Originally Posted by SpaceBass

The way I understand the post is that he has a DVD of home movies and he wants to re-edit them but doesnt have the video files anywhere else. If that is the case, the way to get those files onto his computer with the highest quality is to rip them from his DVD.

As far as the legalities are concerned, its my understanding that it is perfectly legal to manipulate your own content however you want. However it is illegal for one party to tell another how to circumvent copy protection...and since the only rippers I know include DeCSS code, then I cannot mention any dvd shrink programs or anything on the mac that might be a ripper.