the best video format

[OrangeCuse44]

I'm going to transfer my camera video files from my pc to macbook. they are all AVI files which take up a huge amount of space. i was wondering if there is another video format i could convert them to that takes up less space without losing video quality (like converting MP3 to AAC)? if so, what program could i download to handle this the best? thanks.

 

[robbieduncan]

Converting MP3 to AAC does loose quality. Transcoding any lossy compression format to another will always loose quality. If you want to save space and retain as much quality as possible then H.264 is probably the best bet.

 

[LeviG]

h.264 is probably the best option for space, however this isnt the most cpu friendly codec.

If any of the computers are older, then it may be worth considering quicktime using the mp4 compression settings, this can give a good comprimise between size and quality.

Software - possibly depending on the codec used with the avi you could use quicktime pro, if not probably nero using the recode part