How to Easily Extract a Video from DVD with VLC?

Do you have a collection of DVDs that you would like to convert into videos that can be easily used on a computer without a CD/DVD drive, on a connected TV, or on a smartphone? Nothing could be simpler with the free VLC software.

What is VLC?

VLC is an essential multimedia software. Available on Windows, Mac OS X, Android, Android TV, iOS, Apple TV or ChromeOS, and many Linux distributions, it has the advantages of being cross-platform but also very light, ultra-efficient, totally versatile, and free.

It has since benefited from numerous rewrites and updates to make it capable of reading almost all multimedia files, including including the rarest and most exotic. Passed for many years in open source, it benefits from the collaboration of contributors from more than 40 countries and is now supported by a non-profit organization, VideoLAN.

What you need:

• VLC software

• A DVD player-burner (internal or external)

• A destination folder with enough space to hold the video. The size will vary depending on the format chosen and the structure of the DVD. Plan large, at least 1 GB to be quiet.

Installing VLC

To install VLC on your computer, nothing could be simpler, you go to the official site: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.fr.html

As always, it is strongly advised to download the software directly from the organization’s site. First, because you have the assurance of benefiting from the latest version. Second, because it avoids ending up with viruses or unwanted installations of other software.

Once the executable file is downloaded, all you have to do is launch the installation and follow the instructions.

The different steps

When VLC is installed on your computer, here are the steps to follow:

• At the top left, select “media” then “open disc.“
• Select your DVD player in the “Disc selection” menu
• Click the dropdown arrow in the play button at the bottom right and select “Convert.”

Choose the extraction format 

As we can see VLC offers a wide choice of formats, depending on your needs:

You can choose the very common format, H.264 + MP3, better known as mp4. It combines audio and video. If that doesn’t work you can also try H.265+MP3, another version of mp4.

Choose the destination file location

You can temporarily store the video file obtained on the desktop or in a folder of your choice, on one of the internal disks.

Start the conversion by clicking on “Start” at the bottom right

You can then see a progress bar in VLC. The duration of the operation is very variable, depending on the size of the source file but also the power of your configuration.

Once this operation is completed, you end up with a perfectly usable video file without the need for the original DVD. Attention, this manipulation is intended only for legal extractions of DVD within the framework of private use, in particular for the safeguard or for a more practical use.