Over a year ago, I created a blog post walking you through how to convert your DVDs to digital files using HandBrake. Why? For a number of reasons. The two biggest reasons being 1) to avoid damaging your discs while handling and 2) so that you can stream your movies from your computer (via iTunes) to TVs throughout your home or office (via Apple TV).

Since that time, two new versions of HandBrake have been released. They aren’t earth-shattering updates, but they are different enough that I feel the need to update the steps you need to go through to successfully tip your DVDs.

If you don’t have HandBrake yet, download it here. You will also need VLC Player. You can download it here. Note: if you are using the 64-bit version of HandBrake, you will need the 64-bit version of VLC. If you are using the 32-bit version of HandBrake, you will need the 32-bit version of VLC.

I won’t be going into all the same detail here that I did in my original post. If you want to read that, click here. What I intend to do here is to walk you through the settings.

When you first launch HandBrake, it should already be on the Regular|Normal settings (on the right-hand side of HandBrake). If it isn’t, select that as a place to start.

This may be an obvious step, but it’s one that can get a little tricky with some movie titles. Media distribution companies have gotten smart about protecting their movies from pirates, which in turn makes it a little more confusing for someone who wants to legally convert their DVD library to digital form. In most cases, the title you want to choose is obvious. With some movies, they will sometimes throw 50 or more bogus titles about the same length as the actual title, making it hard to know which one to choose. In that case, here’s a tip for you: open the movie with your software DVD player and begin playing the feature film. Once it starts, look at the player to determine which title it’s actually playing. If it says it’s playing title #47, that’s the one you want to rip in HandBrake.

Once the DVD has been loaded and the appropriate title selected, these are the settings that need to be adjusted in HandBrake:

    Video Codec: MPEG-4 (FFmpeg)

    Quality: Constant Quality (slider set to 1 or all the way to the right)

Click on the “Picture Settings” button to expose more settings.

    Anamorphic: None (this is important if you want to watch movies on an iOS device)

Once you have made these changes, you are ready to rip your DVD.

In case you are a visual learner (like me), I’ve created a short training video showing you exactly how this is done.