Blu-ray/DVD ripper for OS X Catalina?

Question in the title. :slight_smile: Currently using Handbrake, but after an upgrade from a much older version it stopped unencrypting. Does not have to be free- would just like something that works.

Thanks!

DVDFab has a free trial: https://www.dvdfab.cn/blu-ray-ripper-for-mac.htm?trackID=productpage and is required for some of the new copy protection schemes.

BTW, AFAIK Handbrake doesn’t just rip which by definition is an exact bit for bit copy of the video contents of the DVD/Blu-Ray. It rips and encodes, losing quality. A rip can only be to an .iso container or individual files identical to the DVD/Blu-Ray structure or remuxed (i.e. ripped and placed without encoding) into a container like .mkv or .mp4. MakeMKV can do that on a PC, but is not available for Mac OS.

I recommend heading over to videohelp.com and posting in the Mac forum for better advice on ripping software for Mac (of which there are very few).

You probably need to upgrade libdvdcss to 64-bit.

If you don’t want to go through that, you can try a commercial program - I use this program: https://www.macdvdripperpro.com

MakeMKV is available for OSX. I use it exclusively to rip my BDs (and DVDs, for that matter) to lossless MKV format.

Possibly a hijack, but I’ve always understood ripping to include re-encoding or format shifting. For example, when ripping a CD, the result is often a collection of MP3 files.

It’s confusing especially with programs like those that as you say will “rip” to say .mp3. But if you think about it logically, to get a .cda (the format the data in a CD is stored in) to .mp3 requires encoding and is no longer an exact copy of the original. So the program is ripping AND encoding as a two step process. Same with programs that convert the contents of a DVD or Blu-Ray to another format.

If ripping is defined as “re-encoding or format shifting” then what would the process of creating an exact bit for bit copy of the contents of a DVD or Blu-Ray be called? Maybe cloning, but that’s reserved for copying non-optical storage.

This. Makemkv works well, and it’s free. When I want to reduce the resulting file size a bit, I use Handbrake, also free.

I’ve used both of those to rip/transfer several hundred blu-ray and DVDs to my network attached storage server.

Nah.
“Ripping” is transferring from optical media to a file.
If I copy a CD to my hard drive, it’s still “ripping” it if the copies are MP3, AIFF or Apple Lossless.

ETA:
Makemkv is free to use for 30 days, then costs $50 for a “forever” license. Worth every penny to me.

Right. But if the “copies” are MP3, or anything other than the original format of the optical disc, some encoding was involved. And I always understood any such encoding to be part of the ripping process.

Copying.

IMHO, only if it’s to the same medium.
Otherwise it’s still ripping.

I’m cool with that. But if you are copying a DVD to another DVD, you consider that “copying” but if you do the exact same process with your computer hard drive as the destination, you consider that “ripping”?

Yep.

ETA: But, it’s one of those terms that doesn’t have an exact definition. And, the distinction between creating an AIFF file and an exact bit-copy of a disc are pretty academic, anyway.

I’m a dinosaur and remember the days before .mp3 and when copying a movie DVD could take days or weeks as each frame was copied and served to your hard drive (that is if you had the space!). I know and stand by the original definition of rip which is an exact bit for bit copy of the data from an optical disc.

Ripping is required for CDs because the data is contained in a .cda container. There is a bit of truth that ripping a CD entails a format conversion from the data contained in the .cda to .wav, which is an exact bit for bit copy of the data contained in the .cda less the protection overhead.

While the contents of a copy protected DVD and Blu-Ray can be copied, it can’t be played properly because of the protection. Ripping with a program designed to remove the copy protection, give you an exact bit for bit copy of the video/audio data contained in the .vob (DVD) or .ts (Blu-Ray) container less the copy protection.

Rip and ripping have been bastardized from it’s original definition and I’ll live you young’uns to define it as you will. :rolleyes:

Dinosaur history from a dinosaur.

Read these articles about DeCSS (the hack that was need to rip DVDs) and Dod Dvd Speed Ripper (one of the first DVD rip programs) and note there is no mention of encoding to another format.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS
http://dod-dvd-speed-ripper.wikiverse.org/

Okay, going back to playing with rocks! :smiley:

There may be a time when the author does start enforcing this, but for the forseeable future he’s been keeping license keys updated at the following link:

https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1053

I purchased a permanent license last year because I had already been using it a couple of years and had gotten a great deal of value out of it in ripping my 800+ DVD and BD library to my media server.

I always forget that’s available for Mac now.

Last two bullets on the front page:
[ul]
[li]Functionality to open DVD discs is free and will always stay free.[/li][li]All features (including Blu-ray decryption and processing) are free during BETA.[/li][/ul]

https://www.makemkv.com/forum/search.php?keywords=makemkv+free

It’s been in Beta since at least 2010 and there is no indication of it ever being out of Beta.

I also purchased the license to support the author. The only advantage, other than the warm fuzzy wuzzies, is that your key is permanent. You never have to get a new one when there’s an update.