Don't know if this will help anyone, but with the Engelmann converter on GOTD thought I might share my personal experiences, figuring they might apply to some extent to other Android phones & tablets.
1st, mpg2 plays fine for me, though Android gear seems more optimized for AVC/H.264. That might matter if you don't want to bother converting DVD video, or don't want to spend the time encoding to AVC, which generally takes longer & is more CPU intensive than mpg2. One downside -- microSD cards are pretty cheap, so the problem isn't storing a DVD worth of video -- the problem is they're formatted FAT32 for Android, so you either have to buy a DVD player app or play several files in order.
2nd, while cell phones & tablets have gotten more powerful, playing AVC, especially HD is still quite the task -- if it weren't for graphics hardware acceleration quite a few PCs/laptops would have a hard time of it, if they could manage it at all. AVC video can also be encoded using several options to make the video look better, but most of those require extra processing when you play it, further increasing the processing load. Your mileage may vary but what I've found in practice is that you're better off encoding AVC with those enhancements, but at a smaller frame size than whatever max for your device -- it's better in my experience to have a clearer, nicer picture that the phone or tablet can upscale to fill the screen vs. video with a larger frame size that either won't play smoothly, or has poorer quality without those enhancements.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7 my son bought me will play 720p [1280 x 720] AVC video, but only if it doesn't use any of those enhancements I talked about. Now 720p video can look good on this tablet -- the sample Samsung included looks great -- but it's not your average video either... the scenes in the video were very carefully chosen, the encoder was probably set to max or near max quality [where instead of fps encoding speed you might be talking minutes per frame], & they might well have used the same method as Apple, back in the days when they posted trailers for the 1st of the newer Star Wars films to show off Quicktime -- start with theater quality [or better] video, then fine tune the encoder & settings for each scene, then assemble the separately encoded videos into a single file. 720 width video [the height varies with letterboxing cut off] looks just as good, & more importantly, is doable.
3rd, try different encoders [or converters]. Most of the free encoders/converters, most of the apps out of China [x264 is built into ffmpeg], & several bigger name apps use the x264 encoder, which is commonly considered state of the art. The number of settings or variables is huge -- http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings -- and at best the apps that use x264 let you enter your own command line arguments, while the majority offers what they feel is the best compromise, with a limited combo of choices & *hard-wired* settings. Better = slower, yet slower often equals user dissatisfaction. You can use x264 from the command line, or use a free encoder/converter that lets you enter your own command line, provided you're willing to research all the possible settings/options... or you can try every converter you come across, & see which one or ones use the settings which give you the best looking video.
There's also another variable -- when is any re-sizing done & how is it performed... There are several resizing algorithms -- I Googled on "avisynth resize comparison" [without quotes], & this is one of the results http://hermidownloads.craqstar.de/videoresizefiltercomparasion/ [note you don't have to use AviSynth -- I simply used it in my query because I know AviSynth can use several methods, & which is best is often debated]. When any re-size is done also matters -- if the initial frame size is larger are you better off giving the encoder the maximum amount of data to work with, or is it better to give the encoder the exact amount of data it requires, i.e. video with the same frame size you expect out of the encoder? If the initial frame is smaller will other software, the encoder, or the player do a better job upscaling? To be honest there aren't any universal answers -- it depends on the software you're using, the encoder, the hardware where you'll play it, & the original video. How much you want to bother with this is up to you, but be aware that it does make a difference -- you *might* [or might not] find for example that your results improve dramatically when you down-size your video using VirtualDub &/or AviSynth, outputting an intermediate file [perhaps using the Lagarith or UTVideo codecs] that you open in your encoder/converter. I normally go with the player for upscaling, but that's in large part because smaller frame sizes can play on more hardware.
I find subtitles useful -- I'm hearing impaired, but can hear well enough with decent headphones/earbuds, so their usefulness to me in this case is a matter of practicality &/or politeness. RE: practicality, headphones/earbuds are something else to carry & bother with, if they're expensive you have to worry about loss/theft, if they're bluetooth you have to worry about battery charge [both for the phones/earbuds & the cell phone or tablet doing the playing, as bluetooth on drains the battery faster], and there's the matter of not being able to hear what's going on around you, whether you're in a doc's waiting room or at a crosswalk. RE: politeness, it's obvious when you're listening to, paying attention to something else, & many people treat it as a signal that you want to be left alone -- glancing at, watching your cell phone or tablet is much more subtle, & in many situations you're more likely to get away with it. :)
Subtitles can be *burned into* the video -- overlaid on the video permanently by most of the convertors that've been on GOTD, by VirtualDub etc. That's the simplest method. For Android the built-in player *might* handle .srt format subs -- a .srt file is a text file containing specially formatted or laid out text, with both the caption text & the time it should be shown on-screen. You might be able to find the .srt file you want/need on-line, but otherwise there are basically 3 ways to create one, & each is a bit of a PITA. You can extract the CC data embedded in a recorded video file or DVD video if/when they have it, you can OCR DVD &/or Blu-Ray subtitles, & you can type the subs yourself -- there's software to make that easier. The advantage -- being able to turn subtitle display on/off, for the times you want it or would rather do without the distraction.
DVD & Blu-Ray subs are a sort of 2nd video track, one that only has the captions on a transparent background. If you encode Nero Digital video, using Nero Recode with a DVD, a sub track [or tracks], along with an optional added audio track can be included in the AVC result. With the right player all 3 can play, with subs -- on my Android tablet I use the VLC Mobile Beta [note: it will not work with every Android device] http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/ . Note also that I have to use the Android File Finder to browse to the video file on my microSD card, tap it, & then select VLC to play -- DVD & Blu-Ray files have to be renamed. FWIW Nero re-did Recode for Nero 11, Nero 12 is on the near horizon, & Recode versions 10 & earlier are to me Much easier to use, much preferred. For my tablet I set the width to 720, same as the DVD source, let Recode 10 crop any letterboxing, set it for square pixels [VLC Mobile Beta on my tablet will not stretch Recode's anamorphic default properly], & set the bit rate between 1,000 & 1,500 -- I think it looks gorgeous.