So you want to know more about MP3s or you need to get a better handle on that new iPod you just bought…well, you came to the right place. Welcome to Brian's random tips on MP3s and all sorts of other useless bits of information. If you have a question that doesn't appear here, fire me off an email at .

What is CD Ripping?

Music CDs came about long before the CD-ROM did, which means that a computer isn't automatically capable of copying music tracks to the PC. �(The technical name of the audio CD format is called the "Red book CD format". �The other formats are as follows:
Red Book (CD Digital Audio)
Yellow Book (CD-ROM and CD-ROM XA)
Orange Book (CD-R and CD-RW)
White Book (Video CD)
Blue Book (Enhanced CD, CD+G and CD-Plus)
Beige Book (Photo CD)
Green Book (CD-i)
Purple Book (DDCD)
Scarlet Book (SACD)

Since the CD-ROM came after the CD (unlike the DVD, where the DVD-ROM came first), PCs need special software to copy the audio to the computer. The process of extracting audio tracks from a music CD is called ripping. Standalone rippers are all over the internet, and many can also encode the audio as an MP3 file while it rips the audio. �Audiograbber is a good piece of software for PCs to rip and offers a lot of options.� iTunes does a good job too, automatically importing the new songs into the iTunes database.� Most CD burning applications contain basic CD ripping utilities as well, but may not necessarily be able to save the audio as MP3.

Copy Protected CDs?

There's a lot of talk in the news these days about record labels trying to protect their CDs from being shared on the internet. As mentioned above, CD audio is not a format that is necessarily computer friendly, therefore record labels have had to be extremely creative in trying to create a digital rights management (DRM) methodology for their music content. Most of this is designed to run a piece of software immediately when you insert the CD in your computer to prevent you from ripping the audio tracks. It seems that there are a lot of ways to defeat these copy protection methods, many including a black magic marker - search google.com for details if you purchase a CD that has this protection and you wish to put it on your MP3 player.

How does the software know the track names of my CD?

As mentioned above, CD audio came about long before CD-ROMs did, so most CDs that you purchase today don't have any information encoded on the disc that a PC can read. Around 1997, the Red Book CD audio format was extended to support something called CD-Text, which allowed track and artist names to be stored on the disc itself. Some consumer CD players can display this information, and most CD ripping applications can read this information, however probably 95% of all CDs don't contain any CD-Text information.

So then how does the application know the track names? �Every CD (audio and otherwise) has an identification number that is (mostly) unique to the track configuration. What this means is that every copy of The Beatles White Album has the same ID number. When the ripping application reads the CD ID, it will communicate with one of two databases on the internet: Gracenote (formerly known as CDDB) or freedb. These are large databases linking each ID to a track listing and artist name. Of course, you can always just type in the track names and artist names yourself too. This explains why mix CDs made by friends will never show their track names in the ripping application.

MP3 Files and ID3 tags

Unlike CD audio, MP3 files can contain information about the music it holds. This is known as meta-data, which literally means data about data. MP3 files contain something called an ID3 tag which can hold Artist names, title, track, genre, beats per minute, CD artwork, track lyrics, and generally just about any other type of tag you can think of. Since this meta-data is physically in each MP3 file, if you copy this file to another machine, the track information travels with it.

The ripper software will generally populate at least some of these meta-data fields, and you can use just about any MP3 player software to fill out the rest. One of the features that iTunes (and the newer color iPods) has is the ability to display CD artwork stored in the file. A great place to obtain artwork is on amazon.com - simply type in the CD name, click on the small artwork and a larger image of the CD cover art will pop up in a new window. In iTunes, simply highlight all the songs on that album, bring up the track properties, drag the CD artwork into the small Artwork box in the properties, and the image will be copied into each files' ID3 tag. In this manner, you can also easily change all the artist names or genres of all the selected tracks simply by typing it into the appropriate field.

