With fre:ac you easily rip your audio CDs to MP3 or WMA files for use with your hardware player or convert files that do not play with other audio software.

Multimedia • Updated on Jan 9, 2020

No doubt, YouTube has become the center of entertainment for most people. From funny, short clips to full-length documentaries, you can find almost everything there. The service has been active for more than one decade now, as you know. And, it’s still a bummer that YouTube does not allow you to download videos.

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The case for YouTube offline

While it’s true that most of us have a internet connection nowadays, imagine this:

You have a slow internet connection. This can be a nightmare, you know, especially while you try to watch full-HD and 4K videos. If the internet connection drops, so does the fun.

You need Offline Access. So, you don’t want to spend all your time on the Internet, alright? So, when you come across a really good YouTube video, you want to keep it offline. That way, you will be able to watch it whenever you want. If you are on an airplane, for instance.

You need Backup. You are an artist or a content creator. You need to use some YouTube video for a project of yours. This time, quality is important for you and you need the maximum you can get. There is also the danger that videos will be taken offline in the future and you won’t be able to access them at all.

This is why it doesn’t surprise us that you want to know how to download and save YouTube videos. So did we, and luckily, third-party YouTube downloader software will help.

By saving your favorite YouTube videos for later, you’re ensuring you can watch YouTube videos start-to-finish anywhere without any pesky obstacles like wifi or restricted data plans.

There are some online downloaders as well, but they are limited in features and function. In this article, we are going to talk about desktop tools for macOS.

How we choose

In order to choose the best YouTube downloader for Mac, we analysed more than 20 apps from the market, and we’d followed some criteria.

• Does the app offer the ability to download YouTube video to watch offline?
• Does the app enable you to download, convert and save videos with a single click?
• Does the app provide bulk downloading?
• Does the app extract the audio from YouTube music videos to MP3 format?
• Does it work with the speed of light?
• Does the app help you select your best quality of download (4K or 1080p, 720p or 360p, etc)
• Is the app beautifully designed with an easy to understand interface?
• Does it help you keep up-to-date, allowing you to quickly get the latest version?

Our favorite top picks

Based on our testing sessions, here we’ve come down to these four.

Full disclosure: We earn a commission if you end up purchasing any of the Mac YouTube Downloader apps listed on this page through our referral links. This helps us to keep TheSweetBits up-to-date. Thanks for your support.

Softorino YouTube Converter 2 — best overall for iPhone and Mac

Softorino YouTube Converter 2, also known as SYC 2, is one of the most popular YouTube downloaders. The best part about SYC 2 is that you can download Youtube videos & audio to watch them or listen offline on your iPhone, iPad, iPod or computer.

What makes SYC 2 great?

Download and convert YouTube video: While its name mentions strictly YouTube, we should point out that the program is much more capable than it lets see. Besides YouTube, the application can download videos and tracks from SoundCloud, Vimeo, BandCamp, VEVO, BREAK, CNN, DailyMotion, Facebook, Instagram, and many more.

You can use this program for not just downloading YouTube videos but also converting the content to many other formats. If you opt for video output, indicating the video quality that best suits your needs is possible, with 360p, 720p HD, 1080p HD, and 2160p 4K resolution being your alternatives. As for audio output, you can choose from MP3, AAC, and “original” audio.

From our test, converting an hour-long YouTube video into an MP3 took fewer than two minutes. We also tried to pull a 249-track playlist from a video game soundtrack. That took under 15 minutes to convert them all to MP3 files and add them to iTunes and my iPhone X.

Ringtone Maker: SYC 2 is an awesome way to create ringtones at your convenience. While trying to download a video/song from the internet, you can select the Ringtone option as well. This can bring you one full-length ringtone, or something trimmed down to 30 seconds, but sadly there’s no way to trim a specific section. Either way, you don’t have to use any other tool for converting a song to ringtone.

aWi-Fi Data Transfer: You can transfer downloaded media to other devices such as iPhone, iPad or iTunes. According to the destination, SYC 2 will optimize the final file. At the end of the day, you don’t need other tools to transfer downloaded videos, music or ringtones to your other Apple devices — all thanks to aWi-Fi. It also supports other transfer protocols like UCB and ACR.

Impressive Performance: Being the latest version, SYC 2 is pretty fast in terms of performance. The download speeds are quite impressive. Also, it is worth noting that SYC 2 automatically recognizes content you download. Thanks to Automatic Content Recognition technology, it will fill in all the needed meta data, genre, and even proper artwork. It also lets you store the downloaded content to iTunes/TV app accordingly. This is an awesome feature if you’d like to have a well-organized media library.

Overall, Softorino YouTube Converter 2 is an awesome choice if you need a quick as well as versatile way to download YouTube videos to Mac and iOS devices.

The app is available for Mac and Windows. However, you get the best experience on Mac, due to the ecosystem integration. A single license of SYC 2 would cost you $19.95 and this unlocks all features including 4K UHD support and transfer-based features.

Downie — easiest to dive in

Downie is yet another popular YouTube video downloader for macOS. But, the best part is that it allows you to download videos from more than 1000 websites. For now, however, we will be focusing on YouTube video downloading capability of this tool.

