I've seen that happen with both Handbrake and MediaFork. When I re-transcoded, the sound was included. Did you try doing it a second time?

I have occasionally run into problems with specific DVDs. It works 95% of the time or better, but occasionally there are some that cannot be imported no matter what. Although usually, it isn't just the sound that is the problem. Trying it a second time shouldn't work, but surprisingly, it sometimes does. Consider trying the import right after rebooting, and without any other programs running which interact with sound. I can't imagine why this would help -- it shouldn't if the OS is bug-free, but no software is completely bug-free (except perhaps the old mac graphing calculator!)

I've notices that "finishing" can take an inordinately long time sometimes, and terminating it early doesn't always yield a working file. So, if at all possible let it finish. I've seen it take 20+ minutes to "finish."

I've had luck sometimes using different codecs for audio and video and different file formats. You can always use isquint to convert an avi into an mp4 if you want these for your iPod. I assume you've tried all the possible combos. I've had disks where one combo worked and none of the others did. But, I usually use MPEG-4 / AAC audio.

Another thing to try is to set both Language1 and Language 2 to the same source. A player like VLC lets you choose which audio track you want to play. It is possible one might work while the other doesn't. However, be forewarned that an iPod will always play the Language 2 if you pick one in Handbrake! This is completely counterintuitive, but it is true. The Language 2 track you select (the lower menu) is the one the iPod always plays, and I've never found a way to switch audio tracks on my iPod. I had to re-import a bunch of movies because I mistakenly thought that only the first track would play on my iPod.

If worse comes to worse, you can perform an analog input, using a digital video camera, or a device like the Canopus ADVC110. Play the dvd in a dvd player and send it through the digital video device, and into your mac via firewire or usb. Then use iMovie to create a new movie. It takes *a lot of disk space* to do this (e.g. 60GB) but it works. Then you can save it as an mp4 at whatever bitrate you want, export it as a cd-sized file, or even burn a new DVD. However, you may or may not be happy with the quality.

I've had some disks where I could not even perform an analog input. Thank DRM for making it impossible by any means to get copy on your computer. However, if worse comes to worse, and you have a video camera and a video projector... light is the ultimately compatible medium.