DVDs are getting outdated and preserving them is not easy as they are so fragile. The right thing to do would be to rip them and get them backed up properly. If you have a pile of DVDs gathering dust, maybe it's time to consider backing them up. There's actually a nice little program that allows you to do it for free, and this program is called Handbrake. With Handbrake you can rip and back up your DVD collection without paying a single penny for it. And it's fairly easy to use. After spending a couple hours studying it, you should be able to master the program. But for beginners, the interface might seem a bit complicated. To help those who have no experience using Handbrake to rip DVD, here's a tutorial to help you quickly master the craft. The content below will show you how to rip DVD to MP4 by utilizing Handbrake.

How to use handbrake to rip DVD to MP4

With Handbrake DVD to MP4 conversion is easy, but we are going to need something more than just Handbrake itself. Handbrake itself can only rip unprotected DVD. But the fact is most DVDs have copy protection, but that doesn't mean Handbrake can't be used. All it need is a little help from a small piece of DLL file. Go find and download a libdvdcss-2.dll file from the Internet and put it in Handbrake's program folder, which, if you haven't changed it during installation, is in C:\Program Files\Handbrake.

After getting things ready, insert the disc into your drive and be ready to start.

  • 1. Fire up Handbrake and click the Open Source button in the top left-hand area under the menu bar. On the following sidebar, choose your DVD disc on it. It should take a few minutes to load the content in the disc.
  • 2. Click the "Title" drop-down menu on the left side of the interface after Handbrake finished loading the disc content. Usually there would be several different titles in one disc. To add one title to the ripping list, check that title and click Add to Queue. Note that if you want to rip more than one title, you will have to repeat checking the title and clicking Add to Queue. You can only add one title to the queue at a time.
  • 3. After adding the needed titles to the ripping queue, move your mouse over to the Browse button on the right side and select a folder on your PC to store the resulting video file. And then type in a name for the file in the box and click OK.
  • 4. Choose the suitable profile from the preset sidebar on the right side of the interface. Most of the presets should have the output video in MP4 format.
  • 5. Click the Start button on the top below the menu bar to start ripping and converting the DVD to MP4.

Handbrake Rip DVD to MP4

To convert DVD to MP4 handbrake is a great option. But there are other choices you can have.

How to rip DVD to MP4 with a Handbrake alternative

Using Handbrake to rip DVD is easy, but not as easy as using Leawo DVD Ripper. Leawo DVD Ripper is a top-notch dvd ripping program that can convert DVD to MP4, just like Handbrake. And it can do a lot more things that Handbrake doesn't. For example, it offers way more output formats than Handbrake, it has a built-in video editor that allows you to trim, crop a video, add watermark and even 3D effects on a video, etc. If you want a DVD Ripper to do more things than just simply helping you rip DVD to MP4, go with Leawo DVD Ripper. Here's how to use this alternative to Handbrake to convert DVD to MP4.

   

The first thing you should know about Leawo DVD Ripper is that the company had packed it into a software suite called Prof.Media. So what you will be installing on your computer is not just Leawo DVD Ripper but Prof.Media. But it will work just fine.

Step 1. Fire up Prof.Media and click DVD Ripper on the top row.

Load DVD Ripper

Step 2. Click Add Blu-ray/DVD button on top of the blank area of the interface, and then select your DVD.

Load DVD

Step 3. Choose one file importing mode to import disc content to the program for ripping. Full Movie will have all titles chosen and imported to the program. Main Movie will help you pick out the main movie and import it for ripping. Custom Mode is for manually choosing the disc content. If you are not sure which title(s) to import, choose one and preview it on the preview window on the right. Click OK to import the DVD content to the ripping list.

Select title

Step 4. On top of the video file list you should see a button next to Add Photo, showing the current output format. We will call it the Format button for convenience's sake. Click the Format button and a menu will emerge below the button with 3 options on it. Click Change will get you to the output format changing page and the Edit button will take you to the video parameter changing page. So first you need to click the Change button to choose MP4 to set it as default and then later you can decide whether or not you want to change the video parameter.

Choose format

Step 5. Click the Convert button with the green background color to call out a sidebar that we need to proceed with the ripping process. The output path can be found on the top of the sidebar. If you want to change it, just click the button next to the output path box. And then click the Convert button that lies in the bottom to start converting the DVD to MP4.

Start ripping

Other than ripping DVD to MP4 like Handbrake, Leawo DVD Ripper can also edit MP4 video. Overall, it's more powerful than Handbrake in a lot of aspects. If you need more than a DVD to MP4 converter, Leawo DVD Ripper would be your choice. Below is the video guide of Leawo DVD Ripper for your reference.