What makes Downie great?

Minimal UI: As you can see, Downie has a minimal User Interface offering. Everything has been kept simple. You have a minimal list of the running and completed YouTube video downloads. It’s up to you to clear it. In addition to the fully-fledged window, Downie has a menu-bar interface as well. Clicking on it would show you the current progress of the download.
Browser integration: Downie offers top-notch integration with popular browsers like Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Chromium and Opera. Downie integrates so well that you can download your favorite YouTube videos in a single click. Or, if you want something further, you can check out the Contextual Menu as well. Downie Contextual Menu allows you to select the Post-processing mode as well.

4K video support and compatibility: Downie lets you download YouTube videos at the highest possible quality. You can get videos that perform well in your 4K displays. Regardless the quality, Downie ensures the best set of speeds, for downloading as well as format conversion. Downie supports a wide variety of websites, from where you can download videos. The best part is that the team offers frequent updates, adding support for more sites.
Customization options: Downie allows you to download videos at different qualities, up to 4K. You can also automate the process. That is, you can set up Downie to choose the best possible Quality every time you download something. On the other hand, if you need more control, you can limit the quality as well. Along with video, this YouTube downloader can download the corresponding subtitle as well. You can even choose subtitles. There are also some Parental Control and Proxy customization options available in the Downie package.

To sum up, Downie is a great choice if you need a simple-yet-powerful YouTube video downloader for Mac. The app is pretty minimal, but the features are quite useful at times.

Downie is currently available for macOS only. You need a device running macOS 10.11+ to run the program. A single license of Downie is priced at $19.99, the developer offers TheSweetBits readers an exclusive 25% discount here, only $14.99. It’s also available on Setapp.

PullTube — online video and playlist downloader

PullTube is different from the other YouTube downloaders we have listed above. It is a complete suite that helps you download online videos and playlists with ease. Compared to other tools in the list, PullTube has a versatile feature list as well.

What makes PullTube great?

Comprehensive Interface: The UI of PullTube may not be the simplest in the first look. That is because the media downloader packs an amazing set of features inside. However, if you just want to fetch details and download a YouTube video, it would take just a few seconds. The fact that you can use this single tool to download variety of videos from multiple websites is just amazing indeed.

Video Trimming: A new challenger in the game, PullTube has the ability to trim down videos. There’s a scissor-like button in the app which lets you trim the video to your desired length — either by feeding inputting the time stamps, or dragging through the video timeline for a preferred part of the video.
Built-in Conversion Engine: When you have PullTube, you don’t need another conversion utility. This tool is so great when you’d like to get an audio/video file converted into another format. There is also an option to stitch multiple video parts together so that you have a single file. You will also be able to use the built-in editing features for making a few changes.

The Miscellaneous: There are a few seemingly simple but really useful features in the PullTube package. For instance, you would be able to download auto-generated subtitles when you download a YouTube video. A point worth mentioning is that the app supports playlist downloading as well. If PullTube detects that the video is part of a playlist, it will offer to download the entire collection. Similarly, the app also has a wonderful level of browser integration. It works well with Chrome, Safari and Firefox. PullTube also lets you using shortcuts and gestures, and set up custom proxy/socket choices for easy control. Altogether, the video downloading experience is unparalleled.

At the end of the day, we would recommend PullTube as the ultimate YouTube downloader if you need some extra points when it comes to additional features.

It is currently available for macOS devices only. If you have a Mac running 10.11 or higher, you should try it. Although it offers a free version, PullTube is actually a paid program. You can either purchase it from official website for $14.99 or get it as a part of the Setapp subscription.

Wondershare AllMyTube — the all-in-one solution

Have you ever thought of an all-in-one YouTube downloader? Something that can help you download, edit, convert and transfer the content from YouTube and other websites? Well, Wondershare AllMyTube is right that thing. That’s why we’ve chosen it as the best all-in-one YouTube downloader out there.
You should be considering Wondershare AllMyTube if you want to ignore using multiple tools at once. It gets the job done without much fuss. Awesome, huh?

What we loved in Wondershare AllMyTube?

Wondershare AllMyTube just rocks the stage when it comes to additional features. We’ll keep it short.

Built-in Converter: Unlike the other YouTube video downloaders we checked out, Wondershare AllMyTube has a dedicated and well-built option for converting videos. You will be able to convert not only downloaded videos but also the other videos you have on your device. You can simply drag and drop the file to start the conversion process. It even comes with device profiles for easy conversion.
Content Transfer: Although not as good as SYC 2, Wondershare AllMyTube allows you to transfer content to your smartphone devices as well. Here, however, you can connect either your iOS or Android device for data transfer. The full process takes some time, but you have some convenience. You would have to install some apps on the device for easy transfer, though.

Recording and Browser: Wondershare AllMyTube packs a built-in Recorder utility along with other features. You can use it to record content from your screen. Browser, on the other hand, is an awesome way to explore popular sites without leaving the program. You can check out the content and will then be able to download everything with ease and control.

On any day, you can’t go wrong with Wondershare AllMyTube. It packs so many features that will help you in downloading and managing videos from YouTube and other platforms.

