DVD Ripping and playback

[Striker]

I'm looking to put my DVD's on my HTPC so that I don't have to swap disks whenever I want to watch a movie.
I've found different programs to rip the disks and put them on my hard drive but I'm having difficulty figuring out the easiest way to play them.
So far I'm ending up with the Audio and Video_TS directories and nothing on my computer likes playing them. I've found VLC which will play the files but doesn't seem to play the whole movie.
I figure there's got to be an easier way to do this.
What software are you guys using to rip them and into what format are you doing so then how are you playing the movies once you have them?

 

[Stereodude]

Rip to .ISO's and use Daemon Tools to mount the ISO. Play back normally.

 

[ddrueding]

For regular DVDs I rip using Ripit4me and encode to XviD using AutoGK. I'm still searching for an easy method of getting BluRay movies into h264.

In hindsight, grabbing them directly as ISOs is a pretty good idea. No need to worry about compression issues, and it makes special features and episodic content more accessible. Too bad there isn't a .MKV file format that would handle all the menus/features of a DVD/BR disk in a single file.

 

[mubs]

I need to rip specific chapters, actually songs, from music videos. I tried doing one; it took ages, and the results aren't impressive. I used Handbrake with the GUI front-end. Too many options, and I don;t understand most of them. Sigh.
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[Striker]

I tried finding Daemon tools but it seems to be paid software and is thought to include spyware now. Anyone know of something else that can mount an iso?

 

[ddrueding]

Daemon tools offers 2 versions, one paid, one free. During the installation of the free version, you need to deselect the options for their toolbar, changing your homepage, and changing your search engine. If there were actual malware, this would be the first I've heard of it. Nothing is detected by NOD32 or Avast...

 

[Stereodude]

The Lite version is ok if you uncheck and say no to all it's attempts to take over your PC. There are also other .ISO mounting tools / virtual drives, but I haven't messed with them.