In a conversation with my father about how best to import his films to his newly purchased iPod, it occurred to me: surely ripping DVDs is a natural next step for iTunes?

Traditionally DVD ripping would be frown upon, with suspicious minds suspecting you to be a Knockoff Nigel supplier.

However, duplication of cassette tapes was always prohibited, but in the 70s the dual cassette tape deck was released, allow individuals to make copies (or in the 80s: mix tapes!).

Then came the advent of the CD. This time to copy a CD, particularly to the computer, you had to search the dark corners of the Internet for CD ripping software.

So, skip back to today, and we've got iTunes that rips CDs for us in to whatever format we choose. It makes sense too - if we bought the CD, why shouldn't we have it on our iPod.

Now all the iPods (bar the shuffle) allow you to watch video, it only stands to reason that the next incarnation of iTunes should support ripping DVDs.

BTW: I'd recommend Handbrake until then.

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