“Hi there. I need some help please. I usually used HandBrake to rip DVD discs to MP4 or MOV files for DVD disc playback on my iPad. Recently, I purchased some DVD discs released by Lionsgate and would like to rip and convert these Lionsgate DVD discs to MP4 with HandBrake as I usually did. However, I was reminded that HandBrake couldn’t rip these Lionsgate DVD discs. What’s wrong? Why can’t HandBrake rip Lionsgate DVD discs? Is there anything I need to do for solving this problem? I have tried to upgrade the HandBrake on several computers but none of them worked. Please help me with this. Any advice will be highly appreciated.”

As an open source free media encoder tool available for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms, HandBrake has been widely used among the world and gained great fame for its excellent work. However, even though it’s one of the top video encoder tools, HandBrake still gets a great many negative reviews and feedback. For example, many people have reported that when they try to rip Lionsgate DVD discs with HandBrake, they would fail. What’s wrong with HandBrake in ripping and converting Lionsgate DVDs?

Well, if you happen to have the same questions as the above one, this page might be the one you are looking for. Here we would like to show you why HandBrake can’t rip Lionsgate DVDs, and how to solve the issue of HandBrake can’t rip Lionsgate DVDs. Check them below.

Part 1: Why Handbrake Can't Rip Lionsgate DVDs?

We all know that HandBrake could encode DVD movies to MP4 or MKV files so that you could freely watch DVD movies on MP4/MKV compatible media players and devices. Generally speaking, HandBrake could rip and convert nearly all DVD movies you have in hand. However, it should be noted that HandBrake alone could only rip and convert home-made DVD movies, which are non-protected DVD movies. If you have some commercial DVD discs like CSS-protected DVD discs, HandBrake won’t handle them.

On the contrast, short for Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, Lionsgate is an American-based Canadian entertainment company that have produced quite a great many wonderful movies. It should be noted that all these DVD discs released by Lionsgate are not only commercial but also region restricted. Nearly all movie DVD discs released by Lionsgate are CSS protected, which helps prevent these Lionsgate DVD discs from being ripped or copied for illegal use, based on the requirements of Digital Right Management (DRM protection). Besides the DVD disc protection, Lionsgate DVD discs are also released with disc region restrictions according to the areas and regions target DVD discs are released for.

As mentioned above, HandBrake only handles homemade DVD discs, while Lionsgate DVD discs are commercial and copy protected. Is there any way to play Lionsgate DVD discs with HandBrake? Of course yes. You could install 3rd-party disc decryption like VLC media player or libdvdcss for HandBrake, which decrypts the disc protection and removes the disc region restrictions so that you could use HandBrake to rip and convert Lionsgate DVD discs.

Part 2. Rip Lionsgate DVDs with Best HandBrake Alternative

Installing 3rd-party disc decryption tools for HandBrake would be a wonderful choice, but it would be a little bit complicated and the safety might be a little problem. Therefore, we would like to recommend you another solution – turn to HandBrake alternative. Get an alternative to HandBrake that could not only handle both homemade and commercial DVD discs, but also support more video file formats as output format (other than MKV and MP4 from HandBrake)

Leawo DVD Ripper is the best HandBrake alternative that could help you perfectly solve the issue of HandBrake can’t rip Lionsgate DVDs issue. As a professional DVD ripping tool, Leawo DVD Ripper comes with advanced disc decryption technology that could help you both decrypt CSS-DVD discs and remove disc region restrictions from various movie studios.

Meanwhile, different from HandBrake that only converts DVD to MP4 or MKV files, Leawo DVD Ripper could convert DVD to video and extract audio off DVD movies to save in 180+ formats like MP4, MPEG, WMV, MOV, MKV, FLV, RMVB, AAC, AC3, AMR, M4A, MP3, etc. for multiple media players and portable devices like Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, etc.), Android mobile phones and tablets, Windows phones, etc. You could even adjust output video and audio parameters like video codec, bit rate, aspect ratio, resolution, audio codec, channel, sample rate, etc. so as to let the output video files meet your target media player or device exactly.

