Six DVD Rippers, which one best for Valentine’s Day?
Valentine’s Day is getting close; if your loved one enjoys movies and you have a lot of DVDs, it is good time you get a right DVD Ripper to convert the DVDs for playback on portable devices like iPod and enjoy hours of sweet time snuggling up to each other in the park, on the beach or somewhere romantic you can think of. Today, I will compare six DVD Rippers and let the truth tell you which is best for your DVD movie enjoyment on romantic Valentine’s Day.
| Name | Version | Price | Website |
| Cucusoft Ultimate DVD Converter | 8.01 | $45.95 | www.cucusoft.com/ |
| Magic DVD Ripper | 5.4.2 | $34.97 | www.magicdvdripper.com/ |
| Leawo DVD Ripper | 2.2.1.0 | $29.95 | www.leawo.com/ |
| Pavtube Video DVD Converter Ultimate | 3.3.1.844 | $49 | www.pavtube.com/ |
| Wondershare DVD Converter Ultimate | 5.3.0 | $65.95 | www.wondershare.com/ |
| Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate | 5.0.62 | $55.95 | www.xilisoft.com/ |
Since there is no standard for what DVD Ripper software should look like, it makes no sense to compare between their functions. But one thing is clear, are they adequately fit for the task of DVD to video conversion? Concerning common urgent needs, I will give benchmarks to each DVD Ripper on installation, user interface, conversion flexibilities and output quality.
Part One: Installation
All six DVD Ripper software companies offer trial copy download on their websites. As for trial limitation, Magic DVD Ripper will suspend the use after five conversion tasks, Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate allows for conversion of 5 minute length of each DVD video, and the rest DVD Rippers will put a watermark on output videos. Here is a simple chart comparing the size of each program before and after installation.
During installation, there were no alarms for virus or adware detection. All DVD Rippers are all instantly functional without restarting the system.
As the smaller space the program takes, the better it is for users to get and install. So here I give my points for the benchmark of installation.
Part Two: User Interface
- Cucusoft Ultimate DVD Converter
The user interface is gloomy; however, the functions are in proper positions. The Load entry, Chapters list, DVD info, Output profiles, and Convert button are discernable. We just need to make a selection of the DVD chapters and the desired output profile, and then simply begin the conversion without any hassles. By the way, this DVD Ripper has an interesting function that can switch it between player mode and converter mode, which means we can use it to enjoy but not just to preview the DVD movie.
- Magic DVD Ripper
Thanks to the simplistic user interface, Magic DVD Ripper is the most space efficient when installed on our PC. Since it sacrifices user experience for smaller setup size and faster response, we have to spend some time to figure out the desired conversion settings before the big start. Fortunately, the settings are not flooded with geek’s terms. But pitifully no built-in player is to help us identify the desired chapters. It has left out this feature assuming we should have installed some DVD player software in advance.
- Leawo DVD Ripper
Leawo DVD Ripper looks much better, although this is its only skin. The operation procedure is comfortable like drawing a tick: from the chapters list, via profile and settings, all the way to the start button. In the menu bar, the language item suggests the program is thoughtfully adapted for users of different languages. In the player control, a camera button implies the screenshot feature upon playing the DVD movie. Meanwhile, the program sets up shortcuts to the folders where the screenshots and converted videos are stored respectively. The straight forward interface also tells the program can choose to merge all chapters into one single video file or not and provides some video edit functions.
- Pavtube Video DVD Converter Ultimate
Pavtube Video DVD Converter Ultimate looks almost the same with Leawo DVD Ripper, except this program can convert AVI, MP4 videos as well.
- Wondershare DVD Converter Ultimate
Wondershare DVD Converter Ultimate also possesses the capability to convert AVI, MP4 videos as Pavtube does. The style of interface is not much different from Pavtube and Leawo, but most of the interface is enhanced with animated transitions, which contributes to greater user experience and maybe a little inflation of setup size. Besides, this DVD Ripper is versatile as it can burn video to DVD and transfer video to USB devices.
- Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate
Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate gives a very professional impression on the first glimpse. The program embraces a CPU usage monitor to keep itself from hogging too much system resource. When loading a DVD, the DVD cover information will be clearly displayed. In the right extension panel, it greets us with a flock of options and controls, which is good for the professionals, but for beginners it fails to give equal thoughts on easy navigation, as we see, the buttons for Load DVD and Start Conversion are barely icons without straight forward identifications.
The user interface is the most important factor for user experience, in which in my opinion the easier to operate the better.
Part Three: Conversion Flexibilities
In many occasions, the demands for DVD to video conversion vary by objectives. For example, getting DVD movie to play on iPod or PSP or insert to a presentation file requires the modulation of encoding parameters such as the choice of video codec and the size of video frames. It is necessary the DVD Ripper software is flexible to provide pertinent options and controls. Profiles or presets are indispensible part of DVD Ripper software; they are convenient for repetitive use or novice use.
