If you want to play ripped DVDs from within MCE and be able to store the movies at a reasonable size and still maintain a good resolution I would try a program called DVD shrink to either save the movies full size or reduce them down to 1 to 2 gb.

http://www.dvdshrink.org/what_en.php

If you are using a Vista OS then you may need to alter the registry as follows

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930526

Once you have the DVDs saved on your drive you can use another little program called My Movies this will bring up the covers and movie information within the folder in MCE 2005 or Vista MCE.

http://www.mymovies.dk/

Have been using all 3 of these programs for a number of years and they work great

Of course there is alway a movie out there that you can't rip due to encryption - I've never had a problem with this just run the disk through DVD decrypter first

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd_rippers/dvd_decrypter.cfm

Have fun