Simply load the DVD movie in the computer's DVD drive and wait for DVD Decrypter to read the contents of the disc. You can then select the whole disk - or only the sections you're interested in - and extract them directly into a selected folder on your hard drive.

Despite its simplicity, DVD Decrypter includes interesting features such as support to remove CSS copy protection and region codes during the ripping process and support for multi-angle DVD movies.

The only drawback to DVD Decrypter is that it doesn't include any documentation and the support links on the Help menu in the program don't work either. At least you can have a look at the step-by-step tutorial included on the developer's website.

DVD Decrypter is a compact yet powerful DVD ripping tool with which you can copy the contents of a DVD movie right onto your hard drive.

Download DVD Decrypter 3.5.4.0 in Softonic

DVD protection is advancing at an ever increasing rate but unfortunately for the manufacturers, so are the ripping programs. If you’ve ever had problems copying one of your favorite DVDs then DVDFab could be what you’ve been looking for. It has proved popular a hit with thousands of Softonic users so far and there seems little prospect of its popularity waning.

The DVDFab conversion process couldn’t be easier. There are 5 DVD to DVD copy modes available - Full Disc, Main Movie, Split, Customize and Clone. In Full Disc mode, all movies, menus and trailers are copied to a DVD in one click. In Main Movie mode, only the movie is copied with your specified audio. In Split mode, you can copy a DVD-9 onto two DVD-5 discs but also preserve the original menus on both discs. According to the DVDFab developers, this rare feature is ideal for TV series on DVD.

DVDFab's handy Customize mode allows you to personalize your DVDs by recording such things as only your favorite scenes, removing adverts or selecting only certain audio tracks. Finally, Clone allows you to make exact 1:1 bit-to-bit copies or even copy games disks such as PS2 DVD’s. There is also a DVD to Mobile option so you can watch your favorite films on your iPod or other handheld device. Formats available on DVDFab include MPEG-4, DivX, XVID and Mp4.

DVDFab is a tough cookie – even disks that refuse to be copied with other programs can usually be cracked. The customize option allows you to get rid of files that stand in your way and just rip the actual movie. It can also help in recovering scratched or dirty disks that don’t play properly in your DVD player anymore. Ripping speed is remarkably fast with DVDFab - depending on the size of disk, you can record a new one in less than 10 minutes, although the average time is around 30 minutes.

One of the minor drawbacks to DVDFab is that the heavy processing power needed to rip a disk often results in crashes. This will be less of a problem on more powerful machines but on machines with old processors, using DVDFab may become impractical. Many user forums are however full of praise for DVDFab claiming that it can rip more disks and, what's more, faster than comparable products such as DVD Shrink or ShrinkTo5.

Everybody will appreciate the simplicity and power of DVDFab, a rip-roaring DVD ripper..

Download DVDFab HD Decrypter 8.1.0.5 in Softonic

Now however, there are some programs strong enough to break that protection such as RipIt4Me. These encryption methods cannot be dealt with by most major DVD rippers and burners because they employ such encryption as ARccOS and RipGuard DVD techniques that totally immobilise programs such as DVD Shrink or DVD Decrypter. RipIt4Me is an incredibly powerful ripper which can handle just about any encryption. Of course, it should only be used for non commercial use - such as your own personal backups of your own commercial discs. The program is very simple to use with a "One Click" wizard to take you through the very simple ripping procedure which consists of little more than inserting a disc, browsing to a save location, and off you go. In it's latest incarnation, the program now has an automatic updater and an encryption decoder which detects whether the DVD appears to be protected or not. You'll see this displayed in the main window during the first step of the wizard.

This is a remarkably powerful ripping tool that can rip just about any copyrighted DVD (although not all) but only use it for your own backups.

Download RipIt4Me 1.7.1.0 in Softonic

However, be warned that is only intended for backup purposes and not for duplicating commercial DVDs. The popularity of this program on Softonic is no doubt due to the fact that it is able to bypass many DVD encryption methods.

However, development of SmartRipper recently ceased due to the legal implications of this so be sure that you only use the software to backup DVDs on which you own the copyright.

exe. All you have to do though is double click on the SmartRipper disk icon and the program interface pops up immediately. Unless you’ve got a DVD disk ready in your drive, the first thing you’ll receive is an error message saying ‘No DVD found’.

Once done, you’re presented with the main window. The program supports three copy modes: ‘Movie’ (copy the movie only), ‘Files’ (copy selected files only) and ‘Backup’ (copy whole disk).

Obviously, the most flexible option is ‘Files’ mode since it allows you to select and deselect the check boxes next to the parts of the DVD you want to save.

If you’re new to DVD ripping though, make sure that you know what you are ripping as it may not be clear from the file names on the DVD exactly which ones you want.

If you’re unsure what you need from the disk, just start in ‘Backup’ mode and it will save absolutely everything on the disk.

In the bottom half of the screen, the program gives you a breakdown of the technical data relating to each file on the disk. It automatically displays statistics such as the aspect ratio, display mode, resolution and max/min/average bitrate for every chapter.

