How To Rip a DVD to an iPod/iPhone/iPad

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When you have a huge collection of DVDs on your shelf, that doesn’t do you much good when you’re bored during a long flight, right? That’s where your iPod, iPhone or iPad comes into play. When you have a handy device that fits in your pocket or purse, you can bring your movies nearly anywhere. Problem is, if you already have a movie on your shelf at home, you probably don’t want to pay for the same movie again to buy it from iTunes.

This is where the legality gets dicey. It’s technically against the law to rip a DVD to transfer the media to your iPod and other devices. However, it’s not against the law to make a backup copy of that movie to store on your computer. What’s more, many production companies are now including a “digital copy” movie along with the DVD that you buy, to entice you to purchase media to watch on your DVD player at home and to use on the go on your various media players. If you do decide to use ripping software to convert your DVD to a media file for your iPod, just keep in mind that it’s questionable and generally frowned upon, even if it’s nearly impossible to prosecute.

If you’re sure that you want to go ahead and you’ve checked to see that your DVD didn’t come with a digital copy, here’s the formula from getting your movies to your iPod. You’ll need to start by downloading a DVD decrypter program. There are a number to choose from, but we likeDVD FabHD Decrypter, because it can power through encrypted material on the disk. Pop your DVD in your computer’s CD drive and run the program, pointing the process to the drive in which the DVD has been placed (usually D.)

After a few minutes to a few hours, depending on your computer speed, you’ll have a copy of your DVD media saved on your computer. But that doesn’t mean that you can download it onto your iPod just yet. You’ll need to convert the file so your iPod can read and run the type of media. So, you’ll need to download another type of program. Nero works well for this, as do free media file conversion programs like Videora iPod Converter. Just open the program and open the file you want converted. Choose the type of device you eventually want to move the file to and hit “Convert.” After another hour or so, you’ll have a movie file completely accessible with iTunes. Just make sure that you save that file somewhere that you remember so you can find it and add it to your iTunes movies.

Finally, once you’ve opened the file in iTunes, make sure that the “Transfer Movies” button in iTunes has a check mark and then tether and sync your iPod, iPhone or iPad. Your movie with transfer over and you can take it with you wherever you go.