VidCoder is an easy to use DVD ripping software for Microsoft Windows systems that converts DVD movies to mp4 or mkv video files.
A DVD ripping software comes in handy if you want to copy movies from DVD to a computer-readable format.It comes in handy if you want to watch the movie on a device without DVD or Blu-Ray player, or if you want to watch it without the DVD present.
Ripping movies from DVDs has other benefits. You have control over the resulting format and size, as well as advanced features such as the video file’s resolution or quality.
VidCoder
VidCoder is a DVD and Blu-Ray ripping software for the Windows operating system. It makes use of the .net Framwork 4.0 and can therefore only be installed on PCs where the framework is present. The software uses the popular Handbrake software as its encoding engine.
Computer users who want to rip a DVD can do so in a few steps. First they need to point VidCoder to a source movie. This can be a DVD or Blu-Ray in a optical drive, or a video folder or file that is already present on the computer’s hard drive.
You may add multiple video files as the source, and even make adjustments to each file before you add it to the queue. This includes changing the time range of the video (by default all of it will be converted), selecting a different audio source or adding more audio sources, and adding or removing subtitles.
Once the video source has been selected it is necessary to select a destination for the resulting video with a click on “select output path”.
A click on Encoding Settings opens options to configure the output format. The container format used is mp4 by default, which can be changed to mkv. It is furthermore possible to configure the video codec and framerate, specify a target movie size, average bitrate or constant quality as well as audio settings and a lot of advanced options.
Most users of the DVD ripping software can probably keep the default settings while only tech savvy users may want to change them to optimize the output movie.
One interesting feature that VidCoder provides is the ability to load and save presets. This can be useful if you convert video files or rip DVDs to a specific output format regularly. Say, you rip DVDs regularly so that you can watch them on your smartphone. Instead of having to make changes to the configuration whenever you do a conversion, you can simply load a preset that you have saved previously to make settings adjustments right away.
VidCoder ships with a selection of preset profiles to choose from. It covers mostly mobile devices, Apple iPhone and iPad, Android devices, Windows Phone but also Apple TV and a universal profile.
The main interface has a preview button to preview the selected clip which comes in handy to make sure the output settings are correct.
The selected options can then be added to the queue, which is great for adding multiple titles to it. This is for instance necessary for ripping TV show DVDs which usually come with multiple episodes on a DVD disc.
A click on encode starts the process. Its length depends largely on the performance of the computer system and the selected input sources.
Feature list
- Multi-threaded
- MP4, MKV containers
- H.264, MPEG-4, Theora video
- AAC, MP3, Vorbis, AC3 audio encoding and AC3/DTS passthrough
- Target bitrate, size or quality for video
- 2-pass encoding
- Multi-angle support
- Decomb, detelecine, deinterlace filters
- Batch encoding
- Instant source previews
- Creates small encoded preview clips
- Pause, resume encoding
VidCoder can be downloaded from the project website. The DVD and Blu-Ray ripper is compatible with all operating systems that support the Microsoft .net Framework 4.
Closing Words
VidCoder is an easy to use DVD ripping and video conversion software for the Windows operating system. While easy to use, it offers all the advanced customization options that you’d expect from a video converter if you require them.
Two versions of the application are available for download right now. The latest stable version, version 1.5.33 at the time of writing, and the latest beta version, 2.24 at the time of writing (February 2016).
Both work well and we did not notice any issues while testing the beta version of VidCoder.