DVD Ripping Basics

[MTDennis]

So I'm new to DVD ripping, and I'm having a hard time getting just some basic information.

What I would like to do is buy a HUGE hard drive and rip my entire DVD library at full quality, including bonus features, for playback on my computer. Basically I want the experience to be as close as possible to watching the DVD on my computer, but without the disc in the machine.

I've got an Intel Mac Mini running 10.4.11.

With so many software options out there, and people concerned with using compression to preserve hard drive space, I have no idea where to begin.

Any advice on what would be a good piece of software to buy? Anything I'm missing? Ideas are greatly appreciated!

 

[spinnerlys]

You can either use MacTheRipper for ripping (copying DVD content to the HDD) the DVDs to your HDD and use those ripped folders (up to 8.5GB in size), or you could then encode the DVD's .vob files into an .mp4 or .mkv or .avi file with .h264 encoding with the help of Handbrake.

You can also use MRoogle for looking for similar topics on this forum.

 

[MAYBL8R]

I use Ripit. The resulting file is usually around 7GB, but includes all menus and extras included on the disc. You just double click on the file and it opens in DVD player.

 

[d21mike]

I am on a Windows Machine and I use DVD Decrypter (FREE) for most older DVD's. For DVD's that will not Decrypt I use AnyDVD HD.

The result is the same as a DVD but it is stored on the HardDisk without Encryption.

The process above takes about 15 min per movie and the size is normally between 4-6gb depending on the movie.

I then use Handbrake to Encode it to M4V so I can watch them on my AppleTV and iPhone. This takes about 2 hours (very cpu intensive) and the file sizes are about 1.5-2gb depending on the movie.