The issue with DVD ripping is tricky. It works like this:
Commercial, aka retail, DVDs, the ones with movies on them that we all love to watch, use a form of encryption known as
CSS - Content Scramble System. The purpose is to make it so you can't just "copy" a DVD by simply copying the files off the disc itself - that won't work.
You have to decrypt the encrypted content to be able to read it at all in a usable format; that's where DVD playback software comes in because it can decrypt the CSS on the fly as required.
But, as luck would have it, a few years back some brilliant d00d figured out how to "crack" the CSS with a single line of code, seriously. The problem, at least here in the US, is that while the so-called law says it's ok to make backup copies of your movies for archival purposes (it's a screwy law, always has been), the way
most people copy a DVD means they rip it and then re-burn the content, and doing so is where you cross the line and do something illegal.
Cracking the CSS for the purposes of copying the content is illegal in the US, so I don't care about the rest of the world as I live in the US. But realistically there are two ways to "back up" a DVD:
1) Do a perfect bit for bit "ISO" copy which does
not involve cracking the CSS - you would be copying ever bit on the DVD. This is the perfectly legit and legal way to do it, but considering that most every DVD on the market today requires well over 5GB of space, that means you'll need a dual layer piece of media to accomodate the content, and dual layer blank media (aka DVD9) is still about 5x as expensive as the more common 4.7GB single layer media (aka DVD5). THIS METHOD is the only one that falls under "Fair Use" since it's never bothering with the encryption at all - the bit-for-bit copy method retains the encryption bit-for-bit, never requiring it to be decrypted.
2) Crack the CSS and do a more "normal" drag and drop to the hard drive - reburn with DVD software type solution. This still is the same problem as #1 above however in terms of DVD5 vs DVD9 space requirements. One sub-solution is to use software like DVDShrink or other such transcoders that will lower the overall bitrate of the original (DVD9) content so that it's "shrunk" enough to fit down on a 4.7GB single layer disc (DVD5) and the quality is still excellent. THIS METHOD only functions by cracking the CSS, meaning "Fair Use" is thrown out the window and the DMCA is broken, hence, in the US illegal.
But for most folks, to transcode from original DVD to iPod compatible (transcoding is the proper name for what most people refer to as "ripping", going from one format to another while trying to maintain the quality as high as possible) format media files, Handbrake is an excellent tool that produces great quality end results.
Just get ready for it to take a long damned time as transcoding is notoriously slow even on the most powerful quad core boxes.
Good luck...
