media player with an xbox

So here is my plan. I just purchased an xbox and am planning on putting linux on it using one of the various hacks/mods out for it. I am looking for a way to convert my dvd collection to a format that I can play through linux(mpg, avi something like that). I already found some software to let me rip the dvds to my hard drive, but they all come out as ~1gb vob files. I need to put them all together and convert them toa format a media player can read.

These are all my legally owned DVDs. I am just hoping to to be able to leave my dvds tucked away in there cases and just play the movies off the hard drive I am going to add to the xbox.

I am not terribly concerned about maximum quality. I am not hooking it up to a HD tv or anything, so pretty close is good enough. Freeware would be appreciated, as I don't want to invest more money into this until i can see that it is working the way I want it to.

Any advice would be appreciated. Also does anyone here have a recommendation for a mod chip for an original XBOX