Never ripped anything before, eventually found the guide to ripping/copying VCDs buried in 'other conversions'; need more info re audio.

I want to back up a couple of Hong Kong movie VCDs onto my PC, that have Cantonese audio on the left channel, Mandarin on right channel. (You are supposed to use Balance on your player/stereo to choose which language you want to hear. a real pain as neither my laptop nor plug-in speakers has Balance).

Any tips on how to capture these VCDs onto my hard drive in MPEG/AVI format with just one language (i.e. just one channel of the stereo soundtrack)? Tips on how to 'double' that single channel to play back in both channels?

Any sites like this with more info on ripping VCDs as opposed to DVDs?

Any help appreciated, thanks.

(Details: Win98SE, Pent.III 450 MHz, 128MB RAM, laptop; Nimo Codec Pack 5.07; Virtual Dub 1.4 & 1.3c; downloading VCD Gear 3.0 right now.)