Multi Media to Go, Please.

There have been several threads on traveling with music -- MP-3 files, Ipods, noise cancellation headphones etc but is anyone up to date on what can be done with movies?

Now that DVDs can be burned, does this mean that a movie can live on a hard drive, just like a WAV file, with "perfect" quality? How much memory does this require?

After that, is there compression software for a lesser quality but still decent movie that takes less space on the hard drive?

In my neverending quest to amuse myself on long airplane flights, it would be nice to have a couple of movies or so on the hard drive -- or compilations of favourite scenes -- without schlepping my external DVD drive, DVD discs etc.

And would the battery last longer?

Any info or ideas for "ripping" movies and multimedia laptops would be greatly appreciated.