VOB to AVI - which codec is best to use?

[cdubya]

I've got a decent collection of DVD's and I'm wanting to move them over to avi format to 1. use the avi's to view and keep the originals free from scratches (i'm bad about leaving them out) 2. to save the bother of changing multiple dvd's out when viewing series. I was just curious out of the following which retains the best quality/space ratio. 3ivx, Divx 3-5.2 (standalone unit doesn't have the 6 update availible yet) or Xvid. It states that it supports most any mp4 codec however i haven't tried them all just those listed above. I know Xvid has two codecs avail one from Koepi and the other is Nic's Koepi kept unstalling itself on my machine so i've since switched to nic's to test, as for divx it's encoding for ver. 4 seemed really limited not sure for 5 though as i'm really new to all this and 3ivx i haven't the slightest clue.. now.. after all that is said and chosen what software would you recommend to use to convert to the mp4 format from vobs? Thanks a ton in advance.

Chris

[killerhex]

usually people use xvid or x264

[jagabo]

Divx and Xvid are pretty much the same now. Xvid may have a slight lead in image quality but Divx has the lead in compression speed.