VLC HowTo/Rip a DVD
Here is an example. You'll need to type this at the command prompt (windows) or terminal (linux), all on one line. You may also need to give the full path to vlc (ie, replace vlc with "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\vlc\vlc.exe", or wherever you installed vlc)
This is how to rip the "raw mpg" from a DVD, assuming you want to rip your DVD's title "1" to filename dvdout.mpg
$ vlc dvdsimple://d:\@1 --sout "#standard{access=file,mux=ts,dst=dvdout.mpg}" vlc://quit
the vlc://quit at the end just tells it to start, complete the rip, then exit. You can also add a --qt-start-minimized to that, if desired.
Note that the above doesn't do any transcoding on the video stream, it just basically dumps a verbatim copy to your hard drive.
You may have some luck ripping the DVD from the GUI, as well, though this is a bit tricky [1]. Using the GUI may be easier for if you want to rip and transcode it to something else at the same time, as the above is just a raw copy. Sometimes the GUI seems to have bugs.
If it doesn't work, it may work better to use dvd:// instead of dvdsimple://
$ vlc dvd://d:\@1 --sout "#standard{access=file,mux=ts,dst=dvdout.mpg}" vlc://quit
See also
Handbrake is a free user friendly open source tool for ripping DVD's. Unfortunately it only transcodes from DVD to a file (not a raw rip), but it does it well. It uses VLC by default for ripping if installed on OS X. For windows users handbrake can use VLC's libdvdcss if you install it.