This is not much use for the average user but for multimedia specialists, it could prove useful if you plan to edit the DVD footage later. However, its advanced features go way beyond this, enabling you to refine almost every aspect of the ripping process.

‘Direct stream copy’ does the standard ripper job of taking the 1:1 audio track from the disc. ‘Demux to extra file’ is a great option if you want to save the soundtrack without the video.

It enables you to save the audio in a separate file away from the rest of the contents of the DVD. You can only save in WAV format but you could easily convert this to Mp3 with a simple converter.

Finally, ‘Extract to new VOB’ does a similar job but the saved file will still be a valid VOB file. This means it can still be re-burned onto a DVD and is really useful if you want to extract the audio, edit it and then replace it back on a disc.

Download SmartRipper 2.41 in Softonic

With WinX DVD Ripper you'll be able to convert your DVD library to a variety of video formats (AVI, MPEG, MP4, WMV, MOV and FLV) and also extract the soundtrack to save it as a separate file, though this latter option only supports MP3.

Once you pop in a DVD, WinX DVD ripper loads up its contents and can select exactly which sections you want to convert. All supported formats in WinX DVD Ripper include their own conversion options such as format, quality, sample rate, frame rate, which you can use to fine tune conversion and obtain the best results for you.

WinX DVD Ripper features a preview window for a more comfortable scene selection, which also lets you take snapshots. There is no embedded video player though, meaning you can only select specific scenes, but not actually play it back.

With WinX DVD Ripper you can create backup copies of your favorite DVD movies in several popular video formats very easily.

Download WinX DVD Ripper 5.5.5 in Softonic

MakeMKV is a video converter, also known as transcoder, which converts the video clips stored in DVD and Blu-Ray discs to MKV; MKV is a container that can hold multiple video and audio tracks while preserving most of the original information – including all the meta-data, chapters and so on – without altering it in any way.

Using MakeMKV is piece of cake. Insert the disc in your player and wait for the program to read it. Don't be scared if you see an error message when reading the table of contents – I got it and the program worked fine. Simply go to File > Open disc and select your player.

MakeMKV will read the contents of the disc and display them on the program interface. Now it's your turn to select which video clips you want to convert and press the corresponding button. MakeMKV will do the job at an impressive speed and let you know when it's finished.

MakeMKV's developers state that the program works with protected (encrypted) DVD and Blu-Rays, and also that the DVD ripping will always stay free. However, support for Blu-Ray will only be free during the Beta stage, so you better download this one right now!

With MakeMKV you can easily convert your favorite DVD and Blu-Ray movies to MKV files that can be watched anywhere without any noticeable loss of quality.

Download MakeMKV 1.6.8 in Softonic

This simple tool can rip the audio track from your DVDs and save it to MP3, so that you can enjoy that concert in your iPod on the move, or extract certain movie fragments to use them in your own video creations. The program supports not only DVD but also VCD, SVCD, MPG and MPEG movies. Besides, it also enables you to choose between several MP3 settings and edit the ID3 tags of the file you're about to create.

Free DVD MP3 Ripper is very easy to use. However, bear in mind that you may need the appropriate codecs to be able to preview the video in the embedded player and also to extract audio files successfully.

With Free DVD MP3 Ripper you can easily save DVD soundtracks as MP3.

Download Free DVD MP3 Ripper 1.21 in Softonic

This tool is probably the easiest way to rip your favorite movies to your hard drive, provided they're not protected discs. Simply insert the disc into the DVD player, launch BitRipper and it'll automatically scan its contents and add them to a drop-down menu so that you can select exactly the sections you want to rip, if not the whole disc. Then just click on the "Start ripping" button and you're done! The DVD movie will start to be ripped to your hard drive on the fly, that is, without needing loads of space in your system.

This is probably the best method for average users, but if you prefer to be in control of everything when ripping a movie, you can also customize the program's settings by selecting codec (though only those which work with AVI files), aspect ratio, resolution and other technical details.

BitRipper is probably the easiest way to rip DVD movies to your hard drive, as long as it's not protected material.

Download bitRipper 1.31 in Softonic

This app is ideal for people who want an easy, no frills approach to sticking DVDs on their hard drive. The disks are copied exactly, so there's no loss of quality, but of course this means the files are quite large too. They are saved as .VOB files, which can be played on the better media players like VLC. Another useful application for DVDSmith Movie Backup is keeping your disks in good condition - back up your disks and watch them from your hard drive and they won't suffer from everyday wear and tear.

Using DVDSmith Movie Backup is incredibly easy; just choose a destination folder and click backup. The backup process can be lengthy, but works perfectly. It also removes copy protection, freeing you to use the files as you wish. Of course, if you have limited space on your hard drive you'll prefer a program that rips and compresses DVD images, and in that sense DVDSmith is very limited.

While it lacks any advanced features, a child could create a DVD backup with DVDSmith Movie Backup as it is fantastically easy to use.

Download DVDSmith Movie Backup 1.05 in Softonic