Transcode my DV Footage to ??? Format - Advice Please

[jmone]

I'm looking to transcode my Type 1 & 2 DV PAL (both square and anamorphic pixel) into a more supported format for playback on PC's, PS3's etc BUT I want to keep the quality as close to the original as possible.

So any suggestion would be welcome for what Tools / Formats / Containers that:
1) Must maintain as close to the original quality as possible (so I don't want DVD "quality"). Ideally it would still be a 720x576 @ 25mbs without interframe compression but....How about H.264 High Profile, if the table at wikipedia is correct I should get a similar format as listed in 3.1?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264
2) A common Format / Container widly in use as I want to do this only once and minismse multi generational transcoding loss as much as possible (I'm thinking M2(TS) container as I can stream this to the PS/2 and I've already got an HDV camcorder)
3) A tool that can batch convert '00 of files AND can handle 4:3 / 16:9 Anamorphic both Type 1 and Type 2 DV correctly (without stuffing up the aspect ratio of the 16:9 Anamorphic Stuff!)

Thanks
Nathan

(note: cross post from AVSFourm)

[sjj1805]

If you are making a Video DVD then you need to use MPEG2.
If you are sharing over the internet or simply keeping it on your computer to view from the computer directly then you have a choice

MPEG4
DivX
Xvid

There are other formats available such as Quicktime, WMV and even flash
but you may find best results are with the 3 listed above.