Essentially, my mom is working on a website and needs to upload a media file from a documentary (it's pretty short) taken on a dvd recorder and convert it to flash media so that she can embed it on their site. I'm unable to find freeware/shareware that doesn't pretty much force you to pay for something during or right before the converting process. I would do most of the research on this myself, but I'm terrified of screwing her up.

Any advice?

well if you want to copy the dvd on to your computer, then just download this: DVD Fab 5
Source: http://dvdfab.com/download.htm

There are no VIRUSES or any bad things on it.. it gives you a 30 day trial and you can use it to put dvds onto your ipod or iphone..hehe im using this..