Like everybody I get stressed out because of my inability to play movies I purchased as a DVD on portable media players, computers without DVD drives, etc. I'm an open source nut so I don't want to pay for $50 software that doesn't work that great. Luckily I found out how to rip DVDs to many popular formats using my favorite media player, VLC, and I'm here to show you how.

1.Load up the DVD you want to rip and start up VLC.  Then under Media click on Convert / Save.

2.The Open Media window will appear and you want to click on the Disc tab.  Check DVD, make sure the disc device field points to the optical drive with the dvd, and hit Convert/Save.  You can select the start position by selecting the title and only record a specific chapter on the DVD.  You can also skip the DVD Menus as you will not be able to use them in the ripped file.

3.Next the Convert screen opens where you will want to select a location for the ripped file.

4.While you are browsing to the location to put the ripped file make sure to give it a name and a supported extension.  For this example we ripped Lord of the Rings and gave it a MOV extension.  If you don't label it with a supported file extension it will default to .ps (Program Stream) file.

5.When everything is set up the Convert screen will look something like this where we have the source drive and destination file with appropriate extension.

6.While the DVD is being ripped you will see a progress count in the main UI.  The amount of time it takes will depend on the file format and size of the DVD but it will take a while no matter what.

7.You should be able to play the converted file with other media players assuming you have the right codec.  Of course will notice the conversion results in lower quality compared to the original.

Tip:Here is another method on how to rip dvds. free dvd ripper download

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If you're a music fan, you probably have several DVDs of concerts by your favourite artists. And you may want to listen to the music from these DVDs, say, on your iPad.

In many cases, the 'soundtracks' of concert DVDs aren't commercially available (and even when they are, you already own the DVD, so why pay twice?). Why not rip the audio yourself, and make your own live album from those favourite DVDs?

There are several ways to do this. Some are a bit complex but here's a method that's worth trying, which is relatively quick and easy.

Download dvd ipad converter and install it according to the hints, you will see the interface as follow:

Step 1: Add File - Click load dvd and then browse the computer disk to get DVD which will be converted after a while.
Step 2: Set output format - Choose the audio format from the profile drop-down list. Set audio track in the audio track box.
Step 3: Choose Destination - If you want to put the music to your familiar folder, click button to deal with it.
Step 4: Convert - Click convert to start converting process.

More download: ipad to pc transfer | ipad video convert