The software is available for both macOS and Windows. If you have a Mac that runs on 10.10 or later versions, you can install this program. You can also try the free version of Wondershare AllMyTube with some limited features. However, for complete features, you will have to pay $19 per year or $29 for the Lifetime license.

Other YouTube video grabbers we considered

Although they did not make it to the top four list, these are the other best YouTube downloaders you can be considering on any day. We will do a brief overview of all.

Airy YouTube Downloader

Airy is definitely a popular, minimalist tool for downloading videos from YouTube. It works for YouTube videos, and not for other video platforms. Starting from the User Interface, Airy is just simple. You will be able to start everything in seconds. Once you have pasted the URL, you can select the desired quality and Airy would start the download ASAP.

There aren’t many added features in the package, and we think Airy can be too minimalistic at times. The point is that you may miss some features that you actually need in the long run. That having said, we would be recommending Airy if you need something so simple and straightforward for downloading YouTube videos.

Airy YouTube Downloader is available for macOS and it costs $19.95. You can download up to three videos using the free version.

4K Video Downloader

As the name says, 4K Video Downloader is a tool that allows you to download YouTube videos in 4K quality. Of course, almost all the tools we have listed above can do this. However, 4K Video Downloader does a great job since we are talking about a dedicated tool. Once again, the process is straightforward, and the download tool can pick up the YouTube URL from the clipboard.

There are some cool features, though. For instance, the Smart Mode allows you to download videos in just a single click. Subscriptions feature, on the other hand, will download newly-uploaded videos from channels you have subscribed.

4K Video Downloader is available for Mac and is free to use. You can upgrade to premium for extra features.

MacX YouTube Downloader

This is your best shot if you are looking for the practically free YouTube downloader out there. MacX YouTube Downloader does get the job done and the speeds are also pretty great. Of course, you can expect standard features from the package but that’s it. Although the name says so, MacX YouTube Downloader allows you to download videos from more than 300 websites.

One thing we thought is that MacX YouTube Downloader could be faster in terms of UI. It takes a while for the program to analyze videos and process them for download. Regardless of all these, you can use the tool to download YouTube videos at 4K quality, given that you choose the right format. We think that’s great if you consider the utility of all.

MacX YouTube Downloader is available for Mac and is free cost.

ClipGrab for Mac

ClipGrab for Mac is one of the very few free YouTube downloaders for Mac. Of course, being a free tool, it’s some downsides, but they don’t matter much. You can use ClipGrab for Mac for downloading videos at up to full HD quality. An integrated Search feature makes it really easy to find and download videos. You can simply enter some search terms and appropriate YouTube results would appear.

Once that is done, ClipGrab for Mac would let you download the file into MPEG4 or MP3. There aren’t many fancy features to talk about in ClipGrab for Mac. However, you can control the download and conversion process to the maximum. You can even manage the Metadata of the file. Considering that it has some advanced features, this free YouTube video downloader is worth it.

ClipGrab for Mac is completely free to use. It’s available for Windows and Linux as well.

What about YouTube Premium? Can it save video to computer?

YouTube Premium(formerly known as YouTube Red) is a subscription service from YouTube. It packs a number of features such as downloading videos, ad-free playback and background playback. Currently, the package contains access to YouTube Music as well.

But it doesn’t come free. Protect cells without protecting sheet. YouTube Premium is priced at $11.99 per month. So, you have to pay more than $120 a year for watching YouTube videos without ads and offline playback. On the bright side, you will have access to YouTube original content and background playback options.

Can YouTube Premium save videos to computer?

NO.

YouTube Premium lets you save YouTube videos only to Android/iOS devices. So, you cannot save videos to your Mac or Windows PC.

And, you know the worst part? All the downloaded videos are automatically deleted after 30 days. And YouTube has brought 1080p downloads to the official iOS and Android apps.many phones have now gone past that; the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max have resolutions that exceed 1080p, for instance.

Considering all these points, it makes more sense to download YouTube videos using a dedicated YouTube downloader for Mac above.

Last but not least, is it illegal to download YouTube videos?

Technically, it’s illegal to download YouTube videos. The official Terms and Conditions page of YouTube says:

“You shall not download any Content unless you see a “download” or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that Content.You shall not copy, reproduce, make available online or electronically transmit, publish, adapt, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any Content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the respective licensors of the Content. YouTube and its licensors reserve all rights not expressly granted in and to the Service and the Content.”

Going by definition, you cannot download YouTube videos for offline watching, but that’s just a definition. Unless you are downloading the video and publishing it elsewhere, there’s nothing to worry.

Practically speaking, you can download YouTube videos and watch them later. As long as you don’t use the videos for commercial purposes, YouTube downloading is legal.

Bottom line

So, which YouTube Downloader is your best bet? Depending on your needs.

If you are looking for something that offers the best speed and iOS-based features, Softorino YouTube Converter 2 seems to be the right shot, any given day. Nevertheless, there are times when you need something like Wondershare AllMyTube, especially if you want to do more than simply downloading the video.

