How to Rip DVD with VLC Step-by-Step Guide (2026 Update)

Ripping a DVD with VLC seems simple: insert the disc, adjust a few settings, and hit Start. In reality, it’s rarely that smooth. DVDs, subtitles, and DRM protections can make the process tricky, leading to crashes, freezes, or poor-quality output.

Common challenges include:

★ Choosing the right VLC version for your system
★ Loading discs that libdvdcss might not fully support
★ Handling DVD titles and subtitles correctly
★ Dealing with freezes, crashes, or incomplete MP4 files

Most tutorials skip these pitfalls, leaving you to troubleshoot on your own. Here we provide comprehensive instructions on how to rip DVDs using VLC on PC and Mac, along with solutions to address the common VLC DVD ripping errors.

Download FREE VLC DVD Ripper to Rip Protected DVDs Easily

VLC won't support DVD copy protections. You may see choppy VLC DVD rip, slow speed, crashes, missing subtitles, A/V out of sync, etc.

Try WinX DVD Ripper. It’s a 100% free alternative that rips both protected and unprotected DVDs hassle-free. No libdvdcss tweaks, no title scanning errors. WinX DVD Ripper handles region-locked, RCE, Disney 99-title, scratched, and old DVDs smoothly — and converts them to MP4, MOV, WMV, AVI, ISO, and 420+ device presets. With GPU acceleration, it takes just 5 minutes to rip a full DVD to MP4 — without audio glitches, subtitle loss, or crashes.

Part 1. How to Rip a DVD in VLC on Windows

Make sure your computer has an optical drive in order to rip DVDs with VLC. If your computer or laptop ditches internal DVD drive, you need to get a reliable external DVD drive for your laptop/computer. Then follow the the below guide on how to rip DVD with VLC.

1. Install VLC

Most users may have VLC on their computer. Those who haven't installed VLC, click here to download VLC on your Windows PC. Then follow the instruction to install VLC.

VLC install crashed: "It keeps giving me 'Oops: VLC media just crashed. Would you like to send a bug report to the developers team?' error message since I upgrade to V3.0.20. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing... deleting the %appdata%/vlc folder... and rebooting. I cannot get to preferences or anything because the program literally won't start. It doesn't even show the process as running on Task Manager."

1. Check the video driver.
2. Update to a newer version.
3. Check if there is another app/software that conflicts with VLC.

VLC security issue: VLC comes with security vulnerability from time to time. For example, in the VLC 3.0.7.1 brought a vulnerability called CVE-2019-13615, which allowed unauthorised modification and disclosure of data/files, and overall disruption of service. There was also a severe remote code execution flaw tracked as CVE-2020-13428. To rip DVDs without VLC security flaws, try WinX DVD Ripper Platinum.

2. Open VLC

After you install VLC, open it. Insert the disc you want to rip into the optical drive of your PC. Click the Media drop-down menu and select Convert/Save. Then you should see the picture in Step 3.

Or, you can enter into the converting window in another way: click Media on the top menu tab and then click Open Disc. Then you will see a window similar to the one in Step 3, except that the bottom button is Play instead of Convert/Save. Select the DVD, click the downward-facing arrow next to the Play button and select Convert from the drop-down menu.

3. Load the source DVD into VLC

In the Open Media window, click Disc from the top tab and enable DVD option. Then select the DVD to rip in Disc device. You can also add a Blu-ray, Audio CD, SVCD/VCD, or click File button to add an IFO file or ISO image file of DVD.

Important: Don't forget to check the "No Disc Menus" box. It can help avoid possible errors. If you don't check it, VLC may get stuck ripping the DVD titles over and over until you manually close it.

DVD won't load: After you select a DVD from the Disc device, VLC just won't load the DVD. Sometimes, it goes with an error message saying MRL 'dvd:///D:/' (though this error happens more often when VLC plays DVDs or videos) or "There is no disk in Drive D." while there is a DVD in Drive D. This error happens when libdvdcss in VLC won't support the encryption of a DVD. You need to:

1. Update VLC to the latest version.
2. To rip DVD with VLC in Ubuntu, you should know that the libdvd applications are not installed by default. Open a terminal window: sudo apt install libdvdcss2 libdvdread4 libdvdnav4 ubuntu-restricted-extras
3. Remove DVD protection with other software.

