You have got a shelf full of DVDs and the disks just sit there until they're needed but only found the movies are hard to find or even can't be read anymore. If you're in this situation, the best way againt DVD damage or for convenient management is ripping. Fortunately, there are many programs out there that can do the job. Here, we'll show you how to rip DVDs with Handbrake for further storing on your hard drive, or you can also upload them to Google drive, Dropbox, Plex, etc. This ensures that even if your DVD gets damaged, your movies are still somewhere safe.

Jun 27, 2018 It has Mac version, so that it is convenient for you to rip movies or TV shows from DVD discs and rip them on MacBook Pro/Air, Mac Pro, iMac, etc. Newest version HandBrake 1.0 all come with new Apple TV preset and updated iPad preset, so you can easily convert DVDs specifically and watch the rip video on your Mac computer or other devices like. It has Mac version, so that it is convenient for you to rip movies or TV shows from DVD discs and rip them on MacBook Pro/Air, Mac Pro, iMac, etc. Newest version HandBrake 1.0 all come with new Apple TV preset and updated iPad preset, so you can easily convert DVDs specifically and watch the rip video on your Mac computer or other devices like.

Handbrake

Preparation - Install Handbrake and libdvdcss for Ripping Protected DVDs

Out of the box, Handbrake can rip any DVD that isn't copy protected…but almost all DVDs you purchase in the store are copy protected. And that's why an alert box with 'HandBrake does not support the removal of copy-protection from DVD discs' will show up if it is a commercial DVD. Luckily, it's easy to get Handbrake deal with encrypted DVDs and rip them to your computer if you download and install the free DVD playback library called libdvdcss.

The process is a little different for Windows and Mac users, so we'll go through each one individually. Note that you don't have to do this every time you rip a DVD - once libdvdcss is installed, you can skip to Step One each time you rip a new disc.

How to Install libdvdcss on Mac

The security protocols on macOS prevent you from installing the library file using an installer. Thankfully, there is a very easy way to do it using Terminal and an add-on called Homebrew.

1. Open Terminal on the Mac.

2. Copy and paste the text below into the Terminal window and press Return

/usr/bin/ruby -e '$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)'

3. You will be prompted to click Return and type in your administrator password.

4. The process will also download and install some portions of Apple's Xcode developer software. Approve this when the pop-up prompts you to do so.

5. Once the process is complete and you see the normal prompt, copy and paste the code below into the Terminal window and press Return .

6. Once complete, close the Terminal window and you're ready to begin.

brew install libdvdcss

How to Install libdvdcss on Windows

Download the library file from here, then navigate to your downloads folder and copy and paste the file into your C:/Program Files/Handbrake directory. It should look like the image below.

After this, Handbrake will be able to read your encrypted DVDs.

Steps to Rip (Protected) DVDs with Handbrake on Windows (10) or Mac

Note: The process for ripping a DVD on Windows and Mac is virtually the same. Here I will take the Windows process for example to show you how to decrypt and rip DVDs using Handbrake.

Step 1. Open Your DVD in Handbrake

Insert the DVD into the DVD drive on your computer. Open Handbrake and choose your DVD drive from the sidebar that appears.

Handbrake will take a moment to scan the titles on your DVD. Wait until this process is finished. It should only take a moment. If libdvdcss wasn't installed incorrectly, you'll see an error saying that the disc can't be read here instead.

Download Handbrake Presets Mac Os

Once your DVD is open, head to the Title dropdown box and choose which title you want to rip. By default, Handbrake will choose the movie, but if you want to rip any special features or deleted scenes, you can change the target you want to rip here. You can also change which chapters you want to rip, if you only want part of the movie.

Under Destination, click Browse to pick where you want to place the movie after you've ripped it.

Step 2. Choose Your Quality Preset

Next, you'll need to decide the quality of your output file. The higher quality the movie, the more space it will take on your hard drive. If you're technical, you can use the Picture, Video, and Audio tabs to adjust these settings, but most people only need to click one thing: a Preset.

