[Mantooth]

I am trying to put all of my old dvd's onto a hard drive and enable them to played back on my tv from a computer. I know there are many options out there right now.

Ideally, I would like to rip dvd's to be able to play them through iTunes (quicktime) and keep the playback simple and constant for every movie. I do want to put all of them onto an external hard drive though, so that I can plug it in and rip from any computer. I also wanted to keep 5.1 surround playback possible, and I have been reading that it isn't always possible with quicktime. I know iTunes can play mpeg-4 with an encoder correct? Can I still output 5.1 audio? I know apple computers can't, but I am looking to buy a cheap netbook anyways (hopefully w/ HDMI out and 5.1 audio out)

I have searched a lot online and haven't found much because the articles usually get too technical too early for me to absorb anything. I am a newb to this and am trying, but any help would be appreciated. Even pointing me in the right direction to sites where I can read more will help.

Thanks,
Tooth