How to Remove Copy Protection from DVD to Rip [Simple Steps]

Posted by Paula Pailaga to Rip DVD Oct 14, 2024

Ripping DVD content is a simple task. However, things will be different if you are trying to rip content (movies/videos) from a copy-protected DVD. If you try to rip DVD and remove copy protection, you will encounter "read error" and "copy protection 0x8003030 error" notifications. Thus, to help you rip copy-protected DVDs without any error notification, this post features 4 efficient ways to remove copy protection from DVDs! So, without any further ado, explore each of them now!

The Best Way to Remove Copy Protection from DVD Quickly

The first option you can do to remove copy protection from DVD Mac and Windows is to use the free and professional 4Easysoft DVD Ripper tool! This tool can efficiently playback and rip DVD contents without restrictions, including copy protections. This tool doesn’t remove the copy protection directly, but it lets you jump over it to acquire content you wish to save or transfer to other devices or storage. It can rip contents from copy-protected DVDs with 60X faster ripping speed and with original quality. With these features, you can acquire all the content from a copy-protected DVD!

How to Remove Copy Protection from DVD Using 4Easysoft DVD Ripper:

Step 1Download and install the 4Easysoft DVD Ripper on your Windows/Mac computer. After that, launch the tool and insert the copy-protected DVD on your computer’s DVD drive. Then, click the "Load DVD" dropdown button and select the "Load DVD Disc" option.

Step 2Next, tick the "Full Title List" button and wait for the tool to list all the titles. Once the tool lists all the titles, select the ones you wish to rip by clicking their "checkboxes" and then tick the "OK" button.

Step 3Then, select the "Rip All to" dropdown button at the right corner. Then, select the "Video" tab and choose a specific "MP4" format. You can also tick the "Custom Profile" button with the "Gear" icon to tweak the content’s quality, format, fps, etc., and click the "Create New" button.

Step 4Once you are satisfied with your output customization, tick the "Rip All" button to initiate the ripping process of the content from a copy-protected DVD. And that’s it! That’s how you remove copy protection from DVD for free.

How to Remove Copy Protection from DVD with Handbrake

Apart from that professional DVD Ripper tool that can remove copy protection from DVD, you can also use Handbrake to do the same task. This Windows and Mac-compatible tool also can’t remove copy protection from a DVD. But, with the help of libdvdcss, it makes Handbrake capable of removing the protection. Libdvdcss is a library made to access encrypted DVDs with a CSS DVD copy protection system, which provides Handbrake the power to jump over the protection. Now, how do you remove copy protection from DVDs using Handbrake and libdvdcss? Here are the steps you should follow:

Step 1Download and install the "Handbrake" on your computer. After that, download the "libdvdcss" library, copy it to the clipboard, and paste the .dll file to the "C:Program FilesHandbrake" folder location.

Step 2After that, launch the "Handbrake" tool, insert the copy-protected DVD on your computer’s DVD drive, and wait for the tool to detect the DVD. After that, select the DVD and wait for the new panel to appear.

Step 3Then, on the "Summary" tab, under the "Format" option, select the format you wish to save the content from the copy-protected DVD. You can also visit the "Video" tab and tweak the content’s Encoder, Quality, Frame Rate, etc.

Step 4Once you are done tweaking the content, select the "Browse" option and choose a file folder location where you want to save the content. After that, click the "Start Encode" button at the upper part of the tool’s interface to initiate the ripping process.

Use MakeMKV to Remove Copy Protection from DVDs

Another free tool you can use to remove copy protection from DVDs is MakeMKV. Unlike the first two tools, MakeMKV can decrypt DVDs with copy protection and convert their contents into a video file in MKV format. Now, as its name suggests, MakeMKV only allows you to save ripped contents to MKV format. Moreover, it doesn’t have an option to compress the content, meaning you will acquire a high-quality file, but it has a massive file size. Despite that, MakeMKV is still a great option. So, how do you remove copy protection from DVDs using MakeMKV? Here are the steps you should follow:

Step 1Insert the "copy-protected DVD" into your computer’s DVD drive. Then, download and install the ‘MakeMKV" on your computer. After that, launch the tool, select the "inserted DVD" under the "Source" dropdown menu, and click the "Open DVD disk" icon.

Step 2Next, select the content you want to copy/transfer, tick the "Set output folder" buttons, and choose which file folder to save the content. After that, click the "Make MKV" button to initiate the conversion process and decrypt the DVD without protection.

Steps on How to Remove Copy Protection from DVD through VLC

The last tool you can use to remove copy protection from DVDs for free is VLC Media Player. Apart from VLC’s capability of playing various videos in different formats, it can also play and decrypt protected DVDs. However, this tool can only decrypt region code protections; for other types, VLC will fail to decrypt them. But, since VLC is entirely free, this tool is still worth trying. So, how do you remove copy protection from DVDs using VLC? Here are the steps you should follow:

Step 1Run the "VLC" on your computer and insert the copy-protected DVD into your computer’s driver. Then, select the "Media" tab, tick the "Convert/Save" button, click the "Disc" tab, and select the inserted DVD under the "Disc device" dropdown menu.

Step 2After that, select the content’s "Title, Chapter, Audio track, and Subtitle track" under the" Starting Position and Audio and Subtitles" section. Once you are done selecting, tick the "Convert/Save" button.

Step 3Next, you can rip the DVD’s content to a specific format under the "Profile" menu. Then, tick the "Browse" button and choose a file location where you want to save the content. After that, click the "Start" button and wait for VLC to finish the ripping process.

There you have it! Those are the 4 powerful and proficient tools to remove copy protection from DVDs. Now that you have explored each of them, some featured tools have different drawbacks that are pretty bothering.

FAQs about Removing Copy Protection from DVD Disc

• How can you tell if a DVD has copy protection?

  To identify whether a DVD has a copy protected, you can check its packaging and see whether there’s an icon indicating that it is copy protected. You can also use a specific third-party tool. Some of those tools can tell whether the DVD is copy-protected or not.

• Does MakeMKV embed a watermark on its free version?

  No, MakeMKV doesn’t embed a watermark on your ripped DVD content. Even if you use its free version, you can still have your output without watermarks.

• What are the types of DVD encryptions that VLC can’t decrypt or remove?

  The DVDs that VLC can’t possibly decrypt are those protected with region codes, CSS, Sony ArccOS, and Disney X-Project. If your DVDs are protected with those encryptions, you can use a third-party tool to decrypt them.

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