What video codec should I use?

Question

Based on the answer to another question here (which I can't find now), I downloaded and started using Handbrake and I like it a lot so far. Works well on Windows, is lightweight, is pretty straightforward.

My main use is to convert some sort of .avis from my video camera into .divx or something else that's small.

In addition to looking at the current version (0.9.3), I looked at the current development snapshot and I see that they're getting rid of xvid support in favor of H.264 support. I know it'll be no problem to get an h.264 codec to watch the videos on a PC, but what about on a DVD player? Lots of them (including mine) say "DivX" support, but I'm not sure about h.264. Are DVD players likely to support it in the future?

So maybe I should back up a bit: I've got all these AVIs from my camera, I want to compress them so they're easier to access, I thought divx was the best way to go so I can easily watch them on a PC or a lot of DVD players. Handbrake looks just about right for my use for converting, but now I'm wondering if I should look at other formats.

EDIT: Ok, I had to look into this a bit more to figure out how to ask some friends the same question, and I see that H.264 is used for BluRay, so presumably that's going to be around for a while

Answer 1

For DVDs: I would use ConvertXtoDVD (not freeware)

For PC: Divx is perfect.

Hope I answered ur question correctly.