Except for the four tools we mentioned last, it’s true that every YouTube downloader here packs some additional features. And, these features would come in handy if you are a content creator or someone who compiles different types of media from YouTube.

Backup and Digitize DVDs to MP4 in 5 Mins without Errors

Before we dig deeper into the free DVD ripping software for macOS review. Here are some facts and problems in connection with DVDs.

It's reported the U.S. consumers have collected 87 DVD titles on average over the past decades. However, the advent of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and HBO Go changes the way of home entertainment from physical disc to digital video. That's why many DVD owners jump onto the bandwagon to digitize their DVD library. But what will you benefit from ripping DVD to computer hard drive?

* Free up some room in your house because your DVD collection is cumbersome.
* Copy DVD to hard drive or NAS so that you can organize & achieve your movie library by genre, year without going to the shelf yourself.
* Back up DVDs to computer to avoid any scratch, fingerprint or damage.
* Free DVDs from region code restrictions, since you're unwilling to end up watching Hollywood summer films on Xmas Day in your country.
* Convert disc to digital format to extend your viewing options to your Macbook, iMac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Plus, or other media server anywhere, without even dropping a disc in the drive, downloading a MPEG2 decoder, taking along the whole discs, or repurchasing the movie contents from iTunes Store.

To follow the trend and live without a disc drive in your Mac computer, smartphone or tablet, no need to make any compromise when these ideas conflict with the facts. The advent of Mac DVD ripping tools will get it all solved.

Best Solution to Copy & Convert DVD without a Hitch!

* Copy and digitize any DVD to MP4, MKV, MOV, H.264, ISO, etc.
* Convert DVD content to Mac, Hard drive, TV and mobile devices.
* (Unique!) Support any new DVDs, 99-title DVDs, damaged DVDs, etc.
* (Hardware acceleration)Only 5 mins to rip DVD with original quality.

Strapped for time? Click one of the sections below to jump straight to your most interested part.

• Part 1: How to Judge the Best DVD Ripper for Mac in 2020
• Part 2: Top 3 Free DVD Rippers for Mac in 2020
• Part 3: Performance Comparison among the 3 Free Rippers
• Part 4: FAQ about DVD Copying and Ripping

Is There a Mac Built-in App to Digitize DVD? No. The DVD ripping process on Mac doesn't go as simple as burning. The latter can be achieved with Mac's built-in app like Finder or iDVD, as long as you have an Apple external USB SuperDrive. While the former is still out of reach with Mac unless you own a third-party DVD converter software.

This is because almost all DVD movies or TV shows you bought or rented are technically copyrighted and DVD rips will inevitably involve in breaking DVD copy protections, e.g. the Content Scramble System. Such action is currently unlawful in the US and UK. Apple is of course unwilling to set against law or money in consideration of continuous cooperation with U.S. studios for iTunes movies, it won't allow you to rip DVD to Mac the way you can burn it. This makes it a sense to download a third-party DVD ripper for Mac instead.

Note: We don't accept ripping DVD in such a way to steal the movie you don't legally own.

Part 1: How to Judge the Best Mac DVD Ripper 2019

There are plenty of free DVD copying and ripping software for Mac, which claims to rip any DVDs to any formats, say DVD to MP4, MOV, FLV, MPEG, H.264, etc. But most often, you endure a whole day long sitting aside your Macbook, trying to get the contents off DVDs yet find it crashes constanly, makes scratching high frequency sounds, gets choppy video on output, or keeps giving messages like no valid source found, etc. Therefore, you shall take 'something' into consideration prior to download a free Mac DVD ripping software. Here are the four decisive elements that make up the best one.

Ripping Ability: A good ripper will access all commercial DVDs, no matter they are encoded with CSS, region code or other schemes, and has all discs digitized to MP4, or whatever other formats. Preset profiles for mobiles, TVs, webs, gaming systems, computers, and more are preferred. You have to bear in mind the latest macOS Catalina weeds out 32-bit apps, so make sure you download the 64-bit DVD ripper with good compatibility with macOS 10.15.

High Quality: DVD transcoding involves in codec compression that leads to quality degradation inevitably. Good rippers manage to create high-quality movie file with almost imperceptible loss of quality (preferably the bitrate is around 1500kbps), by virtue of advanced video transcoding kernel.

Fast Speed: DVD converters used to rely on CPU to improve ripping efficiency while some accelerate the speed twice or more with GPU that's good at concurrent computing. If you have hundreds of DVDs to be digitized, why not choose the one with GPU acceleration enabled.

Ease to Use: Great tools will feature intuitive interface under the hood, where its features are clearly marked and locally placed, leaving little room for guesswork. Preferably, Mac users can get the hang of DVD to digital process with no more than 3 clicks, regardless of the computer skills.

To prevent any illegal redistribution of commercial discs, DVD studios adopts copy protection schemes to set up roadblock on DVD software, among which CSS is the most well known one. With facing with these mechanisms, many DVD rippers or DVD decrypters, especially the free ones, no longer stand the gaff and end up with various errors in the whole process, categorized by disc analyzing before ripping, DVD transcoding and the final rips after the conversion.

