Films from DVD onto iPad - is this possible?

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

We've got some films on DVD that it would be good to put onto our iPads for when we're away from home, and DS2 wants to get Madagascar 3 for his birthday but it's £14 on iTunes (and I'm hoping that my dsis might buy it for him on DVD).

Is it possible to copy films that we have on DVD onto our iPads? If so how (complete technophobe here so please explain in laymans terms!)?

Mac or PC? If Mac there's a neat little application called Handbrake which i have used for this very thing for donkeys' years.

If PC I have no clue but I'm sure there's an equivalent :)

We have a PC.

really? But if we have bought it on DVD, and just want it on our iPads for our own personal use I don't see the problem.

What's different between playing the film that we bought through the iPad or taking the DVD on holiday with us to play there on a different DVD player (we'd like it to be on our iPads for when we go to places without DVD players)?

Do you have any information about how people have been doing it, and also about the legal precedents that have been set recently?

Was wondering this too this evening.

I use DVD Catalyst. Cost anout £10. You tick what gadget you have ie iPad, Touch, Android etc and it will convert your DVD to the required format.

You will then need to manually import your file onto iTunes but I'm assuming that you know how to do that.

I don't know what the legal position but I'm assuming that as long as its for personal use no one really cares. Eastern European gangs pirating tens of thousands of DVD copies are the top of people's list as opposed to people like you and I :)

Thanks Habbot, I'll have a look at that. I feel the same as you that as long as it's for personal use there's no problem copying it. It's like copying CD's onto tapes in the days before my parents car had a CD player!

Disney films are heavily encrypted but there is a way to do it without paying for software...