I can haz lobotomy?

I spent ALL evening yesterday and some of the night (well OK that was just my macbook pro) trying to take video recorded on a minidvd camera and put 2 halves of our bellydance recital rehearsal together onto 1 DVD. Simple you would think...but no. All the video editing software we have, ranging from iMovie all the way up to Final Cut cannot take in VideoTS folders or the VOB files in them. Oh no. They must be converted first...into DV or MPEG-4 or some other format. The camera only burns the disc in this format. Because of this it won't talk to my Mac to even import them that way by USB/Firewire.
Yet I tried...oh I tried. I took the DVD files and tried to convert them. I used VLC. I used MPEG Streamclip. I used Handbrake...and consistently, I either got audio and video that are out of sync (and too tricky to match up as it isn't images or mouths, just dancing), or audio and video where chunks of audio are just missing for no damn good reason. I even tried converting just pieces of it...just the 4-5 minute dance bits...still no dice. Lack of sync.
All OUR gear is compatible with Macs and can input quickly and easily...but (surprise surprise) given our luck, the cameras J uses to shoot are broken. That is why I borrowed this one.
It appears that all our kit is in kahoots...even our DVD player with a harddrive is interfering...I thought I'd just input them into that and burn both video pieces on to 1 DVD that way...but oh no. Nonononono. It (because of my curse) will no longer burn DVDs. Just cuz. This is a new thing. (It made me yell GAH) I will say, that am pleased with all my laptop can do...but without the video in proper format, I can't combine the two files or work with them in Final Cut or iMovie.
Most of the people in my class are not computer savvy enough (some don't have a computer...) so they need DVDs they can just pop into their DVD player. Soooo...2 DVDs it is.

Oh great pulsating brain that rules the galaxy...you win again.
Curse you and your little dog too...