How can I download a movie from a DVD onto my computer?

[AustinGremlin]

So I've been writing reviews for a little while now and I thought I should transfer into video reviews. I thinking about doing my reviews with clips from the movies I review since in addition to just reviewing I'll also be doing an overview of the story and making little jokes about things that happen in the movie. And, yes, this is legal under fair use and the satire/parody clause of copyright law. Anyways, I need to find a way to download this movie onto my computer so I can finish the review. Is there any free software out there that will download the movie from the DVD onto my hard drive (preferably in mpeg, avi, wav or mp4 format)?

 

[DarthFutuza]

Try VLC.

 

[Ryan]

Before I give you this bit of another answer I found, please make sure you take his advice and use appropriate measures. You need a special licenses and cannot rip any old DVD to your computer even though you own it.


Yes you can rip your dvds to your computer with a lot of programs.
While ripping CDs is a common activity performed by many software programs, even many advanced computer users don't know how to rip a DVD. Ripping DVDs (geek-speak for copying onto your PC's hard-drive) is good for making a backup of their content, or watching them on your PC.
Steps
Generic Instructions

1. Determine that you, in fact, have the rights to copy the DVD for your own personal use. It is not legal to copy DVD's for any and all purposes.
2. Obtain a DVD ripping program. Oddly, this is a bit easier said than done. Legal threats have deterred some of the larger software companies from distributing DVD ripping software. Thus the only software you will find will be from companies you may not have heard of. Google "DVD ripping software" for a list of options.
3. Launch the DVD ripping program on your computer. This is any program that can read DVD format, extract the digital information, then encode it into a file format that is readable on your personal computer.
4. Insert the DVD into your computer's DVD drive and follow the instructions instructions.


Using DVD Decrypter, for PC

1. Find a copy of DVD Decrypter, a free program that rips DVDs. Macrovision has recently acquired the rights to the DVD Decrypter program, and has since stopped distributing this program. Thus DVD Decrypter is no longer easily available. See How to Find a Copy of DVD Decrypter for suggestions on downloading it.
2. Install and Open DVDDecrypter.
3. Insert a DVD to be ripped into your PC's DVD drive.
4. Ensure that you have sufficient free space on your hard drive to store the DVD. Many DVDs contain 6-8 GB of files.
5. Open the DVD Decrypter program

DVD Decrypter Main Page
6. Ensure the correct optical (DVD) drive is selected on the source pull-down menu.
7. Set the correct file destination. Under the title Destination, it should say Please Select a Folder. If you click on the folder icon to the right of this phrase (see mouse arrow in image below), you will get a standard Windows menu to select a destination folder.

Choose a Folder to Save Files
8. Click on the start icon (see image below) to begin the ripping. You will be updated on the progress. It could take 10-15 minutes to rip your DVD (actual time depends on the speed of your DVD drive).

9. You now have the DVD unencrypted in a folder on your hard drive.