Losslessly Backup DVD to MKV for further playing on Mac/Windows

Summary: This article talks about how to rip and convert DVD to MKV video files, so that you are easy to backup and play them more conveniently on Mac or Windows.

As a DVD collector, chances are you want to keep them on personal computer from scratching or damaging after repeated use, or for further playback on media players easily and conveniently. On this case, rip and convert your DVD to MKV video format seems to be a good choice.

Reasons for converting DVD to MKV

1. A complete movie in a single file, including many audio, video and subtitles streams.

The MKV format is capable of holding unlimited number of video, audio and subtitle tracks, along with any metadata. Practically this means it is possible to put an entire movie with multiple sound and subtitle tracks and movie thumbnail into single MKV file.

2. Lossless video and audio quality can be retained.

MKV is a container format that supports various codecs, including H.264, H.265, VC-1 etc. The MKV in H.264/H.265 codec format makes it possible to keep original video or audio compression format when copying DVD movie to MKV files.

How to convert DVD to MKV in a lossless manner?

Here comes the problem: how can we rip and backup DVD to MKV losslessly? Similar to Blu-ray, DVD is also equipped with variety of protections to prevent DVD content from being illegal use. So, in order to convert DVD to MKV, you have to use a DVD ripper to realize the conversion. Here, an award-winning DVD Ripping tool called Brorsoft DVD Ripper is recommended to you.

This DVD Ripper enables you to rip protected DVD discs into versatile popular video, audio formats including MKV without any quality loss. And with the "Copy entire disc" option of the DVD Ripper, you are able to make a successful and full copy of protected DVD movies. Plus, you can just copy the movie only from your DVD with its Directly Copy feature. What's more, this DVD ripping tool provides hundreds presets for iPad, Apple TV, iPhone, Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD(X), Samsung Galaxy Tab, BlackBerry, etc iOS/Android based media devices for easier enjoyment. For ripping DVD to MKV on Mac, DVD Ripper for Mac is the choice. Now, let's see how to backup and rip DVD to MKV in lossless.

 (Note: Click here for OS X 10.5)

How to convert DVD to MKV for HD backup

Note: You can't keep DVD menus in an .mkv format. If you want to transfer parts (e.g main movie only) or all (exact copy incl. menu, extras, subs) of the DVD to your hard drive, this DVD ripper offers you two options: a. Copy movie only from DVD discs; b. Backup DVD with original structures.

STEP 1. Import DVD files

Insert your DVD disc to the drive, then launch the DVD ripping software and click the "Load Disc" button to have the DVD content imported.



STEP 2. Choose MKV as output format

Select "MKV(Matroska) Video (*.mkv)" as output format from "Common Video" category under the drop-down list of "Format". If you want to get better HD video quality, just select "MKV HD Video (*.mkv)" from "HD Video" category.



STEP 3. Advanced Settings

Click the "Settings" icon, and you can adjust codec, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate and audio channel in the interface according to your needs and optimize the output file quality. For DVD movie source, there's no need for compressing(It is relatively a small file size). Just keep the video size as original(720*480). And upscaling the video size won't make any difference of your video quality.

STEP 4. Start ripping DVD to MKV

Hit the "Convert" button at the bottom of the main interface to rip DVD to MKV. Minutes later, you can click "Open" to quickly find the converted MKV video. Just do what you want.

Related Guides:

How to Rip Blu-ray to MP4 Video on Mac/Windows

How to Convert and Put DVDs on TiVo

Digitize your DVD Collection on Mac（El Capitan Included）

Losslessly Compress DVD to MKV

Summary: This article introduces a best DVD to MKV Ripper to you for the purpose of ripping and compressing DVD to MKV files with smaller size while keeping the excellent quality.

Whether it's for a wedding video, a sport highlight film, a video game demo, or some other project, more and more people have their video footage on DVDs (only) these days. However, most DVD movies are carried with more copyright protection including region code, APS, CSS, UOP, etc which will put limitation to play DVD at will. Sometimes you may rent some funny DVDs from Netflix, but only allows you keep watching for a short time, unless you pay for it again. Why not simply backup them to hard drive in an MKV container so that you can watch them whenever you want to and share them to more friends. In fact, it is easy and worth your effort, just let's to walk you through the process quickly.

Editor's note: Why we choose MKV rather than AVI, MP4, MOV and other formats? - MKV is the only format which is capable of holding unlimited number of video, audio and subtitle tracks, along with any metadata. Practically this means it is possible to put an entire movie with multiple sound and subtitle tracks and movie thumbnail into single MKV file. Menus and chapter structure can be preserved as well.

In order to finish the task, you need to take advantage of some third-party programs. Luckily, there are a hugh amount of DVD to MKV Ripper tools in the current market like MakeMKV. which can help people backup DVD to MKV without any quality loss,but it’s not favorable by everyone. The thing is, DVD videos bites up too much space(a standard DVD disc with a 1-2 hour movie on it usually is around 7-8 GB). It is good to have a MKV movie of DVD quality, but not so good when the MKV movie is of DVD size. Unfortunately, MakeMKV does losslessly DVD to MKV backup only. It is not capable of compressing DVD - that’s probably the defect of MakeMKV. Then there is a great necessity to look for a best alternative to MakeMKV, here i strongly recommend you try the Brorsoft DVD Ripper.

Overall, it does everything MakeMKV does and also shrink DVD to MKV container format with multiple audio tracks/subtitles, and chapter information preserved. In a word, it is more than an alternative of MakeMKV. If you are a Mac user, you can turn to the Mac version - Brorsoft DVD Ripper for Mac. Now just download the right program and follow the easy guide below to rip and compress DVD to MKV with a few clicks.

Convert and compress DVD to MKV

STEP 1. Import DVD files

Insert your DVD disc to the drive, then launch the DVD ripping software and click the "Load Disc" button to have the DVD content imported.



STEP 2. Choose MKV as output format

Select "MKV(Matroska) Video (*.mkv)" as output format from "Common Video" category under the drop-down list of "Format". If you want to get better HD video quality, just select "MKV HD Video (*.mkv)" from "HD Video" category.



STEP 3. Advanced Settings

Click the "Settings" icon, and you can adjust codec, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate and audio channel in the interface according to your needs and optimize the output file quality. For DVD movie source, there's no need for compressing(It is relatively a small file size). Just keep the video size as original(720*480). And upscaling the video size won't make any difference of your video quality.

STEP 4. Start ripping DVD to MKV

Hit the "Convert" button at the bottom of the main interface to rip DVD to MKV. Minutes later, you can click "Open" to quickly find the converted MKV video. Just do what you want.