DVD ripper is a necessary program for DVD owners when they need to backup DVDs or want to rip DVDs to digital files for easy management or playback on iPhone, iPad, Android Samsung, Sony Xperia, Microsoft Windows Phone and other devices. When it comes to choose a ripper, "free" is likely the prerequisite. It's easy to google out a free DVD ripper, but tough to figure out the real free, clean yet helpful one.
To help you stay away from ad-supported and malware-bundled free DVD ripping tools and catch the best one hassle free, we have sorted out the top 5 free DVD rippers for Windows and Mac, along with in-depth review.
2016 Top Free DVD Ripper # 1 - WinX DVD Ripper ★★★★★
OS: Windows 10/8/7, Mac OS X
We put WinX DVD Ripper in first place, based on some researches of users' preference about free DVD rippers. Yes, what really makes most people excited is a free DVD copier that extracting contents from piles or hundreds of DVD discs at an awe-inspiring speed primarily while maintaining the highest possible quality. One top-end option is WinX DVD Ripper, a critically acclaimed free DVD ripper software developed by Digiarty, for both DVD-ripping novice and experts.
Downloading and installing WinX DVD Ripper (10.2 MB) only takes you seconds and you are suggested to save it in folders other than C:\. Registration box will pop out, but you can choose to jump over it. After that, you are all set to backup any of your DVDs or DVD folders, be it homemade or commercial copy protected ones, such as CSS encryption, region code, Sony ARccOS, UOPs, APS and RCE. Feel free to rip DVD to MP4, MPEG, WMV, FLV, MOV, MP4, H.264, iPhone, iPad, Android, etc, using hardware acceleration technology MMX- SSE & 3DNow!. And relax, it is a completely free yet clean DVD ripping program.
2016 Top Free DVD Ripper # 2 - HandBrake ★★★★☆
OS: Windows, Mac OS, Linux
HandBrake is a cross-platform, open-source free video transcoder accompanying with the ability to rip DVD to MP4 and MKV. As a popular free DVD ripper, it undoubtedly owns many merits. Firstly, it is lightweight and clean. Secondly, it allows you to load DVD disc, as well as DVD folder and ISO file for further ripping. Thirdly, In addition to offering most popular MP4 and MKV as the outputs, it also provides optimized presets for prevailing devices including iPhone, iPad, iPod (touch), Apple TV, Android and WP8. Fourthly, various setting options are also included for advanced users to achieve desired result.
However, compared with WinX DVD Ripper, HandBrake has some shortcomings, especially on the decoding of copy-protected DVDs. What's more, output files accessible in WinX DVD Ripper, i.e. DVD to WMV, MOV, FLV, MP3, and the like, are absent in HandBrake.
2016 Top Free DVD Ripper # 3 - MakeMKV ★★★★☆
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8, Mac OS X 10.6 and above, Linux
MakeMKV focuses on offering an effortless solution to rip DVDs, AVCHD discs, Blu-ray discs as well as ISO images to MKV while retaining all videos, audios, subtitles of selected titles from original source. Supporting multiple copy protection schemes (like CSS, region code), this free DVD ripper is available to read and rip encrypted DVDs. Importantly, it delivers a quite fast DVD conversion speed averagely costing half the time of the length of a feature film.
Insert a DVD disc into DVD drive. MakeMKV will load disc info automatically. After disc reading process is completed, all the scanned titles will be listed. According to your needs, select main title, particular titles, or all listed titles for ripping. Specify the output folder and hit Make MKV button to get an excellent MKV copy with high definition from disc.
We should inform you that MakeMKV is used as a free program for converting and streaming DVD/AVCHD discs while requiring a license key to rip Blu-ray after 30-day free trial. Otherwise, keep this free DVD ripper in latest beta version for making all functions free of use.
Verdict: MakeMKV earns its rank in best free DVD ripper list due to ease of use, disc copy protection support and fast ripping speed. But note that it only outputs MKV files, and thus you have to search a MKV player or transfer video into a more compatible format (MP4) via video converter for a smooth playback on PC/Mac and portable devices.
2016 Top Free DVD Ripper # 4 - DVD Shrink ★★★★☆
OS: Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000/95/98/ME
Latest version: The development of DVD Shrink was discontinued in May 2005, so the latest version you can download is DVD Shrink 3.2.0.15.
Supported input formats: DVD disc, DVD folder
Supported output formats: ISO Image file, DVD folder DVD copy protections supported: DVD region code, UOPs, APS and CSS. (Since it's discontinued, it is unable to remove recent copy protection technologies like Disney X-project DRM, Sony ArccOS, etc.)
Supported input formats: DVD disc, DVD folder
Supported output formats: ISO Image file, DVD folder DVD copy protections supported: DVD region code, UOPs, APS and CSS. (Since it's discontinued, it is unable to remove recent copy protection technologies like Disney X-project DRM, Sony ArccOS, etc.)
DVD Shrink is known as Windows free DVD ripper software for ripping DVD to hard drive as DVD folder or ISO Image file. Better still, it can be used in conjunction with third-party DVD burning programs to make a copy of original DVD discs.
However, converting DVD files to MP4, AVI, MOV, iPhone or other videos/devices is not possible with this free DVD video converter, which only allows you to shrink DVD to folder or ISO. Furthermore, DVD Shrink can't remove new copy protections since it's not updated any more lone time ago, meaning ripping Disney DVDs can't be done with it.
2016 Top Free DVD Ripper # 5 - Freemake Video Converter ★★★☆☆
OS: Windows XP (SP3)/Vista/7/8/8.1/10
FreemakeVideo Converter, a high-praised video converter program, is really a feature-packed tool that is also capable of free ripping DVDs/Blu-ray discs and burning video to DVD disc/DVD folder/ISO image file.
As a free DVD ripper, Freemake Video Converter can rip general DVD movies to MP4, AVI, MOV, MKV, MP3, HTML5, iPhone, iPad, Android, PSP and more mainstream media formats and mobile devices. Its video editing feature allows you to rotate/cut output DVD video as you like, choose audio channel, as well as select/add subtitles to movie video. By leveraging CUDA and DXVA technology, the DVD (to H.264/MPEG2) ripping process is accelerated by 50% at most.
What a pity Freemake Video Converter cannot defeat any unwanted DVD copy protection schemes, neither DVD region code, CSS, REC, Sony ArccOS or Disney DRM. Moreover, it's not a clean tool and several annoying adware are foisted to install during the setup.
Pick a Lifetime Top Free DVD Ripper to Rip DVD - # Conclusion
Ripping DVD to friendly formats could be easy if you take the best free DVD ripper in hand. By reviewing the five best free DVD ripping tools and considering overall, most users give WinX DVD Ripper a vote, and we may attribute this to:
1. It's 100% clean, safe and free with no malware, adware, spyware or virus at all; extremely easy-to-use;
2. Supporting most new protected DVDs; various output formats and devices;
3. fast and nice output quality; perfectly compatible with Windows 10/8/7, etc.
2. Supporting most new protected DVDs; various output formats and devices;
3. fast and nice output quality; perfectly compatible with Windows 10/8/7, etc.
Give this free DVD rip tool a try and you'll be amazed.
