after testing out a few tools i finally made up my mind on which route to take to get my vobs to mp4... i started a 400 .vob batch encode last night using mediacoder .070rc on my pc desktop q6600 @ 3.1ghz... here's why i chose this route:

i tested 4 different programs:
sorenson squeeze (mbp)
visualhub (mbp)
mediacoder (pc)
handbrake (pc)

i took 2 different vob files and imported into each of these programs and used similar settings for all (video x264 @2400 kbps audio aac @192kbps). i compared each vid on my 24" lcd monitor 1920x1200 and i really could not distinguish any major differences in the video/motion/etc (i really wasnt expecting to be thrown back in my chair because i know at the end of the day its all compressed video). my biggest concern was how these files would perform in video-sl and im happy to say all the files worked as they should (good looping/good scratching/etc).

So now for me it all came down to which program i'd be most comfortable working with... i chose mediacoder beacause i really liked the gui, and im always partial to any software that shows me exactly what it is doing at all times. mediacoder shows u complete stats from # of files encoded/time lapsed/time remaining/througput/progress bar/even has preview vid window)

so there u have it, right now the batch is 85% done after 12.5 hours (wow). hopefully im getting all this stuff right the first time. will post back later.