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Ripping a DVD to your Mac enables you to keep a backup copy. Find out how to convert a DVD to digital content that you can play on the computer without the disc, whether it has DRM protection or not.
How to Rip an Unprotected DVD to Your Mac
While most commercial DVDs have some kind of DRM (digital rights management) protection to prevent piracy, you may have a few self- or custom-created discs that don’t. In this case, you’re able to use macOS’s Disk Utility to make a digital copy on the computer.
You will need an optical drive to read the disc. This could be an official Apple Superdrive or a third-party device. Connect it to your Mac via USB, using a USB-A to USB-C adapter if necessary.
How to Rip a Copy-Protected DVD to Your Mac
While Disk Utility is fine for backing up unprotected DVDs, you’ll need an alternative method for copy-protected discs (most commercial ones).
Copying DRM-protected DVDs is illegal in many countries, even for backup purposes. For instance, certain uses may be illegal under US law unless they comply withthe Fair Use doctrine. So verify to check the legality of ripping copy-protected DVDs in your country.
Again, you’ll need a suitable optical drive attached to your Mac to read the DVD. You will also need a disc backup application to rip the DVD. Here, we areusing the HandBrake video conversion app, which is free to download and use and has a bunch of other useful features.
Download:HandBrake
Given the legal gray area of copying commercial discs (see Warning above), no DVD ripping software can include the functionality natively. For HandBrake, you’ll need to download an extra library called libdvdcss.
Download:libdvdcss(BZIP2 file)
Are You Using an Apple Silicon Mac?
The steps below for installing libdvdcss and ripping a copy-protected DVD assume you are using an Intel-based Mac and not a newerApple Silicon Macsuch as an M1, M2, or M3. If you are using the latter, you will need to do this beforehand:
Install the Libdvdcss Library
As mentioned, you will need the libdvdcss library installed on your Mac to bypass copy protection on DVDs. To install the BZIP file you downloaded, follow these steps.
The libdvdcss library files should now be installed in the/usr/local/libfolder, which is where they need to be.
Rip the Copy-Protected DVD
You are now ready to start ripping a DRM-protected DVD using HandBrake.
Once it has finished, you should find the MP4 or MKV file in theMoviesfolder or the one you set. You should be able to play it in the TV app, QuickTime Player, VLC, or any other video player application.
Note that some DVDs may have structural protection that prevents you from copying them with this method or at least makes it more difficult. For instance, some recent Disney discs have up to 99 fake titles to confuse things. So, you may need to find a workaround to rip these DVDs or use one of the manyspecialist DVD ripping toolsavailable.
As we’ve explored, it is possible to rip many DVDs to your Mac with standard tools and a little know-how, even if you need to bypass DRM copy protection. You will then have a handy backup that you can play without the disc and even convert to a suitable format for your iPhone or iPad.
