this might be an incredibly stupid question but i am just trying to figure out how to rip dvds. Do I actually need a dvd player on my computer to burn them, I don't know if I can just somehow burn the data from teh cd or if I need a dvd player.. and how do i burn/extract.. please help

You are obviously going to need a DVD reader of some sort!
If you want to rip to cd's then you will need a DVD drive and a CD writer.
If you want to rip to DVD-r then you will only need a DVD writer.

Then you need to FULLY read the tutorials in the stickies at the top, give yourself LOTS of time (and patience) and buy lots of disks to play with!!!

Oh! dont forget the headache tablets and measure the front window. You will need a new piece of glass after you have thrown the PC through it.:furious:

lol thanks caterman for teh advice ;)