DVD and Blu-ray rippers are still essential tools, even in a time when most people consume their TV shows and movies as digital files. In fact, they help smooth the transition. What better way to add older films and TV shows that are not available digitally to your media server than ripping DVDs and Blu-ray discs? There are many available disc-rippers, but which one should you buy? Let’s examine Leawo Blu-ray Ripper and see if it has what it takes to be a good disc-ripper.
Multi Media Converter
Leawo Blu-ray Ripper is a module in the popular media utility Leawo Prof. Media. The module gives you the power to turn any Blu-ray or DVD disc into a playable video file. Although there are hidden depths to the software, it’s pretty much a one-button task.
Inserting a disc into your drive prompts the software to sniff it for videos to find the biggest file on the disc, then it selects it and gets it ready to rip. Other video files, such as bonus features, trailers, etc., are also listed. You can opt to rip those separately or smooth them together with the main movie in the final rip to disc.
Quality Rips Made Easy
It’s easy to approach any evaluation of DVD and Blu-ray rippers with the idea that they are all much the same. That’s mostly true, of course. The task of ripping a VOD file from a DVD or Blu-ray and converting it into an MP4 file for use on a media player or media server is a fairly trivial one. However, it’s all in the execution, and lots of ripping software out there overcomplicates the process by giving you many unnecessary options.
Leawo Blu-ray Ripper takes a slightly different approach. Although the software is quite clever and handles a lot of different formats, it doesn’t brandish much of that in your face as it goes through the process. The sequence for ripping a Blu-ray (or DVD as that module is free with the Blu-ray ripper) is explained below.
Start the software and insert the disc you want to rip. You’ll be presented with the main Leawo Prof. Media interface with all the modules presented as six buttons. Click the first button: Blu-ray/DVD Ripper.
The next screen is blank, so you’ll need to add a disc from the drop-down menu.
Once the disc has spun up and the software has a chance to sniff it for videos, you are presented with a list of the rippable video files on the disc. You can now choose which file (or files) you are going to rip.
On the next screen you get to choose the subtitle and audio languages (from those available on the disc) that you would like to be included in the final rip.
If you click the edit button (looking like a piece of film and a pencil) on the right side, you are shown more detailed settings you can tweak, like the cropping amount and brightness and contrast adjustments. Also, you can choose a segment to rip rather than the whole movie, should you only want a certain part of it.
At this point you also get to choose the output formats for audio and video, and I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say there’s every format you will ever need.
Obviously, you’ll probably only use MP4 H264 and either AAC or MP3, but should you wish others, there are formats as diverse as uncompressed MKV and mobile phone.
If all is well, all that remains is to click the large green CONVERT button and go grab a coffee while the file converts and saves to disc into the default file location. You can, of course, change this location in the settings.
The quality of the rips I got out of the Leawo Blu-ray Ripper software were very nice and an excellent quality. The settings they use to turn interlaced VOD files into smooth digital video are clearly very sensible and expertly chosen. You know when these things are good quality when you step through the video a frame at a time, and the motion blur is smooth. Often, cheap rippers make you explicitly turn on comb filters and deinterlacing options, but this software goes with the best settings for MP4 video, because why would you do otherwise?
In Summary
Leawo Blu-ray Ripper is a classy and well-built piece of ripping software, which makes good quality rips from Blu-rays and DVDs with no unnecessary twiddling of settings, etc., before you get good results. It seems pretty solid and delivers excellent quality files for your media player or server.
As I said before, the Blu-ray/DVD capability is part of a bigger overall utility called Leawo Prof Media, which features other modules for DVD/Blu-ray creation, copying, etc. To use any of the modules you have to pay a fee.
The annual subs for this module are priced at $44.95 per year, but if that doesn’t do it for you, there’s also a lifetime buyout of $99.95. It depends on your usage; if you only want to do a few discs, say your current collection, and you plan on not buying any more Blu Rays, then a year’s sub might do it for you.
But if you think you will be ripping discs for years, then perhaps $99.95 would be a better deal. I’m not a fan of subscription models and prefer buyouts, but I understand why developers favor them. The good news is that with the following link, you can get a 40-percent discount on the lifetime subscription, just $59.97.
Either way, however, there’s a free trial version you can download which enables you to rip five minutes of any file you choose at full quality without having to activate the software. Try before you buy.
For more of that home theater experience, read this guide on what to look for when buying a home-theater system.
This is a sponsored article and was made possible by Leawo. The actual contents and opinions are the sole views of the author who maintains editorial independence even when a post is sponsored.
Phil South has been writing about tech subjects for over 30 years. Starting out with Your Sinclair magazine in the 80s, and then MacUser and Computer Shopper. He’s designed user interfaces for groundbreaking music software, been the technical editor on film making and visual effects books for Elsevier, and helped create the MTE YouTube Channel. He lives and works in South Wales, UK.
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