Getting old PC-produced videos onto external drive - a longshot

Hi all,
I have a particular problem and can't get very far on my own.
I have 11-12 years of "home movies" stored on DVDs. I still have the original DV tapes of many of them, but many more of the original electrons are long gone. That's OK. I don't mind.
What I want to do is get the content of those DVDs onto an external drive (probably as mp4's) so that I can convert them into the next-generation technology when there is a next-generation technology.
The problem is that the earliest of these 50 DVD were made on a Sony VAIO laptop with Sony software called Click-to-DVD. I don't really know how to use handbrake, and I don't really know what to do. And it looks like all my Macs don't want to read the files created by the Sony laptop and software (which are now long gone).
Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I just pay some 14-year-old to figure this out??
Thank you for any and all suggestions that an only moderately-computer-literate person can understand. Thanks!

Good!
You need to convert the VOB files in the TS-Folder of the DVD back to DV which iMovie is designed to handle. For that you need mpegStreamclip:
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
which is free, but you must also have the Apple mpeg2 plugin :
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
(unless you are running Lion in which case see below))
which is a mere $20.
Another possibility is to use DVDxDV:
http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm
which costs $25.
For the benefit of others who may read this thread:
Obviously the foregoing only applies to DVDs you have made yourself, or other home-made DVDs that have been given to you. It will NOT work on copy-protected commercial DVDs, which in any case would be illegal.
And from the TOU of these forums:
Keep within the Law
No material may be submitted that is intended to promote or commit an illegal act.
Do not submit software or descriptions of processes that break or otherwise ‘work around’ digital rights management software or hardware. This includes conversations about ‘ripping’ DVDs or working around FairPlay software used on the iTunes Store.
If you are running Lion:
From the MPEG Streamclip homepage
The installer of the MPEG-2 Playback Component may refuse to install the component in Lion. Apple states the component is unnecessary in Lion, however MPEG Streamclip still needs it.
To install the component in Lion, please download MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b7 beta above; inside the disk image you will find the Utility MPEG2 Component Lion: use it to install the MPEG-2 Playback Component in Lion. The original installer's disk image (QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg) is required.
The current versions of MPEG Streamclip cannot take advantage of the built-in MPEG-2 functionality of Lion. For MPEG-2 files you still need to install the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component, which is not preinstalled in Lion. You don't have to install QuickTime 7.

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