The short answer
- Put the DVD in a computer with a DVD drive. A USB drive costs about $25 if yours has none.
- Open HandBrake (free), choose the disc as the source, pick the Fast 480p30 preset and press Start Encode. You get an MP4 file that plays on anything.
- For a second physical disc instead, make an ISO image of the DVD and burn it to a blank DVD-R.
Discs you recorded yourself copy as is. Store-bought movies are scrambled, which adds a step and a legal question, both covered below.
Which kind of copy do you want?
A DVD can be copied in four shapes. Pick by what you plan to do with the result.
| You want | Make | Tool | Size (2 h movie) | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A file for phone, tablet, TV or USB stick | MP4 | HandBrake | 1 to 2 GB | Very close to the disc |
| A full-quality file for a media server | MKV | MakeMKV | 4 to 7 GB | Identical |
| An exact archive, menus and extras included | ISO image | ImgBurn, Disk Utility, dd | Up to 8.5 GB | Identical |
| A second disc for a DVD player | Burned DVD | Any burner, from an ISO | One blank disc | Identical |
What you need
- A DVD drive. Most laptops no longer have one. Any external USB DVD drive works with no setup. Get a DVD±RW model if you plan to burn discs.
- Free disk space. Allow 9 GB of working room per disc, even if the final file will be small.
- Software. Everything in this guide is free: HandBrake, MakeMKV and ImgBurn, plus tools already built into macOS and Linux.
- Blank discs, only for a disc-to-disc copy. A 4.7 GB DVD-R holds a single-layer disc. Most movies are dual-layer and need an 8.5 GB DVD+R DL.
Check the disc first. Clean it with a soft cloth, wiping straight from the center to the edge, never in circles. Most failed copies are caused by smudges and scratches, not software.
Method 1: Rip a DVD to MP4 with HandBrake
This is the right choice for most people. You end up with one video file that plays on phones, tablets, smart TVs, game consoles and every desktop player. HandBrake is free and open source, and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
- Load the disc. Insert the DVD, open HandBrake and choose the DVD drive under Source Selection. HandBrake scans the disc and lists its titles.
- Choose the title. The movie is nearly always the longest title. For a TV disc, queue each episode separately with Add to Queue.
- Pick a preset. Use Fast 480p30 for North American and Japanese discs (NTSC), or Fast 576p25 for European and Australian discs (PAL). The HQ versions are slower and slightly better.
- Set the format. On the Summary tab choose MP4. Tick Web Optimized if you will stream the file.
- Check the video settings. Encoder H.264, Constant Quality between RF 18 and 22 (lower is better and bigger; 20 is a good default), framerate Same as source.
- Choose audio and subtitles. Keep the main language track. AAC stereo plays everywhere; add an AC3 passthru track if you want the original 5.1 surround. Add subtitles as a selectable track, and burn in only forced subtitles for foreign-language scenes.
- Encode. Set the file name under Save As, then press Start Encode. A two-hour movie takes 10 to 40 minutes on a current computer.
Scrambled discs. HandBrake does not include support for CSS, the encryption on store-bought movies. On such a disc it will show garbled video or no valid title unless a CSS library is installed on your system. See copy protection and the law before going further.
Method 2: Make a lossless MKV with MakeMKV
MakeMKV does not convert anything. It lifts the video, audio and subtitle streams off the disc and puts them in an MKV file unchanged, so the result is exactly as good as the DVD. The files are large, 4 to 7 GB for a movie, which suits a home media server running Plex, Jellyfin or Kodi. MakeMKV handles DVDs for free on Windows, macOS and Linux.
- Scan the disc. Insert the DVD, open MakeMKV and click the large drive icon. Scanning takes about a minute.
- Tick what to keep. Select the main title, which is the largest one, and untick the rest unless you want the extras. Expand the title to drop audio and subtitle languages you do not need.
- Choose the output folder on a drive with at least 9 GB free.
- Click Make MKV. It runs as fast as the drive can read, usually 10 to 20 minutes.
MKV plays in VLC and on every media server, but not on some TVs and phones. If you need both an archive and a small file, rip once with MakeMKV, then open the MKV in HandBrake and convert it with the settings from Method 1. That also takes the wear off the disc and the drive when you want to try several settings.
Method 3: Copy the whole disc to an ISO image
An ISO is a single file holding every sector of the disc: the movie, menus, extras and all. It can be mounted like a real disc, played directly in VLC, or burned back to a blank DVD later. This is the method for archiving home-movie DVDs and for making disc-to-disc copies. The built-in tools below read discs as they are, so they work on unprotected discs only.
Windows: ImgBurn
- Open ImgBurn and choose Create image file from disc.
- Check the source drive, then set the destination file with the folder icon.
- Click the large Read button. A full disc takes 10 to 20 minutes.
ImgBurn's installer has carried bundled offers in the past. Read each screen and decline anything extra.
macOS: Disk Utility
- Open Disk Utility and select the DVD in the sidebar.
- Choose File ▸ New Image ▸ Image from "disc name".
