[DoIFeelLucky]

Sorry, can't help you with the first.

As for the second, whoa - hold on. You're thinking analog. With CDs and DVDs, being digital, there is no such thing as generation loss. The only quality loss that can occur is if the source is transcoded to a lossy compression format, such as mp3 (even to a lower-bitrate version of the same format), during the copying process. With digital sources transferred digitally to a digital copy, either it works or it doesn't. Period. There is no gradual degradation of quality. The only thing I can think of is the possibility of burning/reading errors (but if you use good software you'll know if an error has occurred).

As for decrypting DVDs instead of just copying the folders, I believe it's because the content on commercial DVDs is encrypted, and if you just copy it to your hard drive you'll end up with digitally scrambled junk that you won't be able to use at all. It needs to be decrypted during the ripping process, which gives you an unencrypted copy on your hard drive that you can use. For DVDR, I'm not so sure... probably the ability to select which chapters, audio, and subtitle streams you wish to rip, as well as for a more secure ripping process, perhaps... but don't quote me on that.