“What are the best open-source Blu-ray/DVD ripper software for 2021? Do they all work smoothly in ripping Blu-ray or DVD movies? What are the differences between them? Please show me some examples.”

It’s necessary for us to learn what “open source software” means before we proceed to the 2021 5 best open source Blu-ray/DVD ripping software. When we say a piece of software is open source software, we mean that the source code of this software is freely available to anyone to inspect, modify and enhance. It doesn't mean that the software is free of charge, though in most cases it is. With open source software, you could design other software tools that may have the same functions as the open source software has. Besides, we'll also introduce the 3 best open source CD ripper programs in the final part.

Now, let’s take a look at the below content to learn what the 2021 5 best open source Blu-ray DVD ripping software tools are.

Part 1: 2021 5 Best Open Source Blu-ray&DVD Ripping Software

Let’s first check the list of 5 best open source Blu-ray&DVD ripping software below.

  1. MakeMKV
  2. HandBrake
  3. Freemake Video Converter
  4. DVDShrink
  5. VLC Media Player

MakeMKV

MakeMKV, current version 1.14.3 released on March 10, 2019, is a semi-open source DVD ripper for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Its GPU, MKV multiplexer, and optical drive query library are open source. It charges for Blu-ray converting and streaming functionality after 30-days trial period, but it is free of charge for DVD conversion. With a simple interface that doesn't have additional and confusing options, MakeMKV is a great choice for beginners to rip DVDs (including some copy-protected discs) to MKV, a format that can store multiple video, audio, subtitle tracks and metadata.

But inevitably, MakeMKV is unable to please all people and keep good performance all the time. Its output is limited to MKV. Very restrictive. And the file size of resulting file is always a few gigabytes. Most people have to downsize it using a third-party program. Additionally, this program will crash when dealing with some movie DVDs, make some subtitles screw up, make video audio out of sync, and other issues, according to users' feedback online.

HandBrake

HandBrake is undoubtedly the most popular one among all those open source DVD rippers. It is free, clean, and available for Windows (10 and lower), Mac, and Linux. Plus, it is rich in features. HandBrake allows users to rip DVD disc, VIDEO_TS folder, and also ISO image to MKV or MP4. Additionally, it has a collection of output presets for some popular devices such as iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows Mobile. Apart from the format and preset, this open source DVD converter also gives you a great many options about dimensions, filters, video, audio, subtitles and chapters. It is great for advanced users, but probably not for newbies. They will be get confused and export poor-quality files because of improper settings. However, it should be noted that HandBrake requires libdvdcss to handle copy-protected Blu-ray/DVD content.

Freemake Video Converter

Freemake Video Converter is also an open source DVD ripper freeware that can rip DVD discs quickly. It has a clean and well-organized interface for average users. There will be a small watermark in your ripped DVD video. If you do not mind, you can free download the DVD ripper to convert DVD to MP4 format.

DVDShrink

DVDShrink is another free DVD ripper you can use to copy and rip DVD to ISO image or DVD folder. DVDShrink isn't an open source program that can directly convert DVD to MP4 or another mainstream video format for broad compatibility. Instead, DVDShrink can convert DVD to ISO file or DVD folder first and then you can use another tool to convert ISO or DVD folder to your desired video format. DVDShrink can only work on Windows. Superior to HandBrake, this Windows-based open source DVD ripper is possible to rip some copy-protected DVDs by making use of its inbuilt decryption algorithms. But because it has been discontinued for years, it is possibly unable to deal with newer copy protection schemes, such as Disney X-project DRM.

VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is a cross-platform and open source DVD ripper developed by VideoLAN. You can free rip DVD, ISO image and VIDEO_TS folder to MP4 and other video formats on multiplatform. Since VLC is also a media player, if you want to rip and convert DVD movies to videos, you have to get a practical tutorial on using VLC to convert DVD movies. It also should be noted that VLC media player is not able to handle the copy-protection removal upon DVD discs. You may have to install 3rd-party disc decrypting tools as assistant.  

Part 2:The Most Powerful Blu-ray&DVD Ripper - Leawo Blu-ray Ripper

All the above-mentioned open source Blu-ray/DVD ripper tools are free to use. However, when it comes to some disc decrypting issue, there always happens some errors, the most frequent error is decrypting error. Some of these open source software tools could only handle DVD content, but no Blu-ray content. Therefore, we would like to recommend you the best alternative to these open source Blu-ray/DVD ripper software tools – the most powerful Blu-ray/DVD ripper – Leawo Blu-ray Ripper.

Leawo Blu-ray Ripper is a professional Blu-ray ripping software tool that could decrypt Blu-ray discs with all protection and from various regions, and convert Blu-ray to MP4, AVI, MKV, MOV, WMV, etc. for various devices and players. It could help you easily get region-free Blu-ray movies in lossless MKV files or other formats for playback on various devices. Its superb performance in disc decrypting and region restriction removal has been highly praised by worldwide Blu-ray movie fans. It could complete all tasks the 5 open source Blu-ray/DVD ripper software tools mentioned above could do, and even those the above 5 tools can’t do.

