Expert’s Rating
Our Verdict
As any respectable road warrior get laid , transferring movies from DVD to your hard drive—”ripping ” the phonograph record — is not bad for portable moving picture watching . If you ’ve got the hard - driveway space , it means you do n’t have to deal with choke up around — or worry about damaging — a bunch of discs , and watching movies from your severe drive sucks up less battery power than using your laptop computer ’s ocular drive . ( Assuming your laptop actually has an optical drive , that is . If not , ripped movies are evenmoreuseful . ) rive DVD is also convenient for those with a Mac as part of their base entertainment scheme : all of your movies are ready for look on at a moment ’s notice .
RipIt ’s window when you insert a disc
The latest videodisk - rip tool to hit the Mac platform isRipIt , and it ’s obvious the programme was designed with relief of use as the primary finish . While limited in functionality , it ’s the childlike — and , in many cases , the most effective — DVD ripper I ’ve visit .
RipIt’s window when you insert a disc
To apply RipIt , you tuck your DVD , and in a few second you ’re presented with a screen that shows the motion-picture show name along with two large button : Eject and Rip . ( RipIt mechanically identifies the magnetic disc using an on-line database of DVD “ fingerprints ” ; you could disable this feature if you prefer . you’re able to also manually edit out the name . ) Apart from a few self - explanatory options in RipIt ’s Preferences windowpane , that ’s the extent of the programme ’s interface — it could n’t be much simple to apply .
select Rip and RipIt converts the DVD — the total disc , include menus and special features — to a[movie name].dvdmoviefile on your hard drive . While ripping , the RipIt windowpane display the time remain , the pct complete , and some spinning - record eye candy ; the program ’s Dock ikon displays the same data point as well as the rate of changeover . I test RipIt on an older Mac Pro with a good number of DVDs , and while the program ’s initial estimate were generally around 35 to 40 minutes , most movies exact less than 30 moment to rive . Double - clicking on the resulting.dvdmoviefile launching DVD Player and trifle the “ DVD ” just as if you ’d inclose the actual disc in your visual drive — a squeamish tactile sensation that adds to RipIt ’s ease of purpose .
RipIt ’s window during rip
RipIt’s window during ripping
Of of course , ripping an intact DVD , without any compression , means that each rive saucer occupy quite a morsel of hard - drive space : generally 6 GB to 8 GiB , as opposed to 1.5 gibibyte or less when you pull and press just the independent feature using HandBrake . On the other hand , you get full - quality audio and TV , special features , and alternate audio cartroad .
( What if you later want to convert the ripped movie for viewing on an iPhone , iPod , or Apple TV — or if you just desire to make a small single file to maintain outer space ? If you right - press the.dvdmoviefile in the Finder and take Show Package Contents from the resulting contextual computer menu , you ’ll discover that the file is actually a Mac OS X bundle . at bottom is a stock VIDEO_TS pamphlet that you may hang back into HandBrake or VisualHub to create a compressed movie data file . )
One other reward of RipIt , besides its ease of use of goods and services , is that it ’s capable to pull many newer videodisk that include enhanced copy - protection technology . RipIt was able-bodied to successfully rip every one of the newer DVDs I and several other Macworld editors test , even when HandBrake and MacTheRipper failed . ( The current public discharge of MacTheRipper is 2.6.6 ; interlingual rendition 3.0 , which is presently in individual beta , aims to manage these unexampled engineering , as well . I ’m looking forward to its release . )
On the other hand , if you ’re look for a way to burn backup copies of DVDs , mention that not all disk ripped using RipIt can be burned to a clean DVD using software system such as Roxio ’s Toast ; some phonograph recording include codification that does n’t prevent playback when ripped but does prevent burning . The RipIt developers have say they ’re working on this issue .
If you need all the options MacTheRipper or HandBrake provides , or if your ultimate goal is to rip your DVDs for watching on a gadget other than your Mac , RipIt may be too limited . But for those people — and there are many of them — who just want an promiscuous means to get their motion-picture show onto their computer ’s hard driveway , RipIt is rugged to beat : you just insert your platter and get through a push . It reminds me of the old Jeff Goldblum iMac commercial message : “ There ’s no step 3 ! “
The fine print
If the lettersDMCAmean anything to you , you have intercourse that there are legal question surround the ripping of DVDs . Technically , it ’s illegal in the U.S. to create a tool for circumventing copyright protections . But the law is much murkier when it comes tousingsuch shaft . Our view is that moving video recording from yourownDVDs to another equipment for your own personal showing is fair exercise . But because the law is still not completely clean-cut on this matter , every user will involve to in person valuate the risks involve in ripping videodisk .
Perhaps the bigger issue when it come in to RipIt is whether or not the developer itself will face sound issue for create such a tool . I distrust the company will eventually find a cease - and - abstain letter from some media company . If so , there ’s a chance growth — or at least commercial development — will cease . On the other hand , even if that happen , the copy of RipIt you buy today wo n’t give up working just because the MPAA object .
