MediaCoder

Rip the VOBs of the movie into one VOB before encoding as an Avi, then divide the avi into smaller pieces if it necessary.

'No File Splitting' or 'Maximum file size' is usually an option of rippers.

2-pass has various oddities. Try Second pass using Command Line of Mencoder with the log file and see if it still comes in undersize. I find Mencoder Version 1.0pre8 -3.4.5 is pretty accurate, but occasionally fails on second pass with Mediacoder, but not with command line.

Choose MPEG4 - the program will use whichever DivX you have installed.
In Extra Mencoder options add -ffourcc divx


I convert 2gb+ VOBs, but I don't encode the audio, so not sure if it makes a difference.

I have 2pass encoded a 4+GB VOB to avi. However some VOBS do not work in 2pass for some unknown reason, possibly to do with duplicate frames?? The logfile used with mencoder command line did work, oddly enough. Maybe the time between passes isn't sufficient to read the logfile in Mediacoder.

Encoding audio seperately is always a good idea

Rip each episode using SmartRipper and set max file size = 4000mb (instead of each VOBsize) or DVD Decrypter in IFO mode - setting = NO FILE SPLITTING.

The VOB will contain the entire episode, size is 2GB or more.

Check the codec label of the file with a fourcc changer. If it says FMP4 change it to DIVX. Or set the fourcc to DIVX when encoding.

Yes, mencoder r1 release still produces files at lower than expected bitrate. Last version that gave the closest file size had 1.0pre8 mencoder, but it failed using 2-pass with some VOB to AVI conversions and not others (oddly enough one of two on same disc usually failed).