How to Rip Copy-protected DVD with VLC on Windows/Mac

BD-DVD Ripper

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Although there are many options that are workable to rip DVD to common digital formats easily, many people still prefer choosing VLC because it is easy and free to use. Especially for those who have been using VLC to play videos/audios on computers, it must be the best choice. But originally, VLC won't allow people to rip copy-protected DVDs directly, unless you can make use of another free software, Handbrake. Now, you will see the guide to rip protected DVD with VLC step-by-step, and also an alternative that can work better than VLC. Now, have a look.

Contents

1. How to Rip DVD with VLC on Windows/Mac

Actually, VLC is a professional media player, so it mainly provides people with the high-quality media player originally. For its ability to rip and convert DVD to MP4, the software tries to make the function simple, so it won't be hard for you to use it. Now, you can follow this simple tutorial to try converting DVD to MP4 using VLC on Windows and Mac with only very simple clicks.

On Windows

Step 1. After inserting the DVD disc to the computer, open VLC and then select "Media" to find the "Open Disc" option.

 

Step 2. After clicking it, the "Open Media" window will open, now you should go to "Disc" and import the DVD content to VLC by clicking the "Browse..." button in "Disc device". Don't forget to select the "No disc menus" option too.

VLC Load DVD

Step 3. After select the DVD disc to rip, you should click the "Convert / Save" button, then you will be turned to the "Convert" window.

 

Step 4. In "Profile", you can choose an output format to save the ripped DVD contents. Then by clicking the "Browse" button in "Destination", the output folder can also be set simply.

Rip DVD With VLC

Step 5. Finally, just by pressing the "Start" button, and VLC will begin to rip DVD to your selected format immediately. It takes some time to finish the ripping process, and you just need to wait patiently.

On Mac

Step 1. Mac users need to use an external hard drive to insert the DVD to the computer. After this, open VLC and also choose "File" on the menu bar to select the "Open Disc" option.

 

Step 2. After the "Open Source" window shows up, select "Disc" tab and you will find VLC has detected the inserted DVD automatically. You just need to turn on both the "Disable DVD Menus" and "Stream Output" options.

Mac VLC Open Disc

Step 3. Find "Settings" above the "Open" button to choose MPEG 4 as the output format in "Encapsulation Method". By going to the "File" part, you can also choose one output folder on your device to save the ripped DVD videos offline if you need.

Mac VLC Convert DVD to MP4

Step 4. When the output format and folder are both set, click the "Open" button and VLC will begin to rip DVD for you. The converted videos will all be saved to the folder you set just now.

Tip: Rip Copy-protected DVD with VLC

The above methods to use VLC on Windows and Mac to rip DVD are only available to rip those free discs. To rip the DVDs with copy-protection, you need to install another software, Handbrake, and follow the steps here to get it done.

Step 1. After downloading the VLC installation package, you need to open its download folder and find the libdvdcss.dll file. Then copy it and move to the download folder of Handbrake (after you download Handbrake too).

HandBrake Rip Protected DVD

Step 2. Now you can insert the DVD to your computer and open Handbrake.

 

Step 3. In Handbrake, click the "Open Source" button on the top-right corner, then you can select the DVD disc to import its videos.

 

Step 4. After this, directly select an output format or adjust other video parameters as you need. You can also edit the video in Handbrake with its provided simple video editing functions.

 

Step 5. Finally, press the "Start Encode" button and you can successfully rip the protected DVD to digital files with Handbrake.

HandBrake Rip to MP4

Tips

HandBrake also supports to rip unprotected blu-ray with simple steps. See more details in: [HandBrake Tutorial] How to Rip Blu-ray with HandBrake

2. Best VLC Alternative to Rip Protected DVD

Ripping the free DVD discs using VLC may be more convenient. By comparison, if your DVD disc is copy-protected, you have install extra Handbrake and finish the complex steps above to get the DVD videos ripped to common digital files. Here would like to introduce another VLC alternative, VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper that can directly rip both protected and unprotected DVDs with high quality and also fast speed, helping you to have better user experience and save much time in ripping DVDs.

VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper  is a powerful ripping software, which can run smoothly on both Windows and Mac computer to help people easily rip both protected and unprotected Blu-ray/DVD discs to more than 300 common digital formats without quality loss. With only one tool, you can save the high-quality movies and TV shows from both home-made and commercial DVD/Blu-ray discs offline for playing on more devices, such as TVs.

 

VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper will save all the audio tracks and subtitles contained in the Blu-ray/DVD discs so that you can have the same video playback experience after ripping them offline. Better than VLC, this software will also run at 6X faster speed with its advanced technologies powered by Intel QSV, NVIDIA NVENC/CUDA and AMD APP.

Other Important Features:

  • Allows to unlock region codes so that commercial DVDs ripping is also available
  • Provides more than 300 formats and device presets to rip Blu-ray/DVD discs
  • Keeps high quality to rip Blu-ray/DVD discs and also allows to set parameters flexibly
  • Provides some basic video editing functions to adjust videos before ripping
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Tips

The Windows version of VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper released a new version which has big changes compared with the old version. But the new version for Mac is still under the development. That means the interface and the operation of Windows and Mac will be different.

To know the details about the new version, you can read on the article: A New Version for BD-DVD Ripper (Windows) Released! See What Changes

Steps to Rip Protected DVD in VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper

Step 1. Add Protected DVD Disc to VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper

When you have installed VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper, insert the DVD to computer and open the software to load the disc by clicking the "Load DVD" and select "Load DVD Disc".

Load DVD

Step 2. Choose DVD Movie Titles to Rip

After loading the DVD in VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper, you can click the "Full Movie List" button to select some titles in the DVD to rip. Or you would rip all of them by default.

Full Movie List

Step 3. Select Output Format and Quality to Rip Protected DVD

After selecting the movie titles, now you can also go to "Rip All to" and choose the output format as well as quality to rip the protected DVD to common digital formats. Choosing some device presets to make the ripped content be compatible with them is also available.

Rip All to

Step 4. Rip Protected DVD Offline

Finally, just start ripping the protected DVD for saving on your computer by pressing the "Rip All" button. VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper will work quickly to finish ripping the DVD disc for you.

Ripping Disc

Tips

Steps to convert DVD to MP4 on Mac with VideoByte are quite similar to that on Windows. You can see more details here: How to Convert DVD Files to MP4 on Mac Quickly

3. Comparison between VLC and VideoByte

Finally, let's see the table below to conclude the differences and similarities between VLC and VideoByte. This can help you better find the one solution to rip protected DVD.

 Features

VLC

VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper

DVD ripping Speed

Slow

6X faster

Supported formats

ASF, AVI, FLAC, FLV, Fraps, Matroska, MP4, MPJPEG, MPEG-2 (ES, MP3), Ogg, PS, PVA, QuickTime File Format, TS, WAV, WebM

300+ video/audio formats and popular device presets

Output quality

May be compressed

Lossless quality at 1:1 ratio

Protected DVD support

No

Yes

Video editing functions

No

Yes

Parameter settings

Only one settings

More than one options to choose flexibly

Conclusion

VLC is better for people who only need to rip some protection-free DVD discs without installing other software. But for those who want to rip protected DVD with high quality and faster speed, VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper is a better choice. Now, consider their differences and choose the one you prefer better.

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