Download and install Leawo DVD Ripper on your computer. Meanwhile, get source DVD movies ready for converting. Follow the below steps to learn how to rip DVD with this HandBrake alternative.

Note: Leawo DVD Ripper is a module built into Leawo Prof. Media.

Step 1: Enter DVD Ripper module

Kick off Leawo Prof. Media, and then click “Convert” button on the sub-menu to enter the DVD Ripper module on the “Convert” interface.

Step 2: Import Source DVD files

On the “Convert” interface, click “Add Blu-ray/DVD” to import DVD disc, folder, or ISO image file. Alternatively, you can directly drag and drop source DVD files into the “Convert” interface.

Once DVD content is selected, you will be provided three options for you to import DVD file(s): 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 for importing under Custom Mode. Just choose one DVD content loading mode according to your needs.

Once source files are imported, you can preview source files via the inbuilt media player, select subtitles and audio tracks, edit source DVD files, etc.

Step 3: Choose output profile

Click the box before the big green “Convert” button, and then on the drop-down panel click “Change” to enter the “Profile” panel. You can choose either video/audio format or mobile device as output profile under “Format” or “Device” group. Various video/audio formats and device models are available for selection according to your needs.

Step 4: Set video and audio parameters (optional)

Leawo DVD Ripper allows you to change the video and audio parameters of selected profile like Video Codec, Bit Rate, Resolution, Frame Rate, Aspect Ratio, Audio Codec, Channel, Sample Rate, etc. You could enter the Profile Settings panel by clicking the same drop-down box and then clicking “Edit” option instead of “Change” option.

Step 5: Set output directory

After profile settings, on the main interface, click the green “Convert” button. On the popup sidebar, set output directory in the “Save to” box. You could view required disk space here.

Step 6: Start converting DVD

Click the “Convert” button at the bottom of the sidebar to start ripping and converting DVD movies within this HandBrake alternative.

You then only need to wait for the conversion to complete. With GPU graphics card acceleration supported, Leawo DVD Ripper is about 6X faster than HandBrake does. After converting, you successfully turn Lionsgate DVDs to videos in the format you need.

Part 3. Comparison and Conclusion

With 3rd-party disc decryption plugins, HandBrake is able to rip and convert Lionsgate DVDs as well. Different from HandBrake, Leawo DVD Ripper doesn’t need to install extra DVD disc decryption plugins for decrypting, ripping and converting Lionsgate DVDs. Which is better between Leawo DVD Ripper and HandBrake? What are the detailed differences between these 2 DVD converters? We have made a comparison table below for you to learn the details.

 

Leawo DVD Ripper

HandBrake

Convert DVD to video

Yes

Yes

Convert DVD folder to video

Yes

Yes

Convert DVD ISO image file to video

Yes

No

Supported output video formats

MKV, MP4, WMV, MOV, and 200+ other formats

MKV, MP4

Convert DVD to audio

Yes

No

Convert encrypted DVD

Yes

Yes, with the help of plugins like libdvdcss

DVD content loading modes

Full Movie, Main Movie (Movie only), Custom Mode

Custom Mode

Play back DVD movies

Yes

No

Merge DVD titles into one

Yes

No

Edit DVD movies

Yes. Trim, crop, rotate, adjust effect, add image/text watermark, etc.

No

Select subtitles and audio tracks

Yes

No

2D to 3D conversion

Yes

No

Take screenshots

Yes

No

Image quality

High

Normal

Audio quality

Support “Audio Copy” audio output support, to retain 5.1/7.1 audio channel output.

Normal

Availability

Windows and Mac

Windows, Linux and Mac

Conversion speed

6X faster

Normal

Cost

Free trial version, paid version starting from $29.95

Free

Obviously, you could see that compared to HandBrake, Leawo DVD Ripper delivers better DVD converting experience since it has powerful DVD disc decryption feature and multiple useful bonus features. Leawo DVD Ripper helps you not only rip and convert commercial/non-commercial DVD discs, but also bring multiple practical features to improve your DVD movie enjoyment.