How to Rip (rip) DVD with VLC

This is an article that shows you how to burn DVD with VLC Media Player. However, copying DVDs other than for personal backup purposes is illegal in many countries. Many new types of DVD discs have built-in copy protection, so they cannot be copied without being decrypted with special software.

Table of Contents

Prepare to copy

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Make sure your computer has a DVD drive. You should see a “DVD” icon engraved or drawn on your computer’s disc tray. This is a necessary step when you want to copy DVD discs.

If you don’t see the DVD icon on or near your computer’s drive, your computer probably doesn’t have a DVD drive. You will need to buy an external DVD drive or use another computer.
Skip this step if your computer does not have a tray or a disc reader.

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Buy an external DVD drive if needed. If your computer doesn’t have a DVD drive, you’ll need to purchase an external USB DVD drive and connect it to your computer before copying DVDs with VLC.

If you’re using a Mac, you’ll need to purchase a DVD drive with a Thunderbpt 3 (USB-C) adapter. You can also purchase a USB 3.0 to USB-C cable to connect your Mac to the DVD drive.

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Install VLC if you haven’t already. If you don’t have VLC Media Player installed on your computer, you’ll have to go to https://www.videpan.org/vlc/index.html from a web browser, then click Download VLC and do the following:

Windows – Double-click the downloaded installation file, click Yes when asked, select a language, click OK , click Next 3 times, select Install and click Finish .
Mac – Double-click the VLC DMG file, and then click and drag the VLC icon to the Applications folder.

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Insert the DVD into the computer. Open your computer’s DVD tray, insert the disc in the tray with the sticker side up, and close the tray. You can now start copying DVDs on Windows or on Mac.

Before continuing, close any windows that appear on the screen right now.

On Windows

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Open VLC Media Player. Double-click the VLC software with the traffic pole icon on the computer screen, or open Start

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, type vlc and click on the VLC media player result.

If you receive an update request, click Yes and wait for the update download to complete before continuing.

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Click the Media tab. This is the option in the upper left corner of the VLC window. When you click, a menu will appear on the screen.

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Click Open Disc… near the top of the currently displayed Media menu. You will see a new window appear on the screen.

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Check the “No disc menus” box. This is the selection in the “Disc selection” section of the “Open Media” window.

If your computer has multiple DVD trays, you’ll click the “Disc device” box and choose the name of the movie.

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Click the “Menu” icon

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(Menu). It’s the down arrow next to Play near the bottom of the page. You will see a new menu appear on the screen.

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Click Convert in the menu that appears. With this, you will be taken to the next page.

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Make sure your video is set to MP4 conversion. Click the “Profile” drop-down box, then click the “(MP4)” selection.

For example, you would click Video – H.264 + MP3 (MP4) near the top of the “Profile” selection box.
If you get an error message related to DVD blocking after choosing to convert DVD, repeat the whole operation as above, and at this step you will choose Video – H.265 + MP3 (MP4) .

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Click Browse in the lower-right corner of the window. This is the operation to open the File Explorer window.

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Name the file. You can enter any name for the converted file in the “File name” field, and then add .mp4 .

For example, to name the file “The Hobbit”, you would enter The Hobbit.mp4 here.

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Click a visible save folder on the left side of the window.

For example, you would click Desktop on the left side of the window if you wanted to save the copied DVD file on your desktop.

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Click Save in the bottom-right corner of the window to save your settings.

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Click Start at the bottom of the Convert window. Thus, the DVD will be converted to MP4 format.

This process will take from a few minutes to several hours depending on the speed of your computer and the size of the DVD.
The progress bar at the bottom of the VLC Media Player window will show the video transition.

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View converted files. After DVD copying is completed, the converted file will be displayed in the previously selected save folder. You can double-click the video file to view it on your computer’s default video player.

If VLC doesn’t copy the entire DVD, or the copied content has lost sound or has technical problems, you need to check if the latest VLC version is up to date and try again. If you still can’t copy a DVD, it’s probably a copy-protected disc. In this case, you will have to purchase DVD decryption software to copy the contents of the disc. Learn how to copy copy-protected DVDs for specifics.

On Mac

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Open VLC. Click Spotlight

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, type vlc and double-click the VLC result, then click Open when asked.

You can also click the VLC app in Launchpad or double-click the VLC icon in the Applications folder to open it.

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Click the File menu in the upper-left corner of the screen. You will see a menu appear here.

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Click Open Disc… in the File menu that appears. This is the operation that opens the installation window with the information of the DVD.

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Click Disable DVD menus in the upper-right corner of the window.

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Check the “Streaming/Saving” box in the lower-left corner of the window.

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Click Settings on the right side of the window. This is to open the DVD’s conversion settings.

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Check the “File” box. This is to ensure that copying the DVD will create a file on the computer.

If the “File” and “Stream” options are both checked, you will click the “File” box again to set the main output.

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Click Browse… in the upper-right corner of the window. A window will appear on the screen that allows you to choose the folder to save the DVD file and rename the file.

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Name the file. Enter a name for the DVD file in the “Save As” field, then add the .mp4 extension.

For example, to save a DVD file with the name “Batman”, you would enter Batman.mp4 .

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Select the save folder. Click the “Where” drop-down box, then click a folder (such as Desktop ) in the pop-up menu.

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Click Save . It’s the blue button at the bottom of the window.

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Click the “Encapsulation Method” drop-down box below the “File” section. Another menu will appear here.