bitRipper : One-Click Free DVD Ripper for Windows

Dec. 27th, 2008 By Karl L. Gechlik

dvd ripper windowsThere are all sorts of reasons you would want to rip your DVD’s to AVI files. In my case it is getting rid of my space killing DVD collection.

I am going to be packing ‘em up and putting them away for storage.

But that shouldn’t mean I can’t have access to any movie I own at any given time…

Right?

dvd ripper tool

Well for a long while, if you wanted to rip DVD’s that meant you needed to know how to decrypt your DVD’s and then you needed a little geeky know-how to convert those “vob” files and other crap to something playable.

Times they are a’ changing because this little free application called bitRipper includes a de-crypter and a converter in one package. That means throw the DVD into your DVD drive and click START RIPPING!

dvd ripper freeware

It is that easy. It’s easy enough for your mom to do it. For real!

bitRipper

If you don’t believe me, go check it out for your self. Grab the installer direct from here or visit the author’s homepage here.

My download did not require a registration code but the author does include this on the download page:

If your download requires entering username and regcode, please use the following ones:
User name:

Registration code:

bitRipper also has advanced configuration modes available where you can get at some settings but the two best features are the included DVD decrypting and On the fly writing.

On The Fly DVD Writing does not require you to use almost 5 gigabytes to rip your dvd before burning the AVI. That’s right it converts video on-the-fly, copying data and writing it to your AVI file at the same time.

bitRipper was originally commercial software when I first came upon it but it is free now and occasionally updated. The author points out that he has added these features in the recent past:

  • Ability to control the ripping process system priority
  • Internal video bitrate calculator to fine-tune the compression level
  • Authorization support for protected discs
  • Episodical discs support (multiple DVD tracks containing multiple parts)
  • Support of the most of video export formats including AVI, MPEG, DivX
  • Reduced installation package, maximized stability and reliability

bitRipper is an amazing find and a regular part of my DVD ripping activities! Give it a shot.

What do you use to rip your DVD’s? Something as easy and free? Put me on it in the comments.

(By) Karl Gechlik is a superhero of the IT industry. His days are spent monitoring and maintaining systems on Wall Street. He helps people with their technical issues for free over at AskTheAdmin.com.

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52 Comments Add Comment
2008-12-27 10:19:50

I started using this yesterday but I came across a small problem which stops this from being 100% perfect.

Basically bitRipper doesn’t have an option to switch languages in the DVD.

I have a lot of German DVD’s which also have the option to switch to English. But bitRipper doesn’t give me the option to switch languages. So it immediately rips the disk in the default language which is German. But the English language option is there! I just can’t get to it!

It would be nice if the bitRipper developer could fix this in an upgrade.

2008-12-27 11:29:26

Hmmm thanks for pointing this out Mark. I only watch English DVD’s so it wasn’t something I tried to do. Maybe the author will see this post and fix it up for ya Mark! :)

2008-12-27 11:38:44
Razor

huge problem for me it just wont work. first of all u must put a dvd in the drive before opening bitripper otherwise it cant see the disc. secondly when i go to rip it says an error occured cant find the video file even tho it sees the dvd and asks u which part of the dvd u want to rip. anyone else having this issue im running it under windows xp pro sp3

2008-12-27 11:53:50

Well that IS strange because even if a disk isnt in the drive, bitRipper detects a disk when one is finally put in (for me anyway).

I don’t have your second problem either.

It works perfectly for me, despite the problem I mentioned earlier.

2008-12-27 12:15:03

I tried it on XP SP3 and Vista SP1 without either of these issues. Do you have issues opening or playing the disks? Is the drive light staying on or stopping after recognizing the disk?

Do you have other apps using the drive? bitRipper needs exclusive access to the drive.

2008-12-27 12:07:07
Tron
Subscribed to comments via email

I am a bit suspect of the links to the porn sites at the bottom of their page. Clicking a couple makes Firefox not want to let me go to them… hmmm.

2008-12-27 15:40:43

So do you always just click on random porno links?

2008-12-27 15:02:30

How does ripping on the fly and encoding compare to ripping to hard drive first, and then encode?

Using the latter method, it takes me about 3 hours total for the entire setup. I cannot fathom that this program will take less time, but rather more time!

2008-12-27 15:14:58

This program is definately MUCH faster. When I ripped a DVD to an AVI file yesterday, it took about one hour.

2008-12-27 15:38:57

46 minutes to rip a full DVD on the fly vs about 4 hours for a rip to disk and then de-crypt and convert. This is awesome. I can be so more productive now!

