Best codec for low-size quality anime encoding

[Linkiboy]

See title. I tried H263, H.263+, and H.264, but they were extremely blocky, and I have no idea why people think they're so good.

So, whats a good codec?

 

[FAST6191]

H263 is more intended for video conferencing than actual day to day use.

With regard to h264 I reckon it is the best standard in common use today. If you are going to use it (and I assume you are not willing to fork out for it) I suggest you use X264 (many other h264 codecs are less than brilliant) and make sure you turn off post processing in FFDshow (post processing is part of the h264/MPEG4avc spec and extra makes it look nasty).

If you need a good frontend megui works pretty well, it is avisynth based but for simple encoding it should not matter at all:
http://x264.nl/

This being said anime can be some of the hardest stuff to encode due to all the errors made when people make DVDs (especially R1 stuff)

Also you will notice a lot of anime encodes are not DVD resolution, this is the main "secret" to how encodes can look as "good" as they do.

Failing that xvid (especially with the "cartoon" mode for low detail stuff) work well.

 

[Linkiboy]

Fast, I fucking love you.

I finally found an encoder which takes advantage of all 4 cores in my proccy. Its encoding faster than just encoding in xvid or wmv or something.