This meta-data is very useful if you need to reconstruct your iTunes database - but one word of warning - the "Star" ratings in iTunes (1-5 stars) are NOT stored in the MP3 file itself. If you copy your audio to another machine, the star ratings will not be transferred.

Audio Volume Levels

When you listen to a single CD, all the tracks on that CD have been mastered to be the same overall volume. From CD to CD, however, track volumes can differ - sometimes dramatically. As you pile more and more MP3s (or purchased AIF or WMA tracks) onto your computer or iPod, you may start to notice the differences in volumes, especially if you listen to the tracks in random order. Some songs will be very loud, while others very quiet.

There are a few ways to mitigate this problem. Some programs like Audiograbber provide a "normalization" feature that automatically adjust the volume of every track it rips to a consistent volume - this is useful, except for tracks that you may download from the internet or get copied from friends. Once a file is encoded in MP3, its not a great idea to decompress it, adjust the volume, and recompress it - the compression artifacts will simply worsen - much like making a copy of a copy.

Some MP3 players allow an on-the-fly normalization of the audio. MusicMatch and iTunes do this, as well as (thankfully) the iPod. In iTunes, this features is called (non-intuitively enough) "Sound Check". By turning this on in iTunes AND on your iPod, both will normalize the audio such that all tracks have the same volume. This is done as the player scans all the tracks and determines the peak volume for each one, then turns up or down each track based on this data.

While using iTunes and the iPod, this feature is great - but what if you don't want to use iTunes or have an iPod? There's one alternative that I've found called MP3Gain - a free open-source utility that analyzes MP3 files and actually adjusts their volume without decompressing and recompressing the track, and is completely reversible. Additionally, MP3Gain allows you to normalize using an RMS OR peak volume methodology. What's the difference? The RMS (Root Mean Squared) normalization method takes the "average" volume of the track, which is what a human perceives as the overall track volume, and adjusts each track so that they sound the same volume. Peak normalization methods simply take the loudest track section and make those the same across every track - that means tracks that have one particularly loud portion may still sound very quiet compared to other tracks. More discussion of this topic is beyond the scope if this document.

Audio Formats: MP3, AIF, AAC, WMA, WAV?

There are a lot of audio formats out there, and deciphering them can be a bit challenging. So here's a quick summary. There are two types of audio compression schemes: lossy and lossless. Lossless means that all the information that is compressed is recovered (like Zip or Stuffit files); lossy means that information is thrown out and unrecoverable. Lossy audio compression utilizes psychoacoustics to throw out pieces of audio that the human brain cannot perceive.

Most lossy compressors utilize either CBR (Constant Bit Rate) or VBR (Variable Bit Rate) methods. Constant bit rate means that the compressor will allocate X bits per second to the audio (like 128 kilobits per second), even for audio that doesn't need it or needs more. Variable bit rate takes advantage of faster computer technology and can allocate more bits to more complex pieces of music, and fewer for simpler pieces of music such that the overall bitrate averages out to the target. In general, VBR is preferred, as it provides higher audio quality in the same amount of bits that CBR uses, and nearly every portable MP3 player can handle VBR files.

Certain file formats contain DRM (Digital Rights Management) wrappers which protect the file from being copied, burned, converting, or listened beyond a certain limit. This is the music industry's attempt to, yet again, control their content at every step of the way. Every song purchased online will contain a DRM wrapper, preventing you from easily converting it to other formats (like MP3).

