More DVD Ripping Goodness

Ok, let’s say you weren’t a big fan of the VLC approach.  Now we’re going to talk about another free program for your computer that can convert DVD’s into formats that can be transferred to your mobile device.

Handbrake is an open source, free program that is downloadable for your Mac or PC.  It’s a very powerful program that can rip DVD’s as well as convert video files from one format to another.  For example, let’s say you already have a video file that is an AVI file but you want to put that into your mobile device.  You’d have to convert that to an MP4 video file, which is what most portable devices like.  When it comes to ripping DVD’s, Handbrake can rip a lot of formats, but not all of them.  DVD’s are all encoded a little differently in their copy protection style, so you’re going to have more success with some programs versus others.

Now we’ll get started and first download Handbrake.  Follow the link below to go to Handbrakes site and download the version for your computer…

Click Here to Download Handbrake

Once you’ve gone through the installation process, go ahead and pop a DVD into your computer and then open Handbrake (actually, you can do that in either order).  The program is virtually identical for Mac or PC, but for the sake of this demonstration we’re looking at the Mac version.

The main interface with the Presets menu open on the right side

Sometimes when you first open the program, it will prompt you for the Source (where is the video or DVD you want to convert).  If it doesn’t, you will get a the main window of the program.  Click on the Source icon on the upper left corner.  If you’re ripping a DVD, select the DVD drive and hit open.  If you’re converting a video file into a different format, find that video file on your computer and click open.

The program will say “Scanning Source” for a few moments and then a screen like this will pop up.  Now we’re going to adjust the settings depending on the device you’re going to be watching the movie on in the end.  On the right side of the program is a slide out menu that shows some device presets.  If you don’t see that, click on the Toggle Presets Icon on the top right of the program.  If you’re converting to an Apple device, just pick that device from the menu and you’re basically set.  For Android, you want to select the Normal profile under the Regular group.

Next, back on the program’s main interface, go to the box labeled File and enter where you want the finished video to appear.  You can even have it just save to the desktop so you can find it easier.

Beyond that, I recommend leaving most of the settings alone.  If you want the video file to be a certain size (maybe a little smaller to conserve space) you can click on the Video tab near the center of the program, then check the Target Size box under Quality.  Now enter the size you want the finished video to be and Handbrake will adjust the video settings to get as close as possible to that size.  Naturally, the smaller the file size, the lower the quality of the audio and video.

Once you’re happy with the settings, go to the top of the screen and click on the Start icon and let it do it’s thing.  Handbrake is much faster than VLC, so depending on your computers speed you could have a DVD ripped in as little as 15 minutes or less.

If you are planning on converting multiple files that you have saved on your computer, you can click on the Add to Queue button at the top of the program.  This adds your video to a list that will do all at once.  Then just keep adding sources like you did before and hit Add to Queue for each one.  Once you’re ready, press Start and it will do them all, one at a time.

Drop a comment below if this worked for you and how the video quality was once you were done.  We’ll have another post coming up soon on how to get those video files onto your mobile device.

Rip DVD’s To Your Computer

At some point, you’re going to want to put movies onto your mobile device, whether it’s an iPod, iPad, iPhone or Android device.  With screens becoming higher and higher resolution, they’re just begging to be made into your own personal movie theater.  The question is how does one start with a DVD and end up with a file on your portable device?  There are a few steps involved here so we’re going to start off with the first phase…getting the movie from your DVD onto your computer.

For this lesson, I’m going to be teaching you how to use VLC to rip the DVD’s.  VLC is a media player application for Mac and PC that is completely free.  It’s a very robust program that can play just about any file you can think of.  There are other programs out there that can probably rip movies a little faster or with one or two fewer steps, but I’m starting with VLC since it’s available for multiple computer systems and most importantly…it’s free!  We love free things!

Download VLC onto your computer from here…. VideoLan.org

Open the file and go through the appropriate steps as it prompts you to install the program on either your Mac or PC.  For the sake of this demonstration I’m going to be doing this on the Mac version but it should be essentially the same as PC.  If you have any questions as you follow along on the PC version, drop a comment below and I’ll walk you through it.

Now you have VLC installed on your computer.  Go ahead and put a DVD into your computers disk drive.  Open the VLC program and click on the File Menu, then select Open Disc.

Now we’re going to change a few quick settings.  Make sure the DVD check box is selected, and below that check the box that says “No DVD Menus” (we’re just ripping the movie, not the menus).  For Device Name, that should be your DVD drive.  If it doesn’t fill in automatically, you’ll have to click the drop down menu and select the drive you want.  In the box marked “Title” make sure that you put “0” (the number zero, not the letter o).

Now below all of that, click the box that says Streaming/Saving.  This will enable the button on the right labeled “Settings.”  Click on that.

Now we have some more settings to adjust.  The first line says “Display Screen Locally” and has a check box.  If you select that box, you can watch the movie play as it is ripping it.  Generally, this program is very slow and takes just about as long as it would take to watch the movie, but leaving this unchecked will make it just slightly faster.

In the file box, type in the location and file name you want the video saved under.  I usually make a folder in my Documents folder called Converted Movies and save all of them there, but you can put it wherever you like.  Just remember where you put it so you can find it later.

Next, for Encapsulation Method we’re going to select MPEG 4 from the drop down menu.  This is the file most commonly read by most mobile devices.  Below that, under Transcoding Options, set it up as I have in the picture.  Video should be mp4v and Audio should be mp4a.  The Bitrates have to do with the amount of data in the video file.  The higher the Bitrate, the bigger the file and the higher quality the image and sound.  I find that 1024 is a good compromise of picture quality and file size.  Feel free to experiment with different settings if you like.

VLC Ripping the DVD

And that’s it.  Click OK then Click Open on the next screen and you should see the VLC player start playing the DVD.  It will look like the DVD is just playing but it’s actually ripping the movie.  It will take just about as long to rip it as it would to just play the movie, so now would be a good time to go grab a bite to eat, take a nap, or better yet…tell all your friends about how cool HackMondo is!  (Shameless plug…sorry)

Like I said, there are faster programs out there but most of them would require you to part with your hard earned dineros and that’s something we’re trying to avoid.  In the next part of this series, we’re going to start looking at transferring this new video file onto your mobile device using programs like iTunes, DoubleTwist and even just doing it manually!  I know…we’re getting crazy!