How to rip your personal DVDs

Updated: September 4, 2009

Ripping your personally owned DVDs and putting them onto the iPhone is very easy to do. You will need a program called HandBrake, which is free, and can be obtained right here.

Step 1.

Once you've installed HandBrake, insert the DVD you want to rip. Quit the DVD Player program which will launch automatically. Now launch HandBrake.





The program interface will display, and a drop down file browser window will appear. Go to where it says Devices, select your DVD icon, then click the Open button in the lower right corner.




The DVD will now be scanned. It could take 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how long the movie is.




When the scan has completed, click the Toggle Presets button if the menu seen to the right isn't already displayed. Select iPhone & iPod Touch from the list.




There are many choices to make when it comes to customizing the way HandBrake will convert your DVD. I didn't change anything. I just clicked the Start button next.




There is a status bar at the bottom that will tell you how long this process will take. Time will vary based on the length of your movie, and the options you chose.




When it finishes, you will see this message.




The movie will now be on your desktop as a .m4v file.

Step 2.

Launch iTunes, and drag your movie file into the Library. This will import the movie into iTunes.




Once the movie has been imported, click the Movies tab. Check the Sync movies box. Check the box for your movie and click Apply.




On your iPhone launch the iPod and check the Videos tab.




The quality of the ripped movie is really good when left with the default preset in HandBrake.