MP3 - MPEG-1 Layer 3
The most common audio format, and one of the oldest audio compression methods, coming about in 1991. This is a lossy compression format that has become a de facto standard across the internet. All MP3 players should handle this file format (duh), with the exception of some of Sony's (older?) players which take their proprietary ATRAC format. A typical compression bitrate (for stereo, 44.1 kHz audio) is 128 kbps (kilobits per second) which produces very few audio artifacts to most people. More anal listeners (like myself) may prefer 192 kbps to produce a better sounding file (most people, however, cannot tell the difference, so it's better to use the slower rate, as audio files will be smaller). MP3 files can be compressed as CBR (Constant Bit Rate) or VBR (Variable Bit Rate)

WAV - Microsoft Wave file
This is a lossless file format common on the Microsoft Windows platform. Typical rates for CD quality audio (44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo) is 1378 kbps - 10 times what MP3's standard rate is. Most MP3 players can handle this file format, but since it's 10 times larger than most compressed audio files, you cannot fit nearly as many songs onto a device.

AIFF Apple Audio Interchange File Format
This is a lossless file format basically identical (to the user) as WAV files are. This is more common on the Mac platform, however PCs can typically play them as well. The iPod can play this format.

AAC - Apple protected Advanced Audio Coding
This is Apple's proprietary audio format which is what you receive when you purchase tunes from iTunes' Music Store, which will contain DRM preventing you from easily converting it to other formats. Since this is a more modern compression format than MP3, therefore the files will likely be smaller and sound better than MP3s typically do. iPods can handle this file format, but I seriously doubt any other player can handle it.

WMA - Windows Media Audio
This is Microsoft's proprietary audio format and is the file format that you receive when you purchase songs from Napster or others, both with DRM protection. Also, most software included with Windows XP can rip directly to this audio format (without the DRM wrapper). This format seems to be more supported by a lot of MP3 players, but not all.

Ogg Vorbis
MP3 is a patented audio format, requiring a license for each player. A group of developers created their own open format called Ogg Vorbis, which is a completely free audio compression format that is becoming more and more compatible with software and portable players.

ATRAC - Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding (Sony)
Sony's proprietary audio compression and DRM software. Used by Minidisc and little else.

Obtaining Music

You can rip, purchase, download, or illegally download music.

Ripping CDs you already own or (heaven forbid) borrowed is the easiest way to build your audio collection. If you own a lot of CDs, it will take some time, but just dropping by the computer and plopping a new CD in the drive every 10 minutes will get you there in no time. Or, if you're REALLY lazy, new services are starting to pop up where you can ship your CD collection off to somewhere, and they'll rip it for a few cents per disc, returning a CD-ROM with all your MP3s on it (and your original CDs back). Every time I buy a new CD, the very first thing I do is pop it in the CD-ROM drive, rip it, and then barely ever touch the disc again. I then add it to iTunes, and next time I sync my iPod it's on there. Only the initial conversion is tedious.

A popular and easy thing to do now is to purchase music online. If you have a "Plays For Sure" (Microsoft's sticker for WMA compatibility) device, downloading music from Napster, FYE, Walmart, or others should transfer fine to your player. Likewise, if you have an iPod, the Apple Music Store (accessed through iTunes software) couldn't be easier to use. Don't think, though, that switching between the two is easy. Purchased music is the toughest to move around, as it is typically protected by DRM encryption. In order to get the music onto your non-compatible device you may have to find a utility that can strip off the DRM encryption and convert the audio to an MP3 file, or burn it to a CD and re-rip it - both are tedious (and, depending on whom you ask, illegal - although fair use copyright laws should allow you to do this, provided you are not copying it to all of your friends). You can decide if this is worth the 99 cent download per song.

iTunes is still probably the easiest and best Internet Music store, however if you don't have an iPod, life is made challenging by two factors: DRM and file formats. The audio format for downloaded songs from iTunes is AAC (with an extension of m4p for MPEG-4) - this is not necessarily supported on all MP3 players. The second complication is the digital rights management: iTunes is designed to only allow the iTunes music to be played on an iPod or within the program itself. The DRM prevents you from playing the file anywhere else. The good news is that there are a few programs on the internet that allow you to strip the DRM off (albeit illegally) and convert the iTunes song into an MP3 to transfer to your MP3 player. Check out iOpener, Hymn, or JHymn. As long as you're not sharing the music with everyone on your block, I personally feel that stripping off the DRM is within "fair-use" of the audio, since you're just trying to transfer audio to another MP3 player. The bad news, however, is that these DRM removing programs tend only to work with specific versions of iTunes, and each new release tends to break when Apple releases a new version of iTunes. The last time I managed to make JHymn work successfully was iTunes 5! In 2007, iTunes started releasing DRM-free music in the AAC format. This is good news if you have other plans for your music outside of your iPod, but if you want to move this to another player, you'll still have to convert it to MP3.

