Is my thought process correct H264 vs x264?

[LoveDeezNutz]

I have been having a LOT of trouble converting to specific formats for the media player I bought my parents which only plays xvid/dvix in an avi container (even though some are coded like this as far as gspot tells me) the media player will say "MPEG-4" at the top of the screen. The ones where I thought I converted them correctly (I have used 12 different programs in these attempts) they never say MPEG-4 and don't play on it.

I have successfully done a FEW 264 to xvid conversions using a program called "Any Video Converter". I dont recall if they were x264 or H264, I am assuming they were x because the H264 never work.

Is h264 like high def and x264 standard?

If so in order to get it to play on the media player would I have to convert H264 to x264 then convert it xvid avi?

I would think recoded a movie two times would make quality suffer a bit, but am fine with it looking dvd quality.

The files I am trying to convert to xvid in an avi container are mp4 h264.

Is there a beginner friendly program (ie really easy to use)?

[deadrats]

H264 is an encoding standard, also known as mpeg-4 part 10 and avc; x264 is an open source implementation of the H264 encoding standard. what causes tons of confusion is that there are a number of H264 encoders that their respective developers called simply H264 encoder, as if that particular one was the only one (apple did this, main concept also did this).

with regards to your encoding needs, it is possible to create files that will on a divx/xvid complaint player so long as it's divx plus HD compliant:

http://labs.divx.com/node/16598

[Kerry56]

H264 is the video codec, also called Mpeg4 Part 10 AVC (Advanced Video Codec). X264 is a free encoder that produces H264 video.

Xvid is also Mpeg4, but Part 2, ASP (Advanced Simple Profile). Xvid does not produce the same quality at the same filesize as H264, as H264 has better compression features.

Try a program called Xvid4PSP to convert your H264 mp4 files into xvid avi. And I've been playing around with another one that seems quite good, called TEncoder. Just use xvid video codec, mp3 audio and an avi container.

Examine the files you have that work, then use those as your target as far as resolution and frame rate are concerned, though I'd prefer not to change frame rate if possible.

Edit: beaten to the punch again

[mh2360]

If the media player you bought will only accept Xvid/Divx, then you can safely ignore x264/H.264.

The "MPEG-4" the player is referring to is MPEG-4 Part 2 (aka MPEG-4 Visual), which is what Xvid and Divx are. You just need one of the many xvid/divx converters from the tools section.

You have to bear in mind that even if a media player states that it will play xvid/divx, it may not accept HD resolutions.