Here is the table where each DVD Ripper counts their profiles.
Compared to its counterparts, Magic DVD Ripper is certainly embarrassed by its sparse profiles, of which Pavtube is about ten times and the rest DVD Rippers are around five times. However, profiles are not always the more the better. Pavtube is thoughtful to set up that many profiles, but it also kills the user’s patience in looking for desired profiles. In my opinion, the golden number of profiles is in the proximity to 100.
In addition to profiles, it is also necessary for the DVD Ripper software to provide advanced settings to refine or even build custom profiles. Without surprise, these competing DVD Rippers are also varying in the advanced settings provided.
- Cucusoft Ultimate DVD Converter
Cucusoft Ultimate DVD Converter’s advanced settings panel looks dilapidated, but it manages to put essential parameters like Video Bit Rate, Frame Rate, Video Size, Audio Bit Rate and Sample Rate in the front and keep those minor ones in Advanced Video Options.
- Magic DVD Ripper
Magic DVD Ripper provides nothing fewer than we have expected, but also nothing more.
- Leawo DVD Ripper
Leawo DVD Ripper clearly offers only these essential settings. It has drop down box for each parameter for us to choose a value from and also allows us to type value to our own desire.
- Pavtube Video DVD Converter Ultimate
Pavtube Video DVD Converter Ultimate resembles Leawo DVD Ripper, except the values are restricted from the dropdown boxes.
- Wondershare DVD Converter Ultimate
Wondershare DVD Converter Ultimate also restricts the parameters except Resolution and Frame Rate. But I can’t see why it doesn’t set Video Bit Rate free likewise.
- Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate
Once again, Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate amazed us by its overwhelming Advanced Profile Settings. It is more like an extended version of that of Cucusoft Ultimate DVD Converter. In my humble opinion, we have complete control over the video conversion as long as we know how to make from all those parameters.
In this part, I have reviewed the core of DVD Ripper software: profiles and settings, which can suggest the professional level as well as the flexibilities of each DVD Ripper program. Xilisoft is no doubt in the best taste of professionals, and the rest DVD Rippers provide essential parameters to meet sufficient demands.
Part Four: Output Quality
All DVD Ripper software should strive to provide output quality as good as possible and make this an easy target for users to reach. To compare the performance, I specify a DVD to video conversion task below to each DVD Ripper.
By monitoring the process of each conversion, I have garnered information on CPU Usage, Memory Usage and Total Spent Time. Here is the chart.
The lower means the better, because it tells how much the program occupies your system resource and your time. As for output quality, let’s make a straight forward judgment from the screenshots below.
- Original DVD Screenshot
- Cucusoft Ultimate DVD Converter Screenshot
Compared to the original screenshot, it is obvious that the left man’s beard, left collar of his suit, and the right man’s neck get blurred and lose details.
- Magic DVD Ripper Screenshot
The quality gets worse as more details in the left man’s hair and both men’s faces are gone.
- Leawo DVD Ripper Screenshot
The details are actually increasing in this video picture as we can see the layer of the left man’s hair is more distinguishable than the original. Some video enhancing technology must have made the video picture look sharper.
- Pavtube Video DVD Converter Ultimate Screenshot
The picture quality is almost the same as that comes out from Leawo DVD Ripper, except there is no way to keep the original aspect ratio in this DVD Ripper.
- Wondershare DVD Converter Ultimate Screenshot
Details in shadows and faces are given away. The video picture looks blur and unclear.
- Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate Screenshot
The video picture quality is enhanced likewise, evening with Leawo and Pavtube.
The output video size and the playback smoothness are revealed below:
Based on the picture quality, output file size and playback smoothness, this is the benchmark for this part.
Conclusion
Let me wrap up with benchmarks from four parts: installation, user interface, conversion flexibilities and output quality.
From the chart, we can tell Leawo DVD Ripper, Pavtube Video DVD Converter Ultimate and Wondershare DVD Converter Ultimate are well qualified for the task of DVD to video conversion. Should you pursuit picture quality, Leawo DVD Ripper is your choice; should you go after better user experience, Wondershare DVD Converter Ultimate surely satisfies you; should you look for an integrated solution for both DVD and video conversion, Pavtube Video DVD Converter Ultimate suits the job.
The versions and prices of the DVD Rippers are the latest for Valentine’s Day.
| Name | Version | Price |
| Cucusoft Ultimate DVD Converter | 8.01 | $45.95 |
| Magic DVD Ripper | 5.4.2 | $34.97 |
| Leawo DVD Ripper | 2.2.1.0 | $29.95 |
| Pavtube Video DVD Converter Ultimate | 3.3.1.844 | $35 |
| Wondershare DVD Converter Ultimate | 5.3.0 | $65.95 |
| Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate | 5.0.62 | $55.95 |
Wish you find your greatest joy in this holiday for the lovestrucks. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Review By: Alex Nikle
Website: http://dvdrippers.wordpress.com/