Choosing the right video codec

[Millwood]

I do a lot of encoding with hdtv material that I grab off of my cable box. I use mpeg streamclip for the majority of editing and encoding the .ts file into an .avi.
I've searched the web, but haven't found a good answer on this - and I was wondering if anyone here knows the best video codec to use, and what the settings should be (quality percent, compression rates, etc) to encode the video into a high quality avi.

[terryj]

For the Highest Quality AVI file,
you just want to use a codec that will allow
you to manually "tweak" the quality percent
and the overall compression used, to achieve
the results you want ( great quality vs. huge file size, etc).

Any of the following codecs will allow you to do so:
XVID, 3iVX, h.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Apple Motion JPEG-A

just read up on what others have reported as using for
the settings and give it a try and compare their playback until
you find the one that works for you(r eyes).
Everybody has their favorite, so saying one is better than another is irrelevant, due to the nature of everyone's
barometer
(their two eyeballs + equiptment used to play it back on).

[rumplestiltskin]

Where are you actually watching these videos once the transcoding is complete?

[Millwood]

Thanks for the help terryj.

And rumple: once the transcoding is complete, the majority would be watched on my computer.

[rumplestiltskin]

...And rumple: once the transcoding is complete, the majority would be watched on my computer.

In that case, go the H264 route.

[headless chicken]

This question sounds stupid because all codecs aim to acheive this, but which codec in MPEG Streamclip allows for highest compression while retaining most or all of the original quality?

[terryj]

again, see my post.
it applies to MpegStreamclip,
QT Pro, iMovie, heck just about
any app that can do what you are asking....

[headless chicken]

I didn't realize it was all about personal preference. Must have glossed over your post. Sorry , terryj.