Physical DVD discs are indeed not as convenient as digital files. Not to mention, some DVDs might not last forever. One solution is to digitize any paper copies you have. From DVD forum we have learned that more than 80% DVD owners will make digital copy of their DVDs to hard drive or portable devices in H.264 format. However, with the emergence of more-efficient HEVC (aka. H.265) and its increasingly broadened compatibility, the demand of DVD to HEVC/H.265 conversion is doomed to increase. This article will show you why and how to make a HEVC/H.265 MP4 digital copy from DVD disc on Windows (10/8/7)/macOS (Big Sur).

Convert DVD to HEVC/H265 MP4

Why Do You Need to Rip DVDs to HEVC/H.265 MP4?

HEVC or H.265, short for High Efficiency Video Coding, is more superior to H.264 in regards to video quality, size and compression rate. Namely, to achieve the same visual quality, H.265 encodes a more compressed video that is about half the size of H.264, at only half the bit rate. For example, when digitize a DVD of 7.26 GB, a 1.24 GB file was resulted if choose DVD to H.264 preset; whereas, if I pick DVD to H.265, only 634 MB with equivalent quality. That saves quite much storage. In a word, the advantage of H.265 is that you can get similar quality at lower bitrates, so try that out.

Best Ripper to Convert DVDs to HEVC/H.265 with Fast Speed, High Quality, and Small Size

There are numbers of paid or free programs that claim to digitize and rip DVD discs. It's kinda a paradox to get the fast speed, optimal quality, and small size for the DVD to HEVC/H.265 MP4. However, a battle-tested DVD converter like EaseFab DVD Ripper can get the best possible results in a balanced way. It can conquer all types of DVDs, from new discs, 99-title, damaged, Japanese, regional, workout to non-standard DVDs.

◉ Any DVD: Convert homemade discs, burned DVDs, and bought DVDs with almost all DVD encryptions like Disney X-project DRM, CSS, region code, RCE, APS, Sony ArccOS, UOPs, etc., support navigation algorithms used in DVDs from paramount, Disney, Sony, etc.
◉ From 8GB DVD to ~1GB HEVC/H.265 MP4: Aadjust resolution, bit rate, codec, etc to produce optimal file size. Specifically, the ripped file is 700MB-1GB instead of GBs for a full movie, a 80% space saving. Plus, there're 350+ ready profiles for AVI, WMV, MOV, iPhone, iPad, Android.
◉ Fast DVD to digital conersion: - With the NVIDIA® CUDATM technology, the conversion is processed on NVIDIA's GPU instead of your computer's CPU and you can convert a full DVD disc to HEVC/H.265 MP4 as short as 10 minutes.
◉ 1:1 quality ratio: 2 DVD copy modes manage to backup DVD with 100% quality reserved.

[Tutorial] How Can I Convert DVDs to HEVC/H265 MP4 with Quality & Size Well Balanced?

To begin with, you need to download and install EaseFab DVD Ripper Windows or Mac version on your computer. The guide below takes the Windows version for an example. Mac version has the same process.

Step 1: Load the source DVD files.

Insert the DVD disc into your computer's DVD drive or an external USB DVD drive. Launch EaseFab DVD Ripper, click Load DVD button to add the DVD files to the program. It also supports DVD Folder and ISO Image. The DVD ripper supports advanced encryptions like navigation algorithm used in multiple titles. It will easily detect the correct title hiden in DVDs from Disney, Sony, Paramount, etc./p>

Load DVD Content

Step 2: Choose HEVC MP4 as output profile.

Click Profile bar and move mouse cursor to Common Video category, then click and select HEVC MP4 as the output format.

Select HEVC MP4 for DVD Conversion

Step 3. Convert DVD from GBs to HEVC/H.265 MP4 in MBs

Flexible options are offered to further reduce the size of the encoded HEVC MP4 video. Click the Settings button beside the profile and enter into the parameter settings page. A slew of other variables such the video/audio codecs, pixel dimensions, frame rate, bit rate, audio sampel rate, etc. will help convert an full DVD at 7.5GB to a smaller H.265 MP4 file.

Recommended video size settings:

You're not suggested to adjust the frame rate and aspect ratio, if not necessary.
Lower the bitrate to a lower level. For example, adjusting the original Normal quality to bitrates of 1500-2000 is acceptable without noticeable pixellation.
Lower the resolution. Typical DVD videos are 720×480 (NTSC) and 720×540 (PAL). Adjust the resolution to 640×480 won't make any quality difference.

Please note: Adjusting these variables have some effect on the re-encoded video quality. You can go smaller, only at the cost of quality loss. Remember the file size and video quality is based more on bitrate than resolution which means bitrate higher results in big file size, and lower visible quality loss.

Recommended video size settings for DVD to H265 conversion

Step 4. Start the DVD to HEVC MP4 conversion

Click the Folder button in the Output bar to select a destination folder in the dialog box that opens, and click OK. Then click the big blue Convert button to start converting. The rip will go from about 100fps to 200fps based on the computer you have (higher configuration, faster speed).