You can use clad DeCSS or smart ripper for ripping. You can use Flask Mpeg for encoding (get the sound and video plugins for dvix and install them). You "should" also get bitrate calculator. There are more programs I could recommend, but I recommend more doing a search for info and reading all you can on the subject. There are a lot of ways to improve quality and reduce encoding time, but no site I have found has all the info it should.
*Tips-
-Reduce output resolution to ~512x400 (keep ratio)
-Use Bilinear filtering instead of default if you are reducing resolution (faster and just as good)
-Use bitrate calculator and try to get the highest bit rate you can
-Use the slow divx codec; higher bitrate/ lower res makes up for the fast scenes.
-Learn to process the audio outside of Flaskmpeg for increased compression/ quality of audio
-If you get jagged edges/ horizontal lines; use the de-interlace option
-Reduce the fps to 23.976 if your converting an NTSC
These are major tips that I find absent at most sites. I even discovered some of these on my own.