DVD Ripper needed

Is there any good, free software that will dependably rip DVDs?

I've got a bunch of movies from the library and want to rip them and store them as MP4s on my computer so I've got something to watch when I head back to Affiker.

I've tried VLC Media Player but am running into probs with it.

Perhaps the DVDs are copyright protected, but if so, shouldn't I get some sort of pop-up notice saying something like: You sh--head! BUY the DVD!

Howdy Doc

I've had the best luck with Handbrake for making MP4s. I use MakeMKV no though, as I prefer MKV files to MP4

I used to use MP4's for everything as they were Apple friendly and were the easiest to use with iTunes. We are all Apple here, but have pretty much ditched iTunes completely since moving over to using PLEX. PLEX will play anything and does a better job of being user friendly. The MKV files tend to be much smaller with better quality than the MP4's I always messed with.

Does Handbrake copy a DVD or only convert files? I don't see anyplace on Handbrake to access an optical drive and copy from a DVD.

Yes, it will rip just about anything.....CD or DVD. Click the source button in the top left and choose your DVD drive. Adjust your settings to what you want it to output and go

I may be wrong, but I believe that in the US anyways, you need to add a CSS decryption DLL to handbrake to get it to rip DVDs directly. That may have changed with recent versions.

I use DVDShrink to rip DVDs to disk and remove the CSS encryption. DVDShrink is somewhat hard to find - let me know if you need it and I can send you a copy.

In DVDShrink, I use "reauthor" to rip only the main title, and English audio tracks. I also include all subtitles (since they take up almost no space). I set the compression level to zero because I'm going to compress with handbrake.

I then use handbrake to convert the ripped files to MKV files.

Every now and again I run across a DVD that DVDShrink won't rip. I presume these have some sort of copy protection.

Holy smokes! Too complicated for this old fart!

I'd have to have somebody walk me through it.