Video in iTunes...

I'm starting to think about putting my DVDs in iTunes for organizing and playing without the disc. Since iTunes is turning into more than just an audio organizer, I'm wondering if some of you are doing this and how.

I think it would be cool to have my DVDs in iTunes, ready to play whenever I want. Whether I play it on the screen, or on a TV, or transfer it to my iPhone or iPod. The thing I'm not sure about is proper encoding of the video so it still looks good on all those screens. Anyone do this?

I use HandBrake. It has plenty of presents so you should be able to get a compromise between file size and quality you're happy with.

Personally I rip with the Apple TV preset and if I want to transfer it to my iPod then re-encode with VisualHub.

Agree with above, I use Handbrake and the newest version has presets for normal viewing, Apple TV, iPhone/iPod Touch etc etc.. its pretty sweet. I usually have 3 movies on my iPhone at any given time and rotate them from iTunes. I watch them when Im running on the treadmill at the gym. Makes it a little easier

I have tried Handbrake, but it doesn't work with Copyrighted DVD's, which is every dvd I have (?) (I wanted to put Live Free or Die Hard on my iPod Touch)

If you want to use handbrake or visualhub to convert your copy protected dvds, you will first need to rip them to your HD to remove the copy protection. I recommend mactheripper for that. Once mactheripper has copied the DVD to your HD, just drag the whole folder (contains the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS directories) into handbrake or visualhub and hit start ;D .

BTW, I have converted my entire DVD collection (400+ DVDs) using visualhub and I am very happy with the results. I encode with a custom video bitrate of 2250. The final product is about 1GB/hour of movie.