February 02, 2011, 11:02 AM — [Editor's note: The MPAA and most media companies argue that you can't legally copy or convert commercial DVDs for any reason. We (and others) think that, if you own a DVD, you should be able to override its copy protection to make a backup copy or to convert its content for viewing on other devices. Currently, the law isn't entirely clear one way or the other. So our advice is: If you don't own it, don't do it. If you do own it, think before you rip.]
Looking to liberate the movies in your DVD collection from the confines of their plastic-and-metal prison so you can enjoy them on your iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Apple TV? Well look no further--all you need is some free software and to follow a few steps.
Step One: Install the software
In order to rip a DVD with HandBrake, you'll need to download the free software. If you have a Mac with a Core 2 Duo or later processor, make sure to get the 64-bit version of the software. It will speed up your ripping times over the 32-bit version of HandBrake. (Note that the latest version of HandBrake, 0.9.5, is Intel-only. If you still have a PowerPC-based Mac, you can still download version 0.9.4.)
And because HandBrake no longer includes the libraries needed to decrypt commercial DVDs (you should only rip DVDs that you've purchased), you'll also need to install the equally free VLC media player. To get the 64-bit benefits from HandBrake, you'll need to have a 64-bit version of VLC as well. The standard download is a Universal Binary and contains both 32- and 64-bit code for Intel Macs--if you want to save some disk space, you can download the specific VLC package for your situation.
Step Two: Insert a DVD and pick what to rip
Now insert your DVD into your Mac's DVD drive and launch HandBrake. By default, the app will launch a dialog box and have you select the DVD mounted on your Mac--choose it and click Open. HandBrake will then scan the DVD for the titles it contains, which can a few minutes. Once the scan is complete, click on the box next to Title and from the pop-up menu that appears, choose the longest title.
If you encounter a DVD with 99 titles of almost the same length, you've run into a copy-protection scheme meant to thwart ripping. In that case, launch Apple's DVD Player application, navigate to the main feature, choose Go -> Title from the menu bar, and find the title with a check mark next to it. Choose that title in HandBrake and continue.
If there are several items you want to convert--all the episodes on a TV show DVD, for example--you can select one, give it a unique name in the File area, click the Add To Queue button, and then repeat the process for each item until they've all been added to the encoding queue (you'll want to adjust your encoding settings prior to adding the items to the queue, however, which I'll discuss in the next step).
[Note that DVD ripping is a constant cat-and-mouse game, with content providers regularly updating their copy-protection schemes to prevent copying, and HandBrake/VLC trying to provide access to the latest discs. Which is a long way of saying that HandBrake may not work with every DVD. If all else fails, you may need to spend money on a different DVD-ripping application for better results.]
Step Three: Choose a preset
Now that you've selected the title to rip, you'll need to choose your encoding settings based on the device(s) on which you plan to view the content. Although you can tweak every aspect of encoding, HandBrake includes handy presets that make it much easier.
If the Presets Drawer isn't already open, click on the Toggle Presets button at the top of the HandBrake window (or press command-T). In the drawer, you'll see three sets of presets: Apple, Regular, and Legacy. In most cases, you can just focus your attention on the Apple section. There you'll find Universal, iPod, iPhone & iPod Touch, iPhone 4, iPad, AppleTV, and AppleTV 2.
