I have been using several share ware programs to accomplish my task. A pure ripping application called 0SEX to convert the DVD into what are called the "elementary streams", one being video, the other audio. In order to make a VCD I need to convert this raw data in to a single MPEG stream. To do this I use another shareware program called DiVA, which converts the video using whatever compression algorithm you like into a MPEG stream. This app works well, but on my little G3 iMac, it takes quite some time. Once DiVA is finished, I'm ready to work on the audio. Another shareware app called mAC3dec is just the ticket for the job, it quite efficiently converts the AC3 audio in to AIFF or MOV formats. So now I have the audio stream and the video stream, the next task...putting them together. Quicktime Pro works well for this, with a little research I discovered how to blend tracks together to make a single movie out of the two streams. Then I save the finished product as a self-contained movie and voila, ready to burn. Or so I thought. After disconnecting the hard drive and reconnecting it to Rosie's iBook (for burning purposes, my iMac is burnerless) I run Toast Titanium and drag the newly created MPEG stream to the Video CD area. Toast then decides it need to re-encode my already encoded movie, a few hours later (a total of 8) and I'm ready to burn. Not bad for 40 minutes of video!!!
Needless to say, I won't be spending much time doing this in the future. The quality is watchable but not really enjoyable. I always enjoy the journey, however, even if the destination is a little disappointing. Now, when I get a G5 with a super drive......things might change.