Question How much memory do you need to record a dvd on your computer?

I don't use anything less than 512 for many reasons other than DVD!
You can do it with less, but 256 will be on the edge! Mem is cheap so add away if your mobo can handle it! Go to crucial.com and do a system check and it will tell you what you can do and should do! Then shop for the right price!

Unless of course you're one of those people that uses the word "memory" to refer to hard disk space. In which case you need like 10GB free, give or take.

At least!

You'll also need to consider your operating system, or at the very least, what type of partition/filesystem, your computer is using. Many like myself we painfully surprised when we made the investment of upgrading to more ram, larger hard drives, only to find out we had all the spec common advice shared, and found the limits of fat32, even on factory new winxp boxes (F.U. Sytemax!! )

Fat32 has a hard limit at 4gig for a single file, not a problem if your ripping and dumping dvd files into a directory, but you can toss the idea of ripping .iso most commercial dvd's you own and are backing up, as most will be bigger than 4 gig.

Good luck and happy learning.....