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August 7, 2008

software

RipIt: easy DVD ripping comes at a price

Posted Aug. 7, ’08, 8:44 AM PT by Scott McNulty
Category | Software

ripit.jpgDVDs are lame. They get scratched, take up space, and generally grind my gears. Luckily for me, RipIt is on the scene to save me from all these DVD hassles. This $19 application makes ripping DVDs so easy that even my mother could handle it.

Simply slide a DVD into your Mac, launch RipIt, and hit ‘Rip.’ RipIt merry does its work creating a digital copy of the DVD, which it saves to your Movies folder by default. OS X treats the resultant file just like a DVD. Double clicking on it opens DVD player and you’re all set to watch a movie without needing physical media.

RipIt’s toughest competition comes at the hands of HandBrake, the open source DVD ripping utility. The two apps have very different approaches to the same problem. RipIt makes a digital copy of a DVD which includes the movie itself and any extra content on the DVD. The process is very speedy since the app is only making a copy of the DVD. HandBrake, on the other hand, encodes the DVD’s video track into any number of formats which takes significantly longer, though creates much smaller files (if a DVD is 7 gigs, then the RipIt copy will also be 7 gigs). It is important to note that HandBrake rips only the movie from the DVD, so you won’t get the menus or extra features (unless you rip them separately).

HandBrake is free (a tough price to beat), offers up a dizzying array of options, and isn’t much harder to use than RipIt. Additionally what little UI RipIt has suffers from some poor choices. RipIt has no preferences which left me scratching my head when I tried to set which folder I wanted the DVD to be ripped into. ‘Destination Folder’ is listed under the File menu, for some odd reason, which isn’t the first place I would look. Luckily, RipIt’s UI doesn’t offer many hiding places so it wasn’t hard to find (it was the only menu item under File).

Overall, RipIt is fast, easy to use, and has some fun touches (I like how the DVD icon spins while the DVD is being ripped, though having the ability to turn that animation off would be nice). If you’re looking for a quick way to make exact digital copies of your DVDs, then RipIt is for you. If you just want to watch your DVDs on your Mac (or your iPhone/iPod) and you aren’t worried about the extra features, then I would suggest you stick with HandBrake.


20 Comments

Josh Rawls Author Profile Page said:

I have yet to get Handbrake to finish a DVD without crashing. MacTheRipper works fantastically for me and it is free.

August 7, 2008 9:18 AM
Rich said:

Wrong. RipIt's toughest competition comes at the hands of Mac the Ripper, which is free, but hasn't been updated in a while. Or heck, if you have an Intel Mac, then any of the gazillions of Windows-based DVD rippers.

August 7, 2008 9:18 AM
krye said:

So this isn't really "legal" is it? Another grey area. Who'd pay money for an app that is "illegal" and could be yanked at any time?

August 7, 2008 9:28 AM
Balthazar B said:

How does RipIt compare or differ with Drive-In?

August 7, 2008 9:33 AM
James "Jaime" Carey said:

Yeah, how can you run an article like this without even mentioning MacTheRipper, which is free and has been doing this for years. I mean, is this is an article or an advert? "If you’re looking for a quick way to make exact digital copies of your DVDs, then RipIt is for you" - no, it's not, because MacTheRipper does exactly the same thing, for free.

"RipIt’s toughest competition comes at the hands of HandBrake, the open source DVD ripping utility." Yes, they both result in watchable movies on your computer, but in reality they do completely different things.

Also, the typo "all set to watch a movie with needing physical media" is a little misleading!

August 7, 2008 9:37 AM
Ankit Soni said:

Mac the ripper does exactly what rip it here does... and its quite simple to use since it simply copies the Video TS folder to ur mac. Handbrake on the other hand does more, its a file conversion tool too... so there's no comparison there really... if you want to compare mactheripper and ripit is fair.

August 7, 2008 9:42 AM
Rohit said:

MacTheRipper is awesome and it works... but Handbrake has not worked even ONCE on my intel macbook pro(2.33GHz, OS 10.4.11)... NOT ONCE, it crashes the moment it starts.

and I've been meaning to ask... what can i do about this region code thing? its really annoying that i cant watch legit DVDs that i buy or rent. and i dont want to end up using my 5 wishes either. any solutions anyone? i could find none...

August 7, 2008 10:15 AM
Tony D said:

As some of these posts have indicated MacTheRipper is RipIt's real competition. Handbrake has a different use, such as converting DVD files to something an iPod can use or for the AppleTV. However it should be noted that the new version of MacTheRipper (3.0 for those who are counting) requires a donation. You don't get the license with out donating. 3.0 does rip better than the older version, though.

August 7, 2008 11:08 AM
Smoking Chimpanzees! said:

Know what, making digital copies of MPEG2 DVDs is lame. Almost as lame as a scratchy DVD itself. Converting that to an h264 high quality (maybe 2GB) would be a much better option, and handbrake does that. Epic fail this RipIt.