(Comments wont nest below this level)
2008-12-27 15:25:48
Ron

I just downloaded it today,and received nothing but errors and finally the beloved Blue Screen of Death.
I am running it on Vista SP1

2008-12-29 09:18:35

Ian are you logged in as an Administrator?

2008-12-27 15:40:03

What are the errors? Maybe I can help you out?

2008-12-27 15:45:32
Ron

Hi Karl
The errors i get are similar to Razors..cannot find disc,and then when I click on rip,programs does nothing and finally locks up,shortly after I received the blue screen.

2008-12-27 15:43:09

I usually use DVD Fab HD Decrypter, that also decrypts CSS …

http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm

It can be used as a one-click-decrypter but also offers more options like language selection.

Greets
slAcker

2008-12-27 15:53:26
Ron

The other issues I have is that when I click on settings,nothing happens, no pop up window appears at all.Any ideas would certainly be helpful

2008-12-27 20:56:16
Catus

I use SimpleDivX which works pretty nice with language selection, and I’m also using Windows Vista.
Judging from the interface, SimplexDivX needs some time to learn but it does a good job.

2008-12-28 21:50:36

Won’t even open… just says BitRipper has stopped working and closes out.

2008-12-29 00:08:41
Pierre Ouellette
Subscribed to comments via email

Tried both BitRipper and DVDfab
DVDfab freeware is a stripped version of DVDfab platinum which is actually 30 days trialware. I hate it when they do that so I did not try to use it.
BitRipper is real freeware, works real fine with all features available as soon as the installation is completed.

For me, the choice was easy …

Pierre Ouellette

2008-12-29 09:19:44

Exactly Pierre – Free is for me :)

2008-12-29 18:59:30
Aster

I’ve been using bitRipper for awhile. I like it! It’s so much simpler than more complicated apps like Handbrake (which does have its devotees, I know).

It’s not perfect…every now and then it’ll chew on a disc for a long time and not completely rip it, but I think that’s a copy protection issue (other rippers tend to also have problems with those DVDs). And I agree with the other commenter that being able to choose something other than the default language would be awesome (Japanese anime purist, who, me?) But overall, I keep coming back to bitRipper: it’s small, it’s simple, and it’s relatively quick. It’s all I need.

2008-12-31 09:57:18

Wow! So many people are using bitRipper. How come no one ever put me on?? Thanks for the comment Aster!

2009-01-03 14:47:49

Wow, hadn’t heard of this one. Great find…I’ve been looking for something to get the most out of my DVDs.

2009-01-14 20:50:10
fee

can we convert .vob file to .avi WITH the english subtitles? any help would be appreciated. thanks!

2009-01-22 22:50:17
sarah
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ok so forgive me if this is the stupidest question but i am SO not a computer person. i am trying to find a way to put MY dvd’s that i own on my new ipod and having one he!! of a time. are the AVI files like the mp4’s??? and if i rip the movies where do they go? stay on my desktop or do i have to burn them to disks? like i said you are probably laughing so hard you can’t read this anymore but i really need help:) thanks for your time! sarah

2009-01-22 23:18:15
Aster

Hey, Sarah. No worries, we were all newbies once. ;)

.avi files are a type of video file, but it looks like ipods can’t play .avi files, so BitRipper probably isn’t going to help you. What you’ll need to get your DVDs onto your iPod is software that will A) decrypt your DVDs (ie, get through the copy protection and make a copy for you) and B) convert them to a format that your iPod can read. I’m not sure if this is totally up to date or not, but this site seems to have a nice tutorial on how to do this with free tools (note, I haven’t tried that tutorial myself, just found it via Google and looked over it briefly. I’ve seen DVD Decrypter and Videora software recommended before, though, so I think they’re legitimate. Still, I’m not a professional, make sure you check it out beforehand, blah blah blah.)

Good luck!

2009-08-25 17:35:10
Amy
Subscribed to comments via email

If this tool works for you to convert to .avi, then you can use Any Video Converter, a free video conversion tool, to convert the .avi file to .mp4 format. I use it to convert videos for my own mp4 player, and for converting flash videos to .avi.

You can find it here: http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

It’s very easy to use.

As for bitRipper, I’m having the same problem mentioned in a previous comment: when I try to open it, it tells me that it has stopped working, and it closes out immediately. I’m running it (or trying to, rather) on Vista.

2009-01-27 13:57:59
Kelly

worked great the first 1-2 times, but now it crashes a lot, or it says it is complete but it isn’t the whole movie

2009-01-27 14:44:42

What OS are you running? What else do you have running? What is your processor and installed memory?