Along the right side of the Handbrake window, you'll see a selection of Presets (if you don't see it, drag the corner of Handbrake's window and expand it until you do). There are presets for nearly anything you could need: Apple TV, Android phones, PlayStation, and lots more. If you're watching on your computer, use one of the 'General' presets - 'Fast' and 'Very Fast' will be low quality but small in size, while 'HQ' and 'Super HQ' will have higher quality but take up more space.

If you're ripping a DVD sold in the US, choose the 480p preset. European DVDs are usually 576p. Don't choose larger presets like 720p or 1080p for DVDs—they won't make your video look any better, they'll just make the file bigger.

Step 3. Start Ripping Protected DVD using Handbrake

Once you've chosen your Title and Preset, click Start Encode at the top of the window. Then, grab a snack.

You'll see a progress bar along the bottom that will let you know how much time you have left in the rip. Higher quality rips will take longer, so you'll want to let your computer run for a while.

Once the rip is done, you should be able to double-click on it to watch it! Or, if you're using a movie library program like Plex, Emby or Rodi, just add the movie to your library for enjoyment.

Best Handbrake Alternative for Solve Handbrake Won't Rip a DVD

Installing libdvdcss can solve part of the problems, what you can do when Handbrake won't rip a DVD? In fact, there are many reasons that you cannot rip DVD using Handbrake. It may be caused by the DVD corruption or damaging; or strictly DVD copy protection (like Disney DVDs, Lionsgate movies, Beachbody workout DVDs, or BBC DVDs); or overloaded CPU; or unsupported subtitles and so on. Another disadvantage of Handbrake is it can't rip DVD to other popular video formats other than MKV and MP4 (M4V) and its output video codecs are limited to H.264, H.265 and MPEG4.

To steer by all the above can't rip DVD with Handbrake troubles, it's time to try some possible alternatives. Below is going to introduce one of best Handbrake alternatives in market today named DumboFab DVD Ripper. The program is a fast, clean, smooth and extremely user-friendly DVD ripping tool for both Windows (Windows 10 included) and Mac users. Let's see what this most powerful Handbrake alternative can do to fix unable to rip DVD with Handbrake problem for good.

• • Support removing all DVD copy-protections including DVD CSS, region code, RCE, Sony ArccOS, UOPs, Disney X-project DRM, etc., and constantly update to support newest DVDs.
• • Easily rip DVD to MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI, WMV, H.264, HEVC, etc. digital video formats
• • Offer a number of handy preset profiles for smartphones, tablets, gaming systems, smart TVs and more.
• • Freely adjust output video/audio parameters, including change resolution, codec, bit rate, frame rate, aspect ratio, etc. to fit different requirements.
• • Simple edit: cut, crop, merge, rotate, flip videos; add effect, add subtitles, text/image watermark to videos, etc.
• • 2 DVD backup modes are provided, including copy main title to a single MPEG2 file with 5 minutes or copy the entire disc with everything kept in the original disc.
• • DVD ripping speed is ultra fast with help of hardware acceleration powered by Intel, NVIDIA and AMD, and an hour and a half DVD movie can be ripped in about 10 minutes (also depend on computer hardware).
• • 100% clean and safe. No ads, malware or virus at all. Smooth and stable.

※ For macOS 10.14 or lower, you can also download 32-bit installer here.

3 Steps to Rip Any Protected DVD with Best Handbrake Alternative on Windows (10) or Mac

Step 1: Input the DVD disc to DVD-ROM. Launch DumboFab DVD Ripper and click the Load DVD button to import the original DVDs you want to put into Plex.

Handbrake Encoder Preset

Step 2: From 'Fomrat' drop-down list, you can select the output video format for the ripping DVD movie. Numerous video/audio formats and 400+ optimized device profiles are provided.

Step 3: Click 'Browse' to set a destination folder to store the ripped DVD movie video, and hit 'Convert' button to start converting DVD to digital copy at a superfast speed with best Handbrake alternative.

