Best compression format for AVI's

[Smallan]

Hi, I have a number of AVI's I want to compress for playing on a VJ/karaoke program. I have been testing a 745 meg AVI file and have converted it to mpeg and DivX files ranging from 68 meg to 158 meg. Audio is most important so I'm not comprimising on that, but I would like the video to look good too. The DivX file seems to look best to me. It's 104 meg. I converted the AVI in Pinnacle Studio - 720x540 at 500kbps data rate. Audio is 48K 320kbps. There may be a more recent or superior format so I thought I'd ask the question before I start converting the files. Anyone have an opinion to share?
Thanks.

[redwudz]

I use Divx or Xvid most of the time. You can use codecs with more compression, but they take longer to encode and use more CPU power, both for encoding and playback. And many will only play back on a computer. Xvid or Divx will play back on most set top Divx players, if encoded properly.

I would also try using 2 pass VBR mode.

And welcome to our forums.

[Smallan]

Thank you for the welcome and thank you for the comments. Studio doesn't seem to offer a vbr option for the DivX setting.