Yeah, it should be easier. After >6-hours in, I'm taking whatever works. :-O~~~
Handbrake isn't in the Ubuntu repos (guess I could add it), so I moved on to acidrip, which someone reckoned is the best thing anyway.
Weird thing is if I copy/save the raw audio from a copied 1G vob out of avidemux (it won't directly read the dvd, like everything else except acidrip), it comes with crackling/skipping on board (there are two tracks on the vob: an ac3 in 5.1, and a stereo pcm). acidrip doesn't even let you pick which track to use, apparently it guessed right.