DVD ripping and video editing issues with multiple programs

[fiveironchic13]

Okay, so I've looked up a bunch of answers all over the net and I've downloaded a ton of programs and haven't been able to get anything to work the way I want it. I'm a newbie at this so I'd like to just tell you my problem, specifically, and see if anyone can help! My goal is to make a music video using movie clips to upload to youtube. I have the DVD and song. I'm running Vista. I've downloaded several different DVD rippers but only 1 has worked, VLC, and the only way it worked was to make an MPEG-2 video file with MPEG-TS encapsulation (which I don't know what the difference between encapsulation and type of file is). I can't seem to get it to rip into another format, or even that one again. So I have this file of the movie and I tried importing it to Windows Movie Maker and it crashed immediately and every time I tried to open. I downloaded the trial version of Sony Vegas and there is always an "exception" when I try to import the file. I've tried a couple other free editing programs and couldn't figure them out. I read about making WMM work by changing file names but I'm not sure how to go about that even following the website's instructions. I need any help anyone can offer me! I know I'm probably totally dumb and Vista is not helping anything but I need help! I can try to give you any more info you need. Thanks!