99, you will get a far more comprehensive Mac DVD ripping solution.
The paid version is updated with the latest encryptions. Here, you can find almost all the possible output formats or specific devices you may need. You'll have full control over settings for frame rate, output resolution, video, and audio bitrates, audio sample rate, image cropping, and many more. The DVD ripping is GPU accelerated to offer a fast conversion speed. The best part is, its unique Enlarger AI (sold separately) can be applied to upscale the DVD video from 480P to 1080P with high quality.
No.10 - Any Video Converter Ultimate
Any Video Converter Ultimate lets you rip DVD, convert videos, record screen, burn DVD, and download videos. After downloading it on Mac running on Mac OS X from 10.7 to 10.15, you can easily convert DVDs to MP4, M4V, AVI, WMV, MOV, WMA, MP3, and 200+ other formats. If you need to extract the CD music to a playable audio file, it also helps. With GPU acceleration, you don't need to worry about the ripping speed.
However, before you download the DVD ripper on Mac, there are things to note. The biggest drawback of it is the lack of support for ripping protected DVDs. To remove the DVD encryptions, you will need to download another program called DVDSmith Movie Backup. This free program can help AVC deal with encrypted discs. But it's available for Windows only. Also, avoid it if you want one click to convert DVDs to the latest devices.
How Do I Rip a DVD to My Mac for Free
The above-mentioned Mac DVD rippers are equally matched. What matter most is whether the program fits your bill. For a quality-loss DVD ripping, MakeMKV and Mac The Ripper are second to none. But if you have hundreds of discs and want to have your entire DVD library backed up onto hard drive at fast speed without exhausting your storage space, MacX DVD ripper, Handbrake, VLC, iSuper DVD Ripper are your good options.
While if the last thing you want to do is to end up with errors just because the new title comes with tricky protection scheme or the DVD is formatted unnaturally, the ultimate choice is to download MacX DVD Ripper, which not only features great DVD decryption ability, but also comes with unique level-3 hardware acceleration tech that can speed up the whole process and maintain good balance between quality and size.
You can follow the tutorial below and learn how to rip a DVD on a Mac using MacX DVD Ripper Mac Free Edition with best balance in speed, qulaity and size.
Step 1: Insert DVD into your Mac drive
Prior to the ripping, make sure to spare some space to save the final rip. Then free download the DVD ripper on your Mac and insert your disc. Run the software and click 'Add DVD' button to load the disc. You can also convert DVD folder or ISO image to a digital format.
MacX DVD Ripper Mac Free Edition will easily find the accurate main title. For DVDs with tough protections, MacXDVD's unique title check mechanism and DVD analysis algorithm automatically scan the title, crack severely protected DVDs and smooth the ripping process.
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Free download the DVD ripper on Windows >>
Step 2: Choose the output format
The Mac specific library also offers diversified options, ranging from back up DVD to ISO image, MKV, MPG, to convert DVD to Apple, Android, TVs, Web. Here are the further suggestions:
- To view DVD on players, phones, tablets, TVs, or so, choose digital format MP4 H.264 for better compatibility, quality and smaller file siz. With no further tweaking, it achieves an H.264 file with crisp picture.
- To play DVD on newer iPhones or iPads running on iOS 11/12, choose digital format MP4 HEVC for higher quality and smaller space.
- To save an original copy with menus and extras, copy DVD to ISO image. The disc image contains the whole data of the disc at 1:1 ratio for later burning but ha s less compatibility with media players and devices.
You can also enable the editing features, available for you to cut the commercials, merge the useful parts, add subtitles to the movie rip, etc.
Step 3: Start ripping the DVD on Mac
Click Browse button to specify the output folder and press RUN to begin DVD ripping. Just leave the rest to the DVD ripper. It will finish the process quickly.
Optional: Transfer Ripped Movies to iPad or iPhone.
After the DVD ripping, you can use Finder to transfer the ripped file to your phone or tablet. Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac using a USB or Wi-Fi connection. Select the device in the Finder sidebar > Movies > check the box “Sync movies onto [device name]”> choose the movie you want to sync > click Apple. Or you can rely on third-party data transfer software such as MacX MediaTrans for help.
Performance Test:
MacXDVD's ripping performance is impressive on an iMac 5K (3.2 GHz Intel Core i5, AMD Radeon R9 M380, 2048MB, on Big Sur). We tested several titles, including the classic Star Trek, and new releases Frozen 2, Venon, Incredible 2. It did a great job selecting the right title. While Handbrake, VLC or other free Mac DVD rippers, though with the help of third-party tool like libdvdcss, either popped up error message, quitted unexpectedly, or produced problematic rips.
