Ideal Handbrake settings for generating video file from DVD

[PacificaBren]

Hi, I recently used DVD Shrink to rip some subtitled, R2 DVD's to my hard drive. Assuming DVD Shrink eliminated the copy protection from the resulting 1:1 transfers, I would now like to generate videos files with hard-coded subs, and ideally have the resulting video files be in a more manageable size, say, maybe 700MB for each 90-minute film.

I used to do this all the time back in the day, but it occurs to me I was never truly knowledgeable about preserving audio and sound quality.

So, I ask you: How would each and every setting in your Handbrake look if you were going to do this?

And which Handbrake settings do most people get wrong? That is to say, is there anything I should turn off or on, which many users habitually fail to do?

Thank you!

EDITED TO ADD: I just remembered Handbrake can generate an .mkv file that contains subtitle tracks, which can be turned on or off in VLC. I think this is a better option than hard-coded subs. Please remind me of the best settings to use if I want to go this route.

[davexnet]

Perhaps try Vidcoder (based on Handbrake) - it makes choosing a target file size easier.
If you give it a size, it'll do a 2-pass encode and get pretty close.

Most of the stuff is self explanatory, post back if you have specific questions