VLC 1.0 Records Video from DVDs [Ripping]
Over at the How-To Geek web site (my home away from Lifehacker), blogger Mysticgeek writes up how to enable the new recording features: just use the View -> Advanced Controls menu item, and then you can record videos by hitting the record button to start saving the video, and then pressing it again when you are done. You'll find the segment of the video in your Documents folder, saved in MPG format.
This isn't quite the same as ripping a DVD, which we've covered many times before—but you could use it for that purpose if you wanted to, especially if you wanted to cut out the stuff at the beginning of a movie that isn't necessary. Readers should note that it doesn't seem to work with just any video, but we've successfully tested it with a number of DVDs and even AVI files that seemed to work without problems.
Hit the link for the full walk-through, read up on how to turn your PC into a DVD-ripping monster, or check out the five best DVD ripping tools.