4. Adjust the VLC DVD ripping settings

After the DVD is successfully loaded, go to the settings section below. You can see Starting Position and Audio and Subtitles options.

Starting Position: If you wish to extract a specific portion of a DVD or rip multiple episodes using VLC, you can specify the title and chapter you want to rip. Since VLC cannot rip protected DVDs automatically, you can manually identify the correct DVD title in VLC. To do this, play the source DVD in a standard DVD player, make note of the movie title, and then enter the corresponding title/chapter number in VLC. VLC will then rip the chosen DVD title into the final video. However, it's important to note that this method may not be 100% effective for all DVD copy protections.

Audio and Subtitles: How to rip DVD on VLC with subtitles? You need to do it by selecting the Audio/Subtitle track value, you can choose the audio and subtitle in the language you need.

Important: VLC doesn’t natively hardcode subtitles into a video during DVD ripping. It can only rip video and external subtitle tracks separately or display them during playback. DVD subtitles are usually stored as VobSub (bitmap images), not text. VLC can't hardcode these directly into your ripped MP4. You’ll need to extract subtitles separately using tools like Subtitle Edit and convert them to .srt for embedding.

No subtitle: "I am trying to hardcode subtitles into the ripped video using VLC player. I have followed the turtorials, and everything seems right until the final output has no subtitles embedded in."

1. After you rip the DVD, use Streaming wizard (Media > Stream...) to add subtitles.
2. You'd better use subtitles in .srt formats as VLC 3 has no support for autodetection ot txt subtitles.
3. Try to use ":no-sout-all" option in the streaming chain and save the ripped video and subtitles in diffferent folder.
4. Try an older version or the nightly build. Check how to add subtitles to DVD >>

Rip corrupted DVD: In some cases, you may select a corrupted title from Starting Position when it is a DVD protected with 99-title or bad sector protections. Then you can play the DVD on VLC first and go to VLC menu > Playback > Title and find the right title.

Can't keep two tracks: With VLC video rip, you can select which audio track to hear and which subtitle track to display, but you can't keep two or more audio/subtitle tracks in the output video file (many others are stuck with one audio/subtitle track too, e.g., Handbrake, DVDFab, AutoGK, etc.). When you need to sync all the tracks to the output video, you can try other DVD rippers. For example, WinX DVD Ripper Platinum offers four backup modes to keep all the tracks and info: main title, full title, TS_folder, and ISO image.

5. Select an output format

Click the Convert/Save button and now you can set the output format for the DVD rip. Click Profile drop-down menu and find the format you want. You can use VLC to rip DVD to MP4, H.264, WMV, MPEG4, iPod, Android, YouTube, and a few others. Select the output you need.

In the Destination section, click Browse and select a folder on your Windows PC for the VLC ripped DVD video and give the output file a name.

6. Start DVD ripping

After the above settings, click Start and VLC should start ripping the DVD on Windows. You can see the Streaming progress bar at the bottom. Simply wait for VLC to finish the rip.

>> How to Play Blu-Ray in VLC Media Player

Watch a video tutorial on how to rip DVD with VLC to your PC.

Part 2. How to Rip DVD with VLC on Mac

Ripping DVDs with VLC on Mac also involves opening the DVD in the player, selecting the desired output format, and specifying a destination for the ripped file. Let's break down each step in detail.

Step 1. Install VLC

Download the latest version of VLC Media Player on your Mac from the official website: https://www.videolan.org/

Step 2. Load the DVD to VLC

Insert the DVD you want to rip into your Mac's optical drive. Launch VLC Media Player. On the main interface of VLC, click Open Media. In the Open Source window, click the Disc tab and choose the DVD that you just insert into the Mac's DVD drive.

Step 3. Disable DVD Menus

Next, you need to click the "Disable DVD menus" button. This is to avoid VLC from getting stuck ripping the DVD menu in a loop. Then you will need to input the correct title and chapter of the DVD. If you don't know the corect title/chapter, you can play the DVD in a player and write down the title/chapter number that is playing.

