Xvid VS X264 At High Bitrates

[mohawkcr]

I am going to rip a bunch of dvds to either xvid or x264. I know x264 is better quality but xvid is so much more compatible and faster to encode. My question is if i convert a dvd to xvid at 2500-3000 kbs will it look the same in quality as if i converted the same dvd to x264 at 2500-3000 kbs? Thank you

[poisondeathray]

My question is if i convert a dvd to xvid at 2500-3000 kbs will it look the same in quality as if i converted the same dvd to x264 at 2500-3000 kbs?

short answer : no

But it will depend on the specific source, and encoding settings used. If it's an action movie, with lots of motion, explosions etc... the xvid version will look significantly worse, even at 2.5-3Mb/s . If it's a static movie with low noise, well lit, little motion (maybe an interview or something) , there might be very small perceptible differences

FYI , x264 is highly configurable. You don't have to use super slow , higher quality settings. For example, on an i7 , x264 is faster to encode and better quality than xvid with --preset fast or faster , because it scales so much better than xvid with multiple cores