# DVD Ripper (preferably free)



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Free, or at least cheap.


Looking for a way to rip some DVDs of TV series to an HDD for easier access. I've found a few, but it's hard to tell which sites to trust anymore.

Also, if you have a series on disc, how long should it take to process 6 or 8 half-hour episodes?


----------



## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

It maybe old , but I like DVD Shrink 3.2 if you can find it.


----------



## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

I use a mix of DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter depending on the title....


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

I read something about Shrink earlier, but it seemed like it was intended for making a backup DVD, not extracting to a hard drive.


----------



## 4HiMarks (Jan 21, 2004)

DVD Decrypter for me.


----------



## Reaper (Jul 31, 2008)

There are a bunch of DVD rippers available for download on CNET. I've used a few but can't recommend any of them.


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Looked at some of those earlier too.

What format do I want them to end up in, or does it matter? I want to put them in folders by show titles to be selected by episode for play.


----------



## zuf (May 25, 2007)

SayWhat?;3185226 said:


> What format do I want them to end up in, or does it matter? I want to put them in folders by show titles to be selected by episode for play.


I think the answer to that depends on how you plan to play them back. For example, I like to have mine end up in a single video file, usually .m4v or .mkv. Both offer nice compression so I don't need one-to-one disk space based on the size of the source DVD or Blu-ray. I add the video files to my Plex server (http://www.plexapp.com/) on the PC and then stream them from my Roku. My kids love it because all of our movies are available on-demand without swapping discs. I like it because the discs aren't getting scratched up anymore. I haven't had to buy the same movie twice because the kids scratched the first one for awhile now.

I use DVDFab HD Decrypter (http://www.dvdfab.com/dvd-decrypter.htm) to do a one-to-one rip of the disk and then feed that to HandBrake (http://handbrake.fr/) to create the .m4v or .mkv file. I purchased the commercial version of DVDFab, which has the capability of ripping straight from disk to .m4v file, but I've found that I end up with audio sync issues when I do that, so I've switched to the two step process instead.


----------



## tgater (Jul 24, 2007)

I use this, totally free and very versatile
http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/


----------



## Kevin F (May 9, 2010)

Handbrake is hands down the best DVD ripper.


Kevin


----------



## Spaingod (Feb 26, 2013)

I also need to do that and found this theme on google, thanks for so many options, as Kevin F said Handbrake is the best, it's awsome because it's also free! I have tried it but I wonder if there is some video quality loss on output video, it seems not good...:nono2: I have rip my DVDs to mp4 but really not good...


----------

