Menewsha Avatar Community - Ripping DVDs (or just digitizing in general)

Hokay, so I've got this MP3 player what can store those fancy moving pictures I've heard all about.
So I got this funny idea into my head when I was pwning Sephiroth in that Kingdom Hearts game.
I thought to myself "Self, if you had a dvd recorder, you could record this, then rip the disc to a computer, then put that file on your MP3 player and then you could show anyone you meet first hand how very much you pwn."
And then I replied "Hey, that sounds cool! I bet I could even record my favorite movies and put them into a digital format, and then be able to watch them on my computer or my player whenever I'm bored! And I bet I could even make cool AMVs like those damn teenagers won't shut up about! *buys recorder*"
So here's what happened after that. I now have a combination recorder and player (as if there is a recorder that doesn't play, because I don't know of any.), and exactly one DVD RW (it came with the player. Also, it came with a lovely recording of the second half of Jeopardy) and... like 15 or 20 DVD R DLs. I got them because of the DL part and then discovered that they suck because of the R part. But I figure I can still use them for a final burn if I want a hard copy of files. Also, I've since discovered that I can't record my favorite movies and television series (at least as far as I know) because they're copy protected. Which pisses me off because I only wanted them for private use anyway, but whatever.
Right. Now here's a big problem I've discovered; I don't know how to rip the DVDs to my laptop. I thought it would be simple, intuititive, POSSIBLE. You know, kind of like ripping a CD, where I can just go into Media Player and click RIP. But it didn't work.
So here are my questions;
Is there a way to rip the contents of a generic DVD to a computer, or is everything I thought I could use this recorder for impossible?
Do I need some sort of program(s) to do the stuff I want to do here?
If so, can I get it for free?
Do I need to get different DVDs? Is there something about DVD Rs that make them impossible to rip?
Does this thread make me sound stupid? Because I swear, it's ignorance, not stupidity.
Is there a way to circumvent the copy-protection? Because I'm thinking I might be able to record stuff to a VHS and then to a DVD, but I haven't tried it.

Also, any other information or advice would be appreciated.

I posted this on Gaia as well, and found out about CloneDVD, which sounds like the smex, but for 70 of those dollars I don't have right now. :cry:
I thought it would be nice to see what people on Mene think too, because it's never bad (for me) to get more information.