- Set Format to DVD/CD master and Encryption to none, then save.
- Rename the resulting
.cdrfile to.iso. The contents are the same.
Linux: dd or ddrescue
Find the drive's device name (usually /dev/sr0), then read it to a file:
$ dd if=/dev/sr0 of=movie.iso bs=2048 status=progress
For a scratched disc, GNU ddrescue keeps going past bad sectors and can retry them later:
$ ddrescue -b 2048 -n /dev/sr0 movie.iso movie.map $ ddrescue -b 2048 -d -r3 /dev/sr0 movie.iso movie.map # second pass on the bad areas
Method 4: Copy a DVD to another DVD
A disc-to-disc copy is two jobs: make an ISO image with Method 3, then burn that image to a blank disc. With one drive you swap discs in between. With two drives, ImgBurn and most burning programs can do both in one pass.
Check the size first. A blank DVD-R or DVD+R holds 4.7 GB. Most commercial movies are on dual-layer discs of up to 8.5 GB. If your ISO is larger than 4.7 GB, burn it to a DVD+R DL (dual layer), or keep the movie as a file instead.
Windows
- Insert a blank disc. Right-click the ISO file and choose Burn disc image.
- Pick the burner, tick Verify disc after burning, and click Burn.
macOS
- Insert a blank disc. Select the ISO file in Finder.
- Choose File ▸ Burn Disk Image "movie.iso" to Disc, then Burn.
Linux
Use Brasero or K3b, or from a terminal:
$ growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/sr0=movie.iso
Tips for a disc that plays everywhere
- Burn the ISO as an image. Dragging an MP4 onto a blank disc makes a data disc that most DVD players cannot play.
- Burn at about half the disc's rated speed. Slower burns produce fewer errors, especially on older players.
- Let the software verify the disc when it finishes.
- Label the disc with a soft marker made for discs. Adhesive labels can unbalance it.
Copy protection and the law
Discs you burn yourself, such as home movies, camcorder discs and DVDs from a video-transfer service, carry no encryption and copy with any method above. If a camcorder disc will not read on a computer, finalize it in the camcorder first.
Nearly every store-bought movie is scrambled with the Content Scramble System (CSS). The video files on those discs are encrypted, which is why dragging them off the disc gives you files that will not play. Software reads them in one of two ways:
- HandBrake and VLC use a separate open-source library, libdvdcss, when it is present on the system. Neither program ships with it. Many Linux distributions offer it as an optional package; on Debian and Ubuntu that package is
libdvd-pkg. - MakeMKV and commercial programs such as DVDFab have their own decryption built in.
Some discs add structural tricks on top of CSS, such as dozens of fake titles or deliberately unreadable sectors. MakeMKV usually identifies the real title. In HandBrake, play the disc in VLC first and note which title number is playing.
Is this legal? It depends on the country, and the answer is not always what people expect.
In the United States, section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits circumventing an access control such as CSS. There is no general exemption for making a personal backup of a movie you own. The exemptions granted every three years by the Librarian of Congress cover narrower uses, such as short clips for criticism and teaching. Distributing tools that defeat CSS is a separate violation, which is what the lawsuit over this site was about.
Other countries differ. Some allow private copies, some allow them only when no protection is broken, and some do not allow them at all. This page describes how the technology works. It is not legal advice, and it is your responsibility to follow the law where you live.
DVD copy software compared
| Program | Price | Systems | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HandBrake | Free | Windows, macOS, Linux | MP4 and MKV files | Open source. Excellent presets. Does not decrypt on its own. |
| MakeMKV | Free for DVD | Windows, macOS, Linux | Lossless MKV | No re-encoding, so no quality loss. Also reads Blu-ray while in beta. |
| ImgBurn | Free | Windows | ISO images, burning | Precise control over burning. Unprotected discs only. No longer updated. |
| VLC | Free | Windows, macOS, Linux | Playing discs and ISO files | Can convert a disc, but slowly and with few options. |
| DVDFab | Paid | Windows, macOS | One-click disc copies | Can shrink a dual-layer movie to fit a 4.7 GB disc. |
| Disk Utility, dd, ddrescue | Built in | macOS, Linux | ISO images | Already installed. Unprotected discs only. |
| AnyDVD, DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink | Discontinued | Windows | Historical | Named in older guides. No longer developed; downloads now come from unofficial mirrors, so avoid them. |
Settings that affect quality
A DVD holds standard-definition MPEG-2 video: 720×480 at 29.97 frames per second in NTSC regions, 720×576 at 25 in PAL regions. No setting adds detail that is not on the disc, so the aim is to lose as little as possible.
