[ice]

For long trips watching a DVD thats in the disk drive takes alot more battery correct? So is there any way to play a DVD from the HDD instead of from the disk drive? I hope asking this isnt illegal because I thought there was a legal way to do it that still keeps the copy protection and stuff.

[mpbritt]

I use DVD Backup to copy DVDs to my HD. But be aware that the files are uncompressed; a typical DVD will take up about 7 GBs.

[asmack]

You might also want to try MacTheRipper:

http://homepage.mac.com/wiseweasel/mactheripper102.dmg (MacOS X 10.2.x version)
http://homepage.mac.com/wiseweasel/mactheripper103.dmg (MacOS X 10.3.x version)
http://homepage.mac.com/wiseweasel/mactheripperg5.dmg (MacOS X 10.3.x G5 version)

Also, YadeX:

http://www.macetvideo.com/yadex/yadex.html