i find this prog is the best i have ever used to rip DVDs!! i found the WMV8 codec in this prog gives you much better quality than the DivX codecs give. I used DVTool to calculate the apt bitrate for the movie to fit it to a one CD and set that bitrate in the prog. and I also used 64kbps 44.1khz for the audio. Sounds nice! cos of its WMA9 codec.

Now I thought to encode the DVD at a higher bitrate like 2000kbps in WMV8 and 64kbps of WMA9 and rip the movie. And then after that, use Windows Media Encoder 9 to encode it in WMV9 format at a bitrate which could fit in a single CD. thus we preserve the best possible quality for the movie. much time consuming, but really good quality-wise.

Careful using WMVx codec... Are digital signed... And you will never know when that sign will be used

I must still admit WMV8 quality was superb. But, I faced this problem twice in MPEG4 Direct Maker: after I finish converting a whole DVD and checkin the content, the length of the movie is incorrect. And also if you move the seek (slide) bar and play, no video is displayed. I doubt if it is a problem with the WMV8 codec.
Athlon XP +1700 is still testing on converting a DVD in DivX 5 Pro codec. I will let you know the results after that :)

Yet, what I recommend is use:
Video Codec - DivX 5.02 Pro
Audio Codec - 128kbps MP3