How to Rip Copy Protected DVD on PC in 3 Easy Ways (2023)

Lafanda
11/09/2023

BD-DVD Ripper

For you DVD fans who have a large collection of DVD discs, you may want to find out a better way to keep your DVD contents. The best way is to rip them or make a backup copy of the DVD to your PC or a hard drive, so that you don’t need to totally rely on the physical storage. Well, it is easy for homemade DVDs, but not commercial encrypted DVDs.

So, how to rip & copy protected DVDs to PC or hard drive or even blank discs for backup? A natural way out of this issue is to seek the help of reliably protected DVD ripping software to have the backup or even digital formats like MP4, MKV, etc. In the meanwhile, copying protected DVDs to make backups on computer or hard drives is also convenient and helpful. In this article, 3 different best ways to rip DVDs will be listed.

Disclaimer:

It’s prohibited to copy copyrighted DVDs for commercial usage or mistakenly distribute them to others. But for personal backup, it’s legal and you don’t need to be worried about it.

Method 1. How to Rip Copy Protected DVD to PC/Hard drive

Generally, instead of "copy DVD", we say rip or convert DVD to hard drive or USB to make it more portable and more flexible for playback on any device. VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper is the best solution here as it supports to copy encrypted DVD into digital formats including MP4, MKV, MOV and etc.

Therefore, you can easily take them to your trip and kill the time during your flight. And the GPU acceleration technology makes its conversion speed always 6X faster than other products. Better still, it enables you to keep all the audio tracks and subtitles as well as add external ones.

Features of VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper

Easy to rip DVD/Blu-ray discs with an intuitive interface.
Strip all protection systems off DVD and Blu-ray discs.
Speed the process up to 6X faster with acceleration technology.
Keep the lossless video and sound quality as the source.
Support digitalizing discs to over 300 mainstream formats.
Preserve all original subtitles and audio tracks.

Now, let’s see the simple steps to rip DVD to your computer or hard drive.

4 Steps to Rip Copy-protected DVD (to USB/PC/Hard Drive)

Rip to Option — Rip to Video/Audio/ISO/Folder

Rip a DVD to Computer — Click "Rip All" to Start Ripping DVD/Blu-ray Disc

Note:

Ripping or converting copy-protected DVDs for commercial use or mistakenly distributing to others are strictly forbidden.

Method 2. How to Make a Backup Copy of a DVD to PC/Hard drive/Blank disc

If you don't think it necessary to rip copy-protected DVD to digital formats, VideoByte DVD Copy makes it easy to directly copy homemade and protected DVDs to a blank disc, hard drive, or ISO files with 1:1 original quality. It comes with three different copy modes that allow you to choose parts of the DVD to copy. Better yet, it has an in-built DVD player that lets you preview each chapter before starting the process.

Features of VideoByte DVD Copy

Decrypt all DRM protection mechanisms with ease.
Back up DVD to hard drive as Video_TS folder or ISO files.
Copy DVDs while keeping the best original quality.
Support all kinds of blank DVD types.
Choose preferred subtitles and audio sound to save.
Provide 3 copy modes to customize your output.

Below is a simple solution on how to copy protected DVDs to PC, I will take "save as ISO image files" as an example, please check.

Step 1. Import Source Files

When you downloaded and installed the VideoByte DVD Copy on your computer, launch the program to enter into the main interface. Click the button "File" and then "Select Source" to import the DVD disc. It generally takes a few minutes to load files.

Step 2. Choose The Target Format

After importing the files, the program will automatically decrypt and load the contents out to the DVD copy. Then you can select the "Target" button and choose the output format you want. Here you need to choose "Save as ISO".

Step 3. Select Copy Mode

There are 3 copy modes including "Full Copy" which means copying the whole DVD disc; "Main Movie" which means copying the main movie only; and "Customize" which means copying the parts of DVD you like.

Step 4. Start Copying Protected DVD to PC

Finally, when all the settings are done, you can just click on the "Start" button to copy your DVD movie to your computer.

When it is finished, please find the DVD files in the target folder and you can do everything with the files as you like such as transfer them to a hard drive.

