RP Staff·

6 Best DVD Ripping Software For Mac (Paid & Free)

A DVD ripping software is used to convert DVD content into digital files. It lets you back up your DVD collection and play the media everywhere on modern devices such as laptop, smartphone, Apple TV, without the physical disc or player.

In this guide, we will explore some of the most recommended DVD rippers for Mac, including 3 paid and 3 free options. Each option can rip both homemade and commercial DVDs of your own.

Overview

Before we dive into the detailed reviews, let’s take a glance at our list and see what makes they stand out from competitors.

Software Best for
1. Cisdem Video Converter Versatile and beginner-friendly DVD/Blu-ray ripper
2. DVDFab DVD Ripper Professional DVD ripper supporting metadata extraction
3. WinX DVD Ripper for Mac Simple DVD ripper for fast conversion and remuxing
4. MakeMKV Lossless backup of DVD/BD video content
5. HandBrake Free DVD ripper for tech-savvy users
6. VLC Free DVD ripper and DVD player for basic ripping

Detailed Reviews and How-to Guides

1. Cisdem Video Converter – Best Overall

Input: DVD disc/folder/ISO files, Blu-rays, video/audio files

Output: 300+ video/audio formats and device profiles

Price: Free to try, $69.99/permanent license with free lifetime upgrades

Pros:

  • Rip both DVD and Blu-ray discs
  • Show estimated output file size
  • GPU accelerated encoding
  • Versatile tool – edit/compress/convert/download videos

Cons:

  • The free trial allows 5 minute rip of each title for testing purpose

For Mac users looking for a good program to digitize all their DVD and Blu-ray collections, Cisdem Video Converter is a go-to option. With its powerful video converter and DVD decrypter engine, you’ll be able to bypass all DVD encryption measures such as CSS, 99-title, region codes, Disney X-project DRM, and convert the video content to any desired format like MP4, MKV, ALAC, iTunes, Apple TV, etc.

To ensure the best results, the program comes with a built-in DVD player and video editor that lets you preview and edit each title before ripping. Advanced users can also adjust format parameters like encoder, resolution, bitrate, quality, etc.

What’s more, Cisdem Video Converter is a multifunctional software that also includes a format converter, video downloader and compressor to help you manage your media library smoothly.

How to rip a DVD with Cisdem Video Converter:

  1. Click here to download and install Cisdem Video Converter from its official website. Note that the Lite version on the Mac App Store cannot rip DVDs.
  2. Go to the second tab of the software for DVD ripping, and load your DVD by drag-n-drop. All video titles will be shown with thumbnails and media info.
  3. Select the audio track and subtitles you want to keep from the drop-down lists. You can click the pencil icon to edit the video, like trimming and cropping.
  4. Click the blue format icon to select output format for the current video, or click the “Convert all tasks to” box to set output format for all items.
  5. Click the “Save to” field at bottom to choose a save location.
  6. When all is set, click Start button to begin the DVD ripping process.

2. DVDFab DVD Ripper

Input: DVD disc, DVD folder, ISO image file

Output: 2D and 3D video/audio formats

Price: $59.49/lifetime license; free to use DVDFab HD Decrypter features; $265/DVDFab All-in-one suite with Ripper included

Pros:

  • Support 3D import and export
  • Generate metadata file from DVD

Cons:

  • Bundled with other paid modules you may don’t need

DVDFab is an all-in-one DVD solution with DVD ripper being one of its many components, it includes other features like DVD copying and burning that require extra fee. This DVD ripper can rip 2D/3D DVDs to various video formats and automatically synchronize the metadata, including the movie title, cast, cover. The meta file generated by DVDFab can be viewed on media servers like Plex and Kodi.

DVDFab offers 30-day free trial version, after which it will turn into the free DVDFab HD Dectypter if you don’t pay to upgrade. The free version offers limited features, can rip older commercial DVDs to MKV/MP4 in 480p.

How to rip a DVD with DVDFab DVD Ripper on Mac:

  1. Download and install DVDFab 13 on your Mac computer.
  2. Launch DVDFab, select the Ripper section, and click the add source button to load your DVD disc source.
  3. Select an output format from profile list. You can also edit the video, select audio and subtitles if needed.
  4. Click the Start button. You can view the ripping progress in the Processing section.

3. WinX DVD Ripper for Mac

Input: DVD disc, DVD folder, DVD ISO file

Output: Mainstream video/audio formats and device presets

Price: $59.95/lifetime license for 1 Mac

Pros

  • Remux DVD to MKV/MPG
  • Basic tag editor
  • Simple interface

Cons

  • Output formats need to be updated
  • 5 minute ripping limit for unregistered users

WinX DVD Ripper for Mac is a lightweight and easy-to-use DVD ripping software, and it’s basically the same with the developer’s other product called MacX DVD Ripper.

It not only allows you to convert DVD to popular video/audio formats, but also offer backup options like DVD to MKV, MPEG-2 (DVD format), keeping all audio and subtitle tracks. The copy feature will remux DVD media content fast, but won’t compress DVD to a smaller size.

