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How to Rip a DVD, Blu-Ray, Audio or Video CD and Save it using VLC Media Player

You must have noticed that you can’t always use copy and paste for your DVD/CD/Blu-Ray disk drives. Have you wondered how you can take all the contents like music, songs, and videos and store it in your computer for backup? VLC can do that. It can easily rip a DVD, Blu-Ray, Audio CD and even those Video CDs (SVCD or VCD). With the help of VLC Media Player, you can copy the contents of a Blu-Ray or DVD and even an Audio CD. The contents of a disk can be saved to your laptop or desktop.

These circular disks aren’t popular like they used to be but they are still in use. If your laptop has one of those drives and you have old music CDs, movie Blu-Rays, DVD or VCD lying around, back them up to your computer safely. It’s like downloading online video but from CDs and DVDs instead. VLC will rip and extract them in a modern and popular digital format like MP3, MP4 (H.264). You can store these MP3 and MP4 files forever in your PC or Mac as a backup.

So, here are the detailed steps to rip a DVD, Blu-Ray, Audio CD or SVCD/VCD and save them to your computer (desktop or laptop) using VLC Media Player:

First, insert your DVD, CD, Blu-Ray Disc, Audio CD or Video CD to the disk drive in your laptop, PC or Mac

  • Open VLC and access Media > Convert/Save [CTRL + R].
  • Click on the Disc
  • Select a disc type: DVD, Blu-ray, Audio CD or SVCD/VCD.
  • Check on ☑ No disc menus.
  • Select your disc from the drop-down or Browse to choose it.
  • Click on Convert/Save.
  • Next, choose a Profile: (a) Video – H.264 + MP3 (MP4) works great for videos and (b) Audio – MP3 works great for ripping audio CDs.
  • Click Browse and choose a Destination file.
  • Hit Start to begin the Audio/Video ripping.

The progress bar in VLC’s player interface will show you how much of the ripping and copying is done. If the progress bar doesn’t move, click on the Play button. You can, of course, pause it in the middle but it isn’t recommended. Once the process completes, browse to the destination folder and get all the ripped MP3s (Audio) or MP4s (Video + Audio) files. You can now copy them to any location—hard drive on your system, external storage, and cloud locations. You can also convert them into different formats using VLC. They will be saved forever and won’t get lost because the circular disc has been damaged or scratched.

View Comments (35)

  • VLC seems to work fine for ripping one specific DVD I have as long as video codec has both video and "keep original track" selected, audio codec has "audio" selected with "selected as MP3", "129 kb/s" set as the bitrate with 2 audio channels and 48000 htz. However, trying to select different subtitle and audio tracks from the "open menu button" does not change the audio language and furthermore I'm unable to get built in subtitles working within the profile edition with both "subtitles" and "overlay subtitles" selected. I have messed with these settings in ways I'm unable to replicate and it has even exported with multiple subtitles over each other when this is not the desired effect either. I can change audio tracks and subtitles easily when just playing it off the CD within the program, but I'm not sure how to get the same results as an audio file, basically, so if anyone has any constructive tips that would help me that would be helpful.

  • what i've noticed is , VLC media player is crap at ripping dvd's. i know for a fact i am doing all the steps correctly, and yet VLC only rips the first few seconds of the movie. pile of wank, it will be less hassle to pay to get ripping software intalled on my laptop

  • i can't select the destination. i get all the way to the folder i want and hit enter and/or save and it doesn't do anything. just sits there like i never told it to go.

  • Hello, am I able to load a VHS tape - loaded with hours of music into VlC - then burn it to a CD?
    Also; can burn a cd into VLC from a different language labeled FREE REGION
    Thank you kindly.

    • same here, i'm only getting movie intro, about 4 seconds, lol. no idea what's going on, beyond annoying

  • I can't even see the D drive that the disc I'm supposed to be ripping from yet trying to follow all as above. It says "No Items match your search!?" can't Think I'[m just too damn old to even understand computers now. I'm so tired and frustrated trying to learn things that keep changing every 3 weeks because....this is EASIER! Yeah, not to some who just finally understood have to do something, it's frustrating beyond words!

  • Tried ripping a video DVD following your instructions and I get the video with no audio. I have tried it several ways but always ends up with no audio. Original DVD plays great with VLC, just unable to rip it using VLC. I see that this has been asked before but no follow up.

    • Yet another update... Using the settings from my last comment, I did in fact get audio. Unfortunately, I have now discovered that I got the French version of the audio instead of the English version. Now I'm searching for some way to get the correct sound track. Will update again if I find a way.

      • Hi Dennis. I was seeing the same issue: Despite selecting audio-track "1" (meaning, 2nd track) for Japanese in the Open Disc dialog, VLC kept using the 1st track, which was English, in the Converted (transcoded) output file.
        After skimming the source code, it appeared that the transcode-related modules were considering only an "audio-language" setting. Eventually, I found some audio language settings in VLC's Preferences, which default to blank. Once I entered the desired language there, the transcoded file began reflecting the desired language.
        This worked for the 1st episode in a series, so I guess should work for a movie, too. I'm working on getting the 2nd and subsequent episodes working now; something is tripping up the audio tracks at the transition between episodes.

        • Hi Danny,
          Thanks so much for your update on my comment! Haven't had a chance to try your suggestion yet but will do so asap. Overall, I like VLC so it's always nice to have some additional info on how to get it to work like I want.
          Thanks again and Happy New Year,
          Dennis

    • A followup on my last post.... I have now had some degree of success with a change in settings:
      I'm still starting with "convert/save" from the media menu and then selecting "convert" on the convert/save dropdown menu on the dvd tab. I'm also using the suggested profile "Video - H.274 + MP3 (MP4)".
      The difference is that I went into the tools settings (the wrench icon) and did the following:
      - The encapsulation is still MP4/MOV
      - The video codec is still H-264
      - The audio codec is -now- "MP3" with a bitrate of 128 kb/s with 2 channels and a sample rate of 48000 Hz. No filters are set.
      - There are no subtitles

      Using these settings, I was able to get one dvd to rip completely successfully. The second and third dvds that I tried started out working ok, but then about midway through the converted file, audio and video sync were lost and in one instance, the speed of the video was too fast.

      I feel I've made progress, but still have more experimentation to go.

      If anyone tries this and has a solution to the last problems, please post a solution if you have one.... thanks!

    • I'm having the same problem, no audio with ripped video. I had to get a new laptop recently (a Lenovo Yoga) which is running Windows 10 to replace an older laptop (a Toshiba Satellite) which is running Windows 7 (just barely, has to be rebooted frequently). I was able to use VLC to rip two DVDs with the older laptop and got both video and audio. Now I'm having the problem with the new laptop and new version of VLC. Had to buy an external DVD/CD player/writer as new laptop doesn't have one. Plays the movies fine using VLC (both video and audio) so I know the data is there.
      Would love to find a solution to this problem.

  • After ripping a DVD I found it had audio for only half of the film, the rest was silent. After ripping another, the film's soundtrack was in French, not synchronized to the video. How do I rip a DVD with the full, correct soundtrack?

  • Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I am using updated software and trying to backup a CD to MP3. I keep getting a single mp3 file with 0 bytes...?

    • I had this same issue, until I discovered that on the menu on top, click on audio, then click on audio track and you'll find all the language options there.

  • I have some old videos, originally recorded one-at-a-time on VCR tape, later transferred to a CD-R. (I played CD-R on my VCR and DVR a while ago.) I want to transfer individual tracks onto my PC (running Windows 10) and thence to a webpage. Will the VLC Media Player "rip" individual tracks so I can identify each with a tag on the webpage later?

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