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Pavtube DVDAid is an application that does more than simply transfer files from a plastic disc to your hard drive. It enables you to liberate your movies from their plastic prisons, take them with you and watch them – even if you’re nowhere near a DVD player.

This program earned the DVD Ripper Gold Award by providing a full array of DVD ripping, converting and editing tools. It also has an expansive library of preprogrammed output profiles that allow you to optimize your rip for whatever device you happen to be carrying around in your pocket.

Conversion Choices

The whole point of ripping a DVD is to watch it on a device that isn’t connected to a DVD player. Smartphones, tablets and even some gaming systems are not compatible with this aging technology. Pavtube DVDAid solves this problem by providing 175 preprogrammed output profiles that are specifically designed to optimize your rip for the device you own.

For example, say you have an iPhone 7 and you want to watch a DVD you bought in 2002 on it. There are no apps that will connect with a DVD player and stream it to your device over a Wi-Fi network, let alone one that syncs a DVD movie to your phone and allows you to carry it around in your pocket. With Pavtube DVDAid, all you need to do is select the iPhone 7 option from the library of output profiles and click Start. Then the application rips the movie and converts it to the exact specifications of the iPhone 7. When it’s done, you have a file that is perfectly tailored for your device. The same is true if you have a different kind of iPhone, iPad or any other iOS device.

This application also has output profiles that optimize rips for Android and BlackBerry phones as well as other mobile devices. The list of profiles is long when it comes to specific makes and models of devices, whether it be a Samsung, Nokia, Sony, HTC – the list goes on and on. The bottom line is that if you have a mainstream mobile device, there is a high likelihood that this application can rip a DVD into a format that is suited for your needs.

There are many other compatible devices, too. Most console gaming systems have large hard drives that are designed to hold large qualities of movies that can be played on demand without a physical disc. Pavtube DVDAid can convert your DVDs for these systems; Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation all have profiles. Their mobile counterparts such as the PSP and Nintendo DS also have the ability to play movies and have profiles for DVD conversion.

If you want just a plain-Jane file, like an MOV, AVI or MP4, you can convert for these, too. The software also allows you to manipulate technical aspects of the video such as frame rate, resolution and bitrate.

Ripping Attributes

The first feature we look for in any DVD ripper application is the ability to decrypt the copy protections found on commercial discs. Pavtube has a built-in decrypter that can bypass encryptions such as CSS and region coding. Without this tool, nearly all the movies in your DVD library would be unrippable. The best aspect about Pavtube’s decrypter is the fact that it’s integrated, automatic and invisible.

The process of ripping and converting files off your DVDs is quite simple. All you need to do is load the DVD, select the files you want, pick a preprogrammed output profile and click Start. Within a few minutes, you have an optimized file tailored for whatever device you want.

Another reason you might want to rip a DVD is to extract the audio. Pavtube DVDAid has the ability to act as a DVD to MP3 converter. It also can convert the audio found on your disc to a number of other formats, including M4A, WMA, WAV, AC3, OGG and more. The quality of the converted sound is identical to the sound on the disc.

One of the things that this application cannot do is perform a straight rip of the DVD’s files and folders to your hard drive. In order to rip a video off a DVD, you must perform a conversion. You can perform what Pavtube calls a “lossless DVD copy,” which extracts the VOB file but not the file structure of the disc. This is an odd omission, but it’s not uncommon for software in this category.

This DVD ripper also allows you to perform basic edits on videos before you rip them. If you have a movie that you just want a certain scene from, you can use the trim feature to remove the rest of the movie. When you click Start, you’ll only rip the scene you want. You can also crop the video and add watermarks, basic effects and subtitles.

Customization Tools

In addition to enabling you to adjust technical aspects of your video such as resolution, aspect ratio, frame rate and more, this software comes with a video-editing module that allows you to alter the video before you rip it onto your hard drive. You have the ability to trim unwanted footage, crop the video and adjust picture values such as brightness, contrast and saturation. You can also add basic effect filters and deinterlace video footage. Granted, you can’t do any major surgery to videos, these basic tools provide a nice tool box so you can get what you want and make minor alterations.

Help & Support

Pavtube offers some of the most comprehensive customer and technical support in this category. If you need assistance, the first thing you should do is consult the company website. You can find an extensive FAQs section for all Pavtube products as well as a how-to section that can walk you through everything you need to know about each product.

Summary

Pavtube DVDAid came out on top of best DVD rippers because it’s a powerful, easy-to-use program that enables you to rip your video files and customize them for playback on any device you own. It is a great choice for DVD ripping software.