I'm using K9copy and it gives you a ton of video file format options to rip to. .avi .mpg .mpeg4 .asf .swf.flv .rm .mov and many sound optoins to.

What do you guys usually rip to or file format?? And what sound codec do you use?

I usually use some kind of mpeg4 for the video (in an avi container) with mp3 audio. As I understand it, there are a couple bad options (swf), then a bunch of pretty-comparable options.

It all depends on what you want.

mpeg2 is the standard format for DVD, so if you intend to burn the file back to a playable dvd you should keep it in that format. Of course you can reduce the frame size, and bitrate to save space at the expense of quality. mpeg1 is also supported by the dvd standard. Note that there are some limitations on what the standard accepts; you can't use just any combination of settings.

The best "bang for the buck" in terms of file-size vs. quality is mpeg4, especially with the x264 codec. .avi is not a codec, it's a container format. You can have any of the mpeg formats inside an .avi, for example, although it doesn't support mpeg4 all that well (something about a lack of b-frame support). A lot of people use xvid in an avi container, a combination that travels pretty well across platforms. xvid is an mpeg4 codec, but of an earlier version of the standard, so the file size/quality ratio is average to pretty good.

I'd stay far away from asf, swf, flv, rm, and mov, as they are all either proprietary or not well-supported. The only reason I see generally to use any of these is if you have a portable player that only supports such formats or something.

As for audio formats, the dvd standard supports mp2 and ac3. Most stand-alone players can also handle mp3, but it's non-standard. mp3 is also a good choice for avi files, since most players can handle it. But use ac3 if you want high-quality sound. I personally don't recommend using anything except mp2, mp3, or ac3 for most videos.

The best FREE solution is ogg theora+vorbis. It's open, good quality, and supported by most Linux media players. But it's not very cross-platform compatible yet. OTOH, it's an up-and-coming player; the Mozilla project has announced that Firefox will support these formats natively, and there's a push to make them part of the HTML standard.

So in the end you have to decide for yourself. Make some test videos in different formats and try them out.

Thanks for the in-depth answer to my question, it's saved for further review.

Wrong question, imho, you should be asking first "what video codec to use".
If you were asking about codec, then use x264 if you have multicore machine, because it can take advantage of several CPUs or CPU cores. If you don't have multicore machine, then use xvid. Or (mplayer's) "lavc" codecs.

*.mkv ("Matroska"), because it can contain several audio tracks, supports embedded (not burnt-into-video!) subtitles, embedded file attachments, chapter informations and (AFAIK) even buttons (never used this one, though). Last time I've been ripping something I've been using x264 or xvid. Xvid is a bit faster (at medium or low quality), but with x264 you can achieve slightly better quality (according to PSNR tests) and x264 supports multicore CPUs. Anyway you'll hardly see the difference at the bitrates above 1200..2400 kbps. (normal ripping quality I use)

I don't recode audio, when it is possible, and save it in same quality/codec as it was in original video. So it normally ends up as ac3 audio.