Poussin, I used your very helpful instructions above to rip the Pilot, but, like Jana, it won't play. (I am using the XVid codec.) The audio track is fine, it plays in Windows Media Player without a problem, but the video track won't play in either WMP or Real Player. Any ideas?
Lisa, I had this same sort of trouble with a few Smallville episodes I'd downloaded.
Instead of trying Windows Media Player, I instead watched them in my DVD-Rom program, PowerDVD. You might try watching your ripped pilot with that.