#Rip dvd with handbrake how to#
#Rip dvd with handbrake mp4#
#Rip dvd with handbrake install#
#Rip dvd with handbrake full#

(I used to use HandBrake to directly convert files off of DVDs, but the software to do that has become untenable in recent versions of MacOS, so I now only use HandBrake as a transcoder, not as a disc-extractor.) HandBrake is free and it works.

It will also convert those files out of MakeMKV. If the Terminal is too much for you, then use the old standby - HandBrake. Files tend to be a bit larger than some other methods you could use, but that’s because Don is trying to balance file size with quality.

#Rip dvd with handbrake install#

You need to have a little bit of familiarity with the Terminal app to install these scripts, but once you get the hang of it they’re pretty easy.ĭon has spent dozens (if not hundreds) of hours tweaking his scripts to choose the right settings for video encodes.

#Rip dvd with handbrake mp4#

So I transcode those files and convert them to MP4 format with Don Melton’s video transcoding and other video transcoding scripts. But the files that come straight off an optical disc are generally a lot larger than they need to be, and storage space is at a premium if you’re hoarding movies and TV shows. I use Plex as my home media server, and it’ll accept MKV files and transcode them into any format your playback devices need. (If you don’t want to pay $50 and only want to rip DVDs, I recommend using Handbrake - see below - and installing decss via Homebrew, as described in the previous version of this article, located below this version.)ĭon Melton’s scripts. MakeMKV lets you extract DVDs and Blu-ray discs into MKV files, playable using many different playback apps, including my favorite, IINA. It’s got a free 30-day trial, so you can see if it works for you. It costs $50, and I trust the developer, who has been updating it diligently for years. This is the essential disk-extracting software for Mac. It’s working great so far and Alex was great to work with. Rather than flash the firmware in Windows myself, I just bought a pre-flashed drive from Alex Coluzzi, one of the drive resellers on the previously linked Reddit thread. Recently I upgraded my disc-ripping hardware with a $200 4K UHD-compatible drive flashed with LibreDrive firmware, which means it’ll read data from discs of any region and any format. I have this $60-ish model, which is pretty old, but serves as a CD/DVD burner and also reads Blu-ray discs. Time was, almost every Mac came with an optical drive. What you’ll needĪn external optical drive. Still, if the idea of any of this makes you uncomfortable, look away. I don’t have any qualms about place-shifting my personal viewing of content I’ve purchased and still own. Distributing files that subvert copy protection is arguably illegal in the United States using that software is more arguably legal. I use these tools on discs that I own, in order to create files that I keep within my household. I’ll detail my methods below, but as at Macworld I want to start with a disclaimer: I don’t use these tools for piracy, and neither should you.

#Rip dvd with handbrake how to#

Back in the Macworld days, one of our most popular stories was about how to convert DVDs into files, so clearly there’s interest in this subject. For other people, though, it’s still a bit of a mystery. For some people, getting video off of a disc and playable in iTunes or on an iOS device is old news. When I mention converting DVDs and Blu-rays on Twitter, people ask me about the method I use.

#Rip dvd with handbrake full#

Many of these are TV shows and movies that now stream in HD on one of the streaming services I subscribe to, making me question my purchase decisions, but intellectual property appears and disappears from streaming services so often that I like to have my own streaming service of sorts, one full of movies and shows that I can watch on my large home TV or load onto my iPad for a flight without worrying. I’ve got a couple of large plastic bins in my office that are full of DVDs and Blu-rays. Warning: This story has not been updated in several years and may contain out-of-date information.