How to rip and convert a DVD

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A step-by-step guide to ripping and converting a DVD with Converterlite.

Watch the tutorial video or follow the instructions below:

1) Insert DVD

2) Open up Converterlite and Click DVD icon

3) Select which titles to convert and click OK.

Note – Converterlite automatically selects the longest title as this usually tends to be the Movie. Other titles will often be the extras.

Note:

- You can rename the titles by clicking on the title name after ripping.

- Ripping time depends largely on your hard drive and title length. E.G The above title of “01:28:53 should take around 20-25 minutes.

- Ripped files can only save to your computer once converted. After conversion you will find them in “my movies” unless you choose otherwise.

 

4) Proceed to Format page and choose an ouput device/format followed by a quality type/model.

Note: Before selecting a model/quality you can click the settings icon and choose the output folder by unchecking the box, “output file to same folder as input”.

 

5) Proceed to Convert page and click convert.

Note: Conversion speed also varies depending on your hard drive and title length.

 

6) When Conversion is completed a green tick symbol should appear. Clicking it will open up the containing folder.

  • Coco Kitty

    My drive is actually a bluray drive that also plays dvds and not a straight up dvd drive will that make a difference in how the dvd ripping works? I’ve tried to rip a DVD and even though I select the correct drive it says that it can’t find anything — but the drive DOES PLAY the dvds. Thanks! Awesome product!

    • ConverterLite

       Unfortunately blu-ray is an entirely different process which we are yet to implement.

  • ConverterLite

    Unfortunately blu-ray is an entirely different process which we are yet to implement.

  • Sandra

    after I do this can I transfer my dvds onto my ipad?

    • ConverterLite

      Of course! Ipad 1, 2 nd 3 are listed as output formats.

  • Tiara

    How do I convert an avi file to dvd and burn it to a dvd that will play in most (if not all) dvd players?
    thx

  • Tiara

    I was trying to convert an avi movie to dvd and burn it but I got an error message saying the disc was not blank or not large enough.  I tried several blank discs but they all got th error.  Any suggestions?
    thx

    • ConverterLite

      How long is your video file? Is it longer than 2 hours? Single layer DVD’s can only contain a maximum of 2 hours. Dual layer DVD’s can hold 3 1/2.

  • http://twitter.com/RichardKilroy Richard Kilroy

    I have a dvd where the normal audio track is track 3, not the default track 1.  (which is a director’s commentary)
    Is it possible to rip it with the audio track 3 to avi / mp4 etc??

    • ConverterLite

       Unfortunately we do not support this feature. However we are looking into how we could implement it to future versions.

  • Lukus

    i simply can not do anything.  when i go to add the dvd, nothing shows up.  it plays through windows media player, so i know the media is on the disc… but it appears blank within the program.  i tried another ripping program and same result… there’s something hiding or making the dvd files inaccessible… ideas?

    • ConverterLite

       Are you sure it’s a DVD and not an SVCD or VCD?
      Right click and open the DVD drive on “My computer” to view the files on the DVD. If it’s an AVI file then it won’t rip from the DVD. Instead, you can add video on converterLite and select the AVI file.

      • jciarlette

        It definitely is a dvd. there are vob files on it. How do i get a list to appear to select from?

        • pwbrooke

           I am getting exactly this problem also.  Under “Select Drive” the title of the DVD is shown, but the File/Length list is empty, no files/checkboxes are displayed.

        • ConverterLite

            It seems the problem with our DVD ripping feature is that it is only
          looking in the D: drive for the DVD. If your DVD is contained elsewhere
          then converterlite will not check other drives. We are working on
          resolving this issue asap. For now the only solution would be to change
          the drive letter.

    • David Jensen

      I  am getting the same thing. Is it because the DVD is protected?

      • ConverterLite

        Respond to our reply below. COnverterLite unprotects DVD’s in the ripping stage so this is not a problem.

  • GaryMilwaukee

    I too cannot get anything from the DVD.   A box appears with nothing to select.    The files are nor vob files on the disk.   Any suggestions?

  • GaryMilwaukee

    I to cannot get anything while ripping.   I opened the disk in explorer and they are the standard VOB video files.    Any suggestion?

    • ConverterLite

      As
      we are unsure as whether you are using a 32-bit or 64-bit machine,
      ConverterLite will default to one of two locations. As such, in the
      Command Prompt, please try typing the following and pressing ‘Enter’:cd “C:Program FilesConverterLite”

      If it says “The system cannot find the path specified.”, please try the following and pressing ‘Enter’:cd “C:Program Files (x86)ConverterLite”

      One way or the other, you should now be in the ConverterLite
      directory. Please now enter the mplayer command as follow (and again
      pressing ‘Enter’):mplayer -vo null -ao null -frames 0 -identify dvd://

      It is this output that we need to diagnose your problem. To copy text
      from the command prompt, you will need to right-click and select
      ‘Mark’, highlight the text and press ‘Enter’. You will now be able to
      paste the text here.

    • ConverterLite

       It seems the problem with our DVD ripping feature is that it is only looking in the D: drive for the DVD. If your DVD is contained elsewhere then converterlite will not check other drives. We are working on resolving this issue asap. For now the only solution would be to change the drive letter.

  • jciarlette

    I get a list of titles to select from but the lengths are 20:15:43. Why would it show up as 20 hours when the movie is less than 2 hours? When I try to convert it anyway I get an error about the bit rate is wrong

    • Venu Thamodharan

      mine is also 20 hrs long something is not right, its not recognizing the right titles

      • ConverterLite

         See above for instruction on how to send a log file. We are not sure how or why this problem is occuring and thus cannot reproduce and solve the problem. So a log file will help solve the problem. Thanks.

