I have an extra PC laying around that I am thinking about using as a media machine. One thing I would like to do is use DVD shrink and DVD Decrypter to rip my DVD's to my hard drive and play them from there using the component video out on my ATI AIW9700 card to my TV. The question is: Do I have to convert them to another format in order to play them, if so what software do I use to convert & play the files? Am I going to lose any quality, and if so will it be noticeable? I have been nosing around the Digital-Digest Forums but, I am so new to video that I really don't know where to start and any input to point me in the right direction would be appreciated.