| Setting | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality (RF) | 18 to 22 for H.264 | Below 18 the file grows with no visible gain. Above 22 you start to see blocking in dark scenes. |
| Resolution | Leave at source | Upscaling to 1080p in the file only makes it larger. Your TV upscales at playback anyway. |
| Deinterlace | Decomb, default | Many DVDs are interlaced. Decomb removes the comb-tooth lines on motion without softening clean frames. |
| Framerate | Same as source | Changing it causes stutter and audio drift. |
| Audio | AAC 160 kbps stereo, or AC3 passthru | Passthru keeps the original 5.1 track untouched. |
| Encoder | H.264 for compatibility, H.265 for size | H.265 files are about a third smaller but will not play on older devices. |
How much space to plan for
| Format | One movie | 100 movies |
|---|---|---|
| MP4, H.264 at RF 20 | 1 to 2 GB | About 150 GB |
| MKV from MakeMKV | 4 to 7 GB | About 550 GB |
| ISO image | 4.7 to 8.5 GB | About 700 GB |
Keep two copies of anything you cannot replace, on separate drives. Burned discs are not a permanent archive either; dye-based DVD-Rs can degrade within a decade or two if stored badly.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The copy stops partway with read errors | Scratches or dirt | Clean the disc from center to edge. Try a different drive; they differ a lot in error recovery. On Linux, use ddrescue. |
| HandBrake shows "No valid source or titles found", or the video is scrambled blocks | The disc is CSS-encrypted | See copy protection. |
| Dozens of titles with similar lengths | Structural copy protection | Play the disc in VLC and note the title number, or let MakeMKV pick the title. |
| Horizontal comb lines on movement | Interlaced video | Turn on the Decomb filter in HandBrake. |
| Sound drifts out of sync | Variable framerate or a damaged read | Use "Same as source" with constant framerate, or rip with MakeMKV first and convert the MKV. |
| "Region" error, disc will not play | The drive's region does not match the disc | Change the drive's region in the system settings. Drives allow only five changes, then lock. |
| The image will not fit on the blank disc | Dual-layer source, single-layer blank | Use a DVD+R DL disc, or keep the movie as a file. |
| The burned disc will not play in a DVD player | Burned as a data disc, or burned too fast | Burn the ISO as an image, at a lower speed, on a different brand of disc. |
| A camcorder disc shows as blank | The disc was never finalized | Finalize it in the camcorder or recorder that made it. |
Legal alternatives to copying
If you only want to watch a movie you own without the disc, you may not need to copy it at all.
- Digital codes. Many discs come with a code for a digital copy. Check the case insert.
- Movies Anywhere links purchases from participating studios across your Apple, Amazon, Google and Fandango at Home accounts for free.
- Disc-to-digital programs. Fandango at Home (formerly Vudu) has offered digital copies of eligible discs you own for a few dollars each. Availability changes, so check the current terms.
- Your library card. Services such as Kanopy and Hoopla stream films free through many public libraries.
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to copy a DVD?
It depends on the disc and on where you live. Copying a disc you made yourself, such as home movies, is fine. Commercial movie discs are scrambled with CSS, and in the United States section 1201 of the DMCA prohibits circumventing it, with no general exemption for personal backups of discs you own. Other countries have different rules, and some allow private copies. This is general information, not legal advice.
What is the best free software to copy a DVD?
HandBrake is the best free tool for turning a DVD into an MP4 or MKV file. MakeMKV makes a full-quality MKV with no re-encoding and is free for DVDs. ImgBurn is a free Windows tool for making an ISO image of an unprotected disc and for burning an ISO to a blank DVD. On macOS and Linux the built-in tools can make and burn ISO images.
Can I copy a DVD with VLC or Windows Media Player?
Windows Media Player cannot copy DVDs; it only rips audio CDs. VLC can convert a disc to a file from its Media menu under Convert / Save, but it is slower and less reliable than HandBrake and gives you far fewer settings.
How long does it take to copy a DVD?
Reading a full disc to an ISO or MKV takes about 10 to 25 minutes, limited by the speed of the drive. Converting a two-hour movie to MP4 takes roughly 10 to 40 minutes more, depending on the computer and the quality setting. Burning a disc takes 10 to 20 minutes.
How much space does a copied DVD take?
An ISO image is the size of the disc: up to 4.7 GB for a single-layer DVD and up to 8.5 GB for a dual-layer one. A lossless MKV of just the movie is usually 4 to 7 GB. An MP4 of the same movie at good quality is about 1 to 2 GB.
Will the copy lose quality?
An ISO image or a MakeMKV file is a bit-for-bit copy of the video, so nothing is lost. Converting to MP4 re-encodes the video, which loses a small amount of detail; at HandBrake's RF 18 to 20 the difference is very hard to see.
Can I copy a DVD to a USB drive or a phone?
Yes. Rip the disc to an MP4 file, then copy the file to the USB drive or phone like any other file. If the file is larger than 4 GB, format the USB drive as exFAT, because FAT32 cannot hold files over 4 GB.
Why can't I just drag the files off the disc?
On a home-made or other unprotected disc you can: copying the VIDEO_TS folder gives you a working copy. On a commercial disc the video files are scrambled, so files dragged off in Explorer or Finder either fail to copy or play as garbage.
Want to know what the scrambling actually is? Read DVD encryption, explained, or the story of the lawsuit over this site.