If you wish to "rip" a DVD, i.e., create a video file on a disk drive from the DVD, one free program you can use on Microsoft Windows systems or Mac OS X systems is MakeMKV. When you start MakeMKV with a disc in the optical drive, you will see information on the optical drive under "Drive Information" and information on the DVD under "Disc Information".
Click on File, then Open files, and then select the drive and disc in it.
When the disc has been read and you see "Operation successfully completed," you can change the directory where the output files will be placed by changing the location for the output folder (click on the yellow folder icon to browse to a new location). Then click on the Make MKV button at the top, right-hand side of the MakeMKV window to the right of the output folder value
You will then see a window showing a progress bar as the rip of the DVD proceeds.
When the process is complete, a small window with a "Copy complete" message will appear. Depending on what is on the DVD, You may then find a .mkv file about 4 GB in size in the output folder, which you may wish to rename to match the movie on the DVD. For some discs, you will find multiple files, e.g., if a disc contains previews of upcoming movies from the same studio or extra features included on the disc, such as "Backstage Disney" clips for some Disney movies, or "Deleted Scenes".
C:\Users\Public\Documents\DVDs>dir
Volume in drive C is Windows
Volume Serial Number is 4218-9118
Directory of C:\Users\Public\Documents\DVDs
05/21/2024 09:07 PM <DIR> .
05/21/2024 09:05 PM <DIR> ..
05/21/2024 09:15 PM 4,329,226,605 B1_t00.mkv
1 File(s) 4,329,226,605 bytes
2 Dir(s) 410,026,418,176 bytes free
C:\Users\Public\Documents\DVDs>When you try viewing a .mkv file, you may see a message that "You need a new codec to play this item."
A codec is software that
allows a system to encode or decode a data stream or signal. There are many
different codecs used for audio and video and the codec you will need to hear
the audio or view the video for a movie depends on which ones were used in
the creation of the audio/video file. If you attempt to play a video and hear
sound, but don't see any video, or vice versa, even if you don't see a window
appear informing you that you need a codec, the absence of a required codec is
likely the source of the problem. If you hear audio, but don't see video when
you open the .mkv file on a Microsoft Windows system, you may need an MPEG-2
Video Extension codec pack, which you can obtain from the Microsoft Store.
You can access the Microsoft Store on a Windows system by hitting the
Ctrl and Esc keys simultaneously and then clicking
on Microsoft Store
when you see it listed or you can click on the Microsoft Store icon, which
looks like a bag with a handle and 4 different colored squares on it, at the
bottom of your screen or click in the windows search field at the
bottom of your screen (look for a magnifying glass icon) and type
Microsoft Store. In the Microsoft Store, search for
MPEG-2 Video Extension. The free software is provided by
Microsoft Corporation and you can click on Get to install it
on the Windows system.
If you have an optical disc image, i.e., a .iso file, that was produced by an application that created an image of a movie DVD, you can use MakeMKV to produce a Matroska .mkv file containing the audio and video of the movie which you can then view with a variety of movie watching applications, such as the VLC media player.