Except the above mentioned issues, ordinary DVD converters will go wrong with the recent movies, behaving with errors like dirty title, subtitle track issue, repeated ripping, halfway encoding, unwatchable rips, and more. It will be even trickier when you want to backup DVDs with particular non-UDF and ISO9600 formats such as workout disc beachbody. They are deliberately placed with bad information and the true titles are hidden. As a result, almost 99% of DVD rippers for Mac and Windows in the market will fail to load DVD, encounter a large number of tracks, show impossibly 40gb or more of data but output just several KB. So the capability of defeating encryption codes and recognizing the tricky DVD formats is one success factor for the ripping software.

Click to see the complete DVD ripping errors and fixes >>

Part 2: Top 3 Free DVD Rippers for Mac in 2020 [Review & Guide]

With these 5 elements taken into consideration, we've sought out 3 from an overwhelming number of Mac DVD ripping software. They are MacX DVD Ripper, HandBrake and MakeMKV, respectively. Handbrake is an open source DVD and video transcoding program, and MakeMKV is a widely used free DVD and blu ray ripper, both of which work well on macOS. What about MacX DVD Ripper? Scroll down.

No.1 - MacX DVD Ripper

MacX DVD Ripper is a professional DVD copier and converter designed for Mac (incl. macOS Catalina) and Windows (7/8/10). With unique DVD analysis kernel, the program deals with most commercial titles with encryption schemes that deliberately hamper the ripping, incl. CSS, Region Code, RCE, ARccOS, Disney X-Project DRM, etc. Besides, all DVD formats are supported, including UDF, intractable non-UDF, and ISO9600, so whether it is a new movie title, workout disc, or the DVD unplayable or damaged, MacXDVD will cope with it calmly.

Engineered for Apple ecosystem, it can freely convert DVDs to Mac-specific formats like MOV, M4V, H.264 that are compatible with QuickTime, iPhone, iPad, iTunes, Apple TV, and digitize DVD to MP4 format your SSD, NAS or USB accepts for a better DVD storage. You can also transcode DVD to other mainstream formats like HEVC, MKV, AVI, ISO, or convert a movie to format playable on your iPhone, iPad, Huawei, Samsung, TV, PS4, and more. Besides, a full range of basic editing features like cut, crop, merge, subtitle, etc are offered to cater to your DVD movie customization needs.

MacXDVD supports unique level-3 hardware acceleration, hyper-threading and multi-core CPU techs. When it starts transcoding DVDs, computer hardware, together multiple cores, is fully utilized to execute DVD decoding, processing and encoding task simultaneously and multiple threads are enabled to run on each core. This dramatically shortens the DVD ripping process, while unburdening CPU greatly. High-quality engine and De-interlacing engine are available for you to check, purpose built to produce remarkably high quality.

[Tutorial] How to Use MacX DVD Ripper

Step 1: Insert DVD
Click 'Add DVD' button to load the disc. MacX will easily find the accurate main title. In our test, we successfully open the titles like Inside Out, Frozen from Disney. For TV shows with several episodes, select the item and MacX will decode it in sequence.

Free download the DVD ripper on Mac >>
Free download the DVD ripper on Windows >>

Step 2: Choose the output format
Preferrably, you can rip DVD to MP4 H.264 for better compatibility, quality and smaller file size. With no further tweaking, it achieves an H.264 file with crisp picture. The Mac specific library also offers options to backup DVD, convert DVD to Apple, Android, Microsoft, Sony, Web and more.

Step 3: Start protected DVD converting
For DVDs with tough protections, MacXDVD's unique title check mechanism and DVD analysis algorithm automatically scan the title, crack severely protected DVDs and smooth the ripping process. It also cuts the commercials and merge the useful parts via its editing features.

No.2 - HandBrake

Handbrake is an open-source DVD ripper for Mac, Windows and Linux, which can freely convert DVD to MP4 and MKV, with support for iPhone, iPods, PSPs, Apple TVs, PS3s. Handbrake rips DVD that is homemade/unprotected only. It cannot rip commercial DVDs unless you rely on third party tool like VLC or DVD decrypter, not to mention the Disney newer protections. MacX would be the HandBrake alternative to solve this problem.

The version Handbrake V1.0.7 adds support for HEVC encoding. This means that you can re-encode DVD into HEVC to store more movies on Mac's hard drive and newer iPhones or iPads. You shall understand the DVD to HEVC converting process takes a longer time as HEVC entails high computational demands. The good news is Handbrake still performs ultrafast DVD conversion speed if your Macbook or iMac is equipped with a video card like Intel's Kaby Lake processor series. Now in the latest version 1.2.0, Handbrake adds support for AMD and NVidia GPU acceleration for H.264/HEVC encoding like what MacX DVD Ripper Pro does.

[Tutorial] How to Use HandBrake

Handbrake works with Mac OS X 10.7 to 10.14. Make sure your Mac has enough space to store the program (around 12.41MB). You can go to its official site to download and install the freeware.

Step 1: Insert DVD disc into Mac's DVD drive and run Handbrake. Click the Source button to load the DVD. It takes a few seconds to scan the disc. To rip protected DVD on Mac, libdvdcss is required to remove the CSS.

