Top 5 Best Free DVD Ripper Software for Windows

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• Karen Joseph July 31, 2012, 12:10 am

  Hi,
  Sad to say but none of the above software worked for my encrypted dvds

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• VanguardLH November 16, 2012, 11:15 am

  While DVD Shrink (old and abandoned) and DVDfab HD Decrypter (sometimes hangs requiring killing it to restart) will remove copy protection, WinX DVD Ripper (slow) will *not* work with copy protected movies which means forget about ripping many of your commercial movies on discs. I’ve been using FormatFactory for many years and have never heard of it handling any copy protection. DVD Shrink will remove a few copy protections and HD Decrypter will remove more. FormatFactory is a converter utility. For DVD movies, you’ll have to point FF at the video_ts folder and pick *each* of the .vob files to convert, and then later have to rerun FF to merge them (in the correct order which means picking them one at a time to add to the merge list – and don’t go past 10 files to merge else FF may crash). The other programs will do the merge for you so you get all of the main movie.

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• Collin Williams February 22, 2013, 4:39 pm

  I have been using Dvd Shrink for yrs. I never had any problem with it.
  I recently installed Win X Dvd Ripper on my other Computers. It is working perfectly well.

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• James March 16, 2013, 2:40 am

  You forgot to mention how the DVD Shrink install would hijack my FireFox, replace several of my regular programs, and generally wreak havoc on my system. It took me 45 minutes to clean it up, and I’m still not sure I got it all.

  But on the plus side, the ripper does seem to be working.

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• Bit later March 29, 2013, 2:08 pm

  How dare you say such bad things about dvd shrink I’v installed on many computers laptops and its never done it to me and so you must be mistaken James you must have install ronley.

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• crystal May 1, 2013, 4:37 pm

  DVD Shrink works very well but not on recent DVDs

  Tried DVDFab HD Decrypter : Doesn’t work at all : output = rubbish

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• Doc May 8, 2013, 10:54 pm

  It’s HANDBRAKE, not HANDBREAK.

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  • Ramesh Natarajan May 9, 2013, 3:11 am

    Doc, Thanks for pointing out the typo. it is fixed now.

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• cheetah May 19, 2013, 3:54 pm

  can someone tell how I can put a dvd on to my Samsung tablet 10.1

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• diskon July 29, 2013, 1:24 pm

  can I use it to convert from msdvd to avi or wmv too?

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• Anonymous August 19, 2013, 11:23 pm

  WinX DVD Ripper roxx. better than the paid software express rip
  i am 12 years old

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• Kirsty Faithe August 21, 2013, 6:23 pm

  i have used DVD Shrink since it’s release date. used to burn DVD’s straight to blank discs, but that feature no longer works for me. I tried downloading heaps of other software’s that failed me, until i realized it can be saved to a folder, then burnt using Nero. I still use DVD Shrink to this day, and whilst there are SOME DVD’s it cannot copy due to advanced protection, it’s still my number one.

  Any DVD Cloner Platinum is great for new copy protection that Shrink can’t handle, but it’s not free.

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• Betty-Jean October 19, 2013, 2:38 pm

  Can someone help using dvd shrink but movies are coming out segmented. When watching movies from my hard drive you have to go find next part it doesn’t go in order.

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• Bri November 12, 2013, 1:43 pm

  That Format Factory is a virus/trojan because I was going to download it but my Avast had blocked it because it was a virus thing. Don’t know if any one else had this problem but I think that if the anti virus program is stopping the download before you even start it then something is wrong with that program.

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• NTx November 23, 2013, 10:01 am

  WinX Free could possibly rival all the others very easily, but it will not because it will not produce either AVI or MKV files. No serious video producer or collector is interested in archiving to MP4, much less FLV. I feel all things MPEG are children’s toys anyway. MKV is by far the best video container format going nowadays. MKV separates the men from the boys. And AVI is a perennial favorite that has withstood the test of time. It is hard for me to believe such an inhuman evil monster as Microsoft ever once invented AVI or even WAV.