August 7, 2008 11:18 AM
white said:

The old ppc version of mactheripper, ver 2.6.6 is free. However the current version 3.0, which has both Intel and ppc binaries available is not free. It requires a 'compulsory donation' of 45 swiss francs (~$43) or something. (I seem to remember there were certain caveats if you donated low amounts but i don't remember).
The good thing about it is that its an intel version, so its fast. Also, the developer keeps on updating the code to tackle newer types of protection in dvd's. It lets you rip either only the main movie, or the entire dvd.
However, its software update system is inconvenient. You have to pour through their forum boards to see if an update is available, and then email the developer with proof of your 'donation' to have the software emailed back.
It is the best ripping software for mac. (But that's not saying much, as it still doesn't hold a candle to the windows software 'dvdshrink'. Its no longer in development, but is still the most versatile and easy to use ripping software in any platform.)

August 7, 2008 11:46 AM
Scott McNulty said:

Hey all, I do know about Mac The Ripper but it isn't exactly the easiest app to get your hands on, so I didn't mention it. No sinister reasons behind the omission.

August 7, 2008 11:49 AM
Anonymous said:

I use MacTheRipper routinely (the PAID 3.0 version), and it does a great job, for archiving DVDs (and ripping rentals!) I also routinely use HandBrake to rip DVDs for my iPod, and with RARE exceptions, it works great - don't know what problem people here are having with it! I'll wait for some reviews of RipIt, but for now, MTR and HB do everything I need in DVD ripping!

August 7, 2008 9:22 PM
Jv said:

"...it isn't exactly the easiest app to get your hands on.."

"mac the ripper" = #1 Google

Couldn't be easier to use, why would anyone pay $19 for the same program?

Advertisements painted as app reviews are cheap and telling, I hope this isn't your new direction here at macuser.

August 8, 2008 12:22 AM
Justin said:

Rohit:

It might be that you aren't on the latest version of OS X, or it could also be the encoding settings. I always use x264, and only get the odd DVD rip the won't encode.

As for watching other regions, Mac the Ripper, or this app, should give you the video folder, which should play in VLC. If menus don't work properly (like they occasionally do in VLC) then you can drag the .vob files (usually the first series of large files) into the playlist.

August 8, 2008 1:54 AM
Rohit said:

Justin:
Thanks for taking the time to reply... Much appreciated.
I am not on the latest version of OS X, but I am running the most recent update of tiger, and the latest version of handbrake too. I have not tried x264, but have tried some others and nothing seemed to work, with ANY dvd. So i have kinda given up on handbrake(maybe the current leopard-only version is a lot better?).
As for VLC, i tried, but to no avail, other region codes dont work at all, not even mac the ripper does the trick(I dont have the paid version). I read on a few forums that said that the drive that shipped with my macbook pro is un updated version that counters the VLC trick. I can of course, watch DVDs on my TV, but I'd like to be able to watch them in the comfort of my room too. Thanks anyway!!

August 8, 2008 8:07 AM
gnash said:

Handbrake is best as an encoder. It is very slow to rip and encode at the same time. Mac The Ripper will rip the whole DVD in just a few minutes and then I use Handbrake to encode (for my iphone) either the movie or the extras as I choose.

August 8, 2008 8:57 AM
Simpleton Author Profile Page said:

I was quite overwhelmed by the process to get a copy of 'Mac the Ripper' that will actually run on Leopard and searched high and low 'til I found a free replacement; Fairmount. Heard of it? It has the most Mac-like UI of any ripping software I've seen...not that Mac the Ripper or Handbrake are difficult to use...but this is even simpler. Drop in your DVD, start Fairmount and then your DVD icon changes to a disk image. Pull off the Video_TS folder in the Finder and you're done! It's that easy! I have found that it 'sticks' on Sony DVDs but I've had no issues beyond that. Enjoy!
http://www.metakine.com/products/fairmount/

August 8, 2008 10:41 AM
Simpleton Author Profile Page said:

One last note on Fairmount...you have to install VLC for it to work. Personally, I'm not a big fan of VLC but I am willing to have it on my machine just to make Fairmount work! (I have a suspicion that those folks having trouble with Fairmount on VersionTracker may have missed the VLC requirement?)

August 8, 2008 10:47 AM
Jeremy said:

Wow. Writing press releases now?

Fairmount. Free. Works. $19 for a DVD ripper is, well, a ripoff.

August 8, 2008 8:56 PM
Justin said:

Rohit:

I've never encoded with Handbrake straight from DVD, always from the folder extracted with MacTheRipper.

I've got the free version of MacTheRipper (2.6.6), and you also need to make sure that all the settings are right (I don't think they are by default). The mode should be Full Disk Extraction, as for the other settings, you should be able to Google for them. Some disks require different settings, too, but most of the time I don't need to change anything.

I can't get VLC to work with DVDs that aren't in my region code, either, but it does work if the DVD is extracted properly.

It's probably one of those cases where there's just one check box that isn't right. If you're prepared to do a lot of Googling, you should be able to get it working, if you don't find it more trouble that it's worth, of course.

I wish I could remember where the hell I got MacTheRipper from. Although, it's probably a 404 by now.

August 10, 2008 11:07 PM

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