Best way to encode dvd rip wirth .ass subtitles

[Usagi]

I have a Japanese musical on DVD, the quality being good but not super great. A friend is translating the musical into English using Aegisub so the output of the subs will be an .ass file. I've ripped the DVD to an .avi file and thought to add the subs as hard subs using virtualdub. I also created an intro using Sony Vegas which I planned on tacking on to the front of the finished .avi file.

I have already done 3 different musicals this way, all being hard subbed .avi files, roughly 2 hrs long, about 1.5 gig in size.

Should I stay with my original plan or is h264 worth considering? If so, can I add the intro, and how should it be saved in Sony Vegas. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect that since the DVD is not super high quality, h264 would be overkill and not really able to make a noticeable difference in the finished product. Please realize that I insist on hard subs.

[manono]

I've ripped the DVD to an .avi file and thought to add the subs as hard subs using virtualdub.

If I'm understanding you correctly, you intend on taking the already encoded AVI and then reencode it, this time adding in the subs. Much much better would be to add the subs at the time of the first conversion. Unless you just don't care about quality at all.

I can't comment on the Intro AVI you're making, except to note that it has to have all the same attributes as the main AVI if you intend to join the two. But you probably know that already.

I don't know how you made the AVI or many of the other details, so can't make other suggestions. h264 can give you similar quality at a smaller size, or better quality at the same size.

[Usagi]

It was a while ago but I think I made the .avi with DVD Decrypter. I'm ready to accept ideas on how is the best way to do this: I have the original DVD. It contains the main performance and some ancillary things. I'll soon have the .ass subtitle file. The object is to create a high quality .avi with hard subs, which makes them harder to steal than soft subs. I don't care about the ancillary things except that I may later want to sub them separately.
How would you do this?

[manono]

DVD Decrypter is, as the name implies, a decrypter. It doesn't encode anything, so you used something else to create the AVI.

The best way to do the job is to use an AviSynth script with a D2V using MPEG2Source and a TextSub line to add in the .ass subs. In that same script you can IVTC if necessary, crop, resize, and do any other necessary or wanted filtering. Well, you asked. That's how I do it and how I created this AVI (but with .ssa subs and not .ass subs) for upload to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF1fKmtsMoQ

Maybe someone else can suggest another more 'newbie' friendly method that allows you to hardcode .ass subs. Unless those .ass subs have fancy colors/fonts/positioning, they can easily be converted to .ssa subs for use in AutoGK, which can create pretty decent AVIs for you with the subtitles hardcoded into the video. It doesn't accept .ass input, though.

[Usagi]

There are 3 vob files on the DVD that I needed to combine since the largest size on the DVD is .99 gb. I did that with joinvobfilestool. I then read that vob file into virtualdubmod. There is a way to get virtualdubmod to accept .ass subtitles: http://truthsaves.org/whatever/free-stuff/aegisub-subtitles-for-virtualdub/ I applied the subs as a filter. I also applied a deinterlace filter since the original is interlaced.

I presume this should give the best quality since there aren't any intermediate steps.
I can see there are lots of other filters I can apply but I don't know which ones I should use. Nor do I understand how to control the overall size/quality of the .avi output file

[Usagi]

I have visited youtube and a bunch of sites looking for how to edit an mp4 file. I must have installed at least 1/2 of all the various video editing software that exists and I still cannot find a way to encode .ass subtitles into an mp4 file. The mp4 file is interlaced to boot. I was hoping to be able to open it in VirtualDubMod, deinterlace and add the subs but still no joy. VirtualDubMod gives me error messages when I try to open the mp4 file.

I'm at wits end.
I'll likely have to format C: and start over to get all the useless crap off my computer, that is if I can ever find anything that actually works.