Software & Apps > Backup & Utilities 7 Best Blu-ray Rippers of 2024 Back up your Blu-ray movies and shows with these apps By Jeremy Laukkonen Jeremy Laukkonen Writer Shoreline Community College Jeremy Laukkonen is automotive and tech writer for numerous major trade publications. When not researching and testing computers, game consoles or smartphones, he stays up-to-date on the myriad complex systems that power battery electric vehicles . lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on January 5, 2024 Reviewed by Michael Barton Heine Jr Reviewed by Michael Barton Heine Jr Michael Heine is a CompTIA-certified writer, editor, and Network Engineer with 25+ years' experience working in the television, defense, ISP, telecommunications, and education industries. lifewire's editorial guidelines Backup & Utilities File Types Apps Windows MS Office Linux Google Drive Backup & Utilities Design Cryptocurrency Close A Blu-ray ripper is a program that takes the information from a Blu-ray disc and converts it into a file on your computer. Most Blu-ray rippers come with a fairly steep price tag, but some free options get the job done if you're willing to put in some extra work. We've compiled a list of the best free and paid options to help you choose the best Blu-ray ripper for you. Be sure to comply with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act when using any Blu-ray copying method. 01 of 07 VLC What We Like Free to download and use. Doubles as a great media player. Can handle some encrypted blu-rays. What We Don't Like Procedure to work with encrypted blu-rays is poorly documented and difficult. Ripping is extremely slow. Doesn't work with all blu-rays. VLC is a great media player that also can rip DVDs and Blu-Rays. It's open-source software that's free, so there's no barrier to entry. Even if it doesn't end up being your Blu-ray ripper of choice, it's still a highly competent video player that can handle most video and audio formats. The biggest issue with VLC is that, as open-source software, it doesn't come with the ability to play encrypted Blu-ray discs, let alone rip them. You need to jump through some hoops to add the ability to play encrypted Blu-ray discs, and even then, you'll find that the ripping process is pretty slow and that VLC can't handle some Blu-ray menus. If you're willing to put in the work to get this free app up and running, it doubles as a great way to play Blu-rays on Windows 10. Download For: Windows Mac Linux 02 of 07 VideoSolo What We Like Handles all encrypted Blu-rays. Easy to use. Supports lots of video and audio formats. What We Don't Like Expensive. Cumbersome interface. VideoSolo is another premium Blu-ray ripper that provides the ability to read and convert most encrypted discs. It features an intuitive process that's pretty easy to pick up and get started with, although it's bogged down somewhat by a cumbersome interface that makes more advanced options challenging to understand or access. As a premium app, VideoSolo gives you a ton of options when ripping and converting your Blu-rays, including support for all of the most popular video and audio formats. You can choose your format and settings or choose presets that are designed for specific hardware. This ripper also supports ripping and encoding UHD 4K Blu-ray discs without losing any quality if you aren't afraid of large file sizes. Download For: Windows Mac 03 of 07 Handbrake What We Like Totally free to download and use. Tons of output options. Open source. What We Don't Like Can't handle encryption, so it's useless on many Blu-rays. Too complicated for some users. Handbrake is a fantastic free Blu-ray ripping app that also works with DVDs. It provides many output options, quick settings for specific formats and devices, and it's completely free. The catch with Handbrake is that it can't handle encryption. That means it doesn't work with most commercial Blu-ray discs. You can still use it to compress or change the format of movies or shows you've ripped with another app, but Handbrake itself can only rip unencrypted Blu-rays. Download For: Windows Mac 04 of 07 EaseFab LosslessCopy What We Like Handles all encrypted Blu-rays. Fast ripping and encoding. Free trial. What We Don't Like Full version is expensive. Cumbersome interface. LosslessCopy from EaseFab is a highly competent Blu-ray ripper capable of reading and converting encrypted discs, does the job with lightning speed, and has a price tag to reflect that. It does offer a free trial, but it's minimal. If you want to rip an entire TV show or movie, you'll have to pay for a yearly subscription or lifetime license. The killer feature here is quality without sacrificing speed. As the name implies, this app can rip your Blu-rays to lossless MKV format with flawless quality. Unlike our favorite free options MakeMKV, which moves glacially, LosslessCopy can do the job in about five minutes. This software is an excellent option if you're willing to pay for speed, although the cumbersome interface does make it a bit difficult to work with at first. Download For: Windows Mac 05 of 07 DVDFab Blu-Ray Ripper What We Like Handles most encryption. Upscale to 4K. Encodes to a lot of common formats. What We Don't Like Lots of complicated options. Upscaling feature requires separate purchase. Expensive. DVDFab is an excellent pick if you're looking for a premium option. It isn't cheap, and you have to pay more if you want to take advantage of the upscaling feature, but it is an excellent choice if you're looking to move away from the headaches and extra work often associated with free software. While this software isn't cheap, it provides value. It's capable of handling most encrypted discs with ease, it gives a ton of options for encoding to various file formats, and you have a lot of freedom to adjust the quality of your videos versus the file size. If you're ripping standard Blu-rays, you can even add their Enlarger AI to upscale to 4K video. Download For: Windows Mac 06 of 07 CloneBD What We Like Paid version can create a variety of file types. Limited free version available. What We Don't Like Full version requires a fee to use. Can't handle encrypted blu-rays. Expensive. CloneBD is a simple Blu-ray ripping app that's easy to use yet offers many output options. The catch is that it can't handle encrypted Blu-ray discs, so it's only valid if you're trying to rip unprotected Blu-rays. This premium app is a bit on the pricey side for lacking decryption functionality, but it's a decent option if you're looking to clone unprotected discs. Download For: Windows 07 of 07 MakeMKV What We Like Handles encryption with ease. Excellent quality output. Preserves meta data when ripping. Fully functional free trial. What We Don't Like Only outputs in MKV. Very large file sizes. Rips slowly. MakeMKV is a little rough around the edges, but this app is the gold standard for ripping Blu-rays. It can handle encrypted discs, the overall quality is excellent, and it's entirely free to use. It isn't perfect, as it can only output to the MKV format and is very slow, but the results are fantastic when it's done. The biggest concern with MakeMKV is that while the app is free, the ability to rip encoded Blu-rays is only free while the app remains in beta. That means you need to obtain a beta key from the developers to unlock the functionality required to rip encoded discs. The software has been in beta for around a decade, though, and a new MakeMKV beta key is only a short Google search away, so this remains our top recommendation for the best Blu-ray ripper. If you need a different format or smaller files, we recommend pairing MakeMKV with another free app like Handbrake to convert the large MKV files into something more manageable. Download For: Windows Mac Was this page helpful? 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