Hi,
You don't need to rip a DVD to play it on a laptop, just run it from the DVD drive. But to copy the media files you'll need something like dvd decrypter to bypass any encryption and region coding. Next you'll need to encode it again in mp4 format, Divx, OGG, Virtual dub are all tools you can use. Lots of useful info and guides are on this website.
Sorry, I should have been a little more specific. I want to copy some DVD's to a hard drive so I can watch them whilst away from home without having to carry the actual discs with me. Longer term, I was waning to be able to transfer them to either an iPod video or similar device.
You can use this dvd ripper:
http://www.tipard.com/dvd-ripper.html
It can easily rip dvd to MP4, H.264, AVI, MP3, WMV, WMA, FLV, MKV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, 3GP, 3GPP, VOB, DivX, Mov, RM, RMVB, M4A, AAC, WAV, etc.
Hope it helpful for you.
Try to use Leawo DVD Ripper.
http://www.leawo.com/dvd-ripper/
This DVD converter helps to backup DVD to hard drive without quality loss; trim, crop and watermark DVD video for better visual enjoyment; rips and convert DVD to AVI, WMV, MP4, MP3, 3GP, MOV etc for playback on media devices like iPhone, iPod, iPad, iPad 2, Apple TV, Apple TV 2, Zune, Xbox 360, Blackberry, Archos, Creative Zen, Android OS phones, etc.