Step 4. Configure DVD Ripping Settings

Next, click the "Stream output" and then the "Settings" button. This will open the output setting window. Click the "Browse" button to choose the destination folder on your Mac to save the ripped DVD video file. Then go to the “Encapsulation Method”  as well as Transcoding options to choose which format you would like to rip the DVD to with VLC.

Step 5. Start Ripping DVD in VLC on Mac

After the above settings, click the "Open" button and VLC will start ripping the DVD. The progress of the ripping process will be displayed in the VLC interface.

Part 3. Fixes to VLC DVD Ripping Issues on Windows/Mac

Ripping a DVD with VLC is convenient, but sometimes the resulting video may encounter issues. Below are common problems you may face and practical solutions to address them efficiently.

VLC crashes during ripping: VLC may crash when converting a DVD to MP4, sometimes immediately after starting, or fail to select the feature track without navigating the DVD menu first.

1. Crashes are often caused by DVD copy protection. VLC includes libdvdcss for some encrypted discs, but newer protections may block it. Consider using free rippers for copy-protected DVDs.
2. Disable hardware decoding in VLC preferences.
3. Try VLC nightly builds if the stable version crashes.

Ripping stuck in a loop: Sometimes VLC displays messages like "the output file already exists" or gets stuck in short loops during conversion.

1. Ensure playback loop is turned off in VLC.
2. Downgrade VLC to a previous stable version if looping persists.

Slow ripping speed: VLC often rips DVDs slowly because it streams the video during conversion and primarily uses CPU resources.

1. Enable GPU decoding for supported codecs (Tools > Preferences > Input & Codecs > Hardware-accelerated decoding set to Automatic).
2. Use a DVD ripper that supports hardware-accelerated encoding for faster performance.
3. Consider a more powerful PC or Mac to improve ripping speed.

Audio/video out of sync: Video may play correctly, but audio lags. VLC allows temporary sync adjustment via Tools > Effects & Filters > Synchronization. For a permanent fix, consider ripping to another format or using a dedicated DVD ripper.

1. Rip DVD to MP4 or MKV.
2. Use alternative DVD rippers for better A/V sync.

No audio in ripped video: Some MP4 conversions may result in video-only files or corrupted audio. To fix:

1. Change output codec to MP3 under Profile settings instead of AAC.
2. Adjust audio sample rate to 48000Hz and select MPEG-4 (AAC) codec.
3. Try an older version of VLC or the nightly build.

Choppy playback: If ripped videos play choppily, check the frame rate. Set the Frame Rate in Profile > Video Codec to match the source DVD.

Incomplete or corrupted output: Some rips may produce very small or unplayable files due to scratches or newer DRM protections. In such cases:

1. Check the DVD for physical damage.
2. Use a DVD decrypter or dedicated ripper for protected discs.

Quality loss: VLC offers limited control over bitrate, codec profiles, and compression, which may reduce video quality. Dedicated rippers like Handbrake, MakeMKV, or WinX DVD Ripper provide better control and higher-quality results.

Convert Protected DVDs Easily without VLC DVD Ripping Errors

If you have any trouble to rip a DVD using VLC successfully, for example, crashes, no audio, missing subtitles, black bars, freezes, etc. and can't fix the problem through the above guide or other forums, try VLC alternative DVD ripper - WinX DVD Ripper Platinum.

• A professional DVD ripper that supports regions, old DVDs, latest commercial movies, damaged, and scratched discs.
• It converts DVDs to any formats you may need, including mp4, mov, hevc, mkv, wmv, avi, flv, etc.
• Make 1:1 DVD copy to ISO image, back up full title, main title, rip and convert as you need.
• Advanced features to select audio/subtitle tracks, add subtitles, cut, crop, etc.
• Unique support for Level-3 Hardware Acceleration tech (powered by Intel QSV, Nvidia NVENC/CUDA ) to rip DVDs in 5 minutes only.

FAQ about How to Rip A DVD with VLC Player

4. How to rip DVD with subtitles using VLC?

To convert DVDs in VLC while keeping built-in subtitles, first choose the subtitle track when loading your disc. If subtitles don't appear, go to VLC DVD ripping settings, select the Subtitles tab, check both "Subtitles" and "Overlay subtitles on the video", then press Save.