The downside? These disks don’t last forever. No matter how careful you are, one scratch is enough to make the disk unreadable and there is no coming back from such situations. Additionally, copying the entire disk will work, but it will give you different VOB files in the folder which will be broken into different parts. These files might work on the desktop, but are not supported by smartphones and other portable devices. That said, one would need a DVD ripper to convert these files into video formats that are universally accepted. There are a few free rippers available, but most of them don’t give you the kind of flexibility needed one might need while converting the DVDs. If you really love to keep your movies and shows forever, might want to give DVDFab DVD Ripper a shot. I will also be talking about the DVD Copy tool from the same developers at Fengtao Software, which lets you create digital copies of the DVD taking care of all the security encryption.
The DVDFab DVD Ripper
DVDFab DVD Ripper was recently updated to support Windows 10 and works on H.265 and 4K videos and gives options to directly convert for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus device. I will be reviewing the DVDFab Version 9.2.1.0 in the article. At the first look, the user interface is self-explanatory and one won’t feel lost even if he is a rookie when it comes to ripping DVDs. The ripper page automatically detects the disk when you insert it. Alternatively, you can add an ISO file or a folder where you have copied the contents of the DVD. On the left, you will have MP4 selected as the video output and that’s the default output to which the ripper is set to. When you click on it, you will be given various formats to which you can save the output media. As I already mentioned, you also have the MKV.H265 format support along with the usual formats. If you are planning to watch the videos on a particular device, you might find a ready-made template in the device section. Selecting a format as favorite will add it to the Personal Tab making it easier to select the desired file format in the future. DVDFab provides the option to edit the video before it starts converting it. One can trim the movie, crop the frame, add watermark and even hard code subtitles. I personally feel that hard coding subtitles is an amazing option especially when you are playing the video on devices which don’t support .srt files. Once you are done editing the video, the last thing you can configure is the Advanced Settings. If you have chosen a specific device type output, that won’t be necessary. But let’s say that if you have selected MKV or an MP4 file type, the frame rate, the video size and other aspects can be controlled. This will make sure that the final video is in the desired format and size. However, if you are not sure, you can leave that to default. The last thing that needs to be taken care of before hitting the start button is the save location. Once that’s in place, hit the Start button and wait for the DVDFab to work its magic. The process is significantly faster when compared to other Rippers. For me, a DVD5 of around 4.4 GB took around 9 mins to convert to an iPhone 5S supported video. The two points worth mentioning here is the time left shown on the conversion screen and the option to pause and resume the conversion. What’s more, DVDFab automatically transferred the video to my iTunes library. When I watched the video on my phone after conversion and transfer, I was more than satisfied with the output. The hard coded subtitles was the icing on the cake.
The DVDFab DVD Copy
DVDFab DVD Copy lets you create copies of the disks in a fairly easy way. After you insert the disk, you have 6 options to choose from which are Full Disc, Main Movie, Customize, Split, Merge, Clone and Burn. It’s a plug and play app and there’s nothing more to say about it. The output of the DVD Copy can either be directly burnt to the disk or saved as an ISO file. Both DVD5 and DVD9 output are supported.
What does it Cost?
1 year license of both, DVDFab DVD Copy and DVDFab DVD Ripper costs $49 and the prices reduce if you buy an extended license. You can buy them from their orders page. The lifetime license for individual is $74.9, but you can save $24.9 on a bundle pack of DVD Copy and Ripper and buy a lifetime license for $124.9. The prices are same for both platforms – Windows and Mac.
My Thoughts on DVDFab
Talking about the price of DVD Ripper and Copier, is approximately the price for one or two titles you bought on DVDs. But what makes it worth it is the simple interface that it offers to the user. One doesn’t need to be an expert to use the tool and can easily get the job done. Also, there are options for advanced users to edit the movies, include subtitles and then rip them in the specific formats. Moreover, the product supports Windows 10 and the only thing that was out of the line was the amount of resource the app takes while working on the DVDs. But I guess that’s necessary to decode and encode the movies. You can always try the trial version before investing in the full version.
