MakeMKV is a Blu-Ray and DVD ripper that is dead easy to use. It actually takes only a few clicks to turn any DVD or Blu-Ray disc into an MKV file on the computer hard drive. Even better, it is possible to include all the information and chapters on the disc, including HD audio or chapter information.

Here is how it works. Make MKV is available for Windows and Mac. Windows users need to install the program before they can use it. To rip a DVD video or Blu-Ray video disc they need to start the program, insert the disc into the drive and click the rip button that is displayed prominently in the program interface. Make MKV will analyze the disc and display title information on the next screen.

Titles with less than 120 seconds of playtime are skipped automatically, which can be changed in the program options. All titles are displayed in the interface with the possibility to include some or all in the resulting mkv video file.

You can select an output folder on the same screen, or keep the default output folder that you can configure in the preferences. A click on the Make MKV button rips the selected titles from the DVD or Blu-Ray and saves it as an MKV file to the local system.

The ripping and converting is relatively fast. It took about 12 minutes to rip and convert a full DVD movie to the hard drive. Each title is saved as a mkv file to the selected output directory.

The program can read Blu-Ray discs that are protected with the latest versions of AACS and BD+, as well as DVDs that make use of DVD copy protection.

Make MKV is currently offered as a free beta version. The developers seem to have plans to offer a free and commercial version of the application after beta. The free version will be able to turn DVD discs into video files, while some or even all of the Blu-Ray ripping capabilities may end up in the commercial version. For now though, everything is free.

Interested users can download Make MKV from the developer website of the same name.

All you need to do is to put the DVD movie into the DVD drive of the computer and click on Load DVD in the program interface. It will load the DVD contents with the option to preview them. The program has pull down menus for selecting one of the available audio tracks and subtitles that will be included in the rip.

The only other customization option is to select the target size for the output file and one out of three encoding profiles (avi, video CD and super video CD).

A click on convert will start the ripping process and save the file to the computer’s hard drive. The only nuisance of the program was that it did automatically open a website with another DVD ripping tool by the same author as advertisement. A viable alternative without advertisement is the one-click dvd ripping tool Bitripper.