PAL DVD to NTSC-spec MPEG... how?

[lionvideo]

I've been assigned the task of converting a large pile of region 2 PAL DVDs (containing 24fps film-originated material) into some viewable NTSC format... recordable DVD, VHS, VCD, or SVCD. Ultimately, all that matters is that one way or another, I need to end up with a format that can play back on a normal NTSC TV.

From what I've figured out, I need to:

1) rip the video from the PAL DVD, presumably ending up with a large mpeg-2 file containing two hours of 50fps interlaced video at PAL resolution ( ? x 540 lines, I think)

2) somehow massage the output from step 1 into a 24fps progressive-scan source MPEG

2a) if necessary, massage the resolution from PAL res to NTSC res (752? x 480 lines, I think)

3) Master it to a recordable DVD as a region-free (region 0?) 24fps progressive MPEG stream, with the proper repeat flags so that the disc will be properly played back with 3:2 pulldown by a normal NTSC DVD player.

I think step 1 is fairly straightforward and well-documented, but I don't have the slightest idea where to start for step 2.

Since we're dealing exclusively with film-originated material, I don't think temporal rate conversion will actually be necessary since we can just separate the audio from the video stream (slowing it down by 4% back to its proper rate?) and simply buffer the incoming 25fps video stream, pretend it was 24fps to begin with and re-encode it as such, and let the target DVD player handle the 3:2 pulldown.

Of course, I have no idea how to actually achieve that.

I'd strongly prefer to use freely-available software, but I can get away with spending up to about $500 or so if something is absolutely esential (or will make the process a lot easier or faster).

Here's what I have at my disposal right now:

Generic DVD-ROM drive (set to region 2)
PC w/Athlon 1800XP, 512mb ram, 80 gigabytes free space
ATI All in Wonder 128 pro
Apex region-free DVD player capable of PAL playback w/macrovision disabled
Adobe Premiere 5.5
access to a DVD writer (not sure of the details... I just know that discs made with it can be played back on my normal Pioneer American DVD player without problems).

and a pile of about 200 PAL DVDs that somehow need to be made viewable by people with NTSC VCRs.

I'm assuming that the best route is to rip the DVD straight to mpeg-2 and convert from there, but I guess playing it back with the PAL Apex DVD player and capturing it using the AIW128pro is an option too (since the macrovision can be disabled, and I believe the card is capable of capturing both NTSC and PAL with equal ease since it's presumably the same hardware sold on both sides of the atlantic)

[devinemi83]

Rip the tracks off the DVD. And then use TMPGEncoder to transcode the video to NTSC standard. Just tell TMPG what you want and it will make it. Look for it in this site. Under "Tools".