If you want to rip Blu-ray movies to digital devices, or back up them on computer, HandBrake is the open source free Blu-ray ripper to convert Blu-ray files to video formats or presets for Apple devices.

The article shares the detailed process for ripping Blu-ray with HandBrake, just read on the article to get the desired information now.

When you want to convert the Blu-ray movies with a high quality or even convert 3D Blu-ray movies for most of the devices, you can also find the best free Blu-ray ripper alternative. Moreover, compare HandBrake and the Blu-ray ripper alternative to get the desired one according to your requirement.

Part 1: How to Rip Blu-ray Movies with HandBrake

The latest version of HandBrake Blu-ray Ripper 1.2.0 was released in December 2018, which add hardware acceleration support for NVENC and AMD VCE. Moreover, there are more presets for HEVC MKV, 4K TVs and other website formats. Here is the detailed process to use HandBrake to rip Blu-ray movies with as below.

Step 1 : Download HandBrake

Download and install HandBrake Blu-ray Ripper. This software is compatible with both Windows and Mac computer, and you can download either version as you like. Here we will take HandBrake for PC as an example to show you the detailed steps. For ripping Blu-ray with HandBrake on Mac, the steps work similarly.

Just launch the program and click the “Open Source” to load the Blu-ray movies from Blu-ray drive of your computer. For the Windows version, you can also drag and drop the videos onto the main Window of the program.

Note: After that the program is able to scan the whole Blu-ray movie. It takes about 15 minutes for a BD25 Blu-ray disc and 30 minutes for a BD50 one.

Step 2 : Select MKV or MP4 for Blu-ray

Go to “Destination” > “Browse” to choose the destination folder for the Blu-ray movie. Make sure there is enough space for the output file. Click the “Container” to choose MKV, MP4 or the other presets for the original Blu-ray movies.

Step 3 : Edit Blu-ray optionally

Tweak the settings for the output video and audio format. Here you can adjust the “Picture”, ”Filters”, ”Video”, ”Audio”, ”Subtitle” and “Chapter” for ripping Blu-ray movies with HandBrake. Moreover, you can also set “Automatic” or “Cropping” option to remove the unwanted part.

Step 4 : Rip Blu-ray to MKV/MP4 in HandBrake

Press the “Start” button to start ripping Blu-ray disc to MP4 or MKV with HandBrake. It will take a period of time to convert Blu-ray M2TS video to the chosen video format with high quality. After that you can enjoy the movies on any digital device.

HandBrake can rip homemade Blu-ray disc. However, it cannot rip any encrypted Blu-ray files. Moreover, the output formats are limited to MP4 (.M4V) and .MKV. To remove remove DRM protection, you have to install the Blu-ray decrypter for HandBrake, “libdvdcss” add-on, which is another story.

Part 2: Best HandBrake Alternative to Rip DRM Blu-ray for Free

The DRM protection is one major drawback for HandBrake Blu-Ray ripper. You are not able to rip 4K Blu-ray movies or convert 3D Blu-ray discs with HandBrake either. What should be the all-in-one free Blu-Ray ripper as HandBrake?

Free Blu-ray Ripper is a free and all-in-one Blu-ray ripper that convert and rip any encrypted type of Blu-ray movies to over 300 formats. Moreover, you can benefit from the following points:

• 1. Decrypt Blu-ray protection with the desired video and audio settings.
• 2. Rip Blu-ray movies from 4K, 3D and other common video formats.
• 3. Support various video codecs, H.265 (x265 and QuickSync), H.264(x264 and QuickSync), H.265 MPEG-4 and MPEG-2, VP8, VP9, etc.
• 4. Edit Blu-ray movies before ripping like rotate, clip, merge, edit subtitle, audio tracks, etc.
• 5. Rip Blu-ray to devices directly like Xbox 360, PS4, Wii, YouTube, iPad, Android, etc.

