I had a task set for me to rip some DVD’s so that they could be watched on our TV, iPhones, iPads, PC’s and on a Mac and preferably via a an x-box.

So I set out to try for the very first time some DVD ripping software. (So I was late to this party!)

Now I have to say that after two days I think it is a minefield of marketing rip-offs. To save you reading further Magic DVD Ripper is my winner. But if you want to know what else I looked at have a quick read. It might save you some wasted downloads.

AVS software. Buy “Unlimited LifeTime licence” that is limited to only one computer for the life of that computer.  Get a new PC and it expires just like Microsoft Windows licences. What crap.The software to convert files is as slow as a wet week in any case. Don’t waste your time. And watch out for the ‘independent reviews’ that provide links to buying this as they are all on a commission basis.

Wondershare software DVD Platinum product looks ok but alongside Aimersoft DVD Ripper you can see that they are exactly the same software with a different skin. This raises the questions of why and which is the original? My watermarked file (note that you dont find out about the watermarks in the trial until you go to save the ripped file.) did not render correctly in any case. Note that I am new to this and the fact that the frames seemed to hesitate and jump with ghosting struck me as being a poor quality rip. Tried Aimersoft but it is ripping at a rate that would make snails look quick.

AnyDVD, espoused as really good, nagged the heck out of me with constant reminders that I only had 21 days left of a 21 day trial within 5 seconds of the install completing. Every time the screen changed it nagged. For crying out loud, let me use the software and not undertake a olympic practice session in clicking OK buttons on annoying prompt boxes.  In the end it ripped the TV series DVD into a mountain of small files that split the episodes up into fragments. Quality output but and annoying process and I am not sure how to join the files back together and slow as well.

Next I tried the appropriately named, ‘Next DVD Ripper’ which seemed to run really well but the output was crap. Tried on a cartoon/animation DVD and got gross pixelation as if the digital broadcast was failing on the cable TV. Could not playback properly on anything. Tried again with TV series episode and got average picture and lipsync issues that were so bad I could not tell who was speaking.

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum. Given the similarity of the name with the Wondershare/Aimersoft clones I wonder if the back-end is similar. It will, once you work out how to modify the settings, rip a decent copy although I am sure that I am hearing a bit of wow/flutter as if it is an old audio cassette tape on a worn deck in the sound quality. Probably ok but it still did not shake me from Magid DVD Ripper. But I will at least provide a link to this as a worthy runner up.

HandBrake is an opensource ripper, but it is not quick and does not do some of the things I would like. I think I needed to tweak settings more but gave up.

Magic DVD Ripper.  Ripped the TV episodes to mpeg-2 format in rapid time and they work perfectly on the TV. Next tried ripping to an iPad format and tested.  It does not convert existing files. It only rips from DVD, so converting a file requires another product, but it is quick with ripping and gives great audio and video quality without messing with settings.

So the next task is a video file format converting application to take the TV/DVD quality mpg’s from Magic and convert them quickly and easily to iPad and other formats for viewing on the move.

In case you wondered, our TV is the Panasonic Viera 3D with the Synology Media Station linked over our ethernet 1G LAN. We also have an Xbox 360 on an older TV in another room that I’ve managed to hook to the Synology as well for music. I’ll be trying video’s next weekend.