Step 2: Click 'Browse' to set where you want to save the output files.

Step 3: Click 'Presets' and select an output format. Here are MP4 (M4V) or MKV, and mobiles like iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, Android, Windows Phone.

Step 4: Now click 'RUN' to rip DVD for free on Mac now.

Having problems with Handbrake, check the full solutions to Handbrake DVD ripping errors on macOS:
* Handbrake cannot rip DVD with 99 titles? Fix it here
* Handbrake libdvdcss error on macOS Sierra? Check the solution

No.3 - MakeMKV

If you're seeking for a tool that rips protected DVDs & Blu rays and preserves all video/audio tracks and subtitles with meta-information, there is no better tools than MakeMKV, an easy free DVD/Blu ray ripper for Mac. As its name suggests, this program aids Mac users to free rip DVD to MKV format only. Since MakeMKV works rather a format converter than a transcoder, it remuxes the movie content from one format MPEG2 to MKV without affecting too much quality, so the whole DVD to MKV converting process is pretty fast with excellent quality. In this regard, MakeMKV is your premium choice if you just want to backup and store your movie contents on your hard drive, NAS or USB.

Neo geo rage x 5 2 emulator for mac. Since there is little compression in the DVD to MKV ripping process, the output file size is tremendous, almost the same as the original DVD disc. This is not good especially when you want to import the DVD movie into your iPhone or iPad - Just 3 full-length movies will eat up your 16GB iDevice space. So you'd better compress the movie into a size-friendly file with a video transcoder. MakeMKV is available as a free DVD ripping tool. For free Blu-ray disc digitization, you can try its beta version that stops functioning after 60 days.

[Tutorial] How to Use MakeMKV

Free download MakeMKV on Mac. The tool is completely free to rip a DVD disc to Mac during the beta-testing phase, and after that, if you want to decrypt Blu-Ray disc, you will need to pay $50.

Step 1: Open the software and insert the disk. It accepts both DVD and Blu-Ray discs. Then click 'Open Disc' to load in the information.

Step 2: MakeMKV will scan and identify the titles correctly and pop up a list of disk chapters. Choose the chapter, normally the longest and biggest title.

Step 3: Select a folder on Mac to save the output MKV files and click 'Make MKV'. It shows a fast DVD to digital processing speed on Mac, with an average of 30 minutes to rip Blu-ray disc. The output MKV keeps high video and audio quality, but MKV file is enormous (6.73GB MKV file for the 7.84GB DVD in our test).

Part 3: Performance Comparison among the 3 Free Rippers

To better understand the performance of the top 3 Mac DVD ripper freeware, below is a table and detailed comparison in ripping speed, output quality and supported encryptions.

Note: This test is based on our hands-on test on 27' iMac (incl. Catalina) with 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5, 8GB 1867 MHzDDR3 and AMD Radeon R9 M380 2048MB. You shall also have to note that the DVD encoding speed is greatly dependant on your computer configuration. Higher config will lead to great performance. And make sure to spare some space to save the final rip. The DVD used here is a 7.84Gb movie named Transformers 2, distributed byDreamWorks Pictures, one of the studios that use intractable protection scheme on discs.

1. Comparison on DVD Ripping Speed

According to the company, it applies level-3 hardward acceleration tech, which intelligently offloads the DVD decoding, processing and encoding to GPU, in cooperation with the hyper-threading technology. That is, GPU is fully utilized to rip DVD with full speed, and CPU is spared for multi tasks without affecting the ripping.

The DVD ripping is impressive on a iMac 5K (3.2 GHz Intel Core i5, AMD Radeon R9 M380, 2048MB, on Mojave). MacX's DVD conversion frequency reached averagely 240 fps, twice as high as that of Handbrake. It took 12 minutes to convert the full-length Transformers 2 DVD to MP4, while we could still view web pages or do other tasks since the CPU usage remains as low as 131-134%.

Handbrake auto enables Intel QSV HW acceleration for DVD and video processing tasks and switches to pass 2 for better encoding. But the time it took to make a digital MP4 copy of DVD is less than satisfactory, generally 25 min lagging behind MacX. The CPU usage went up to 397%. We are happy to find MakeMKV converted DVD to MKV on Mac pretty fast, completing within 4 minutes only, with read rate reaching up to 45.7 M/s.

2. Quality and File Size of the Output Rip, Who Wins?

MakeMKV works as a format converter that just repackages the movie content from DVD MPEG2 to MKV. The output quality isn't affected at all. Higher saturation of color can be noticed on the rips, with dark darker and white whiter. But the file size is tremendously large - 6.73Gb that is almost the same as the original. You can also resort to MacX DVD Ripper's backup feature to clone DVD to ISO/MKV/MPEG2 with no loss of quality.

Both MacX and Handbrake involved in DVD video compression, which cut file size down but inevitably led to quality loss. What matters most is whether they manage to maintain a good balance between the size and quality. MacX created an .mp4 file with 720x480 (16:9) in 1.61GB from the 7.84GB DVD and Handbrake outputted the MP4 content in 1.87GB in fast 1080p30 encoding. There is no noticeable change between the the source and ripped file. Quality is slightly inferior to MakeMKV. So if you care about quality, MakeMKV is your ultimate choice. But if you emphasis on both sides, choose MacX and Handbrake, which run neck and neck.

