Reecode old videos with open codec without quality loss possible?

Hi,

I have a lot of old video footage around that, I am ashamed to say, I enc=
oded with heavily proprietary codecs like DivX and such during the dark a=
ges (aka. the Windows Times).

Now, I would like to redeem myself from the mistakes of my past by re-enc=
oding everything into open formats.
Since those videos are often not of the best quality (poor camera, poor c=
odecs, poor knowledge), I do not want to loose more quality in the proces=
s.

So, to avoid any more mistakes in the future, I would be glad if someone =
could answer me some of the following questions:
1. Is it even possible to re-encode those movies into something like x264=
/vp8/theora without loosing any more quality?
2. What tools should I use for that (besides transcode)?
3. What would be the most desirable format to have? I'm thinking about x2=
64 in Martroska with ogg Auto. Is there anything better suited?

Thanks,
Markus
--=20
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