[ale] video conversion?

[kaboom at oobleck.net (Chris Ricker)]

I have some short home movies in DVD format

I'd like to convert them (both the video and audio) to single files I can 
post on the web -- as avi, mpeg, or whatever -- for family and friends. 
I'd prefer it to be some format which will work out of the box on Windows 
XP, and with a minimum of fuss on Linux. I'm guessing that means mpeg-1 
format?

Anyone got any howtos on how to do this with Linux? Suggestions on what I 
really want to convert them to format-wise? Everything I'm finding is 
either oriented towards the ripping scene (DVD -> DivX type stuff) or else 
a maze of Windows shareware codecs and such

thanks,
chris