More recently, Amazon.com has gotten into the online music fray by offering DRM-free MP3 downloads for around 89 cents a piece. The interface may not be as slick as iTunes, but the price and audio format is right.

Downloading MP3s off the internet is not necessarily illegal. If the artist or label is offering them free for the taking, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. My band (Clockworked) used to offer a few tracks from our CD online free for the download. This is very common among indie bands trying to gain fans, but rare among big-time record labels angling for more and more of your money.

Illegal downloading of MP3s (entire albums or single tracks) can still be done with relative ease. The legitimization of Napster (which, one could argue, started this whole MP3 landslide a few years back) was not the end of illegal file sharing networks, however you run the risk of downloading viruses, garbage, or worse yet, getting sued by record labels. That said, some utilities exist to allow easy downloading of songs and albums such as eDonkey and bitTorrent. Be warned, though, that some Peer to peer (P2P) software is kind of like wandering out into the bad part of town - there may be deals to be had, but there's some potential risks involved.

Organizing Your Collection

There's a billion ways to organize your music. Despite some folks' vehement objection to iTunes, I think it's pretty good software. Of course, it won't play Windows Media files, but since I own an iPod that's not a problem for me. iTunes will organize your music folders (if you let it) so that you don't even have to worry about file locations - just the music. I organize my own folders, simply because I already had a system pre-iTunes (I've been using MP3s long before the iPod existed) that I still prefer.

Beyond file organizing, though, is song organizing. I like to utilize the Grouping and Genre fields (in iTunes, however these will be read by other players too) to categorize my music. For example, I have A Ha's Take On Me and Foo Fighter's Aurora both with the Grouping of "Rock". Then, I use Genre to categorize Take On Me as "80's" and Aurora as "Rock". In this way, the Grouping field is a broad category, and the Genre field is more a subcategory. Then, by using iTunes' "Smart Playlist" feature (which, for those techno-savvy, is like a database query), I can create a "Rock" playlist simply by looking for all tracks with a Grouping of Rock.

I use the following Groupings: Rock, Jazz, Classical, Spoken, Christmas, Mellow. Spoken contains things like books on tape or lectures, and Mellow contains things that aren't classical, but aren't anything else (like some movie soundtracks). I then have a smart playlist for each category. You can get even more creative, and create playlists with all Genres of XYZ, or the grouping of ZYX.

Also, as I find tracks that I like, I mark them with 4 or 5 stars (which you can do in iTunes or on the iPod itself). I have a smart playlist called "Favorites" which pulls out all 4 or 5 star tracks. When you have over 4000 songs, these little details become important!

Incidentally, here's an iPod tip: if you want your playlist to be near the top of the list, place a period in the first character, so "Favorites" becomes ".Favorites". The iPod displays the list alphabetically, so the period moves it to the top of the list. Also, adding z in front of a playlist name will push it to the bottom.

Another thing to note: however you sort your playlist tracks in iTunes is how they appear sorted on the iPod. So, if your Rock playlist is sorted by "Date Added" or "Track Number", the iPod will show it in this order too - which may or may not be useful when you're trying to find that special track of Jim Nabors singing Free Falling. I prefer to sort my iTunes tracks alphabetically so I can find them easier while navigating in a playlist.

