What is a good software to use to encode or transcode

Not too sure which one is the more correct term but currently I'm wondering which software is good at dealing with RAW videos (e.g. something like video recordings produced by FRAPS) into more viable size and video format that can either:

• Be uploaded to a Video Hosting Site (e.g. Nico Nico Dounga or YouTube)
• Or be converted into a smaller file but retain it's video quality (where the source is a RAW video format or something close to that)

Right now I'm thinking of dealing with RAW video(?) (not sure this is the correct term for files produced from video recording software like FRAPS or Bandicam) and encoding/transcoding (still kind of not sure which term is the correct term to use) to something smaller and be uploaded or shared. I don't mind spending some time learning about the methods and software. However it still has to:

• Retain Quality of Video and Audio
• While reducing the RAW video(?) size to something manageable

Thanks for the response so far. I'll have a look into each software to see which one suits my needs. Since I'm looking for a software that allows me to select the type of transcode I want before encoding it to a smaller file. It'll take some time for me to see the documentation for each one. Assuming it meet the initial criteria of what I'm looking for. I'll probably ask additional questions in this thread or make a specific thread once I pick a software that is freeware which will allow me to complete the scenario I had in mind.