Compared to Cisdem Video Converter, WinX provides fewer video and audio output formats and more basic video editing features. It’s less expensive, but lacks Blu-ray support.

How to rip DVD with WinX DVD Ripper for Mac:

  1. Launch WinX DVD Ripper for Mac, enter your email and registration code to activate it
  2. Load source DVD disc/folder/ISO by clicking on the corresponding buttons.
  3. Select the output profile from the panel. You can’t choose different formats for each title.
  4. Choose the destination folder for output file, and hit the RUN button to start ripping the DVD.

4. MakeMKV Beta

Input: DVD and Blu-ray disc

Output: MKV file with original codec

Price: free, or pay $60 for a permanent key

Pros

  • Rip both DVD and Blu-ray for free
  • Lossless quality

Cons

  • Output MKV file size can be large and may not be supported by your favorite players, editors or devices
  • Lack of video editing tools

MakeMKV is a powerful cross-platform DVD ripper that can read most encrypted DVD and Blu-ray discs and convert video to a set of MKV files with all video/audio tracks and other information preserved. Unlike other 5 choices that offer different video/audio output formats, MakeMKV will convert your DVD to uncompressed MKV files with original codecs (usually MPEG-2). The file size also remains the same as the original DVD video, and the audio/subtitle tracks are soft-embedded in the video, not burned-in.

As for the pricing, MakeMKV is not a really a freeware, you can purchase a permanent license for $60, or use it for free with a beta key that is updated every month.

Tip: MakeMKV may not be able to open on your Mac as it’s not signed by Apple. You have to go to System Settings, select Privacy & Security, and click the Open Anyway button to confirm your intent to open it.

How to use MakeMKV to rip DVD on Mac:

  1. Insert a DVD disc into your Mac optical drive, and launch MakeMKV. The app will scan the disc automatically.
  2. Click the DVD icon to load it.
  3. Select the titles, video/audio tracks, and subtitles you want.
  4. Click the Make MKV button to start processing. If you want to compress/convert the ripped MKV file, use a video converter such as Cisdem Video Converter and HandBrake.

5. HandBrake

Input: DVD and Blu-ray disc/folder/ISO, video files

Output: MP4, MKV, WebM

Pros

  • Open-source freeware
  • Preview the result
  • Rich adjustable settings

Cons

  • Require additional tool to rip encrypted DVDs
  • Slower ripping speed
  • Complex interface for novices

HandBrake is a perfect free DVD ripper for homemade discs without copy protection. It’s a free and open-source video transcoder that can read discs and convert video to more popular and compressed formats like MP4 x264. While it can’t rip protected DVDs by itself, you can install an extra component called libdvdcss to enable it to rip DVDs with CSS encryption.

This free DVD ripper offers flexible settings like paid software, like video dimensions, encoders, subtitles, audio, filters, etc., and its interface also looks more complicated.

How to rip DVD with HandBrake on Mac:

  1. Download and install HandBrake from its official site. If you want to use it to rip protected DVD, install libdvdcss on your Mac via Homebrew.
  2. Start HandBrake, click Open Source to load your DVD.
  3. Select the title you want to rip from the Title list, e.g. the longest one for movies.
  4. Select the output format under the Summary tab. You can configure output settings on other tabs.
  5. Click Browse to set the destination folder, and press the Start button to begin ripping the DVD.

6. VLC media player

Input: DVD disc, DVD folder, ISO file, video/audio files

Output: popular video/audio formats

Pros

  • Completely free without hidden cost
  • Play and convert protected DVDs

Cons

  • Not work with certain DVDs with additional copy protection
  • Can’t specify the audio/subtitle track to keep
  • No batch processing

VLC media player is a free third-party DVD player and DVD ripper for Mac. VLC uses libdvdcss to access DVDs with CSS copy protection and bypass region codes, no additional tool required. However, VLC is not as robust as a specialized DVD ripper, it offers a basic DVD ripping to popular formats like MP4. Other features like audio/subtitle selection, batch processing, video editing/merging, are not available with VLC.

How to rip DVD using VLC on Mac:

  1. Launch VLC, choose File > Open Disc.
  2. Make sure your DVD is selected as source, then click Disable DVD menus button.
  3. Tick the Stream output box, and click the Settings button.
  4. In the Settings window, select an output format from the Encapsulation Method drop-down menu, such as QuickTime or MPEG 4.
  5. Click Open to start the DVD ripping process.

Final Thoughts

The best DVD ripper ultimately depends on your specific needs.

Paid software like Cisdem Video Converter and DVDFab offer timely tech assistance, more advanced features, and frequent updates for DVD decryption support. If you prioritize lossless quality, MakeMKV is a good option. For old homemade DVDs, freeware like HandBrake and VLC can digitize them at no cost.

Note that while Disk Utility is often recommended as a built-in DVD ripper on Mac, it can merely copy unprotected DVDs to disk image (.dmg) files, instead of converting DVD to popular video/audio formats for easy playback.

Whichever tool you choose, always use it for personal backups and non-commercial purposes.

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