help with audio and video combing

[loudlude]

hey im not really a newbie at this but when i started out this would have helped me alot so im gonna put this in here for the newbies. i want to buy a dvd burner but iv been working on converting files before i buy it so i know i can do it. well my new problem is combining audio and video together in perfict sync. iv been usin dvdx1.6 to do my vcd work for me after ripping with smartripper. but the quality is really not that great. what is really the best and easiest way to join audio and video. iv been doin most of my work with dvd2avi and i get a great .avi and and ac3 file then i would take the ac3 file and turn it into a .wav then id use TMPGEnc Plus-2.59.47.155 and try to combine the 2 it always froze or i got some kinda proplem. (is it because i was using a xvid codec i dont know) now im trying to use virtual dub but that isnt that great of quality and the file is HUGE. so my real question i guess is what is the best way of combining audio and video. and what are the proper formats to use for you file and what codecs?
thanx

[setarip]

"iv been doin most of my work with dvd2avi and i get a great .avi and and ac3 file then i would take the ac3 file and turn it into a .wav"

After ripping your DVD to your hard drive, try using MPEG Mediator to convert to perfectly synchronized, multiplexed DivX-compressed video and Uncompressed PCM (.WAV) audio. TMPGEnc should be able to readily handle this file...