Please note that if you want to copy the protected DVD into a new DVD disc, whether you have 1 or 2 disc drives, you can easily go through the above steps to copy DVD movies into a new blank DVD at 1:1 ration. All you need to do is to copy your DVD movie into an ISO image and then burn the ISO image to a new blank DVD.

VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper also supports copying protected DVD to ISO Image/VIDEO_TS folder for backup well. As its easy operation, you can directly choose VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper to help you. But if you need to burn the DVD content to another disc, just use VideoByte DVD Copy.

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How to Copy DVD Movie to A Blank DVD Disc (Free Method Include)

Method 3. How to Use HandBrake to Copy Protected DVD for Free

How to copy a protected DVD free of charge? If you want to rip a DVD on windows 10 for free, you shouldn't miss HandBrake. This is a free open-source video transcoder that works across Windows (Windows 10 Only), Mac, and Linux. It features a range of in-built device presets and output formats including MP4, MKV, WebM, AAC / HE-AAC, MP3, FLAC, AC3, E-AC3, Opus, and Vorbis. However, it currently doesn't support ripping a protected DVD without the help of a decrypter.

In the following, we show you the steps on how to copy protected DVD by Handbrake. It won't be 100% successful. If you want a more reliable way, we recommend you choose VideoByte DVD Copy which we mentioned in the second part.

Step 1. Download the third-party decrypter libdvdcss and copy it to the C:\Program Files\Handbrake folder.
Step 2. Open Handbrake and load the source file from the "Source" button. Libdvdcss will read and decrypt copyright protection from DVD automatically.
Step 3. Select the title you want to rip and set an output format. Tap on "Start" and just wait for the output file.

Comparison Between the 3 Best Ways to Copy Protected DVDs

Before you walk through the comparison table, you may need to know the basic differences between Ripping and Burning. They are terms that are related to online media storage and conversion forms.

Ripping: To move the contents from the disc and digitize them into MP4, MKV, MP3, AAC or any other format, which makes it easier and more convenient to play them on a PC, smart phone, media players.
Burning: Contrary to Ripping, it refers to move the contents stored in the PC and burn them to a DVD or Blu-ray disc where the files are stored in a folder or a list. Then you can easily enjoy the playback of media files when the burning process is completed.

Therefore, there are actually differences between HandBrake, VideoByte DVD Copy, and VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper. First off, HandBrake should work with a third-party decrypter to digitalize DVDs to popular formats, but it cannot burn DVDs to blank discs or ISO image files. As for VideoByte DVD Copy, it cannot rip DVDs to digital formats. However, VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper, being the most powerful one, can do all the things that you expect. Now, you may want to take a look at the comparison table for a better idea.

Product	VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper	VideoByte DVD Copy	HandBrake
Preparation	a. Your own DVD b. DVD drive c. Windows 7/8/10, Mac OS X 10.7 or above	a. Your own DVD b. DVD drive c. A new blank disc d. Windows 7/8/10, Mac OS X 10.7 or above	a. Your own DVD b. A third-party decrypter. c. Windows 10 and later, Mac OS X 10.13 or above
How it works	Ripping	Burning	Digitizing
Easy-to-use	√	√	×
Output Format	DVD folder, ISO file Audio: FLAC, WAV, WMA, AAC, MP3, etc. Video: MKV, MP4, MOV, etc.	DVD disc, DVD folder, ISO image file	MP4, MKV, WebM, AAC / HE-AAC, MP3, FLAC, AC3, E-AC3, Opus, and Vorbis
Support DVD/Blu-ray Disc	Both	DVD	Both (only unencrypted ones)
Handle Copy Protection	√	√	×
Best for	Ripping homemade/protected DVDs or Blu-ray to digital formats like MP4, MKV, FLAC, AAC, MP3, etc.	Copying homemade/protected DVDs to a new blank disc or ISO image	Digitizing DVDs on Windows 10 for free

Bonus: What is DVD Copy Protection

Before you go, let’s see what DVD copy protection is. Generally speaking, copy protected DVD is a DVD that implements some protection mechanism when encoding videos to the DVD. Most of the time, commercial DVDs of movies, TV shows, and music albums are protected and encrypted, preventing others from accessing and distributing the content. Nowadays, some of the most commonly used protections include the following.

