How to Rip DVD Easily: Everything You Need to Know

How to make a good DVD-rip? My colleague told me a couple of days ago: “Every person has tried to rip DVD at least once in his life.” Well, that’s not about me. I’m the one who simply buys a DVD with a favorite movie or downloads a ready-made rip without any kind of troubles and time loss. But gaining experience is always useful, so having read a good dozen of related articles, blogs and forums I decided to get my feet wet. Here are 3 programs I used to make my first DVD Rip.

Auto Gordian Knot

Since Auto Gordian Knot was among most advised programs (and seemed easy) I chose it to be the 1st one. I thought it’d be a berry! But it only seemed so. As soon as I inserted a DVD and tried to add it in the program there appeared a message “error parsing ifo file”. Since my DVD was protected, so I had to download one more program – DVD Descrypter to prepare the DVD for further ripping.

The process took the better part of an hour but, fortunately, I finally managed to add the .IFO file in Auto Gordian Knot. The next bit was pretty easy. Choose an output folder, audio track or tracks and subtitles you need. Then select an output size. I’d recommend using a custom one, because if you chose a predefined size your video would be cut in two parts. Not sure we should go back to old “2 CD set” times. The output size depends on video file duration: usually it’s about 1,5 GB for a 90-minute-movie and over 2GB for a 2-hour-one. In advanced options I set parameters for output audio, video resolution and type of a codec (often XviD). By the way, whatever frame size you choose the program will cut the black bars automatically. As for the audio quality I think it’s better keep the original one.

Here, in advanced options, can be also found subtitles settings: “display only forced subtitles” or “use external subtitles”. The difference between these two options is that the 1st one won’t allow you to turn off the subtitle track.

When you have finished with settings press “Add the job” and then “Start”. Now you can go to bed. Really, the best way to work with Auto Gordian Knot is to leave it in progress for a night since sometimes it requires a lot of time to rip one DVD. During the process of ripping the program will start various additional utilities, don’t close them!
After several hours of waiting, I got pretty good results for audio playback while the picture lost original quality.
What I didn’t like about my experience with Auto Gordian Knot is:

• The necessity to use additional software (DVD Descrypter) which copies the DVD to your HDD
• A folder with temporary files that you should later delete manually
• Low ripping speed
• Conversion only to AVI
• Video quality is not high

Among its pluses I’d name:

• Possibility to add multiple audio and subtitle tracks
• Possibility to set output file size

Freemake Video Converter

I made one more rip of the same DVD but this time with Freemake Video Converter which I chose because it can rip DVD in whatever format and it’s very easy-to-use. The program has a lot of ready presets for Apple and Adroid devices and mobile phones so you don’t need to think what parameters to set. Click “+ Video” and choose your DVD-movie. When you see a list of titles in the program  mark those that regard to the movie and activate “Join Files” option if it consists of several VOB-files. Then choose a video format (AVI, MKV, MP4 etc) or a preset you need and click “Convert” button.  Don’t be afraid when you see “Convert”!  This process will rip your DVD turning it into a usual video file.

As for the speed, it took me less than an hour to rip my DVD. Seems great, doesn’t it?

What I didn’t like here is the possibility to add only one audio or subtitle track and the pluses of the program are:

• High conversion speed
• Good quality of audio and video playback
• Possibility to convert DVD in whatever format needed
• Ready presets for portable devices

Handbrake

The third program I tried was Handbrake. One of its great pluses is that it can run under all most popular systems -Windows, MacOS and Linux, though it can rip DVDs only in MVK or MP4 formats. Insert a DVD in a drive and start Handbrake. The DVD should appear in the program automatically but if it doesn’t click Source and choose a DVD drive or a folder with the movie if you have it on your hard drive. Then add an output file destination and check the name of a title. There must be titles of the movie, not the extra features or whatever kind of trailers, ads and so on. Choose the container (MKV or MP4) and the desired preset in the right column, so the program will set the necessary parameters automatically. In fact after this you can press “Start” button and wait for a ready rip. Though, if you are in the know you can also edit output image, add more audio and subtitle tracks, crop video and create chapters.

I didn’t notice any minuses in this program so I’ll just name its pluses:

• high conversion speed
• good audio and video quality
• ready presets for portable devices
• possibility to add as many audio and subtitle tacks as needed
• possibility to control all the settings of an output file

By the way, if you need a high-quality output video go to Video tab and mark “Avg Bitrate”. As you see you need to insert a bitrate number. There is a special formula to calculate it but I’d recommend keeping it from 4000 to 5000 for excellent quality, between 2000-4000 for good quality and round 2000 for normal one. Don’t forget to mark “2-pass encoding” as well! It will take more time but the quality of your rip should be higher.

Now let’s have a look at the results (click to enlarge):

1 – original file

2 – Auto Gordian Knot rip (avi)

3 – Freemake Video Converter Rip (mkv)

4 – Handbrake automatic settings (normal quality)

5 – Handbrake manual settings (high quality)

As you see rips made with Freemake Video Converter and Handbrake are a bit brighter that the original but the quality is much better than that of Auto Gordian Knot. But I can’t see such a great difference between the 4th and the 5th screenshots. It took me 4 hours to make a “high-quality-rip” which appeared to be almost the same as the normal quality one. Well, experience is an experience, and let’s value it!

Software	Time	Presets	Output Format	Output Quality
Auto Gordian Knot	>4h	no	AVI	satisfactory
Freemake Video Converter	<1h	yes	many	good
Handbrake	<2h	yes	MKV/MP4	good