The website
Doom9 is all about ripping DVDs. I've ripped one DVD with it (I'm a newb at it) so I don't know if thier method is better or worse. They have guides for DivX3, DivX5, and XviD, and different methods for all of those. I ripped the Lord of the Rings for DivX5 with a guide from that site and it looks good. All the guides walk you through very carefully including the pre-ripping config, and they have screenshots with every step. Again, I don't know how thier method compares, I just wanted to let everybody know about this source.