The iPhone is a great device for viewing video content thanks to its large, high resolution screen.

Obviously one great source of video is the iTunes Store - but what if you want to watch something that you've already been bought or given on old-fashioned DVDs?

Well there is now a relatively straightforward way to Rrip your DVDs, inport them into iTunes and sync them to your iPhone for viewing on the go.

Remember, ripping your DVDs - just like ripping your audio CDs - is technically against the law in the UK, even if you own the discs and it's for your own personal use. But no one has been prosecuted - yet.

PC & Mac instructions

On a both the PC and Mac ripping and re-encoding videos for the iPhone is easy thanks to a great program called Handbrake. Go to this page and download the right version of Handbrake for your computer.

But before we start we will need to install another program called VLC media player. Go to this page and also - you guessed it - download the right version of VLC for your computer.

Install VLC then follow these instructions:

1. Launch Handbrake. Insert the DVD into your PC or Mac. Sometimes a default DVD player will automatically open - make sure you quit it. Then click on the Source button at the top of the Handbrake window and select the DVD you want to convert then click on Open
2. Handbrake will take a few minutes to extract data from the DVD. When it has finished, open the Presets drawer to the right of the window and click on Apple and then iPhone & iPod Touch. If the drawer isn't visible click on the Toggle Presets button at the top right of the window to open it
3. Now click on Start button at the top of the window to begin the ripping and encoding process. The Start button will change to a Cancel button and a progress bar will appear at the bottom of the window with an estimated completion time. Encoding can take some seevral hours, but you can leave your PC or Mac to process this in the background
4. When the encoding is finished you will see an alert message saying 'Put down that cocktail...your HandBrake encode is done!' Click on OK
5. Find the encoded file - the default destination is your Mac or PC's desktop - and drag it onto the iTunes window to import it into your iTunes library
6. Connect your iPhone to your computer. If you've set up your iTunes to Sync videos automatically the encoded file should be transferred across to your iPhone immediately. Otherwise click on the Video tab and select the check box next your encoded video then click on Sync to transfer it across to your iPhone
7. You can now view your encoded DVD on your iPhone - just click on iPod and then Videos