New user, settings for importing a ripped non-commercial DVD to FCP7

Hello all,

I was going to attempt to use FCP7 to edit down 2 ripped DVD-Rs (it's 2 VIDEO_TS folders of the .VOB files) of a 2-and-a-half-hour videotaped courtroom deposition that a pal from a law firm gave to me.

I've never used FCP7 much (I generally use Avid, but I have a 30-day trial version, it's possible the trial/additional edits may go past the 30 days, and I figure this is a good excuse to learn FCP7), and although I've ripped plenty of DVDs in the past, and converted them into single file Quicktime, MP4, MKV etc files for personal viewing on an iPad or what not (I generally use Handbrake or iSkysoft), I've never had to edit them afterwards, much less used FCP7 for the job (I did this before for the same friend, but it was using Avid, and the video was already converted into a Quicktime for easier import).

That said, what program & export settings (and FCP7 import settings) would you advise using?

The ripped DVD specs are both:
video:
720 x 480 size
4 x 3 aspect ratio
NTSC format, Standard Definition

audio:
format: Dolby
channels: 2

There's timecode burnt into the DVD video.

I may be overthinking things, but I've heard a lot about the Apple Intermediate Codec/ProRes codecs. Fortunately, since the final edit isn't going to be for broadcast or anything like that, I don't have any strict guidelines as far as how the finished video resolution is going to look, however, I don't want it to look awful, or have the frame rate be off.

Please help!