DVD-AVI with FairUseWizard using X264?

[riji]

I'm used to convert DVD to AVI-Xvid with FairuseWizard.
Now I have a hardware media-player (Popcorn Hour), capable of playing x264 encoded files.
Should I prefer this new video-compression standard?
If so, what settings are best?
Using Xvid I followed this advise:
1. Always auto-crop your movies.
2.Always have the "two-pass" box checked, and the quality meter on the encoding speed sliders set to the highest quality.
3.First off, you should always set the movie's size and not use the quantizer mode.
One formula that might work for you is to try to encode at 10MB per minute of movie you are encoding. So for a movie that is 90min, 90x10= 900MB. What I usually do though is get my movies to go to the resolution I think yields the best results while still giving me good file sizes, you only need to pay attention to the largest number (usually the first).
For a widescreen movie (that you have auto cropped out the black bars). You should be at around 688x208 or something like that. For an anamorphic widescreen movie (one that doesn't have any black bars) You want to be around 624x333.
To obtain smoother picture, add 50MB to whatever it takes to get to that resolution."
4. Audio: leave the audio at MP3 128kbs.
Are these options also suitable for x264 encoding?

[Baldrick]

Yep, you can use similar settings using h264/avc or even lower the video bitrate/file size a bit and get similar video quality as xvid. But h264 encoding is usually much slower so it may not be worth it if you are encoding a lot of dvds.

[riji]

Thanks.
I have no experience, so I'm wondering if the image quality is superior with x264 compared to Xvid, and I 'm not sure if MP3 is to be preferred with x264 as it seems to be with Xvid, or should I keep AC3?
I'm so concerned about quality because our TV is a 50" one (Pioneer LX-5080, plasma full-hd).
Maybe someone can share his/her practical experience.

[riji]

Somebody please.

[Ethlred]

For the same size file AVC will usually be superior to Xvid. It does take a lot longer to encode and it takes a more powerful processor to decode. Consequently many if not all hand held AVC players use detuned versions of AVC. Last I saw iPod wouldn't use CABAC or B frames which makes me wonder how the heck AVC could do a better job than Xvid on that machine. Maybe it doesn't do B frames in Xvid either.

It really depends on what your player can handle. And your tolerance for encode times. I encode to x264 overnight on work days so it can run 18 to 20 hours without bothering me. I convert the 720x480 DVD to 720X480 or less depending on cropping for the second number but almost always 720 wide. Those are anamorphic encodes so if the player can't handle it you would have to resize.

[riji]

Thanks.
I have a PopcornHour player with a Sigma 8635 chip who should support x.264 video.
I use streaming (NFS) now from my PC, next week from a NAS (Synology 207+)
I suppose all this is OK?
I have done one DVD once encoded with xvid, once with x264 (both bitrate 1400 Kbps).
The video quality with x264 was a bit better, but the audio was out of sync, especially at the start of a new scene, which was not the case with the xvid encoded one. Maybe it was just a coincidence or do I have to watch some audio aspects especially when using x264?

[Ethlred]

Maybe it was just a coincidence or do I have to watch some audio aspects especially when using x264?

Coincidence most likely. However if the player didn't have the horsepower to decode the video the audio tends to get ahead. It happens to me on every bloody HD-trailer I download. I watch it and try to read the lips enough to figure what dialog went with what scene. I really need to upgrade.

[riji]

Thanks.
So I have to know if my PopcornHour have enough decoding horsepower?
As I understand the choice between MP3 and AC3 is no different in combination with X.264 as it is with Xvid?