A process of creating a DVD video that can be played on a DVD player. DVD authoring software must conform to the specifications set by the DVD Forum group in 1995. The specifications are complicated due to the number of companies that were involved in creating them.

DVD and multimedia players that play DVDs and Audio DVDs, some also support VCD playback and image capture.

A DVD ripper is a computer program that facilitates copying the content of a DVD to a hard disk drive. They are mainly used to transfer video on DVDs to different formats, to edit or back up DVD content, and for converting DVD video for playback on media players and mobile devices. Some DVD rippers include additional features, such as the ability to decrypt DVDs, remove copy preventions and make disks unrestricted and region-free. NOTE: please respect copyrighted material.

Programs to manage or extract DVD subtitles, chapters, audio; convert and encode different video formats; maintain DVD collections; backup DVD discs, etc.