2009-01-28 18:48:13
Kelly

Win XP sp3
Rainlendar, KeePass, and some system processes were running, but all in the background, nothing else was eating up ram
1.73 ghz with 2 gb ram

(Comments wont nest below this level)
2009-01-29 10:52:50

1.73? What kind of a processor is that? When the conversion was going on was the processor or memory maxed out?

What are you running for Antivirus or other real time protection? Was that disabled?

2009-02-19 18:28:41
Dr Adford

Why are some people saying that it can take them 4 hours to rip and burn a DVD using other software?
I use DVDShrink which rips a DVD in about 20 minutes (depending on the DVD) and then burn it with Nero, in about 15 – 20 minutes (I always burn at 4x on 16x Taiyo Yuden DVD+R discs).
I will give BitRipper a go tonight.

2009-04-18 09:54:27
lk
Subscribed to comments via email

Tried bitripper today but all I get when trying to rip an old is an error pop up saying:
Can’t access DVD data. Disc is not authorized, anyone hade that one and knows how to get around it?
Cheers
LK

2009-04-25 03:15:31
Ted-E Bear
Subscribed to comments via email

i recently stumbled across bitripper as i was looking for something quite easy to use to be able to add movies to my MP4 player (does play .AVI :D ) however after 2 dvd’s bitripper will not work anymore.
i go to “start ripping” and bitripper just closes and 16.48mb of data is dumbed on to the harddrive.

System Info:
Windows XP sp3
AMD Athlon *2 2.61GHz
2GB ram

does anyone know how to fix this so i can continue ripping?

2009-04-25 11:52:52
Robert

Crashed out of the gate, oh well
windows 64 bit vista

2009-05-03 12:22:24
Jesse

I tried it on vista 64bit, works great. my only complaint is that it shrinks the size of the video. When you go fullscreen with the ripped video it is smaller than the original. I’ve tried a number of settings and can’t seem to get rid of the “black border” around the video.

2009-06-29 22:09:29
wenling

Try dvd-ripper. Not dare to say it’s the best, but it works perfect on my computer!

2009-07-15 08:27:14
jeffcard

I’d prefer this dvd ripper. It works pretty well for me.

2009-07-17 03:29:51
50-1-50.com

Worked great for the first 2 DVDs then it kept crashing. Other than that it work great.

http://www.50-1-50.com

2009-07-17 05:54:50
DVD iPod

Aimersoft DVD Ripper is the most powerful one that I have used before. It has great power to rip DVD to video of all formats.

2009-07-26 08:38:48
jocko

does this work with 1 click dvd like dvd 43 does

2009-07-27 04:23:47
sun

Aimersoft DVD Ripper is the most powerful one that I have used before. It has great power to rip DVD to video of all formats.

2009-07-28 14:37:53

If you have a problem with opening the settings – open up another dvd software and then retry bitripper. I am guessing its not initialising something it needs correctly. Opening another dvd application seems to do the trick.

2009-07-29 23:02:21
Stephen

we do need DVD ripper, We do need it to backup DVDs to computer. Free DVD Ripper is the best choice

Stephen

2009-07-30 22:16:59
2009-09-11 01:09:06

How to convert mod is a hot topic for many JVC/Panasonic/Canon digital camcorder users. Generally speaking, to convert MOD file, we need a MOD Converter – Aiseesoft MOD Video Converter which can convert MOD video files perfectly and quickly.

Mod Converter is a quite useful software for camcorder owners. Most of the videos recorded by camcorders, digital videos are in MOD format, which is not a approved video format by most media players or video editor software. That makes MOD Converter a must-have software for each camcorder user, for it’s a MOD video converter which is designed to convert MOD videos to fit diverse applications.

2009-09-16 11:33:52
Herman

This is kindof cool These guys are giving away their new DVD Ripper for a few weeks: http://www.softwarenewsdaily.com/

2009-09-17 20:26:35
B&G

I just downloaded it have used it for about 6 rips so far. On a XP64 system, 2G memory, Athlon 3000+ CPU.

No issues yet.

2009-09-23 01:09:52
gina lun

Today amny people have Sony Ericsson Phone as their portable devices, i think there also need some softare which are Sony Ericsson Video Converter and Sony Ericsson XPERIA Converter

2009-09-24 01:15:51
colm nets

I just found a very useful TS to AVI Converter, which is very powerful and also a TS to MPEG Converter

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