Ripping a DVD

With the growing inventory of large capacity and affordable Hard Disk Drives, storing your dvds on HDDs has become a lot more economical. One of the most common questions for newcomers to this forum is a) how do I rip my dvds to HDDs and b) what software should I use? Before going further into this topic, it is assumed that the user is ripping their own legally owned dvds for either backup purposes or to be streamed within their own home environment.

Types of Software

• On the fly (OTF) decrypter - this is software that runs in the background and will decrypt (unlock) an encrypted DVD. OTF decrypters may require additional DVD copy software to handle the actual ripping of the DVD. Examples of OTF decrypters would be DVD43 and AnyDVD. Currently AnyDVD is the only decrypter that handles Blu Ray DVDs.
• DVD Copy Software - this software handles the actual ripping of the DVD but can only rip unencrypted dvds. An OTF decrypter is required to be running in the background. Examples are 1clickdvdcopy, Roxio, CloneDVD, and Nero.
• All in One Software - this software has the OTF decrypter as well as the DVD copying software integrated into one package. Examples would be DVDFab and AnyDVD.

Since AnyDVD and DVDFab are the two most popular programs used by members of this forum, that is where the focus will be.

AnyDVD

AnyDVD can be used as an OTF decrypter as well as DVD copying software, and is probably the most well known decrypter out there since it is the only one that fully decrypts Blu Ray DVDs. AnyDVD comes with a 21 day free trial, and after the trial period is over the cost is EUR 79.00 for 2 years.

• Once AnyDVD has been installed it should show as a running process (fox icon) in your desktop toolbar:

• With AnyDVD running, once you place a dvd in the rom drive a pop up message will appear advising you that AnyDVD is scanning the disc.

• If you are using AnyDVD simply as an OTF decrypter, you can now open your DVD Copy Software and begin ripping. Otherwise you can use AnyDVD to rip the dvd directly to a HDD by right-clicking on the fox icon in the toobar to bring up a menu. There is the option to rip the DVD to harddisk or as an image (Iso).

Rip DVD to Harddisk / Rip DVD to ISO

DVDFab

DVDFab would be considered the All-In-One software. It cannot be used in conjunction with AnyDVD, so you must make sure AnyDVD is shut off if it is installed. DVDFab is a powerful yet simple to use tool that will allow you to rip an entire movie or parts.

• With DVDFab installed and running, a message box will pop up once a dvd has been detected (this box will dissappear once DVDFab has determined that the disc is good and the encryption has been removed).

• Before proceeding you can click on the green checkmark at the upper right hand corner to view the various common settings within DVDFab.

Full Disc

• This mode will copy all playable content and apply compression if it will not fit the destination media. You can also choose the quality you want applied by selecting either DVD9 (100% Quality) or DVD5 (lesser Quality)

Main Movie

• This mode will allow you to copy only the main movie as well as selected audio tracks and subtitles. You will lose the dvd menu but the final result will be a small filesize with only the features that you want

Split

• This mode is meant to split a DVD-9 disc (dual layer) onto two DVD-5 discs (single layer)

Customize

• This mode allows you to have almost total control over what the final DVD output is. You can select multiple audio/video tracks, removes dvd menus, change playback order, and many more options.

Customize Split

• Similar to the Split mode, this mode will allow you to have more control over how the DVD-9 is split between two DVD-5 discs. The DVD can be split by title and then by chapter if necessary.

Clone

• This mode is used to create a perfect 1-to-1 copy of your disc. You can copy the disc to another writable disc or to an ISO on your harddrive, but not a Video_TS folder.

Merge

• This mode will allow you to combine multiple titles/discs (such as the Godfather Part II) into one disc.

Write Data

• This mode is used to write and existing dvd folder on your harddrive to either a disc or an ISO file.

DVDFab 6.0.0.2 Beta with Blu Ray Support

• A beta version of DVDFab was just released that adds support for Blu Rays. This is great news as there is currently not an "All in One" solution for ripping Blu Ray movies along with user defined preferences.