I do my DVD ripping/conversion the hard way. Well, not uber hard, but it does require some familiarity with video editing apps. All software used is either free or open source. If you want to give it a try, here's
the link.
I've had to use the above method as The O.C. Season 1 (so sue me, it's one of my concessions to being a girl) was being a pain in the neck to convert. All programs I tried, both freeware and trialware were choking up on it and kept giving me bad a/v sync. Darned hybrid framerate. Anyhow, the method hasn't failed me yet.