3. Which Ripper Supports the Widest Encryptions?

From the developer, MacX supports wide range of DVD protections, from CSS, region code, UOPs, APS to Sony ARccOS, Disney Fake. If this is true, it will sideline Handbrake that requires third-party tool to bypass certain restrictions, or MakeMKV that supports AACS and BD+ only, and other DVD ripper Mac freeware.

In the test, Handbrake popped up 'No Valid Source Found' error and quitted unexpectedly when scanning the new titles like Divergent and MakeMKV produced many problematic rips. MacX chose the right title. Its unique title check mechanism is proven to be very useful with these intractable DVDs. The movies tested include Toy Story (Disney), Wall-E (Pixar), Star Trek (Paramount), Life of Brian (Sony), and newer releases (Venom, Incredibles 2, Avengers: Infinity War). We do not encourage you to decrypt commercial DVDs on Mac or PC for any illegal use and it's not allowed to legally copy commercial DVDs or Blu-ray discs in some countries.

Specs Comparison Among the Top Three Free DVD Rippers for Mac

The 3 Mac DVD rippers are equally matched. What matter most is whether the program fits your bill. For a quality-loss DVD ripping, MakeMKV is second to none. But if you have hundreds of discs and want to have your entire DVD library backed up onto hard drive at fast speed without exhausting your storage space, MacX DVD ripper and Handbrake are your good options. While if the last thing you want is to end up with errors just because the new title comes with tricky protection scheme or the DVD is formatted unnaturally, the ultimate choice is to download MacX DVD Ripper, which not only features great DVD decryption ability, but also comes with unique level-3 hardware acceleration tech that can speed up the whole process and maintain good balance between quality and size.

To backup and digitize DVD for safekeeping or on-the-go watching - Try MacX DVD Ripper [Fast & High Quality]!

Part 4: FAQ about DVD Copying and Ripping

Q1. How Can I Hardcode Subtitles on DVD Movies?

Subtitles are helpful to understand a foreign language, inaudible dialog or narrative comprehension. But getting subtitles on DVD is a bit tougher, let along hardcoding them. You can add subtitles to DVD rips with programs like Handbrake, MacX DVD Ripper or so. For example, MacXDVD gives a lot of subtitle options, including choose and place subtitle track in preferred position, disable or hardcode it with forced subtitles, and even add external srt to the movie.

Q2. Can Free DVD Rippers Deal with Latest DVDs?

It depends. Typically, DVDs from major film studios like Disney, Sony, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Universal, etc. often impose strong protections on their DVDs. For those DVDs, most DVD rippers (including many which claim to support copy protections) will go awry like DVD won't load, all titles are invalid/corrupted or have the same run time, output video is several MB only.. This year, the problematic DVD titles include Venom, Incredibles 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Black Panther, and some other new releases. To copy these DVDs, you'd better resort to some strong tools. (Before you do so, make sure it's allowed by your law.)

Q3. Should Mac Users Rip DVD to MP4 or MOV?

* MP4 - When digitizing DVD with these free DVD rippers for Mac, many users are at a loss whether to choose MP4 or MOV. Both MP4 and MOV use lossy video compression to sacrifice minimal quality for file size. MP4 is popular for streaming over the internet and playable on Mac, Windows and almost all media players, say VLC, 5KPlayer, QT, etc. But P-frames or B-frames in MP4 makes it difficult to edit.

* MOV - As MOV is originally developed by Apple for its QuickTime player, it's much friendlier in Apple ecosystem. MOV contains one or more tracks, meant to store each type of data including audio, video, subtitle, etc in a hierarchical structure, which is good for editing. So for Mac computers, to convert DVD to digital MOV for Mac QuickTime is more preferred than MP4.

Q4. What Is the Best Format to Back up DVD to Hard Drive?

When the modern computer hard drive, external flash drive, HDD, SSD and NAS drive can hold as large as 60TB storage, there's no need to store DVD collections anywhere else. After users copy DVDs to Mac's hard drive, they can also stream them on TV using Plex, Roku, PC or transfer to phones or tablets. To rip DVD to Mac hard drive, it depends:

• To view your DVD on players, phones, tablets, TVs, or so, choose digital format MP4 H.264 for the widest compatibility.
• To play your DVD on newer iPhones iPads running on iOS 11/12, choose digital format MP4 HEVC for higher quality and smaller space.
• To save an original copy with menus and extras, copy DVD to ISO image. The disc image contains the whole data of the disc at 1:1 ratio for later burning but ha s less compatibility with media players and devices.
• For homemade discs, just copy and paste the VIDEO_TS folder to save DVD onto hard drive. For commercial discs, you will need a specific ripper to deal with the copy protections.

Q5. Is it Prossible to Rip Scratched DVD on Mac?

DVDs are too fragile, that's why we need to backup the DVD collection. If your discs are already damaged or scratched, there are measures to remedy.

