Loading a few DVDs into iTunes
One of the reasons for wanting to get an iPod touch or even one of the newer 'classic' models is to be able to carry a few movies on the train without opening up my laptop and playing a DVD directly. I was talking to a good friend a while back and he had been using Forty-Two DVD VX to rip a few DVDs to put them on his PSP so he could travel a little nicer with his kids. He really liked the program, so when I wanted to do a little media changing on a few of my favorite movies, it seemed like a good place to start.
I have to say he was right on the money. This is exceptionally easy. You get the program, put the DVD in the drive, stop the DVD Player in OS X and then 'Open' the DVD and tell it what you want to target it for, in my case, the iPod. It knows what to do to get the best image and file size for the iPod, and then it just waits for you to tell it to 'Convert' the media. Very slick. Very nice.
Now, it'd be nice to have it rip the movie faster, but you have to accept that ripping it is a one-time cost, and just like with the CDs for my iTunes library, it's going to be an investment that will really pay off in the future. I haven't gotten a new iPod, and may not get one for a while, but I wanted to get my iTunes library loaded with my favorites before I got the iPod and had to spend hours and hours ripping movies. That would be frustrating.
UPDATE: I got the serial number after ordering it and put it in the app. Then I started loading National Treasure and was not surprised to see that it was going to take pretty close to the running time - plus a little to rip and encode the DVD. I was hoping for something a little less than "runtime plus", but I can't really blame the app, it's taking it from a very high resolution and stepping it down to H.264 for the iPod. Not trivial, and yet it's not really rocket science - just takes time.