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DVDs are a stubborn format. Studios stopped pressing most new titles years ago, libraries are weeding their shelves, and the discs you bought a decade back are slowly succumbing to rot. Ripping the discs you own to your own drive is the practical fix, and the tooling has quietly matured. The picks below handle current copy-protection schemes, run on Apple silicon and Windows 11, and produce files that play cleanly on a Pixel 9 or a Galaxy Tab.
Below are five rippers worth installing, ordered by what most readers actually need. Three are free, two are paid, and all of them are legal to use on discs you personally own where your jurisdiction allows backups for personal use. Check your local rules before you start.
TL;DR
The pick: The pick: HandBrake plus libdvdcss for free, MakeMKV for one-click rips that preserve every track and chapter exactly as they sit on the disc.
Runner-up: Runner-up: WinX DVD Ripper Platinum for Windows users who want hardware-accelerated H.265 output and one-click profiles for phones and tablets.
Skip if: Skip if you are trying to rip rental discs or current streaming downloads; that crosses into circumvention territory in most jurisdictions and these tools should not be your shortcut.
For a deeper reference, see the U.S. Copyright Office’s official guidance on the DMCA.
HandBrake plus libdvdcss, the free workhorse
HandBrake is the open-source ripper most home archivists settle on. It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and the 1.9 release added hardware encoding presets for Apple silicon and Intel Arc GPUs. Pair it with the libdvdcss library, which handles CSS decryption, and you can rip almost any standard-definition DVD to MP4 or MKV in roughly twenty minutes per disc on a current laptop.
The trade-off is the learning curve. HandBrake exposes every encoding knob, and the defaults are conservative. Start with the Fast 1080p30 preset, drop the resolution to 720p for DVDs, and set the audio passthrough to AAC stereo. You will land on roughly 1.2 GB per movie with almost no perceptual loss.
MakeMKV for lossless one-click rips
MakeMKV is the lazy person’s pick, and that is a compliment. Insert a disc, hit the disc icon, and the app produces a single MKV file containing the main feature plus every audio track and subtitle stream. No transcoding happens; the original VOB streams are remuxed into MKV with no quality loss. Files are larger, typically 4-7 GB per DVD, but the rips are bit-perfect.
MakeMKV is technically in perpetual beta, which means it remains free as long as the developer rotates beta keys. The community thread at the official forum posts a new key every month or two. The same app also handles Blu-ray and UHD discs if you have a compatible drive.
WinX DVD Ripper Platinum for hardware-accelerated H.265
WinX is a paid Windows-only ripper from Digiarty. It costs around forty dollars for a lifetime license. The reason to pay is the hardware encoder. WinX uses Intel Quick Sync, Nvidia NVENC, or AMD VCN to crunch a DVD into H.265 MP4 in roughly five minutes on a current mid-range PC. The output profiles for iPhone, Pixel, and Galaxy phones are dialed in and give you a 600-800 MB file per movie.
There is a free trial that caps you at five minutes of output. Use it to confirm your drive works and your profile of choice produces files that play on your target device before buying the license.
DVDFab and AnyDVD for stubborn discs
A small fraction of region-locked or oddly authored DVDs refuse to play nicely with HandBrake or MakeMKV. DVDFab is the commercial fallback. It tracks new copy schemes faster than the open source tools, ships with cloud-based decryption metadata, and handles structural quirks like PathPlayer encryption. AnyDVD HD from RedFox is the other option, sitting in the background and presenting a decrypted disc to any other ripper of your choice.
Both are commercial subscriptions, in the fifty-to-eighty dollar a year range. Try the free tools first; only pay for these if you have a specific disc that the open source path cannot decode.
Storing and playing what you rip
Once a disc is on disk, the questions shift. Plex Media Server remains the easiest way to stream your library to phones, tablets, and televisions. Jellyfin is the open source alternative if you do not want a Plex account. Both run on a low-power NAS or an old desktop you keep on twenty-four hours a day.
For mobile playback, VLC for Android plays every MKV and MP4 you can throw at it. MX Player is the speed-pick, with smoother subtitle rendering. Either app will read files off a shared network drive or a USB-C stick plugged into your phone.
Which ripper fits your workflow?
- Free and willing to fiddle: HandBrake with libdvdcss.
- Free and want one click: MakeMKV.
- Pay once on Windows: WinX DVD Ripper Platinum.
- Stubborn region-locked disc: DVDFab or AnyDVD.
- Streaming to phones and TVs: Plex or Jellyfin after you rip.
FAQ
Is ripping a DVD I own legal?
It depends on your jurisdiction. In the United States the DMCA technically prohibits circumventing copy protection even on discs you own, though personal-use enforcement is essentially nil. Many European countries permit private copies. The United Kingdom outlawed format-shifting in 2015. Check the rules where you live.
Can I rip a Blu-ray with these tools?
MakeMKV handles Blu-ray and most UHD discs if you have a compatible drive and the current beta key. HandBrake reads MakeMKV’s MKV output, which is the standard workflow.
How long does a typical rip take?
On a current laptop with hardware acceleration, plan twenty minutes for a HandBrake transcode and three to five minutes for a MakeMKV remux. WinX with hardware acceleration is closer to five minutes.
Does Apple silicon work for all of these?
HandBrake and MakeMKV have native Apple silicon builds. WinX is Windows-only. DVDFab and AnyDVD have macOS builds that run under Rosetta or natively depending on the version.
Bottom line
If you only install one ripper, make it MakeMKV for the speed and HandBrake for the compression. Together they will preserve every disc on your shelf in formats that play on anything you own. Pay for WinX or DVDFab only when the free path runs into a wall. The hard part is finding a USB DVD drive that still works on a current laptop, so order one before you start.