Advanced iPod Tricks

Storing Contact Info

As of iTunes 6, this capability is built in for Microsoft Outlook

If you have your contacts stored in Microsoft Outlook (or Palm Desktop) on your computer, you can export them to your iPod. �All you need to do is copy vCard files to the Contacts folder on your iPod (enable disk mode). �If your contacts program cannot export vCards, you may need to search on the internet - there are a lot of software applications that can help you export not only your contacts but also your calendar!

Microsoft Outlook does not export vCard files, unfortunately. �That said, Microsoft products have fantastic Macro ability, and you can simply use one to iterate through your Contacts folder and create vCard files for you (one per contact). � Simply download this ExportToVCard.bas Visual Basic macro, import it into Outlook (search the Outlook help for instructions on how to do this), and run it. �It will output all of your contacts into a folder as individual vCard files, after which you can copy them to the iPod.

Notes

In addition to storing contacts on the iPod, you can also store notes. �This is a bit simpler than copying contacts over - essentially you just need to drag a text or HTML file into the Notes folder on your iPod (again, enable disk mode). �You can even download the U.S. Constitution to your iPod!

Battery Replacement

Your new iPod has a Nickel Metal-Hydride (NiMH) battery inside of it. �NiMH batteries are far more powerful than the older style Nickel Cadmium (NiCad) batteries, but like any rechargeable battery, it is limited to around 500 charge/discharge cycles. �This means that you can completely drain the battery around 500 times, and the more you use it, the shorter the battery life will be. �Since the iPod battery life has gotten longer with every consecutive generation, this isn't as much of a big deal as it was when the first iPod came out, it still means that, over time, the iPod's battery life will diminish.

Once it gets too short, you can send it in to Apple, and for $100 (or so) they'll replace the battery for you. �This isn't necessarily a bad solution, but if you're adventurous, you can do it yourself. �Personally speaking, I replaced the battery on my 4G iPod back in 2006 for about $20. It was a bit tricky getting the case pried open, but the tools and instructions included with the battery made it fairly straightforward. After I replaced the battery, the iPod was as good as new, holding a charge for about 8 hours. For more information about this, and some places to purchase these kits, check out�www.ipodbatteryfaq.com.

Recommended iPod Accessories

There are hundreds of iPod websites out on the net, however I find that iLounge.com is one of the best - both for comprehensive reviews and general information. �That said, here are some of my favorite accessories:

Belkin TuneFM

This is an FM Transmitter that connects directly to your iPod and allows you to listen to your iPod through ANY FM radio. �There are a lot of FM Transmitters out there, however this one is unique in that it draws power straight from the iPod - you don't have to turn it on or off, and it doesn't need a separate battery. Additionally, unlike some cheaper transmitters, this device can tune any radio station (including even-numbered European radio stations). Another nice advantage is that the TuneFM comes with a car power adapter.

Prior to replacing my 4G iPod with a new 80GB Video iPod (due to an unfortunate theft), I would've recommended the Griffin iTrip as a fantastic iPod FM transmitter to connect it to your car stereo. After the iPod Photo, Apple removed the accessory port next to the headphone jack on the iPod which the original iTrip connected to. I tried the new iTrip Dock Connector, which connects to the base of the iPod and was very disappointed. This was consistent with reviews I had read - everyone was disappointed with the Dock Connector version of the iTrip. So, I instead purchased a Belkin TuneFM adapter.

iSqueeze

If you listen to your iPod in your car, this is the holder for you. �It's a simple foam rubber cup holder iPod stand and it's cheap. Two caveats: if you have a newer iPod with Dock Connector accessories (such as the TuneFM), the iSqueeze doesn't work so hot. Also, leaving your iPod visible when your parked may lead to the unfortunate theft of your car, especially if it's a 97 Honda Accord...

