Rip DVDs with VLC Media Player

Have you tried or used VideoLAN’s VLC Media Player? It’s my favorite media player and the best one in my opinion. Its very versatile and can play almost any type of media file (audio & video) available. Aside from playing media files, do you know that VLC can also rip DVDs? If you don’t then you’re in luck because today I’m gonna show you how you can do it in a few simple steps.

DISCLAIMER: The DMCA prohibits the ripping of DVDs that have DRM or any form of DRM on it like CSS, so make sure you only rip DVDs that don’t have content protection. If you decide to proceed with ripping a DVD, you can use this process at your own risk

NOTE: For this tutorial, I used VLC Media Player 1.0.3 Goldeneye

1. Open VLC Media Player and go to Media > Open Disc or you can do a Ctrl + D.
VLC DVD Rip

2. Make sure that DVD is selected and Disc Device is pointing to the DVD drive.

3. Click Play to check if its the DVD/video that you want to rip. If not, change Title value to 1 or the next number until you find the right video.
VLC DVD Rip

4. Now that you have the right video, go to Media > Convert/Save or do a Ctrl + R.
VLC DVD Rip

5. Click on the Disc tab and click on Convert/Save. Under Destination, select the folder or location where you want to save the file and type in the title of the file. Make sure you type in the correct file extension – “.ogg” or “.mp4?.

6. Under Settings > Profile, select Video – MPEG-4 + AAC (MP4) if you want to play it on your iPod/iPhone or Video – Theory + FLAC (OGG) if you want lossless audio.

7. You can edit the Profile settings by clicking on the button beside the profile options.
VLC DVD Rip

8. When you’re satisfied with the settings, start the ripping process by clicking on Start.
Just wait until VLC is done ripping the DVD and that’s it. You can now watch the finished file with VLC. If you selected the Video – MPEG-4 + AAC (MP4) setting then you can upload the video to your iPod/iPhone and watch it. Hope you’ll find this simple tutorial on how to rip DVDs with VLC useful.
Anyone else use VLC to rip DVDs or do you use regular DVD ripping software? Do you know of an alternative way of ripping DVDs without the use of software? Please share your thoughts.