This is a sponsored article and was made possible by Wonderfox, the makers of DVD Ripper. The actual contents and opinions are the sole views of the author, who maintains editorial independence, even when a post is sponsored.
DVDs are dying, but they are taking their time. Although some people still do line up DVD boxes on a shelf, they are the exception rather than the rule. The digital video revolution means that DVD discs are now more like CD audio discs, a medium for getting a bit of media from one place to another. As people move from optical discs in a line on the bookcase to digital files in a line on a hard drive, software to grab your movies off that disc and put them on your drive are going to be in high demand.
In this article we look at DVD Ripper PRO, which does what it says on the label: rips DVD movies to disk and does so quickly and easily.
I’m a DVD, Rip Me
DVD used to be the dominant format for buying and owning movies, but now it’s rapidly being replaced by Blu Ray discs, and to a greater extent digital downloads. When you can download a digital HD movie and watch it directly on your TV from digital devices, then having actual DVD discs seems a lot less relevant than it once did.
Plus, digital files take up a lot less room on your shelf which is leading to a lot of movie collectors to seek a high quality ripping solution so they can store their collection on home media servers and Network Attaches Storage, or NAS.
DVD Ripper runs on Windows, and once you’ve installed and run it, you are presented with the main interface. There are three big buttons, one to select a DVD disc as your source, but you can also select an ISO disc image or a folder copied from a disc.
Put a DVD in your drive and click the DVD disc button. The software will ask you which drive you want to read from, and most DVDs are helpfully titled with the name of the movie.
Click OK and the software starts scanning the disc to examine the MPEG2 DVD video files. After a little disc reading and analysis, the software presents you with a list of all the rippable movies on the disc along with a suggestion it thinks might be the main movie. This is of course usually the longest video on the disc.
If (as is the case with this example) the movie is in a different language, you can change the spoken and subtitle language by clicking on the drop-downs underneath the movie track you want to rip. Let’s go with the English-dubbed version.
If you are unhappy with the selected output format – AVI, MP4, MOV or whatever – then you can click the slide button marked Output Profile, and all the available profiles for the disc you are ripping slides into view.
As you can see there are a LOT of different formats, both standard definition SD formats for DVD and high definition HD formats for Blu Ray. Choose your preferred format and close the sliding menu by clicking on the Output Profile button again.
If you are unhappy with the output destination at the bottom of the screen, then you can change it before you go. Once you are happy, click the RUN button, and the disc will be ripped.
Progress is shown by a percentage number in the center of the track; plus there is a green progress bar that slides along the length of the track to show you how long you have left, both boldly and visually.
When it gets to the end of the rip, you have your DVD movie as a digital file that you can then copy to any disk or device that you use. It’s that simple.
Conclusion
DVD Ripper on Windows 10 is a good solid piece of software. It works with Windows 10, 8 and even 7 and has a clean and functional interface. It’s is pretty enough to make you feel good about using it and even being seen using it, but it’s laid out simply and efficiently so that you can guess what you are supposed to do at any time at a glance. Most operations are one or two clicks, and you can change formats easily and quickly, which is a huge bonus.
Sure it takes its a little while to rip discs, real time almost, but that’s to be expected if you want the quality of the final file to be close to the original. To our eyes, the quality of the rip, even on a large TV, was almost indistinguishable from the original. It also works with multiple regions, which is good if you have any foreign discs. (Note: if your DVD drive objects to any region code because it has firmware region blocks, get a cheap external USB DVD drive, and that should sort it out.)
PROMOTION: Wonderfox are offering you the link below as a reader of Make Tech Easier to buy DVD Ripper PRO for the special price of $19.95 (usual price $29.95). Click here to get the offer.
If you have any questions or thoughts on DVD Ripper then please add them in the comments section below.
Download DVD Ripper PRO
Phil South has been writing about tech subjects for over 30 years. Starting out with Your Sinclair magazine in the 80s, and then MacUser and Computer Shopper. He’s designed user interfaces for groundbreaking music software, been the technical editor on film making and visual effects books for Elsevier, and helped create the MTE YouTube Channel. He lives and works in South Wales, UK.
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