• For a bit of stretches on the surface, polish the surface with cotton balls and abrasive white toothpaste or Brasso plolish. You need to polish across the grain and do not in circular direction. This need patience.
• For deep scratches and serve damages, you can take the damaged disk to a local DVD store with a polishing machine or other places like Phoenix to resurface the badly scuffed disc. This will cost for a couple of dollars. Or if the standalone DVD player with error-recovery scheme can ignore the errors and play the DVD, you can capture the movie with a DV. But this will lost the selectable audio, subtitles streams and original menus.

Note: if the program refuses to rip a well-conditioned DVD with an error stating that there is a bad sector, it's because the DVD is protected by a copy protection scheme from Sony named ARccOS. The system deliberately mixes corrupted sectors with the correct one to mislead DVD copying software.

Q6. Does My 32-bit DVD Player App Still Work on macOS Catalina?

Yes, the 32-bit DVD player is not totally over in macOS 10.15 Catalina. Yet, what you need to notice is that the earilier version Mojave is officially the last OS to support 32-bit apps on your iMac or Macbook. And recently macOS Catalina comes with new 64-bit DVD player and DVD ripper to support DVD playback or ripping on latest macOS. You're suggested to apply its 64-bit version if there is something wrong with your 32-bit app.

Q7. How about Vudu Disc to Digital Serivce? Is Online Tool a Good Option to Digitize DVD?

Vudu is another way that you can convert DVDs into digital files. With the 'In-Home Disc to Digital' service, you can effortlessly gain digital copies of your DVDs for a low price: $2 for DVD to a standard-definition digital copy and $5 for a high-definition 'HDX' copy. But there are concerns:

• It's ridiculous paying twice for a movie, especially when the $5 HDX is close to $8 for a new Blu-ray version on Amazon, which even includes a digital copy.
• Vudu only allows to digitize up to 100 dics a year.
• Vudu supports DVDs from 7 Hollywood studios only. Exercise DVDs, TV shows DVDs and more are exclused from Vudu.
• The streaming buffering and playback limits are another factor to consider.

In consideration of these problems, you'd rather use DVD ripper software than online services.

Q8. Is It Legal to Rip DVDs that You Own?

Many users who want to space-shift or format-shirt their legally purchased DVD or Blu-ray discs often concern about the legality of DVD ripping. The fact is, currently it is considered as illegal to convert copyrighted DVDs in US, even if you legally own the discs. Some other countries have already made it legal. In practice, as the DVD conversion happens locally on your computer, you won't get sued or caught if you don't distribute the digital copies. However, you're highly suggested to obey to the law where you live. Check if it's legal to rip copy protected DVDs in your country.

Q9. Are There any Other Free DVD Rippers for Mac?

1. Mac The Ripper: MTS has been regarded as the oldest DVD copy software for Mac so far. The last free version of MacTheRipper is V2.6.6 that can work with Mac OS X Snow Leopard or lower. It breaks protection and rips DVD content for free on Mac, but doesn't encode video files to other formats. It only digitize the DVD menu to hard drive in VOB file. So a third party tool is required to convert VOB to MP4, AVI or others.

2. FFmpeg: It is considered more as an open-source command-line utility for Linux based on popular libraries such as libavformat and libavcodec. FFmpeg stands for Fast Forward MPEG and now it can be complied under Mac and other OS. This tool is complicated to operate and not friendly to newbies. But if you are more experienced and spend hours on the disc ripping tasks, FFmpeg comes to our top free dvd converter for Mac list and is really worthy of your persistence.

3. Any Video Converter: It handles almost all video formats, including DVDs. Reviewed as 'ridiculously easy to use', this tool can easily and freely rip DVD into the right format in its long list of options including MP4, AVI, WMV, MOV, etc thanks to its intuitive GUI. However, AVC sometimes gets glitches and only make a backup of part of the full-length movie, e.g. It only finishes 40 mins of a 2 hrs DVD movie copy. This is probably because you are ripping a DVD with complicated protection measure. So its pro version is needed to ensure a smooth DVD digitizing on Mac.

4. DVDFab HD Decrypter- Although discontinued in 2014, it's still the favorite when dealing with many old DVDs that refuse to be copied with other free DVD rippers, owning to its aculeate DVD decrypting ability. It offers options to freely copy full disc with all menus, trailer, extras, etc or just extract the actual movie from DVD onto Mac's hard drive, cracking many known DVD protections, like AACS, CSS, RC, UOPS, etc. There are some minor drawbacks, e.g. heavy processing power and CPU resources are consumed during the ripping process. Plus, it only copies protected DVD in VOB rather than MP4 MOV or other formats.

External Sources: DVD movies are almost all encoded in MPEG-2 format defined by Motion Pictures Expert Group. Generally, the content is interlaced for display on ordinary TV sets. Resolution of DVD is either 720x480 pixels at 29.97 frames per second from America's NTSC television system or 720x576 pixels at 25 frames per second from Europe's PAL.

Note: The software developer calls for copying or ripping DVD on Mac and Windows under the concept of Fair Use and does not encourage any illegal reproduction or distribution of copyrighted content. Please abide by the local DVD copyright law before doing it.