Ripping a DVD to your hard drive is easy — check out our guide to ripping DVDs for more info.
Sadly, converting video to support the myriad of devices in our homes these days isn’t simple. With every new device comes a new set of video options, screen resolutions, framerates and file types.
For example, while some of your older iPod-encoded movies will play just fine on your new iPad or iPhone 4, both devices support much higher-resolution video than their predecessors. If you want your videos to look better, you’ll have to re-encode for the higher resolution screens.
Encode Videos for Your iPad With HandBrake – Wired How-To Wiki.