How to Copy DVD to Hard Drive in Digital Formats

Ripping DVDs to your hard drive offers a range of benefits that can enhance the way you interact with your movie collection. First, you can watch movies on your computer, tablet or even smartphone. With a digital movie library, you can easily search for specific titles and create customized playlists. Second, copying DVD to hard drive provides opportunities for customization and editing. You can easily extract specific scenes and even edit the content to your liking.

How to Copy DVD to Hard Drive Directly?

You can copy home-made DVD to your hard drive without using third-party tools, as these DVDs typically don’t have any copy protection. Here’s how you can do it using just Windows Explorer and Finder on Windows and macOS.

On Windows:

Step 1: Place the home-made DVD into your computer’s DVD drive.

Step 2: Next, open Windows Explorer by pressing Win + E. Once Windows Explorer is open, locate your DVD drive, which is usually labeled as “DVD RW Drive” or something similar, and find it under “This PC” or “My Computer.”

Step 3: Right-click on the DVD drive and select “Open” or “Explore” to display the contents of the DVD; you should typically see folders like VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. Next, select all the files and folders on the DVD by pressing Ctrl + A. With the items selected, right-click and choose “Copy.”

Step 4: Navigate to the location on your hard drive where you want to store the DVD content. Once there, right-click in the destination folder and select “Paste.” Finally, the files will start copying.

On macOS:

Step 1: To begin the process, insert the home-made DVD into your Mac’s DVD drive.

Step 2: Next, open a Finder window and select the DVD from the sidebar under “Devices.”

Step 3: Once the DVD is open, you can either drag the files directly from the DVD to your desired location or right-click on the files and choose “Copy.”

Step 4: After that, navigate to your hard drive where you want to store the files. Right-click in that location and select “Paste Item.”

💡To play the copied DVD files, you can use media players like VLC, which can open and play VIDEO_TS folders.

How to Rip DVD to Hard Drive in Digital Formats?

For Copy-Protected DVDs: Using DVDFab DVD Ripper

If you want to copy DVD to Hard Drive in MP4 or any other formats, DVDFab DVD Ripper is of great help. This software works on both Windows and Mac, decrypting and removing any DVD restrictions.

Features:

• Rip DVD to 1000+ audio and video formats in 1:1 quality
• Open any old or new disc in 5 to 10 seconds
• Decrypt the latest DVD copy protections like CSS, APS, RC
• 50x faster DVD ripping speed and compress video without losing quality
• A built-in video editor including crop, trim, add watermark, add external subtitles, etc

Steps on how to Copy DVD to Hard Drive using DVDFab DVD Ripper

Step 1: Download the software and load your DVD source

Tab the Ripper option when it runs. Insert the DVD disc. If the source is an ISO file or a folder, simply drag and drop it onto the workspace. The DVD will be decrypted automatically.

Step 2: Choose one profile and customize the output DVD

Click “Choose Other Profile” > “Format” > “Video” to convert digital formats. Options are available to select audio tracks/language, extract subtitles from DVD to SRT format, or add external subtitles. Set video and audio parameters via ‘Advanced Settings and ‘Video Edit’.

Step 3: Start to rip DVDs to hard drive

Specify the destination folder on your hard drive where you want the copied files to be saved. Click on the “Start” button in the software to begin the process.

For Non-Protected DVDs: Using HandBrake

HandBrake is a popular open-source video transcoder that is widely used for converting video formats and ripping DVDs. It allows users to extract video content from DVDs and convert it into digital formats, which can be stored on a hard drive for easier access and playback.

Features:

• Cross-Platform: It is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• HandBrake allows users to add or burn subtitles into the video.
• Users can customize video settings, such as resolution, frame rate, and quality.
• Users can queue multiple titles for conversion, saving time when dealing with several DVDs.

How to Rip DVD to Hard Drive using HandBrake

Step 1: To get started, first visit HandBrake’s official website and download the software.

Step 2: Insert the DVD by placing it into your drive. Next, launch HandBrake and click on “Open Source” to select your DVD drive.

Step 3: After that, choose the DVD title you want to rip and select a preset, such as “Fast 480p30,” to optimize the encoding settings.

Step 4: Decide where you would like to save the converted file on your hard drive. Finally, click “Start Encode” to begin the encoding process.

💡There are workarounds to make HandBrake work with copy-protected DVDs, but these involve using additional software.

Download libdvdcss:

• Download the libdvdcss DLL file. You can find it online by searching for "libdvdcss for Windows."
• The file should be named something like libdvdcss-2.dll.

Install libdvdcss:

• Copy the downloaded libdvdcss-2.dll file.
• Paste it into the HandBrake installation folder. This is typically located at C:\Program Files\HandBrake.
• HandBrake will now use libdvdcss to decrypt protected DVDs.

Disclaimer: In certain places, it may be forbidden to copy or rip copy-protected DVDs. When using libdvdcss or any other program to get around DVD copy protection, be sure you are in compliance with local copyright laws.