        • BC Borisoff

          The length that I see is exactly 19 hours longer, e.g. a title that is 2:05:57 shows-up as 21:05:57, a title that is actually 00:19:11 shows-up as 19:19:11

          • ConverterLite

             Does the file still convert ok? Would you be able to tell us more details on the file? So we can start to reproduce the problem.

          • BC Borisoff

            The file converts fine and is watchable, just the lengths of all titles is 19 hours too long (on the DVD ripping menu). The resultant .mp4 lengths are correct, however, the .vob length is equal only to the length of the first chapter. The title plays beyond the first chapter (in its entirety), but the time scale does not progress beyond the length of the first chapter.

          • ConverterLite

            The reason you are getting massively extended duration times is because the duration is calculated on the bit rate on the video file, which is usually within a videos header. VOB’s do not have this header and so we try guessing the bit rate by reading a few hundred frames into the file. The problem comes about because DVD’s (and as such VOB files) have such a variable bit rate throughout the length of the movie, and so basically it is calculating it wrong. This will be common for all VOB files placed directly into ConverterLite. Where possible, we recommend using the ripping feature, as a side part of this is to read the duration from the DVD’s IFO files, which should result in accuarate durations.

    • ConverterLite

       We have our programmers working on the issue asap. Could you help us by sending a log file of when the problem occurs. To do this; reproduce the problem, and while keeping converterlite open, go to:

      My computer
      Local disk (C:)
      Users
      Name of your account
      App data (May need to add “appdata” to the end of the adress bar)
      roaming
      ConverterLite
      temp
      log

      Then send the log via “Contact us” on our support page: https://converterlite.uservoice.com/

  • Christopher Lewis

    pleeeease fix this issue with the dvd only looking at D: for the dvd files!

    • ConverterLite

       Excellent News! We have solved the problem and will be updating ConverterLite with the changes today or tomorrow.

      • ConverterLite

         Sorry for the wait. Our update had a few bugs that needed ironing out so we had to postpone the update for today. You should have the update message when opening the software at some point today.

  • ConverterLite
  • cmitchell175

    Unable to hear your instruction video, my sound works on everything else?!!?

    • ConverterLite

      There is no audio for this video.

  • cmitchell175

    I am trying this program, so far, it has taken 15 minutes to complete 2% of the converting to MP4. This will take in execess of 12 hours to finish. Why so long?

  • cmitchell175

    It took 1 hour to complete 8%, and then it warm up, it took about 45 minutes to complete the last 92%. It works. Thank You.

    • ConverterLite

       We’re not entirely sure why it would take so long. Usual conversion time of a full movie can go as high as 45 minutes. Maybe it was due to factors such as the performance of your computer, your output quality, the length of dvd and if you were running other things in the background.

  • LGBowden

    All I get is “FFmpeg is unable to extract any valid video or audio stream from the input file _Title_52.vob …. This file has NOT been added to the the Media List.”

    So where do I go from here?

    I don’t know why the thing is showing district9 after the above ? as it’s not showing in the edit box.

  • LGBowden

    Related to below – tried another DVD and it worked. Tried a third disk and it’s done the video but no sound. That’s two failures out of three disks. At this point I’m inclined to say that this software is not very reliable.

    • ConverterLite

       Clearly the problem is in some part to do with your DVD’s considering you were successful with one of your DVDs. So if you like you can send us a log of the failing DVD’s so we can see what it is that’s different from the working DVD’s and causing it not to work. Check our support page to see how to send a log.

  • BC Borisoff

    In converting a freshly-ripped .vob into an .mp4 I get the wrong audio track (e.g. Portuguese instead of English). Is there a command to set the proper track? The .vob has both audio tracks when I play in it my DVD player program.

    • ConverterLite

       Are you using our DVD Ripping Fetaure? We rip the default audio track. I’m assuming the default audio track is English?

      • BC Borisoff

        Yes, I used the ripping feature. The default track is English, but the audio in the mp4 is in Portuguese. The vobs that I ripped play both in English (by default) on my PC as well as in Portuguese – the audio track selection menu on the PC DVD player. Curiously, when I play the vobs on my PS3, the audio is also in Portuguese and there is no option to switch the audio track. The resultant mp4 files only have the Portuguese track both on the PS3 and on the PC Windows media player.

        • BC Borisoff

          More info: the .vob has both tracks when played on CyberLink PowerDVD, English is default and I can select either Portuguese or English. However, the same .vob plays only in Portuguese in Windows Media Player (no option to change track) as well as only in Portuguese on the PS3.

          • ConverterLite

            A VOB File can contain multiple tracks whereas an MP4 can’t. When converting to MP4 your VOB File is forced to select the default track. You can see for yourself that Portugese is the default track when you played it in Windows Media Player and on your PS3 with Portugese being selected as the default track.

  • MRDuncan77

    I just downloaded this software this evening.  I see no titles to select when trying to rip from DVD’s.  The drive letter is correct and I see the title of the movie next to the drive letter, but no titles to select in the title box.  I even tried changing the drive letter to D, just in case–and still no titles.

    • ConverterLite

      Interesting. Is this the latest version (1.5)? Is it a copied DVD? Is it actually a DVD (and not a (S)VCD or a DVD with AVI files on it)? Try and open the drive on your PC and check there is a VIDEO_TS folder in it, and make sure there is a VIDEO_TS.IFO file.

  • LGBowden

    I’ve just had another go at converting something.

    It took about 1 hour to get to 19% and then appeared to be no progress. CPU was at 80% (ffmpeg) the log file was being written to but no progress. Pressed cancel and then the progress miraculously became 27%. So I’m going to have to start again.

    I have a logfile.

    Seems to happen after the Converterlite is minimised. I’ve started again and it’s showing 0% after 10 minutes.