Look for a program called Handbrake.
You're welcome.
If you're watching movies on the go, ripping them to the hard drive is a lot easier on the battery than keeping that 5.25" disc spinning. Standard-definition movies rip down to about 1-2 GB per.
It's truly mind-boggling what you can do with 1's and 0's!
I use MacTheRipper for my software and it does a pretty good job of it. The programmer does a good job of keeping it up. But, I use a lot of DVDs that I don’t own but rent (you know..., like NetFlix), so I’m using the DVDs themselves a lot.
I know what you mean about the battery life, but I’m plugged in, when I’m using it with the DVDs and/or plugged into a big screen TV.
One of these days, I’ll get Apple TV and see how well that works for me.