Top 6 Free Open Source DVD Rippers: Which Is Best for Copying DVD?

Before we review those 6 open source free DVD rippers, we'd like to explain what "open source software" means. It's software whose source code is freely available to anyone to inspect, modify and enhance. It doesn't mean that the software is free of charge, but in most cases it does. Below are 6 free open source DVD rippers that we want to share with you. How do they do with free DVD ripping? Let's check now.

Top 6 Best Free Open Source DVD Rippers Review

1. HandBrake

HandBrake is undoubtedly the most popular one among all those open source DVD rippers. It is free, clean, and available for Windows (10/11), Mac, and Linux. Plus, it is rich in features. HandBrake allows users to rip DVD disc, VIDEO_TS folder, and also ISO image to MKV or MP4. Additionally, it has a collection of output presets for some popular devices such as iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows Mobile. Apart from format and preset, this open source DVD ripper and copier also gives you a great many options about dimensions, filters, video, audio, subtitles and chapters. It is great for advanced users, but probably not for newbies. They will be get confused and export poor-quality files because of improper settings.

Before you begin ripping DVD with HandBrake, however, we have to tell you another important thing. HandBrake itself cannot handle copy-protected DVDs. If you stick to HandBrake, you need to install HandBrake libdvdcss to help read and decrypt region-coded and CSS-encrypted DVDs, or capitalize on a powerful third-party program to decrypt the DVD copy protection schemes first.

Note: The current version of Handbrake is 1.5.1, requiring Windows 10 or later (Windows version), and macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later (macOS version). The free open source DVD ripper for Windows 10 also requires Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime 6. According to Handbrake update log, the latest version updated Intel Quick Sync to use the Intel oneAPI Video Processing Library and fixed FFmpeg AAC audio encoder quality mode scale range.

2. DVD Shrink

DVD Shrink is another free open source DVD ripper you can use to copy and rip DVD to ISO image or DVD folder. DVD Shrink isn't an open source program that can directly convert DVD to MP4 or another mainstream video format for broad compatibility. If you like, you can use DVD Shrink to convert DVD to ISO file or DVD folder first and then use another tool to convert ISO or DVD folder to your desired video format. Superior to HandBrake, this Windows-based open source DVD ripper is possible to rip some copy-protected DVDs by making use of its inbuilt decryption algorithms. But because it has been discontinued for years, it is possibly unable to deal with newer copy protection schemes.

Note: DVD Shrink can only work on Windows. Its development has stopped at version 3.2.0.15, from May 2005. Now you cannot find the download link in its official site, but you can still get it from some software download sites. However, you must be careful because there're some fake versions created to scam your money. It has ended update since 2004. Don't expect this open source DVD ripper to handle new DVD releases.

3. MakeMKV

MakeMKV is a semi-open source DVD ripper for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Its GPU, MKV multiplexer, and optical drive query library are open source. It charges for Blu-ray converting and streaming functionality after 30-days trial period, but it is free of charge for DVD conversion. With a simple interface that doesn't have additional and confusing options, MakeMKV is a great choice for beginners to rip DVDs (including some copy-protected discs) to MKV.

But inevitably, MakeMKV is unable to please all people and keep good performance all the time. Its output is limited to MKV. Very restrictive. And the file size of resulting file is always a few gigabytes. Most people have to downsize it using a third-party program. Additionally, this program will crash when dealing with some movie DVDs, make some subtitles screw up, make video audio out of sync, and other issues, according to users' feedback online.

Note: The latest version of MakeMKV is v1.17.2 released on October 10, 2022. The new version of the open source DVD ripper handled for discs with mastering errors better and fixed some bugs and improved internal performance. There are some issues reported by MakeMKV users. It takes a long time to use DVD drives for ripping disks. The latest version of the open source DVD ripper read discs extremely slowly(around 0.5x/0.6x).

4. VLC Media Player

As its name implies, VLC is a media player. However, it is also a free and open-source DVD ripper that can convert DVD, ISO image, and VIDEO_TS folder to MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, and more, on Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Here're the steps to rip DVD with open source VLC: open VLC -> Media -> Convert /Save -> click Disc tab -> choose DVD under Disc Selection -> go to Disc device and select target DVD -> select title, chapter, audio and subtitle track -> click Convert / Save button at the bottom -> choose desired profile from Convert panel -> specify destination file -> click Start to begin ripping DVD with this open source software.

But admittedly, VLC isn't good at this task. We always stumble across some complaints saying that VLC can't read certain DVD, VLC crashes, VLC delivers a file without audio, VLC shows nothing after clicking Start, and other different kinds of errors.

Also read: how to rip DVDs to MP4 with VLC

5. FFmpeg

The last free open source DVD ripper we want to introduce to you is FFmpeg. It allows you to convert DVD to virtually all video formats. However, only unencrypted DVDs are supported. FFmpeg is a command line utility, so its DVD ripping workflow is quite different from above open source DVD rippers. You need to type in commands just like the image shows. This way may be a little bit difficult to operate for some people. FFmpeg is cross-platform and can run on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

FFmpeg can rip some DVDs well with the CLI tool dvdbackup, however, some users had big issues with backing up Disney discs. You'd better use other open source DVD ripper and decrypter, such as MakeMKV, WinX DVD Ripper, to decrypt the DVDs first. Then FFmpeg can handle the resulting single file. The output file won't contain chapter information.

Check how to rip DVD with FFmpeg.

6. VidCoder

Similar to Handbrake, VidCoder is an open-source DVD ripping and video transcoding program for Windows. It is only available on Windows operating system. The open-source DVD ripper uses Handbrake as encoding engine and rips DVDs to MP4 or MKV format. You don't have to install HandBrake for the tool to work but VidCoder requires .NET 6 Desktop Runtime(pre-installed on Windows 10). You will be prompted to download and install it to run the free open source DVD ripper software on Windows 10.

Note: This open-source DVD ripping program doesn't work with encrypted DVD discs. All the commercial DVDs can not be decrypted by VidCoder. To remove such encryption, you have many other better choices, such as WinX DVD Ripper. The current version of VidCoder is 7.15 (79.8MB), which has no worth mentioning update. It increased the max number of pictures preview to 60 and Croatian translation is added. But you can update to the latest version that may fix some bugs.