  The main downside to WinX free is that it will not deinterlace a DVD while ripping. That right there is what makes the program worthless. I hate Handbreak, because it requires bloatware .NET Framework 4.0 to run, and it will not produce AVI either. However, it will produce an MKV, which is good. I mainly use Format Factory, because it will deinterlace a DVD and produce videos in MANY different formats, including MKV, AVI, and even for the remedial users, even a lowly MP4 thingy, if you want. But the deinterlacing function is quite hard to find on any DVD ripping freeware nowadays. I use K-lite codec pack, full, and tweak my codecs with its tool, to prevent conflicts.

  The new kid on the block, which is seemingly bulletproof is MakeMKV. MakeMKV basically [perfectly] copies the entire DVD, (or the parts of it you want), to an MKV file. This in turn preserves all the chapters, 5.1 sound, languages and subtitles data, etc. I am assuming it removes all copyright protection too. However, my technique for ripping DVDs is to copy them firstly using DVDSmith, a very very good Hollywood BS removal freeware.

  Then I take my TS files and make an ISO using CDBurnerXP. CDBXP versions prior to 4.5 will also produce an ISO with UDF bridge. Then using DVDFab, I mount the ISO on a virtual drive and re-rip with either Format Factory or MakeMKV. After copying with DVDSmith, there is never any copy protection left embedded on the VOB files.

  MKV is extremely simple to use. If you cannot play MKV files, then install K-Lite codec pack full, which will also give you the most fastest and bestest full-function media player on the planet today: Media Player Classic – Home Cinima. MPC-HC runs on a dime, even on older systems. And it will see and allow you to play your MKV movies by the chapters, seeking titles and all. It will be years or even decades before a better video file format will ever come out that can beat MKV. The Russkies have really done it now! If you thought Kaspersky was great, the look out for MKV and True Audio! The best just keeps getting better there!

  Anyway, WinX could have easily beaten all these players you mention, but their huge failing point is lack of being able to deinterlace a DVD while ripping, which will leave you with a really horrible quality video, especially in the fast actions scenes. The only real plus side is their exceedingly friendly user interface. But it all means nothing without the ability to deinterlace or produce an AVI or MKV file. Basically, WinX free is just an advertisement to get you to buy WinX ripper platinum, which is seemingly reasonable in price.

  Again, Format Factory always does an excellent job, especially when using DivX, not Xvid or h.264. H.264 is bloaty and sucks, because it reeks of the whole inferior MPEG mentality. I feel Xvid is best, but the problem there is the bitrate will not “stick” ripping with Format Factory, but DivX does. The MAIN TRICK to effectively using Format Factory is tweaking your settings the way you really want them, then save them to an INI file. But ALWAYS set your INI files to “read only” after you create them, otherwise often times, FF will modify them when you are not looking or your back is turned!

  Also, once I rip a DVD, which is either in MKV or AVI DivX, then I almost always produce my final files using Pazera’s video converters. His collection of video converters work absolutely flawlessly and easily support command line modifications for more tweaks. No software in the world can produce such a picture-perfect and flawless AVI file than what Pazera’s software will do. However, the only downside to Pazera’s software is I think it suffers from “memory leakage” while running, which after you use it once, in order to do the next video, you need to completely restart the software for optimal results, otherwise it leaves traces of your last video conversion job on your current job.

  Lastly, Format Factory has no ads on the interface or installer. I have no clue where that comment came from. I think years ago, FF used to be ad-supported during the installation process; but, that could always be easily opted out. So FF never once installed any malware or adware on any of my machines. However, in the last several years now, seemingly, FF is 100% ad-free, not even included on the installer. I run 100% bulletproof computers with very high security practices. I am my own firewall in life! I RTFM first!

  Thanks for the GREAT ARTICLE here!!

  Signed,

  NTx

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• Kubo February 5, 2014, 3:05 pm

  WinX DVD Ripper IS NOT FREE

  after instaling it has said that I can make only 5minutes from a movie clip and did not alowed me to make backup ISO !!!!

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