Convert a DVD to a WMV (or other streaming format)?

Factual Questions
1

I have a 3 hour seminar that was recorded to DV and then transferred to two DVDs. I am attempting to convert the video to .WMV so I can post it on a website to enable people to watch it online. This project has been nothing but major pain.

Here’s what I’ve done so far and had problems doing: I used a freeware program to rip the DVDs into two MPEG2 streams. I then attempted to convert the files using both Windows Movie Maker and Windows Media Encoder. However, the audio was either out of synch with the video (Move Maker), or the audio volume was too low with no way to adjust the input level (Media Encoder).

Also worth mentioning is that I need to be able to chop up the seminar into segments that correspond to the individual speakers. Therefore whatever software I need will have to have some basic editing features.

I would prefer to use free or open-source software (obviously), but I’ve got so much time wrapped into this project I am open to commerical software as well.

2

Ripping/Encoding:
Give DVDx (free, open-source) a try. As of version 2.5, it’s supposed to be able to rip to WMV9 directly. Otherwise, you could use it to rip to an uncompressed AVI first and then encode that to WMV.

Splitting:
As for splitting the movie, VirtualDub (also free & open-source) can split AVI files. It’s a barebones video editor/processor.

Or if you manage to make a working WMV, Windows Movie Maker can open that WMV and split it.

Otherwise, you might want to try one of the WMV-splitting shareware programs on Download.com.

Everything:
If money is not an object, Adobe Premiere can probably do all that in one integrated, ultra-bloated, ultra-expensive, but ultimately effective suite.