Top 12 Free DVD Ripper Software on Windows and Mac

Nowadays, we often have the need to rip DVDs to MP4 for preserving and playing back on mobile devices. Usually, you can convert to MP4 format with free DVD rippers, which is compatible with most digital devices. The article will explain the reasons to rip DVDs to popular video formats. Moreover, you can also find 12 best free DVD rippers for Windows and Mac, which can convert DVDs to any format you want.

Part 1. Why Do You Need a Free DVD Ripper

DVD is a popular optical media format which is used to store video. But it has lots of disadvantages compared to MP4 and other digital video format. It is the reason that you need some free DVD ripper to help you out.

1. DVD has built-in copy protection and regional lockout, which you cannot use the disc for smart TV for other regions.

2. DVD doesn't fully support HDTV, you need to use free DVD ripper to convert DVD to compatible format.

3. Most DVD players and drives can't read DVD-RAM discs. Some DVD players and drives can't read CD-Rs and recordable DVDs.

4. Variations and options such as DVD-Audio, DVD-VR, and DTS audio tracks are not supported by all players.

Compared to other compatible digital formats, DVD is not a good choice. When you want to rip DVD to MP4 or other formats, you should use free DVD Ripper Software. It can protect DVD discs from scratches, share DVD movies with friends and watch DVD movies on other MP3/MP4 players like iPod, iPad, iPhone, etc.

If you are in need of ripping DVD into MP4 or other formats, just read this part and choose one of the best 12 software.

Part 2. Top 12 Free DVD Ripper Software

Top 1. Tipard DVD Ripper (Editor's Choice)

Tipard DVD Ripper should be one of the best DVD Ripper software for Windows and Mac. This professional DVD Ripper is able to rip DVD to MP4, rip DVD to HD video and all other popular video and audio formats for iPod, PSP, Apple TV, Creative Zen, Zune, Pocket PC, etc. Plus, with newly adopted NVIDIA CUDA technology and multi-core CPUs supporting technology, the converting speed is 30X faster now.

1. Effectively rip DVD to over 500 video/audio formats for better playback.

2. Losslessly copy DVD to ISO/folder in a 1:1 ratio.

3. Convert DVDs to other digital formats at 30X faster speed.

4. It is a simple DVD-ripping application for Mac & Windows.

Pros

• 1. The interface is user-friendly.
• 2. Its ripping speed is faster than other products.
• 3. It supports hyper-threading videos and more.
• 4. It can act as a powerful movie editing tool.

Top 2. Handbrake

Handbrake is a famous free DVD ripper for multi-platform. It's an open source application for the purpose of converting MPEG video/DVD-Video to MP4 and MKV container format. Moreover, it has presets for iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Android. What makes users disappointed is that it can only rip unencrypted DVDs and others encrypted by CSS when libdvdcss is installed. You can rip DVD with Handbrake and cope with other copy protections DVD to compatible formats.

• 1. You can rip the movies on unprotected DVDs to different formats.
• 2. Handbrake support to rip multiple DVD videos in batch. It will create a queue and transcode the videos one by one.
• 3. You can add subtitles or create chapters to any video during DVD ripping.
• 4. It has the capacity to extract audio tracks from DVDs and encode to digital audio formats.

Pros

• 1. This free DVD ripper software is compatible with a wider range of input and output formats.
• 2. It is able to optimize ripped videos for portable devices.
• 3. The output quality is as good as most paid DVD rippers.

Cons

• 1. Handbrake can be challenging for beginners, for extensive settings, like codec, framerate and more.
• 2. The Blu-ray ripping feature is not free to use.
• 3. You will need extra software to break encrypted DVDs.

Top 3. Freemake Video Converter

If you take the words too literally, you may regard it as a video converter program. Actually, Freemake Video Converter works as a free DVD ripper, DVD burner, and online video downloader and converter, besides video converter. It owns a massive amount of input and output formats. As one of the best free DVD rippers for Windows, it helps to free rip DVD to MP4, AVI, WMV, MKV, Apple, Samsung, Xbox, etc. In addition, the intuitive interface can attract users quickly.

• 1. Freemake Video Converter could rip and encode unencrypted DVDs to various digital video formats, such as AVI, MP4, WMV, 3GP and more.
• 2. The built-in editor allows users to personalize DVD videos.
• 3. It could extract audio tracks from DVDs and transcode to MP3.
• 4. This DVD ripper has the capacity to encode DVD contents for mobile devices and game consoles.

Pros

• 1. It supports most popular video and audio formats.
• 2. Users could set output quality, like 1080p, 720p, TV quality or mobile quality.
• 3. The ripping speed is rather high.

Cons

• 1. It cannot handle commercial DVDs and encrypted discs.
• 2. Users cannot add subtitles or create chapters on DVD videos.

Top 4. DVDFab HD Decrypt

DVDFab HD Decrypt, working as a free DVD ripper and Blu-ray ripper. It works with some old DVDs and Blu-ray disc to blank disc or to the HD of your computer, which removes the known DVD protections. You can get rid of AACS, BD+, RC, UOPS and BD-Live Blu-ray protections to copy the unprotected Blu-ray to hard drive. But the free DVD ripper for Windows is not able to convert DVD to the desired video formats within the program. Remember that it can't create DVDs, and you can download DVD Flick if you want to do that.

• OS platform: Windows & Mac
• Supported input sources: DVD-Video disc, Blu-ray Video disc, DVD/Blu-ray folder, DVD/Blu-ray ISO image file
• Supported output formats: DVD-Video disc, Blu-ray Video disc, DVD/Blu-ray folder, DVD/Blu-ray ISO image file

Top 5. MakeMKV

Just as the name of MakeMKV, the free DVD ripper is able to convert DVD, Blu-ray disc into MKV files. Therefore, it's also a free Blu-ray ripper. It is able to remove the protection of AACS and BD+. What is more, the program is able to instantly decrypted video without intermediate conversion to wide range of players. But the free DVD ripper only provides 30-day trial, which you have to pay $50.00 to purchase a registered key to continue using the program.

