Divx Or Mpeg2

[PraxZeus]

Forgive me if this seems a noobish question, "I've only been doing this a lil over a month". I've been using an external dvd player to capture dvd's to my hard drive through my TV card. Due to the fact I don't have a dvd rom only a CDR drive. My main purpose for this is so I can take my favorite movies with me on my laptop and not have to juggle with 3 or 4 dvds as well. I've been just encoding in Mpeg2 format (720/480 48,000 khz 16-bit).
Just for experimental purposes I used divx 5 free-version (not-Pro) to encode an un-compressed avi file in virtual dub, and after a couple attemps to get the audio in sinc all turned out fine. Aside from the intial avi size once compressed to divx it wasn't all that much smaller than the mpeg2 format. I know this is mostly a matter of oppnion But is there any advantage to encoding to divx? My main concern is quality over file size. For example is one format easier to convert to a different format "If such a need should ever arise", than the other? I've also played around with svcd and vcd formats but I wasn't to impressed with the final outcome. While the audio was satisfactory the video image was a lil pixolated "grainy Look" and a lil bright in some scenes against lighter backrounds. what origionaly attracted me to svcd was the ability to reburn the file to a couple CDR's to play on some set top dvd players, but after whitnessing the overall quality I dont think it be my best option.
- Sorry for being so long winded but I'm realy just looking for some informed user feedback from those who may have had similar inquiries or issues in the past.

-ThankYou in advance
-PraxZeus

[setarip]

1) A good quality DivX-compressed .AVI file can be made CONSIDERABLY smaller than an MPEG2 format file both by using a (substantially) lower video bitrate and using .MP3 audio

2) THe ONLY reason to convert to either VideoCD or Super VideoCD is in order to play on on a standalone DVD player for output to your television. The typically poor appearance of such files on your PC monitor is VERY misleading, as your television's lower resolution makes many of the negative visual aspects "disappear"


"I've been just encoding in Mpeg2 format (720/480 48,000 khz 16-bit). For example is one format easier to convert to a different format?"

This is definitely the best starting point, since you've retained the highest original qualities in this format.

[PraxZeus]

ThankYou very much for yout reply

[setarip]

My pleasure ;>}