The conversion frequency of MacX DVD Ripper Mac Free Edition reached averagely 240 fps, twice as high as that of Handbrake. It took 12 minutes to convert the full-length Frozen 2 DVD to MP4, while we could still view web pages and do other tasks since the CPU usage remains as low as 131-134%. Bear in mind, DVD encoding speed is greatly dependant on your computer configuration. Higher config will lead to great performance.
As to the quality, MacXDVD repackages the movie content from DVD MPEG2 to MKV, which doesn't affect the output quality at all while preserving all video, audio and subtitle tracks. We also tested the DVD transcoding feature, which is known to lead to some quality loss inevitably. Fortunately, MacXDVD created a small .mp4 file with 720x480 (16:9) in 1.61GB from the 7.84GB DVD, and there wasn't any noticeable change between the source DVD and ripped file, but merely pixel-level difference.
You can definitely download MacX DVD Ripper Mac Free Edition for a try.
FAQ about DVD Ripping
Q1. Is It Legal to Rip DVDs on Mac?
Many users who want to space-shift or format-shirt their legally purchased DVD or Blu-ray discs often concern about the legality of DVD ripping. The fact is, currently it is considered illegal to rip copyrighted DVDs in US, even if you bought the DVDs yourself. Some other countries have already made it legal. In practice, as the DVD conversion happens locally on your computer, you won't get prosecuted or caught if you don't distribute the digital copies. However, you're highly suggested to obey to the law where you live. Check if it's legal to rip copy protected DVDs in your country.
Q2. Can I Rip a DVD to My Mac with Mac Build-in App?
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No. The DVD ripping process on Mac doesn't go as simple as burning, which can be achieved with Mac's built-in app like Finder or iDVD. While the former is still out of reach with Mac unless you own a third-party DVD converter software.
This is because almost all DVD movies or TV shows bought or rented are technically copyrighted and DVD rips will inevitably involve in breaking DVD copy protections, e.g. the Content Scramble System. Such action is currently unlawful in the US and UK. Apple is of course unwilling to set against law or money in consideration of continuous cooperation with U.S. studios for iTunes movies. Therefore, there is no built-in method to rip DVD to Mac. This makes it a sense to download a third-party DVD ripper for Mac instead.
Q3. How do I Rip a Protected DVD on a Mac?
For DVDs encoded with CSS or region code, you can install libdvdcss on Mac or windows to crack the DVD copy protection and then rip the DVD with Handbrake or VLC.
Chances are DVDs from major film studios like Disney, Sony, Warner Bros., etc. often impose strong protections on DVDs. These discs are deliberately placed with bad information and hide the true titles. As a result, 99% of DVD rippers for Mac will go awry like DVD won't load, encounter a large number of tracks with the same runtime, show impossibly 40gb or more of data but output just several KB.To rip the severely protected DVDs, the workaround is to resort to MacX DVD ripper that is built in DVD analysis scheme to crack Sony ARccOS, Disney X-project DRM, UOP, 99-titles, and more.
Q4. What Is the Best Format to Rip DVD to Mac?
Apple apps such as Mac's default player QuickTime, Photos, and Keynote work with many video formats, among which MP4 and MOV are well-known with the best compatibility. When digitizing DVD with free DVD ripper for Mac, many users are at a loss whether to choose MP4 or MOV.
* MP4 - Both MP4 and MOV use lossy video compression to sacrifice minimal quality for file size. MP4 is popular for streaming over the internet and playable on Mac, Windows and almost all media players, say VLC, 5KPlayer, QT, etc. But P-frames or B-frames in MP4 makes it difficult to edit.
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* MOV - As MOV is originally developed by Apple for its QuickTime player, it's much friendlier in Apple ecosystem. MOV contains one or more tracks, meant to store each type of data including audio, video, subtitle, etc in a hierarchical structure, which is good for editing. So for Mac computers, to convert DVD to digital MOV for Mac QuickTime is more preferred than MP4.
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Q5. Is it Prossible to Rip Scratched DVD on Mac?
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DVDs are too fragile, that's why we need to backup the DVD collection. If your discs are already damaged or scratched, there are measures to remedy.
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- For a bit of stretches on the surface, polish the surface with cotton balls and abrasive white toothpaste or Brasso plolish. You need to polish across the grain and do not in circular direction. This need patience.
- For deep scratches and servere damages, you can take the damaged disk to a local DVD store with a polishing machine or other places like Phoenix to resurface the badly scuffed disc. This will cost for a couple of dollars. Or if the standalone DVD player with error-recovery scheme can ignore the errors and play the DVD, you can capture the movie with a DV. But this will lost the selectable audio, subtitles streams and original menus.
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Note: if the program refuses to rip a well-conditioned DVD with an error stating that there is a bad sector, it's because the DVD is protected by a copy protection scheme from Sony named ARccOS. The system deliberately mixes corrupted sectors with the correct one to mislead DVD copying software.