DVD-ripping applications compared [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. 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.] Although DVD prices have dropped, replacing beloved DVDs that have become scratched, covered in jam, or chewed on by a teething two-year-old is a bother. (More of a bother is if one of those discs is no longer available.) Fortunately, there are a variety of applications for creating digital copies that are playable on your Mac.

We gathered some of the most popular of these applications and put them through their paces in the hope of finding the best performers. The applications I tested five applications—the free 64-bit version of ( ), the gift-ware, The Little App Factory’s $20 ( ), DVDSuki Software’s $10 ( ), and iSkysoft’s $39 ( ). Dolphin emulator not working mac. Some of these applications merit further discussion.

Of course, different strokes for different folks. People pick the most suitable software among the best three DVD ripping software. As for me, I'd like to choose MacX DVD Ripper Pro for ripping DVDs to Mac. Even if it's charged, but I merely pay little but for big benifits. What are the best DVD ripping tools for Mac OS X? Options Considered. Third party software would need to be used.

The iSkysoft package is available by other names from other companies. Specifically, iSkysoft DVD Ripper is also available from Wondershare (iSkysoft’s parent company) as. At $45 it costs $6 more than iSkysoft DVD Ripper, yet is the same piece of software with a different skin. Wondershare’s OEM partner, Aimersoft, also sells the program under the name.

It’s priced at $39. (All three of these applications are routinely marketed via forum spam and on questionable “reviews” sites.

I questioned the company about these methods and was told that while Wondershare doesn't allow this practice, not all of its many affiliates follow the rules.) MacTheRipper exists in a few forms. The free 2.x version found floating around the Internet is old, contains the software necessary to decrypt copy-protected discs, and doesn’t work with many modern DVDs. The current version can be legitimately obtained only by sending the developers a “gift” (the suggested price is $50, but we obtained a copy for $20). To do that you must join the, send an inquiry to one of MacTheRipper’s developers, and then wait for a response to learn how to send your gift so that you can receive the latest version of the utility. This version does not contain the CSS decryption tools you need to rip commercial DVDs—the information for obtaining it is found in a special area of the RipDifferent forums (which you have access to only when you’ve offered a gift and received a reply).

It’s understandable that tools like MacTheRipper are frequently used to pirate DVDs and the legal ground on which their developers stand is shaky, but the secrecy and back-alley character of this tool’s distribution is annoying. Given the many murky issues surrounding the acquisition of MacTheRipper, we’ve chosen to not rate it, though I did test it. Best games on steam for underpowered mac. HandBrake and the iSkysoft/Wondershare/Aimersoft applications not only strip commercial DVDs of their copy protection (HandBrake can do this only if VLC is also installed on your Mac), but also convert the resulting videos to other formats—ones compatible with an iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, or iPad, for example. MacTheRipper and Mac DVDRipper Pro simply create decrypted archives playable on your Mac with Apple’s DVD Player application or another application capable of playing content housed in VIDEO_TS folders.

RipIt similarly creates decrypted archives, but version 1.4 introduces a beta Compress feature, which allows you to additionally create movies at one of five settings—High Quality MP4, Apple TV, iPhone/Touch, XBox260, and PS3. Testing, testing I tested the five applications with two DVDs—Pixar/Disney’s Wall-E and disc one of the first season of HBO’s Six Feet Under. I chose Wall-E because Disney is one of the studios that uses a copy-protection scheme that hides a movie’s main feature among dozens of “copies.” These copies aren’t copies at all but rather scrambled portions of the disc’s content identified as the main feature. Each copy is of a different length and size, making it tough for a ripping tool (or user) to identify the real feature. These discs also cause many DVD ripping applications to misidentify the amount of data they hold. Some claimed, for example, that the Wall-E disc held nearly 60GB of data, when, in fact, it held just 7.85GB.