ISO or AVI files

[dasrock]

OK,
I would like to store my dvd's to a hard drive for storage and play back through a media center, my choice: DABODA HMC-1.
Whats files offers better compressed video quality? DVD ISO at 2 gigs or DIVX AVI at 2 gigs.
I'm trying to store as many movies on a hard drive without too much video quality loss.
I just picked 2 gigs to save 50% space, I know I could go more or less.
Any ideas would be appreciated. thanks!

[redwudz]

An ISO of a AVI will be about the same size, usually a bit larger. An ISO is just a container. In this case, you would have a AVI in the ISO container. It's not a format.

The advantage with a ISO container is when you have several files you want to hold in a single container file. A DVD ISO with a VIDEO_TS and a AUDIO_TS folder would be one example. They would both be inside the ISO and show as a single file.

And I'm not so sure Media Center can play back ISO container files. VLC Media Player can, usually.

If you want a smaller file, pick a lower bitrate (Lower quality) or a AVI type format that has higher compression. For example, DV-AVI is about 5:1 compression. Divx or Xvids can be 20:1. H264 can be even higher and give you smaller files. However higher compression also means more difficult encoding and playback. H264 can take more CPU power to encode or decode for playback than Xvid or Divx.

That is very simplified, but you should get the idea.

And welcome to our forums.