A question about speed, compression and quality

[Wintershade]

I'm using Avisynth 2.57, and in most cases am running the following script:
load_stdcall_plugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\yadif.dll")
DGDecode_mpeg2source("D:\Temp\ripping\VTS_01_1.d2v",cpu=4,info=3)
ColorMatrix(hints=true)
Yadif (mode=0, order=-1)
crop( 12, 4, -22, -4)

BicubicResize(640,480,0.333,0.333) # Bicubic (Soft)
#denoise
Undot()
Deen()

(except when the video is not interlaced, in which cases I skip the Yadif plugin.)
Can someone (again) give me any advice on how to improve this script, in terms of compressibility and speed? In other words, is it possible to alter this script in order to get more compressibility at the same speed or more speed at the same quality?

I'm using the latest x264 encoder in MeGUI, usually with the "Slowest" or "Slower" presets, and am quite pleased with the results. However, sometimes ripping gets painfully slow (with the last x264 encoder the 2nd pass framerate was below 3 FPS).

[Hirudin]

I'm far from an expert, but in cording to A&E's Technical Guides to All Things Audio and Video (http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtechbeta/index.html)* x264's single pass "quality" encoding is just as good as multi-pass encoding IF exact file size isn't important.

I've been very happy with
--crf 20

Bringing it down to just a single pass should increase the overall speed a decent amount.

*I'm pretty sure I read that over there, it might have been somewhere else though...

[Wintershade]

This is true. However, sometimes exact filesize is important to me, and that's when I use those presets (with single-pass CQ presets I've had no speed issues; but then again, I haven't had a chance to use them with the last few versions of x264).

Anyone else got any ideas?
Many thanks.