Step 1 : Load Blu-ray movies to Free Blu-ray Ripper

Download and install the free Blu-Ray ripper as the HandBrake alternative. Launch the program and click the “Load Blu-Ray” button to load the Blu-Ray disc into the program. You can also preview the Blu-Ray movies within the program directly.

Step 2 : Select output format for Blu-ray

After that you can click the “Profile” button to choose MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI, or other device presets from the drop-down list. Click the “Settings” to adjust the video codec, bitrate, resolution and more other settings to get the best output video files.

Step 3 : Rip encrypted Blu-ray movies

When you confirm all the details, you can choose the destination folder and click the “Convert” button to rip Blu-Ray movies into a digital video format. The Handbrake Blu-Ray ripper alternative uses hardware acceleration to make sure you can get the videos within a short period.

Part 3: Comparison between HandBrake and Alternative

What should be the major differences between HandBrake and the free Blu-ray ripper alternative? Just check out the details from the comparison chart as below before you can make a decision.

Blu-ray Ripper	HandBrake Blu-ray Ripper	Blu-ray Master Free Blu-ray Ripper
Ripping process	Difficult to install the program and the add-ons for ripping Blu-ray movies	Straightforward process to get the desired output videos with ease
Input formats	Blu-ray disc from Blu-ray disc only	Support Blu-ray disc, Blu-ray ISO and Blu-ray folder
Output formats	MP4, MKV and other limited presets for Apple devices.	Support most of the audios, video formats and more than 300 presets
Support encryption methods	Do not support DRM protected Blu-ray disc without add-ons
Video Quality	Convert to common video formats and general presets	Rip Blu-ray movies to MP4 HD, MKV HD and multiple presets for iPhone, Android and more other devices

When you upgrade to the HandBrake Blu-ray alternative, you can also convert the Blu-ray movies to 4K video formats, apply the 3D mode for the output video, edit the videos with multiple excellent features and more. It should always be a nice choice if you need to convert and rip a large amount of Blu-ray discs.

Part 4: FAQs of Ripping Blu-ray with HandBrake

1. Can I rip a Blu-ray with a DVD drive?

You can rip DVD or CD with a Blu-ray drive, but you cannot rip Blu-ray with a DVD drive.

2. How to extract subtitles from Blu-ray with HandBrake?

HandBrake does not support encrypted Blu-ray ripping, and you can follow the steps below to extract the subtitles from Blu-ray with HandBrake. Step 1. Open HandBrake and click Source to add Blu-ray disc. Step 2. Go to the Subtitles tab and select the subtitle language and set the output directory. Step 3. Click Start Encode to rip the subtitles from Blu-ray with HandBrake. But you should notice that HandBrake can only read Blu-ray PGS soft subtitles and you extract only one subtitle from MP4 and multiple PGS subtitles from MKV.

3. What are the best settings for HandBrake ripping a DVD?

One of the most important elements of ripping a DVD you should notice is the video size. For reducing the video size to store on your computer or upload online, you should select MPEG-4 from Handbrake supported H.264, H.265, MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 encoders. Surely, you do not mind the file size, just select the best video quality by using the H.264 codec.

4. Can Handbrake convert Blu-ray to DVD?

No. HandBrake can only help you rip Blu-ray and DVD to the digital formats. For converting Blu-ray to DVD, you should need another DVD burner to create the ripped Bly-ray files into DVD. Read the detailed guide to convert Blu-ray to DVD.

Conclusion

It is a tutorial about how to rip Blu-ray movies with HandBrake and best alternative. As an open source Blu-ray ripper, you can find many limited features and filters, especially for the DRM protection Blu-ray discs. When you want to get some encrypted Blu-ray movies, 3D Blu-ray movies, or even 4K Blu-ray movies, Free Blu-ray Ripper is the choice you have to take into consideration. If you have any other query about HandBrake Blu-ray Ripper and alternatives, you can share more detailed information in the comments on the article.

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