In what format to encode video from minidv cassettes?

Question

H.264

Now there are videos in the form of avi-mjpeg, which were obtained as a result of transferring miniDV cassettes to a computer. Initially I planned to convert them to mkv with the following parameters: video: x264, 2 passes, very slow, 4mbit/s, audio: nero AAC adaptive 192kbit/s, subtitles with timecode. Should I choose x265 instead of x264? Nowhere did I find an actual comparison of x264 vs x265. Even here there are articles with comparisons, but they are from 2014-2017 and therefore I consider them irrelevant.
Questions:
1. What parameters are optimal for video encoding? Priority on maintaining quality, encoding time is not important.
2. Who will advise what to look at about x264 vs x265?
3. Can choose something third for video encoding? Maybe newfangled h.266 or something else?