Just a quick tip as I've started a new ripping project:
For television shows which have a fixed intro, you can use this expression in the Playback Range field to skip it.
Here, the intro is 01:30 long:
=Delimit(FormatDuration([Duration,0]),,00:01:30-00:)
If the show also has a fixed-length credit sequence, you can skip that as well.
This expression will have Media Center skip the first 01:30 and the last 60 seconds from each episode:
=Delimit(FormatDuration(Math([Duration,0]-60)),,00:01:30-00:)
Over the course of a 13 episode series, skipping that 90 second intro saves you 19.5 minutes.
If you're also removing a 60-second credit sequence, you're saving 32.5 minutes - possibly as much as an entire episode, depending on what show it is.
Of course you should check to see whether the intro and credits are of a fixed length - that's not always the case.
Even when they vary a bit, I can safely lop off about 60 seconds from the credits for this show, as it seems to be somewhere between 70-90 seconds. Still, it's quite a saving.
I know this may not be news to some of you, but it's something that I realized I've been doing for a while now, and I'm sure there are people who were not aware that Media Center can do this.