1) various methods, i dont know much about, im sure some1 here can help out though. sorry.
2)Check out Bigdsvideo ripping and encoding methods
here
3)
FreewarePPC
4)that is mostly what i use mine for, but there are many other things you can do... use it as a remote, watch live tv, many, many things.
i hope i helped ya out
-andybrown-