Cheap iPod Video Cable

Watching video on your iPod Video (or iPod Touch/iPhone) is a good way to pass time on an airplane or whatever. I quickly discovered, though, that the iPod does a great job of showing video on a TV too! You can purchase a video dock or video cable from Apple for about $30, but if you've got an older iPod Video (not the iPod Classic or newer) you can get a cable off of eBay for about $3 that works just as well. Couple this with the remote below, and you've got a great way to watch movies on a TV in a hotel or a friends house.
Unfortunately, the newer iPods require you to use Apple-branded (or authorized) cables and docks, meaning you've got to pony up a bit more cash. That said, it's probably still worth it. A 640x480 video on the iPod is near DVD quality!

iJet RF Remote

A decent wireless remote for the iPod. Good for listening to music, but I use it when I'm watching movies on the iPod. It's RF based (as opposed to Infrared based, like most remotes) which means it doesn't have to be line-of-sight to the iPod.

iPods and High Altitude

So here's a little fact that I only heard rumors about until I dug deeper. I'd often heard that iPods don't do so hot at altitude. Living in Colorado and regularly hiking above 14,000 feet, this was a concern for me, so I wanted to confirm it.

Indeed, if you dig around in the iPod manual, there is small print that says that the iPod is only operationally functional up to 10,000 feet above sea level. I've personally taken mine as high as about 12,000 feet with it still playing (over mountain passes) with no ill effects, but I've heard of others that have stopped working once they've been taken to altitude.

The reason, of course, is the hard drive (this shouldn't affect the iPod Shuffle, Nano, or Touch, as they use solid state memory - no hard drive, but the iPod Mini contains a hard drive). Hard drives function by floating a small magnetic head over the disk using a cushion of air, preventing the head from contacting the platter itself. As the air thins out the higher you climb, the smaller this protection becomes, increasing the possibility that a bump to the player could send the hard drive head crashing into the platter, destroying the disk (and the iPod).

So what does this mean? Well, if you plan on taking the iPod above 10,000 feet, you may wish to think about turning it off. When the iPod is not accessing the disk (disk access usually only occurs a few seconds every minute or so as it reads more data into its buffer) or in sleep mode, the hard drive heads are "parked" off to the side, and the disk is not spinning - which should mean that it's perfectly safe to travel to high altitude. But playing the iPod above 10,000 feet COULD lead to a head crash. That said, I've seen plenty of skiers with iPods (around 11,000 feet) and you know they're jarring the heck out of them, and I've used mine as high as 12,000 feet. I don't think I'd take it up a 14,000 foot peak though - at least not playing the entire time. �That said, I know someone who has taken there iPod up to 14,000 feet with no ill effects.

One thing to note: despite an airplane flying at 30,000 feet, the cabin is typically pressurized to approximate 8,000 feet of altitude, therefore the iPod (and any other hard drive) should function fine in a plane cabin.

Useful Software

BPM Analyzer
Calculating the beats-per-minute of a song automatically isn't too tough - doing it right isn't easy either. This utility does a decent job of determining each MP3 file's BPM and writing it to the file. I used this to try to figure out which of my tracks would be good workout songs. Note - it frequently calculates a good value, but you may need to double or halve the value provided. Amusing and automatic anyway…


Floola
PodPlayer
iPods are great at storing music, but Apple deliberately made the transaction one way. With today's concern over music theft (and record labels extremely paranoid), Apple didn't want you transferring music to your iPod so you could download it at your buddy's house. Sure, you can navigate around the iPod's directory structure and eventually root out the files themselves, but they've been renamed and are in obscure directories. In comes Floola and PodPlayer.

These two utilities are designed to work much like iTunes - they're both a bit clumsy as a replacement to iTunes, but they do allow you to transfer songs/videos to the iPod and maintain playlists. They, however, also allow you to pull songs and videos off the iPod and drop them onto another machine. This can be extremely useful if, say, your hard drive dies, taking all your MP3s with it (yet the iPod survived). I leave the Floola and PodPlayer installers on my iPod hard drive as a file, so that all I need to do is have a cable, and I can retrieve my music files anywhere I need to (or add some).


