Preparing DVDs for iTunes/iTV

[mindbend]

I am planning a bit ahead for iTV with hopes of ripping my legally purchased DVDs. I am looking for advice on what software to use and which settings give the best results.

Ideally, I guess I'd like to just extract the main movie from the DVD and NOT recompress it. But presumably iTunes can't play the raw VOBs, right?

Is there any way around this without recompressing?

If I must recompress, what seems to be giving the best results? H264? Popcorn (Roxio)? DVD2OneX? ffmpeg? DVDRemaster? The main goal is to maintain as close to the original source as possible. Especially given that MPEG-2 frankly sucks as it is (barely watchable on an LCD in my overly-critical opinion). Extra compression will only make it worse. I will, however, encode the kids' movies at lower quality to save space since they won't care.

I want to create as simple a system as possible, since I've got to prepare 50+ DVDs. I might even make some Automater script to help out if I can figure that part out.

I'm really hoping Apple provides a tool to prepare DVDs for use with iTunes/iTV, but I REALLY doubt it since Apple obviously wants us to buy new content.

Thanks!

[sinclair_tm]

only problem is that its illegal to rip copyrighted dvds, even if you own it.