If you want to save your DVD and BlueRay movies into MP4 or MKV video files or just want to convert a video from one format to another, then you can use the free tool VidCoder. VidCoder is a DVD or Bluray ripping and video transcoding application for Windows. It does not support ripping encrypted DVD or Blueray disks which means that it cannot rip commercial optical disks. It uses HandBrake, that we have posted about before, as its encoding engine. Unlike Handbrake, the VidCoder interface is very easy to use and offers many more options.
VidCoder is an open-source application that is able to help you convert any video format into the MP4 format. It is a multi-platform and multi-threaded video transcoder which is available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. It is designed using the Microsoft .NET 4.0 technology. So you need to install .NET 4.0 redistributable in Windows before you can start using it. You can download .NET 4.0 from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17718 Windows 8 already has .NET 4.0 pre-installed, so if you are using Windows 8, then you can just download and run VidCoder without any worries.
Using VidCoder is extremely easy. It can automatically detect the source media like your DVD or Blueray disks, but you can also manually select a video file from the Source section. When selecting manually, you can select a single video source file or an entire folder containing the video files. If your video source has multiple tracks (like a DVD), then you can pick which ones you want to use. The destination file is automatically selected, but you can pick your own. Under the Encoding section, you can pick a preset or customize a preset for transcoding. Most users can just stick with normal or high profile presets. Finally, click on the Start button to start the conversion.
Depending on the number of files, file sizes and the preset selected, it would take a shorter or longer time to complete (it takes long time for most of the video files). By default, the output files are saved in the same folder as the original file. The newly transcoded output files have a file extension .M4V. You can then play them using a video player like VLC VideoLan media player, or through your default video player by double-clicking on them. You can also copy them over to your smartphone or tablet and enjoy them while you are out and about.
You can download VidCoder from its website at https://github.com/RandomEngy/VidCoder/releases.