[MEncoder-users] DVD->mkv. 2pass or CQ?

[C.M. Burns]

Hi list,

at the moment I am working on extracting a DVD with all subtitles and
all audio streams to a mkv file.
I end up with several subtitle files (vobsub format), a chapter file
(simple chapter format) and a file with audio and video streams.
I browsed the web and the manual but am not quite sure which method for
mencoder is best, if I want as little  quality loss as possible.
At the moment I mencode 2pass like this:

mencoder tempfile.vob -vf pullup,softskip,harddup -ovc x264 -x264encopts
\
subq=6:bframes=3:b_pyramid:weight_b:threads=auto:pass=1:bitrate=1400:turbo=1
-nosound -of rawvideo -o /dev/null

mencoder $TMPFOLDER/tempfile.vob -vf pullup,softskip,harddup -ovc x264
-x264encopts \
subq=6:8x8dct:frameref=3:bframes=3:b_pyramid:threads=auto:pass=2:bitrate=1400
-nosound -of rawvideo -o tempfile.264

Later I read that encoding using "constant quality" is usually better if
filesize does not matter...
Do you have any suggestions?
If 2pass, can the above mencoding be tweaked for 25fps PAL?

thanks for any hints.
Frank