I work for a Scientific Institution and a company which recorded talks decided to give us all the talks in DVD format instead of a hard drive full of video files. This is kind of counter intuitive however luckily I use Linux at work. Long story short mencoder with lame installed solved my problems.
Code:
mencoder
-vf harddup
-vf-add smartblur=.6:-.5:0,unsharp=l5x5:.8:c5x5:.4
-xvidencopts fixed_quant=4:profile=dxnhtntsc
-lameopts cbr:br=128:aq=0:vol=1
...
