Thanks for the tip. I tried AutoGK with the audio passthrough and it worked like a charm

- good quality video (2h 35m video rendered into a hair under 2GB - took about 4 hrs but my PC is not configured for speed yet). I had no issue with the sound on playback. This is going to be my standard operating procedure from now on. AutoGK provides great batch support which lets me queue up many DVDs for conversion and then just let it run.
I'll try the DVDShrink tip too, I haven't found any other way to get the audio back in sync that will be very helpful.
I've put the AutoGK information into two threads because anyone trying to create avi video files to watch on the 520, even with garden variety stereo sound, will benefit. There are so many ways to create digital video files and so many variables plus the DSM-520 appears fickle in it's file support (realistically it probably isn't but just appears that way because there are no prescriptive instructions for creating digital video files that it will play and are of good quality). DLink points people towards Nero, which is a nice piece of software but you don't need it for creating avi files, and it can't pass through the audio as far as I could tell.
Thanks