XVID4PSP: VOB to MPEG2 (hard subs) progressive av sync issue

[txporter]

I have been battling a problem with progressive AV sync when encoding VOB rips back to MPEG2 with hardcode subtitles. I am ripping the DVDs with AnyDVD. I have tried a number of different starting points for the input files for XVID4PSP. I have loaded them directly from the VIDEO_TS folder, I have converted the movies to a single mpg with VideoRedo, and have also tried files run through VideoRedo's Quickstream fix (again single mpg). Regardless of how I start in XVID4PSP, the audio ends up getting progressively worse throughout the video. I am currently battling with Empire Strikes Back so I can upload to my Tivo. It is ~2hr 7mins (longer videos are worse than shorter ones). It seems to be about a second out of sync at the end of the movie. When I analyze the input file (from VideoRedo) it is listed as 2:07:24 (183252 frames). The XVID4PSP encoded video is 2:07:23 (183232 frames). I am dropping about 20 frames (~1 s).

The DVD is a soft telecined video. I am encoding the video as 23.976 fps progressive video after using TITVC in XVID4PSP. At the end, the video is processed with DGPulldown, so I am left with 29.97 fps interlaced video. I rip the subs with VSrip and the audio and subtitles are in sync throughout the film, so I know it is the video going out of sync. Is the way that I am encoding the video causing the dropped frames? Is there a way to either not drop the frames or to shorten the audio at the same time so it stays in sync? The videos aren't THAT bad to watch, but I would rather find a way to fix this if I could.

I did some searches earlier on this and came across a post talking about shortening or compressing the audio stream in Audicity, but I have been unable to find that post again. Is that what I am going to need to do? I also just saw a thread talking about using FixVTS to insert blank frames where there are dropped frames. Any input is appreciated. Also, if I am going about the encoding totally wrong, please let me know what the proper approach should be!

Thanks in advance,

Jason

P.S. I also changed the iDCT algorithm from Skal SSE MMX to IEEE-1180 Reference to see if maybe the indexing of the MPEG2 was off because of a less accurate algorithm (not sure why XVID4PSP defaulted to Skal), but the problem remains unchanged.

[txporter]

Update: I am fairly certain that the AV sync issue is related to the application of DGPulldown. I encoded Empire to mp4 (x264) at 23.976 fps and do not have an issue with AV sync. I haven't tried with 23.976 fps MPEG2 yet, so I am not 100% sure..but it seems like that is the issue.

Jason