what is the difference between the H264 and xvid settings?

[joecurly02]

I want to backup in the mkv format. what is the difference between the H264 and xvid settings? pro's and/or con's of each? what is the optimal Bits/Pixel i should be looking for? Thx in advance.

[signals]

H264 is a more advanced encoding scheme with many advantages over xvid. It produces good images as low as 0.15 bits/pixel and looks really good at 0.35 or so. This is subjective, so you should try it yourself. It also can use CUDA GPU acceleration when being encoded, xvid can't.