  • Leawo Blu-ray Ripper
  • Leawo Blu-ray Ripper

    ☉ Decrypt and rip Blu-ray/DVD discs with disc protection and region code
    ☉ Convert Blu-ray/DVD to MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, FLV, and other 180+ HD/SD formats
    ☉ Convert Blu-ray/DVD main movie to videos for space saving
    ☉ Convert 2D Blu-ray/DVD movies to 3D movies with 6 different 3D effects
    ☉ Fast conversion with NVIDIA CUDA, AMD APP and Intel Quick Sync acceleration technologies

Download Leawo Blu-ray Ripper and install it. Note: It’s a built-in module of Leawo Prof. Media.

Step 1: Add UHD/Blu-ray/DVD source movies

Open the “Convert” module and then click “Add UHD/Blu-ray/DVD” button to browse and load source Blu-ray/DVD movie files. You could add UHD/Blu-ray/DVD disc, folder and/or ISO image file.

Note

  1. There are 3 options for content loading after adding the movie to the program: Full Movie, Main Movie and Custom Mode. Full Movie allows you to import all titles, and Main Movie only imports the longest title by default while you can freely choose titles under Custom Mode. Choose “Full Movie” mode.
  2. After loading source 3D Blu-ray movies, you could choose the subtitles and audio tracks, play back loaded Blu-ray movies, edit Blu-ray movies, apply 3D movie effect, etc.

Step 2: Set output format

Click the drop-down button right before the big green “Convert” button and then on the drop-down panel choose “Change” option. Now you’ve come to the “Profile” window. Go to “Format” or “Device” group to choose desired output format, say MP4 Video from “Format > Common Video” group.

You could adjust video and audio parameters for output format. After setting output format, open the drop-down button right before the big green “Convert” again and then choose “Edit” option to enter the “Profile Settings” panel, which lets you adjust video and audio parameters of output format, including: video codec, quality, bit rate, frame rate, aspect ratio, channel, audio codec, resolution, etc.

Step 3:Set output directory

After setting output format, click the big green “Convert” button. Then, on the pop-up sidebar, set an output directory in the “Save to” box.

Step 4: Start converting UHD/Blu-ray/DVD movies

After that, click the bottom “Convert” button to start converting Blu-ray/DVD movies with this Blu-ray ripper software.

Configured with multiple GPU acceleration technologies, Leawo Blu-ray Ripper is 6X faster than other tools to complete Blu-ray/DVD movie converting.

Part 3: Comparison Between 6 Blu-ray Rippers

The below table shows you the differences between these 6 Blu-ray/DVD ripper software tools.

 

Leawo Blu-ray Ripper

HandBrake

MakeMKV

DVD Shrink

FreeMake

VLC

Convert DVD to video

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Convert Blu-ray to video

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

No

1080P output support

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

4K video output support

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Convert Blu-ray/DVD to audio

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Supported output file formats

200+ popular file formats

MP4, MKV

MKV

MP4, AVI, etc.

MP4, AVI, WMV, etc.

MP4, AVI, etc.

Decrypt BD/DVD disc protection

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

No

Get rid of disc region restriction

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

No

Choose Blu-ray/DVD titles

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Select subtitles and audio tracks

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

No

Play back source BD/DVD

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

Edit Blu-ray/DVD movies

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Create 3D movie

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Quality-lossless MKV/MP4 output

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

GPU acceleration

NVIDIA CUDA, AMD APP, Intel Quick Sync

NVIDIA

NA

No

No

No

Merge files into one

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Bonus: 3 Best Open Source CD Ripper Programs

We've also prepared an extra part to introduce the 3 best open source CD ripper software, just keep reading!

1. Fre:ac

Fre:ac is a free CD ripper for various formats and encoders, featuring MP3, MP4/M4A, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, and Bonk format support. Also, it integrates freedb/CDDB, CDText and ID3v2 tagging and it's completely free without attaching any ads or malware. What's more, Fre:ac is available on multiple platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD and Haiku.

open source cd ripper

2. Grip

As one of the best open source cd rippers, Grip is a GTK-based CD player/CD ripper and possesses cdparanoia and guarantees for a stable reading of the source CD. Encoder presets are provided for oggenc, bladeenc, lame, l3enc, xingmp3enc, mp3encode, gogo, flac, faac and opusenc.

open source cd ripper

3. Sound Juicer

Sound Juicer is another GTK-based free CD ripper and it's capable of extracting audio tracks from CD as well as comverting them into audio files for playback on various devices. It supports ripping to any audio codec supported by a GStreamer plugin, such as Opus, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and uncompressed PCM formats.

open source cd ripper