You're making this too complicated (menus + chapter marks).
DVD menus...
I've always considered it a silly notion to try and retain DVD menus, when you consider what a DVD menu is really for -- navigating the actual content. People seem to go to great lengths of time and research, hours and hours, simply to maintain something they'll look at for maybe a minute or two at most.
I see people asking this question a lot online, and the advice is always "just re-author it". And that's coming from professionals and programmers most of the time. It's a hassle and doesn't always work right anyway.
I'm a skilled author, so I can just make a new menu.
Chapter marks...
I'm of the opinion that exact chapter marks aren't really important either. Same for thumbnail menus that do "scene selection". Pretty much anybody older than 10 years old is from the "VHS generation" when you had to wait on tapes to FF, often guessing when to stop. If you try to seek content by FF'ing the tape while it played, you were basically screwing up the tape and degrading it's signal/tape integrity. It could be random 5-minute chapter marks, and still provide the basic function that a chapter mark serves to do -- provide "skippable" locations that allow for quick access.
If you really want to compare your old DVD to the new DVD, then watch it in a player by the computer, and then match it by observation. If framerates match, you could extract a chapter like with PgcEdit, but there's not any way that I know of to import the chapters. (And if there is, I doubt it's easy or compatible with most software.)
Most authoring programs have auto-increment chaptering tools.
Sync audio on videos with SAME frame rates...
Syncing the audio to the video is the hard part. The first challenge is making sure the editing is identical on both. Many times, different versions are cut different, which would cause audio drift by simply dropping new audio into the timeline.
I generally convert both movies to lossless
HuffYUV AVI, and then drop both movies onto a Premiere timeline. Then I 50% transparency one of the movies, so I can see both films in the preview window at the same time. You'll need a fast computer for this to work well. Then scrub the timeline, looking for places where there is change or discontinuity.
Sync audio on videos with DIFFERENT frame rates...
Then there is PAL vs NTSC (proper and improper) speed conversion issues. Does the length of the new audio match the old one to the frame? (That's about 1/24th-1/30th of a second.) A proper conversion is about 4% different, adjusted for pitch. An improper conversion could be anything.
If the films are different formats, you've got a mess on your hands. You'll have to isolate matching segments from both movies, then crop both out and measure lengths. Adjust one of them as needed until both videos play at the same speed. Match the changed video speed to the audio, using Goldwave for frame-accurate audio timing adjustments.
Then drop both into Premiere and do as described earlier, as the framerates now match.
Software suggested and/or required...
DVD Decrypter or VOB2MPG Pro to rip video via IFO Mode.
DVD Decrypter is available for download in the forum. Use the "search" function to find that thread.
If copy protection is present, and next-gen:
- Easy pay method. Use
AnyDVD.
- For longer free method, use DVDFab free decrypter, then rip files to hard drive, use
ImgBurn to create new ISO file, mount new ISO with Gizmo Drive or Daemon Tools Lite, and then rip that in DVD Decrypter.
Gspot to measure the length of the videos. Gspot is available for download in the forum. Use the "search" function to find that thread.
VirtualDub and/or Avisynth, for correcting the lengths of the video footage to the proper format. Read the PAL/NTSC guide available on this site.
Also VirtualDubMod (or MPEG edition) for converting MPEG to AVI. Do not use regular
VirtualDub with the MPEG input plugin, as there are some odd chrominance interlacing issues that exist on it. This means converting MPEG to AVI before changing framerates, unless you're using Avisynth.
Goldwave for any audio length corrections needed. Also discussed on PAL/NTSC guide.
Adobe Premiere 6.5 or higher, for syncing the audio to video. I wholly suggest Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 or higher. Adobe.com has free trials, although I don't know for how long, or if aything is crippled in the trials.
An authoring program. For menu-less discs, I like TMPGEnc Authoring Works (formerly TMPGEnc DVD Author). For nice menus, then I highly suggest Ulead DVD Workshop 2.
Other tools may be needed if this is complicated by complex VOB source files, complex streams, 5.1 audio, DTS audio, etc. Decompiling, editing and rebuilding a new DVD isn't the easiest video task around.
Note: My carpal tunnel is acting up, so I'm not able to link to things like I usually would right now. Using the mouse hurts. I'll have to come back in a day or so to give links. Just search the site and forums with our search engine if you read this before I get back, and you'll find it easy.
Good luck on this project!