• OS Platform: Windows, Mac and Linux
• Supported input sources: DVD disc, VIDEO_TS folder, BluRay disc and video formats
• Supported output formats: MKV and more video formats

Top 6. FFmpeg

FFmpeg is the only DVD ripper on the top list supports command line. For tech savvy, FFmpeg is the easiest way to rip DVDs to digital files. Other features of FFmpeg include:

• 1. This free DVD ripper is able to encode and rip DVDs to popular media formats, like mp3, AAC, MP4, wmv3, ProRes, QuickTime, SWF, Speex, FLAC, VP9, and so on.
• 2. User can stream videos or audios within FFmpeg after DVD ripping.
• 3. It also has the capacity to crop videos or merge videos and audios from different sources.
• 4. FFmpeg offers several video filters to personalize ripped videos.

Pros

• 1. It is compatible with variety of popular video and audio formats.
• 2. FFmpeg supports multiple streaming protocols too, such as http, ftp, rtmp, rtsp and hls.
• 3. This DVD ripper is available to Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Cons

For ordinary people, its command line and custom options are complicated.

Top 7. WinX DVD Ripper

WinX DVD Ripper is totally free DVD ripping software that helps you backup DVD to hard drive for better protection and longer storage. In support of all types of DVD discs, ISO files and folders, this DVD ripper freeware will rip new and copy protected DVD movies to relax restriction on playback. It is compatible with DVD CSS, UOP, RCE, region code and Sony ARccOS. The free Ripper for Windows lets you rip DVD free on PC perfectly, or check Mac version to rip/copy DVD on Mac. This clean and free DVD ripping software with 10 years of experience has been loved by millions of users and picked by countless editors as the best.

• OS platform: Windows & Mac
• Supported input sources: DVD disc, VIDEO_TS folder
• Supported output formats: MP4, MPEG, WMV, FLV, MOV, MP3; iPod, Apple TV, iPhone, HTC, Samsung, PSP; JPEG, BMP.

Top 8. MediaCoder

MediaCoder is more than a media transcoding program. It is also a free DVD ripper and converter for Windows. Its features include:

• 1. Rip unencrypted BD/DVD/VCD/CD to digital video and audio files.
• 2. Convert between most commonly used audio and video formats.
• 3. Offer plentiful filters to enhance audio and video contents.
• 4. Extract audio tracks from video DVDs.

Pros

• 1. This free DVD ripper supports multi-thread and ripping speed is faster.
• 2. It allows you to control the DVD ripping process and outputs through extensive custom options.

Cons

• 1. MediaCoder is not compatible with Mac OS X.
• 2. It cannot rip copy-protected DVDs
• 3. This DVD ripping utility is a little complicated to beginners.

Top 9. Prism Video Converter

Prism Video Converter offers a free version for non-commercial use with fewer file formats support. You can easily rip DVDs to digital files on your Mac or Windows PC.

• 1. This DVD ripper software can convert DVDs to some popular video formats.
• 2. You can use this tool to compress large video files.
• 3. There is a preview feature before you convert.
• 4. You can add some effects to your videos.

Pros

• 1. Effortlessly rip DVDs to digital files.
• 2. Add a color filter, watermark, and text caption to your videos.
• 3. Support many popular video formats.

Cons

• 1. The free version only supports limited video formats.

Top 10. WonderFox DVD Ripper

WonderFox DVD Ripper is only for Windows users to rip DVDs to digital copy. You can add subtitles to DVDs with its extra features.

• 1. As a DVD ripper, this software offers 250 optimization profiles.
• 2. It can help you rip DVDs to standard or popular formats based on your demands.
• 3. This tool can also upscale DVDs to fit widescreen.
• 4. It offers extra editing features to enhance videos.

Pros

• 1. It can provide you with a sleek interface.
• 2. It offers 250 ripping profiles.

Cons

• 1. Its editing features are limited.
• 2. It doesn't support for Mac users.

Top 11. DVD Shrink

DVD Shrink is a totally free DVD ripper for Windows users. You can copy and back up DVDs without quality loss.

• 1. It can remove common DVD copy encryptions.
• 2. You can rip DVDs with the original quality.
• 3. You can rip videos to VOB files at high speed.
• 4. This software can automatically compress your video files.

Pros

• 1. It provides you with an automatic compression algorithm.
• 2. It has an intuitive interface and a preview feature.

Cons

• 1. This free DVD ripper lacks advanced features.
• 2. This software can be risky and less trustworthy.

Top 12. Leawo DVD Ripper

Leawo DVD Ripper can convert DVDs to video or audio on your Mac or Windows PC with a free trial.

• 1. It allows you to convert DVDs with 180+ video/audio formats.
• 2. You can customize your videos with rich editing features.
• 3. You can convert 2D DVDs to 3D videos with this DVD ripper.
• 4. It provides you with a user-friendly interface.

Pros

• 1. Its 2D-to-3D video converting function.
• 2. It works well on Mac and Windows systems.

Cons

• 1. The DVD-ripping process is super slow.
• 2. You can only rip 5 minutes with the free trial.

Part 3. FAQs of Free DVD Ripper

Conclusion

This article not only talks about why should you use DVD ripper software, but also introduces you to some good free DVD ripper software. We hope this article can help you when you want to rip a DVD for free. Moreover, you can obtain the differences between DVD R discs if needed.