Spotlight: AI chat, games like Retro, location changer, Roblox unblocked
Spotlight: AI chat, games like Retro, location changer, Roblox unblocked
Mac has abandoned optical drive to save more space and make itself lighter. For users who want to watch a DVD, they need to carry an external drive and the discs. But there is an easier way to watch a DVD movie. You can rip them and back them up as digital copies on your computer and play them anytime and anywhere. This post shares the 7 best free DVD rippers for Mac. They are all free and preserve the original quality, and some can also handle protected DVDs.
| OS | Best for | Output formats | Bypass DRM | Region-free | Editing Features |
| Mac OS 10.13 and later, Windows 10 and later, Linux Flatpak. | Convert most multimedia files for various platforms or devices. | MP4, MKV, and WebM. | No | No | No |
| Mac OS X. | Rip DVDs with fast speed and editing options. | MP4, MOV, H.264, HEVC, etc. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mac OS X 10.7 or later, Windows XP or later. | Convert videos/DVDs/Blu-rays without quality loss or compressing. | MKV | Yes | No | No |
| Mac OS 10.7 or later. | Rip unencrypted DVDs with advanced editing tools. | MP4/MOV/MKV/FLV/M4V, etc. | No | No | For subscription users only. |
| Mac OS 10.8 and earlier. | Those who still use an old version of Mac (Mac OS X 10.6 and earlier). | The same as the source. | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, Unix, iOS, Android. | Playback of media files with basic DVD ripping capability. | A wide range of popular formats. | No | No | No |
| MacOS, Windows, and Linux. | Users who prefer a command-line DVD ripper. | Most formats with expandable codecs. | No | No | Yes |
You might have come across HandBrake when you were searching for a great DVD ripper. It does surpass expectations as a free and open-source software. HandBrake is specialized in transcoding, including DVD/Blu-ray ripping and video conversion. Moreover, it gets updated regularly and keeps up with the latest requirements of Apple devices, like the newly added Apple VideoToolbox hardware decoding.
MacX DVD Ripper Mac Free Edition combines more features for DVD ripping and editing. It can decrypt locked DVDs while keeping 1:1 audio-visual quality. Moreover, it offers numerous presets for devices or platforms like iPhone, iPad, PSP, Apple TV, YouTube, etc. It also allows you to edit the video. You can crop, trim, and merge titles, customize DVD encoding, and adjust subtitles and tracks.
MakeMKV is an open and free DVD ripper for Mac. It appears on many forums and recommendation lists for its powerful ability to read and rip DVDs and Blu-rays, including encrypted ones. MakeMKV can preserve the source without changing the content much, including the codecs, audio tracks, chapters, and meta information. After the ripping is done, it packs the digital copy as an MKV file. Though you can convert DVDs to MKV only, it doesn't matter since MKV file is widely supported on various devices and platforms. However, if you wish to get another specific format, MakeMKV may not be the best choice.
You can find iSuper DVD Ripper on the App Store, but it can only rip unencrypted DVDs according to the App Store policies. It is free to download and convert DVDs to many popular formats, like MP4, AVI, MOV, M4V, WMV, and more. Besides, it also offers some in-app purchases like full access to all formats, audio tracks and subtitles adjustments, and video enhancers. For advanced editing features, you can adjust video brightness, hue, contrast, merge and cut clips, add watermarks, etc.
MacTheRipper (MTR) has been one of the most popular DVD rippers for Mac. It has both free and paid versions. The old version, 2.6.6, is the last free version, which can rip DVDs regardless of copy protection like CSS or the DVD region code. Meanwhile, it keeps the original quality of the DVD movies. However, its official website doesn't offer a download link. You need to download it from other websites.
VLC is also a free and open-source DVD ripper, though it doesn't specialize in DVD ripping. It has the necessary codecs to read and rip some protected DVDs, such as libdvdcss, libdvdnav, and libdvdread. However, VLC Media Player doesn't work as stable as professional DVD rippers. Sometimes, you may encounter crashes, audio delays, or freezes.
FFmpeg is a lightweight and fast DVD ripper and video transcoder with a large library of codecs. Some users prefer to use FFmpeg because of its simple command-line interface. However, it can't rip copy-protected DVDs. To rip a DVD, you need to input some command lines, which may be daunting for beginners.
Free DVD rippers may fail to rip all DVDs with region codes or DRM. If you want to rip all DVDs with no restriction, it's better to find a more powerful DVD ripper like Anymp4 DVD ripper. It allows you to rip DVDs with no restrictions on formats, regions, sizes, etc. As a professional DVD ripper, it can rip any DVD with 50× faster speed. Moreover, it allows you to back up your DVDs while preserving the original quality.
Does MacOS have a default DVD ripper?
No. Mac doesn't offer built-in software to play DVDs. But you can download a third-party DVD ripper like Handbrake, MakeMKV, and Anymp4 DVD Ripper.
Is MacX DVD Ripper safe?
Yes. It's safe to use. It offers both free and pro versions. And you should use it to rip DVDs for personal purposes only.
Can VLC rip DVD to MP4 on Mac?
Yes. VLC has built-in libdvdcss to decrypt protected DVDs and convert them to MP4 on Mac. But it can't rip all protected DVDs. If it doesn't work, you can try some more powerful DVD rippers, like Anymp4 DVD Ripper.
Conclusion
Above are the 7 best free DVD rippers for Mac. HandBrake and FFmpeg allow you to tweak your DVDs on numerous parameters, like codecs, video filters, bitrate, etc. If you prefer to rip DVDs without changing codecs or editing, you can try MakeMKV or VLC. For those who want a comprehensive DVD ripper that can edit and rip protected DVDs, you can try MacX DVD Ripper or Anymp4 DVD Ripper. Hope you can find the suitable tool in this post and enjoy the smooth DVD ripping.
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