Region code: There are 8 DVD region codes available. A region-protected DVD means that it includes regional coding to prohibit the playback of the disc outside a certain country or region.

CSS (Content Scrambling System): This is a digital rights management (DRM) and encryption system used to stop DVDs from being illegally copied or pirated.

Disney X-Project DRM Protection: This is a copy protection technology invented by Disney for Disney holds strict defense to its brands and serial product. Most Disney DVD discs have met this DRM restriction.

APS (Analog Protection System): This prevention system is developed by Macrovision that works to affect the AGC circuit of a recording device and makes the content unwatchable when trying to copy it.

ARccOS (Advanced Regional Copy Control Operating Solution): This copy-protection system is developed by Sony and works with CSS that creates corrupted sectors on a DVD. That keeps returning errors when a ripper and burner try to copy the videos.

CPRM (Content Protection for Recordable Media): This content protection is developed by AC Entty, LLC. As the name shows, this scheme mainly aims at recording the content on DVD discs using a media ID to encrypt data and a Media Key Block(MKB) to decrypt the disc.

In most cases, your purchased commercial DVDs may come into one of the encryption methods. Thus, if you want to replicate them in case of scratching or losing them, you need to copy them to a new DVD disc or for backup as ISO files or DVD folders first, and that is why you need to take the protected DVD copy software into account. Now, we're going to introduce 3 ways to remove DVD copy protection to solve the annoying situation. Now, you may want to follow the pace.

FAQs About Copying Protected DVDs to PC

You may have lingering questions about copying protected DVDs. Then, you should look up the following frequently asked questions to dismiss your hesitation.

Can I Rip A region-locked DVD?

Region-locked DVDs make it unwatchable to enjoy playback of the discs outside a specific country or region with encryption of region codes. However, region codes are also one of the protection mechanisms that can be easily stripped off by professional rippers. Therefore, if you want to enjoy region-free playback, you should turn to a reliable ripping program and unlock region-locked DVDs to the computer in the first place.

Can VLC Rip Protected DVDs?

Yes, partially. Although it mainly works as a media player, it can rip DVDs, including some copy-protected discs to digital files. But the process is more difficult than Handbrake. The ripping time is longer. We don't recommend you try this. You can find other best DVD decrypters to help you.

Can MakeMKV Rip Copy-protected DVD?

Yes but not always. MakeMKV provides a certain free period to rip DVDs for 30 days. After that you need to purchase the registration code. It only supports to convert DVD to MKV files which is always pretty huge. At present it does not provide the option to convert audios and it will take a long long time to rip DVDs.

Just follow the below steps to start ripping DVDs:

Step 1. Launch MakeMKV and insert your DVD disc.

Step 2. After MakeMKV successfully detects the disc, click on the big DVD icon to start scanning all the DVD titles.

Step 3. From all the chapterS of the disc listed in the left side panel, choose the desired ones based on your needs.

Step 4. If your DVD includes multiple audio tracks or subtitles, double-click on the movie title to get more options. Then select whether to keep all the items or not.

Step 5. Click the “Folder” icon to choose the location for output files and then click “Make MKV” to start the ripping process. Normally it will take 10 to 30 minutes which depends on the disc type, the contents you select and your CPU condition.

Can You Also Rip Copy-protected DVD on Mac?

Yes. Actually, VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper and VideoByte DVD Copy also have Mac version to help you do all the conversion on Mac the same as on PC. If you own unprotected DVDs as well, HandBrake Mac version will also be a choice.

Final Thoughts

In a word, if you're running Windows 10 and want to make a free copy, using HandBrake to rip protected DVDs is a good idea. However, HandBrake doesn't perform decryption alone and supports fewer video formats. Also, it doesn't support Blu-ray discs and takes a much longer time to finish per conversion.

VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper stands out as the best choice if you want to digitalize copy-protected DVDs to all sorts of formats or back up DVDs to a hard drive, blank discs, DVD folders, and ISO files. Better yet, it can keep all the subtitles and audio tracks, let alone its flash-like ripping rate.