Transferring a DVD onto a video iPod should be a simple task. I figured it would be easy, slap a DVD in a drive, and say copy to iPod? Ummmm no. Not even close. After following about 10 different sites advice on how to do this, and after installing god knows how many programs, I think I've finally found a good way to do it.

It all started off with either getting all audio, or all video. Once I finally got both audio and video onto the iPod, it was way out of sync. It was so frustrating to finally see the movie start, and progressively get out of sync towards the end.

So I spent $45 on a program that seemed to do it well (at least the demo 5 min did it well). It sucks. Don't buy IMToo DVD Ripper Platinum, it sucks. In theory it would be good, pop the DVD in, choose the platform you want to export to, and that's it. But the audio is off majorly. I checked with their tech support, and they gave me several different settings to try, all of which did not work. I'm gonna have to get a refund.

The following details are my best guess at this stuff so far, and a combination of programs that I've found helpful and that work well. The great part is they're all free.

• DVD Decrypter
  Although this program is 'gone' there are still plenty of places you can download it. The software will decrypt the copy protection on your DVD, and allow you to copy it to a .VOB file to your hard drive. To copy just the main movie off the DVD (and not all the menus, etc.) select "Mode" and choose "IFO". In the Input section, open the first tree option and find an item w/ the length of the movie (typically the first item) and select it. Now just click the DVD > Hard Disk button. It takes a little while but it's ripping your DVD content to a .VOB file on your hard disk.
  
  
  
  Pay attention to the following settings below: Make sure that File Splitting is set to "None" so you get your .VOB in ONE file, instead of 1GB chunks.
  
  
  
  
• DVD Shrink
  Very similar to DVD Decrypter, but a better UI.  The same kind of deal here, put your DVD in, if encrypted it will present you for the region of the DVD, choosing the correct region will allow Shrink to remove the copy protection. Open the "Main Movie" folder, and choose the longest title (usually title 1). Then click the backup button and viola! a .VOB file is written to your hard disk.
  
  
  
  Pay attention to these settings: Uncheck Split VOB files, it's easier to work with one file.
  
  
  
• Jodix Free iPod Video Converter
  The UI is not all that clever, but this FREE program converts your .VOB files into .mp4 (iPod video format) and it works really well. Just load your .VOB file into Jodix, and answer a few questions, choose the resolution you want, and this little gem generates a .mp4 file you can add into iTunes and then sync to your iPod.
  
  

I won't go into all of the other programs I tried that did not work. The programs noted aboveseem to do what I want. I've ripped five movies, all with perfect success.