divx vs h264

[ecc]

I want to reduce the amount of harddrive space some DivX encoded avi files are taking up. Would reprocessing them as H264 mp4 files at the same bitrate as the DivX files result in smaller files with minimal image degradation (from what there is already from the previous compression)?

The calculators I've seen online and downloaded only have options for DVD, SVCD, VCD and Divx.

As for H264 encoding, I have Virtualdub (which outputs .avi) and WinFF (which outputs .mp4 when you select H264).

[Baldrick]

If you use same bitrate the file size will be the same. You can try lower the bitrate a bit and convert to h264...but you will see some quality loss. Best would be to convert from a better source like dvd to h264 directly.

Use divx/avi for h264 bitrate calculation.

[jman98]

I agree with Baldrick and I would not recommend further encoding a Divx file to any other format just to save a little space. Hard drives are getting cheaper all the time. Just buy a bigger hard drive. Also note that H264 is STILL cutting edge technology. It takes a long time to encode with it. I've got a feeling based on your PC specs that it's going to literally take you 24+ hours for each encode you do. Playback of H264 files is still challenging for the vast majority of PC users at this time and anything above 720p is going to be a gigantic playback problem for all but the most state of the art of today's PCs.