HDTV and computer video

[misterblue]

I have a pile of DVD's which are slowly becoming unwatchable, as they get scratched, shuffled etc.

I have seen advertised 'Media centres' - effectively USB HDD's which you can hook up to your TV and store all your video on, to be played through the telly.

I quite fancy the idea of this, but my question is this.

How would I rip a DVD, and what format for the output file should I use?

I have tried ripping a DVD to avi format, using XVID compression, as a trial.

The output file was 720x 576 pixels, 25 frames per sec, data rate of 163kbps (whatever that is)

I haven't managed to watch the file on TV, but on a computer it still looks poor quality, and nowhere near good enough to watch on telly.

Any experience of this sort of thing, anybody?

Thanks

MB