Winamp
Still my favorite Windows MP3 player (although iTunes is catching up). It's small, lightweight, fast, and efficient, plus it reads most every file format. �Plugins are available that will even let it transfer songs to and from your iPod (without using iTunes).


MP3-Tag Studio 3
A decent piece of software that allows you to not only modify the MP3 tags of multiple files (which iTunes does quite well) but also rename the files to match their tags. Say you download a few tunes off the web and they're named 03_Lapdog_Christmas.mp3 or something like that. You prefer to have your files named <artist> - <song title>.mp3, so you can run this utility to rename the entire directory in that manner such that the file now becomes "Lapdog - Christmas Time Is Here.mp3". One or two files is easy to rename on your own, an entire album is best left to this tool.


MP3Gain
As mentioned above, this is a fantastic tool for ensuring that the volume levels of all of your tracks is consistent. It can normalize the volume of MP3s without re-compressing the file, and does it all fairly quickly. Set this utility loose on all your MP3s over night, and a few hours later, they should all be normalized. I believe that this is an open source utility, and may have variants available for Linux and Mac as well.


Audiograbber
If you prefer to rip your own CDs with your own settings, this is probably the best tool to do so. It utilizes the freedb CD Database (not as thorough as Gracenote, but not bad), and has bazillions of options, including the ability to rip to MP3, WAV, or Ogg Vorbis, if you're into that sort of thing. Can also normalize tracks as you rip them, however I recommend skipping that step and simply using the MP3Gain utility instead.


MediaMonkey
If you like iTunes, and use it to manage your music library, then MediaMonkey is probably unnecessary. If, however, you like managing your music yourself, this is a handy tool to have in your toolbox. Basically, MediaMonkey is a library manager much like iTunes, but it allows you to easily tag music from Amazon.com (modifying artist, track name, notes, and CD cover artwork). Another handy feature allows you to rename or move files on your hard drive based on ID3 tag info.

iPod Video Software

There is a large amount of software out there to allow you to convert videos for the iPod. I've experimented with a handful of them and found them to be too expensive, too clunky, or just does a bad job of converting video! I basically convert two things for the iPod: video from my Tivo and DVDs. While Tivo offers software to convert the video (for about $30) automatically, I went the cheap route and use ffmpeg (an open source MPEG converter) to do the job. If anyone wants to know how, feel free to email me (it's a bit more technical than this page is geared). For DVD, I use Handbrake.

Handbrake
Handbrake is an open source product originally for the Mac that does a terrific job of converting DVD video for the iPod. Couple this with a iPod video cable and you've got a great way to watch movies while you're traveling! HandBrake by itself does not decrypt the DVD for you, so you'll need the DVD43 software below to handle that job for you.

Handbrake has a lot of good help on their website (available via the Help menu in Handbrake) but it may be a bit confusing for non-techies. I prefer to use the iPod Hires setting (for movies that I can play back on a TV later - if you have no intention of doing this, use the iPod Lowres setting) with:

• Chapter Markers - allows you to skip between chapters on the iPod
• 2-Pass Encoding - takes longer, but ensures the audio is in better sync with the video, and the video quality is better
• Turbo 1st Pass - Makes the 2-Pass encoding go just a smidge faster
• Bitrate: 1000kbps - I find that 1000kbps provides great compression and doesn't leave too many artifacts noticeable while watching on the iPod or TV.

Ripping and converting a 2 hour DVD on my 3 GHz Pentium 4 takes about 4 hours, so be patient...

DVD43
DVD43 is a very simple program that will decrypt a DVD on the fly such that programs like Handbrake (that do not perform the decryption) capable of ripping a DVD. DVD43 simply sits in the taskbar to let other programs access the DVD content. Alternatively, other programs like SmartRipper or DVDDecrypter can be used to rip the DVD to the hard drive first, but DVD43 is probably the most efficient.