How to Rip a DVD to Computer Hard Dirve

Looking for a way to rip your old DVD movies so you don't ever lose them? Well, there are a couple of software programs you can use for DVD ripping. While these software programs all work for DVD ripping, not all of them are able to rip all types of DVDs, and some of them don't guarantee lossless DVD conversion to digital formats.

Well, in this article, you'd learn the best way to rip DVD movies to digital formats and have them saved on your local hard disk storage drive(s). Interestingly, the DVD ripper used to explain this guide offers DVD upscaling from 480p to 4K using AI technology.

1. Why you should rip your DVDs to your PC hard drives

Discs are liable to break or get scratched; when this happens, it becomes almost impossible to read the content of the disc anymore. That said, your DVD movies are most definitely going to scratch someday regardless of how carefully you store them.

The best way to keep your premium movies from becoming unreadable due to disc scratches or physical damages is to rip the movies. Ripping DVDs implies extracting the media content of DVD discs and saving them as a DVD folder on a computer, or converting them to a common digital format so you can play the content on other playback devices (or mobile).

Most DVD rippers support various digital video formats, which include MP4, MKV, AVI, and many others. Well, they support audio formats too. If you just want to rip the DVD and not convert it to a digital format (probably because you would like to burn it to another disc sometime in the future), then you should backup the DVD as a folder.

Now that we have explained the concept of DVD ripping, let’s dive into our main topic of the day, how to rip a DVD to your computer hard drive.

2. How to rip a DVD to computer hard drives (use DVDFab DVD Ripper)

The best way to rip your DVD movies to different formats, or back them up as DVD folders is to use the DVDFab DVD Ripper software app. This software program boasts of a bunch of useful tools and features that help you to manage your DVD movies. It is also intuitive to use, and there’s a version for MacBook users.

DVDFab DVD Ripper can read any type of DVD disc, including protected ones. With DVDFab’s patented Cloud Decryption Service, this DVD ripper program can remove the digital protection on newly purchased encrypted DVDs. The features of DVDFab DVD Ripper are pretty numerous, the main ones are listed below.

2.1 Features of DVDFab DVD Ripper

• Removes digital protection for copy-protected DVD
• Reads both commercial and homemade DVD discs
• Rip and convert DVDs to digital video or audio formats losslessly
• Guarantees up to 50x speed with advanced GPU acceleration technologies
• Integrates a decent, intuitive video editor window
• Convert DVD subtitles to SRT file via OCR technology
• Upscale low-res DVD videos from 480p to 1080p with Enlarger AI (sold separately)
• Free version with decent features

2.2 How to convert DVDs to digital videos (step-by-step guide)

Here’s a concise, but detailed guide on how to use DVDFab DVD Ripper to rip your old DVD movies to new formats. To get started, you need to download and install the DVDFab DVD Ripper software on your Windows or macOS computer.

For the installation to run successfully, you have to be connected to the internet.  Once the installation process is complete, you can follow the steps below.

• Step 1: Launch the program and toggle to the “Ripper” module. Once on the Ripper module, add your DVD video(s) using the various available options for importing DVD videos. You can import ISO DVD files or DVD folders you had earlier backed up. Of course, you can also load DVD videos from a disc.

Interestingly, you can upload multiple DVD movies, ISO files, or folders at the same time and have them ripped concurrently.

• Step 2: With your videos now loaded on the interface, you have to choose the output format you want for the DVD movie. To select between the supported formats, click on "Choose Other Profile" ---> "Format" ---> "Video" and choose a digital format you want to convert to.

There are actually many configurations you can make here; you could choose the audio tracks/language, extract subtitles to SRT format, or even add external subtitles to the DVD Movies. However, edits are made individually, so if you uploaded multiple videos, you can only edit them one after another.

If there’s a need to upscale the DVD movie, select Enlarger AI and upscale from 480p to 1080p in near-lossless quality. More settings to customize your DVD movie before ripping are available in the Advanced Settings.

• Step 3 (Optional): This step is optional; it is for people who wish to edit their DVD movies before ripping them. To edit a DVD movie/video with DVDFab DVD Ripper, click on the “Video Edit” icon on the right-end side of the selected DVD movie/video.

Inside the video editing interface, you can trim, cut, add effects, and make other adjustments to your video. All edits made on a DVD video would apply to the ripped version. Well, not everyone would want to edit their movies before ripping.

• Step 4: After you have completed the steps above, the next is to change the storage location. Since you're saving the DVD movie to your hard drive, you choose to click on the dropdown bar beside "Save To" and choose your hard drive.
• Step 5: Click the “Start” button to trigger the ripping process. The action would be added to the “Task Queue.” Also, you would get to see the ripping progress bar in real-time.  You can also pause the process and resume it at a later time.

That's all! The steps above are how to rip your DVD movies to digital formats or DVD folders to save them on your local hard drive. These steps are the same for Windows OS and macOS users.

Frequently Asked Questions

Probably, you’ve got questions to ask about ripping DVD movies, and below are the common ones you should know.

• Can You Rip a Copy-Protected DVD?

Yes, you can. But not all DVD rippers can read protected discs. So, you need a professional DVD ripper with technologies for reading copy-protected DVDs. Well, DVDFab DVD Ripper decrypts protected discs automatically.

• Is It Possible To Convert DVD to MP4?

You can rip DVD movies to different digital formats. For example, you can rip a DVD movie to MP4 format or AVI format. It is also possible to convert DVDs to formats like MKV, MPEG, and many other digital formats.

• Will Ripping a DVD Ruin It?

Truth be told, ripping a DVD movie would reduce its quality slightly; you may not even notice the quality loss. Ripping a DVD means compressing the content of a DVD disc into a portable media format or folder; the compression can be near-lossless when you use a good DVD ripper software.