Ah just my area of expertise.
You in fact do need a program to rip the dvd, then to make it into an ipod file.
That program is called Handbrake Lite (
http://www.isquint.org/cgi-bin/ikonb...ct=ST;f=1;t=14).
Its automatically set up to rip and convert.
And if you want more options, check out Handbrake (
http://handbrake.m0k.org/).
Here is a tutorial for converting by just using Handbrake:
http://howto.diveintomark.org/ipod-dvd-ripping-guide/