# Is there any free (or very cheap) DVD ripping software?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-free-or-very-cheap-dvd-ripping-software/209115>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 23, 2003, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-free-or-very-cheap-dvd-ripping-software/209115 "2003-10-23T14:03:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-free-or-very-cheap-dvd-ripping-software/209115/1 "2003-10-23T14:03:38Z")

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I would like to rip a couple of DVD`s. I have a DVD rom installed, however it didnt`t come with any ripping capable software.  
I have a PII - 450 MHZ machine with 512 M of RAM, and a 64 meg Radeon video card, if it matters…

Any suggestions?

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**Author:** ![Hauky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@Hauky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hauky)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-free-or-very-cheap-dvd-ripping-software/209115/2 "2003-10-23T15:52:53Z")

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[http://doom9.org/](http://doom9.org/)

You’ll probably want to start in the Guides section.

Note that the site only provides downloads to free, legal programs and is only a resource for making personal backups of legal DVDs, or so the disclaimer states.

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**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-free-or-very-cheap-dvd-ripping-software/209115/3 "2003-10-23T16:43:40Z")

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Thanks, that looks like a winner.

As far as the legal aspect, these are video DVD`s my brother burned and coded to be played on a normal DVD player. I want to decrypt them to be able to edit them. This software looks like it will do the trick.

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**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-free-or-very-cheap-dvd-ripping-software/209115/4 "2003-10-23T17:06:46Z")

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Gordian Knot is a GUI front for a bunch of separate programs. DVDDecrypt does the ripping, DVD2AVI converts to AVI and Virtualdub & Nandub allow editing and converting to DivX, BeSweet allows audio file conversions, VobSub subtitles, etc. The programs are command line programs but you can use the Gordian Knot interface.

I have been messing with GKnot a lot for a few months now and the learning curve is _very_ steep.

Other programs which allow Ripping and converting but no editing are Davideo and DivXMachine.