Video converters

There are two excellent free video "converters" for Mac. One is a "ripper," and the other a transcoder. There's more out there, but the best of the free software are probably MacTheRipper and Handbrake, and RipIt stands alone as an elegant, affordable DVD ripper.

Rippers

MacTheRipper

MacTheRipper excels at ripping DVDs to your Mac's hard drive. The most recent version of it is hard to find and technically is for sale at a cost, though it is through a circuitous and financially vague transactional process, due to the legality of the software being in question and the developer fearing prosecution for making it available (so he says). Still, it is the only software I have found that can rip your legally owned DVDs to your hard drive for personal use for free, regardless of any copy-protection schemes employed on the DVD. Support for MacTheRipper is sparse due to its shadowy presence on the web, and if you are dissatisfied with it, you have no avenue for restitution. There is no way to try the software before you buy it.

RipIt

However, if you want the simplest, easiest DVD Ripper for Mac, it is worth spending a little money (only $20) on RipIt. This is a very well-designed and highly capable app with fantastic support from the developer. You can download a copy for free and rip ten DVDs to test it and see if you like it. Before you start messing around with MacTheRipper and its myriad of settings, I'd highly recommend you try RipIt. I am not in any way associated with the developer.

Transcoder

HandBrake

The second indispensable piece of free video converting software on the Mac is HandBrake, which can transcode almost any video, including DVD, to a variety of formats compatible with all of Apple's products.

Update as of February 2012: when using HandBrake to read encrypted DVDs, it uses part of the free video program VLC. If you have upgraded VLC to version 2, and HandBrake gives you a stating VLC is incompatible, see this page at MacWorld.

External links

• MacTheRipper at MacUpdate.com
• RipIt from TheLittleAppFactory.com
• Handbrake.fr
• MPEG Streamclip, another free transcoder with many tools
• online-convert.com converts videos if not too large, as well as audio, images, documents etc.

Credits

• Contributed by David Burke, "CMUG Ambassador" on Mac-Ministry, Feb 23, 2010
• MPEG Streamclip recommended by Chris Howard and others
• online-convert.com recommended by David Larson in September 2011
• Fix for VLC compatibility posted by Marvin Robertson, Feb 27, 2012