How To Copy a DVD with VLC 1.0
VLC 1.0 has gotten several cool new features, one of which is the ability to record what is playing in the screen. Here we will take a look at how easy it is to record a DVD or other video formats using VLC.
Want to rip the DVD instead of recording? We’ve got a guide for that as well.
Record Using VLC
You won’t see the record button in the default view so we need to make it available in the control panel by going to View and selecting Advanced Controls.
Now you can see the Record button along with a couple other handy controls like snapshot and looping.
Now when you start up a DVD or other video simply click on the record button and hit is a second time to end the recording.
While it is recording notice that the record button will be blue.
The recorded video is in MPEG format and stored them in the Documents folder labeled as VLC Record with the date and time.
This is a great way to save entire movies or specific scenes you want to watch later on your hard drive.
Of course VLC won’t burn the recorded MPEG file to DVD but you can certainly use other programs for that. This is a much different process than “ripping” and you will need to play the video while it records.
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Thank you man
very useful trick
This is a great feature
However, am I missing something here, or is there no sound when you record?
Oh no
Ignore that
It’s working now – quite odd
It appears that this capability to record has been left out of the Mac OS X version, of VLC, right? What gives?
@Aleeve: Are you using Windows Vista? I noticed that the direct audio playback recording is disabled by default on Windows Vista PCs. I think it was a bone that MS threw in to placate the anti-piracy front, closing what is known as the “Analog Audio hole” with computer audio. It allows people to record even streaming content, if they know how.
A simple fix for this is to get a cable with two headphone style jacks on it, and plug it between the headphone out (or audio out, if you have one), and the Line in jacks on your PC. This will take the audio and turn it into “Line In Audio”, which is recordable.
HTH!
This is just wicked cool! I should try it out with a few DVDs I have that I would like to have those movies on my laptop for on the go, as I used Handbrake for this before.
I seem to have problems if the clip is less than 5 seconds. Either it records it only as an mp3 or it won’t record anything.
Another Mac OSX user, and I agree, that function seems to be missing…
Sigh.. feature isn’t with the mac version.
This is not missing from Mac OS X, but the GUI seems to be.
I looked up the hotkeys, shift+command+r will start and stop recording. The clip shows up on the desktop and the audio works as well.
Thanks for posting this. However I would like to mention that in Linux this feature doesn’t seem to work (unfortunately). If I click on that record button, nothing seems to happen, or at least nothing similar to what happens when I push the button in windows.
I wonder if a preference could be changed so that it encodes to a slightly more “transportable” format such as mp4 and even in your chosen container like matroska.
2 minutes of one dvd recording came to 80 Megabytes. I didn’t see it in the advanced preferences, but some prefs are kind of cryptic for me, so I might have missed it.
the files I get only seem to be able to be played in VLC I can’t open in quicktime or in mpc any idea they best way to either convert theses or just to save it as something more universally readable?
i tried converting to h264 in vlc but still can’t open in quicktime
HI,all guys, this Player can play .evo files or not?
Thanks! I use VLC, but haven’t noticed ver. 1.0.
The record-button can also be used to save (asf) streams.
And when I try it on a local .flv file, it saves to an .avi.
(Using XP SP3 here)
os x users should just use mac the ripper
Thanks for the heads up! However, I am having trouble getting the audio to record as well. Am using a Mac and using the hotkey shortcut to enable recording. Anyone have any ideas?
Never mind. Took the file to MPEG Streamclip and exported it as a quicktime…audio showed up then.
Man, I have been looking for this FOREVER! I am so glad I found this article, thanks How To Geek
What is the difference between this and ripping. I had tryed ripping with previous versions but it failed so i use http://lifehacker.com/software.....235150.php
I am running Vista. I saw this article from the how-to-geek to record a video from a DVD to my computer. I installed VLC, started the DVD and pressed the VLC record button. Nothing happened. What is the problem and how do I correct it?
Ron
ohh..tnx a lot
Awesome! I would like to play on my iPhone though…How can I get this onto iTunes?
About how much memory does a full movie take up?
Great feature!! I love VLC. There is only one thing that lacks in VLC and that is its inability to play .FLV format files. I hope the developers will come up with an upgrade to fill this lacuna.
The feature is wonderful except for the sound problem.
Recorded a test segment from a DVD movie and experienced the same “No Sound” problem with Vista.
Tried using cable with two headphone style jacks plugged between the headphone out and the Line in (mic) jacks on laptop. Still no sound recorded on the mpg file.
Is there any step missing? Such as changing some VLC settings? Appreciate your solutions.
Some very handy tips here. Thanks for posting this.
When I play a DVD and try to record it, the red record button will not turn blue? I can’t seem to record please help Thanks
Sorry I know what I was doing wrong. My fault….
Thanks to share this info, this is very useful!
This is a great tip, however when I click on the advanced controls, nothing happens. I don’t see any new buttons there. I tried to go to ‘customize interface’ and drag them onto the toolbar but that doesn’t work either. Would you happen to know what the problem is?
Any Answers To All These Questions???
Thanks for the heads up here. While I definitely don’t condone ILLEGAL copying, sometimes you do need to make legit backups, and VLC has always been my preferred media software.
Is there a way to save the recording to any other folder other than the default C:my documents folder?
Great tips, thanks
Is there a way to save the recording to any other folder other than the default C:my documents folder?