Simple DVD to AVI (or MPG)
 

I've searched a few threads on this but most discuss going the other direction. I'm NOT really interested in burning, backing up, or pirating a DVD. I just want to convert a DVD (vob) format to an avi file (or some other format that I can conveniently play on a PC). I would prefer some sort of lossy compression as those VOB files are way too large to keep on the harddrive.

Also, is there any way to select only excerpts of a DVD to convert.

dvd:rip is really nice for ripping and converting DVDs to avi. After you read the disk it gives you a choice of which parts you want to rip and encode. You can chose to split the avi after it gets ripped. It doesn't necessarily give you the choice of which vob fils to rip (so far as I know) but it separtes the disk into parts: main feature, trailers, stuff like that.