HandBrake: mpeg-4(ffmpeg) vs. h.264

For legacy reasons that I cannot remember, I've been using ffmpeg instead of h.264 to convert videos to an mp4 container to use on my iDevices. I think h.264 would work for me now that I'm fully Apple-compliant. So, my question is: Would I be better off making the switch, or is it not worth it? Any pros/cons to the two codecs would be appreciated.

FYI - I'm using HandBrake on Windows7 to convert .avi's that I get from ripping DVDs with FairUse Wizard, or mpeg-2 files from TiVo recordings.

Thanks,
Tom

Mr. Retrofire said:

ffmpeg MPEG-4 (a.k.a. MPEG-4 Part 2) is equal to DivX and Xvid. This encoding standard is obsolete, because 99 percent of all video players support the hardware accelerated decoding of H.264 encoded videos.

The x264-encoder encodes videos in the H.264 standard (a.k.a. MPEG-4 Part 10), which allows higher resolutions, can produce a higher image quality and reduces the necessary bitrate.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info! I was just in the middle of some conversions, and shut down my queue when I read what you had to say. I made the switch and did a quick comparison, and the difference is substantial! I was putting 30 min sitcoms in about 150MB file size, with TERRIBLE motion artifacts when scrubbing. Now, at the same quality, they're only taking up 100MB, and no scrubbing artifacts.

I may never know how I got onto ffmpeg in the first place....

Regards,
Tom