DivX vs XviD vs 3viX? Video Codecs Question

[kerrywins]

For those of us who download movies, shows, or almost any other video content from the web, you've probably seen an assortment of codecs out there. From codecs that deal with mpeg-4, to codecs that use open source formats, to good old mp3.
Unfortunately, there are so many of them, that one can get confused and intimidated very quickly. The 3 main ones for mpeg-4 video, which is the new big thing right now, are DivX, XviD, and 3viX. Which one is better then the other? I have no idea. Does anyone here actually know enough about this stuff to make an informed opinion?

[FormerDittoHead]

1. I've played with DivX and...

...I've been very pleased with the compression & quality compared to VCD or SVCD.

My Phillips DVD Player supports DivX as well.

My only problem is wondering about future hardware / manufacturer support plus future versions being incompatable with older versions (ie: my Phillips not being able to play an upcoming version of DivX.

That being the case, with blank DVDs at 50 cents, I encode everything with Mpeg2 either DVD or SVCD, the latter of which I find very acceptable.

[Babel_17]

3. DivX support

Supposedly, the DivX team's policy is to always provide backward's support. In other words, DivX 5 software/hardware will support DivX 4 and in the future DivX 6 will support DivX 5.

As to hardware, the above is only "guaranteed" for "DivX Certified" hardware like your Philips player.

It got great reviews, nice choice.

[FormerDittoHead]

6. No, I meant the FORWARD compatiblity...

I mean, will my DVD player that supports DivX 4 be able to play DivX 6?

I would assume v6 would play v4.

HOWEVER, the Phillips (and many other) DVD player allows firmware updates via download, burn to CD and boot menu...

BUT MPEG is an ISO STANDARD, not controlled by a single company, and so that's what I use for anything I want to keep...

I'm afraid of Microsoft buying out DivX and "depreciating" it into the next version of "WMA"...

[Babel_17]

10. Not a 5x player?

I thought the Philips came with firmware supporting DivX 5.xx?

http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/catalog/product.jsp?language=en&country=US&catalogType=CONSUMER&productId=DVP642_17_US_CONSUMER

"Compression formats : Divx 3.11, Divx 4, Divx 5, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4"


Anyways, you might be in luck. :)

http://forums.divx.com/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/201101651/m/359102442

[FormerDittoHead]

13. I meant DivX 6,7,8,9,10 and beyond.

Whereas Mpeg will always play on an Mpeg player.

Again, Mpeg is a standard, whereas only one company will dictate if my DivX 5 player will be able to play DivX v11...

[Babel_17]

2. I know a bit

As it is open source XviD has great developers and a great community that provides excellent feedback.

Its progress has been steady and the latest (unofficial) beta version I downloaded and installed gave a really solid boost to my cpu's performance.

DivX is no slouch and the encoding front end, Dr. DivX, gives the casual user lots of great options. You can now include a 5.1 channel AC3 audio stream to the encode.

I don't know much about 3viX.

Ahead (Nero) and Apple (QuickTime) both offer an exceptional but very proprietary codec. Ahead's version is just starting to come into its own and is currently quite tricky to use to its limits. It's also fussy about what files it will handle.

The real gurus of amateur encoding seem to go with XviD.

Here's a link to the XviD decoder I'm using. Read my "disclaimer" below before even thinking of downloading this or any other codec.

http://www.koepi.org/xvid.shtml

I'm using
XviD-1.1.0-Beta1-16012005.exe

A word of warning: Unless you have some degree of familiarity with doing backups and using codecs you should avoid installing any but the most trusted and supported.

Forums on the internet are loaded with the cries of anguish of people who've installed "codec packs" or even a single codec only to find later that their system got hosed.

Cliff Notes: The coders responsible for these codecs show little hesitation at changing the preferences of Windows regarding playback of media. They often don't include a separate player so they "tell" Windows to load their codec and their settings when starting media player or any player dependent on Windows.

Even codecs that come with a player sometimes do this.

To top it off, many of these codecs come with either no uninstaller or a very crappy one. You're still hosed even when they are gone.

Fwiw, Intervideo's WinDVD 6 offers one of the fastest standalone solutions for playing back many/most mp4's.

VLC player is one of the safest as it operates from its own folder.

http://www.videolan.org/

I personally use the nightly builds. They don't even have an installer. I just extract the VLC player folder and from within it copy a shortcut to my desktop of the executable (.exe) for the program.

I don't use it for mp4's but it should be a safe method.

Nightly builds link.

http://vthr.via.ecp.fr/~videolan/build/win32/

They've all been good of late. Just get the latest one. If it gives you issues try an earlier one.

Final word: I truly can't stress enough the importance of doing a good backup (preferably a total image) before installing any codecs.

[Babel_17]

4. Woops! Forgot to mention Microsoft

Their wmv 9 encoder can do great things. I've heard reports that you want to avoid doing multi-passes of HDTV content though.

Stick with one pass "quality based" at around 90% for those.

Not the easiest to work with imo.

Edit: And here's an essential link for anyone aspiring to guru status.

http://www.doom9.net/

[Babel_17]

5. Lol, what a geek I am,

just noticed now you're beautiful. :)

[kerrywins]

7. thanks....

sort of out of the blue...but very sweet of you...

[Placebo]

8. H.264 is going to blow the rest out of the water.

:)

[kerrywins]

9. so they say...

but I already have alot of stuff encoded in mpeg 4 and ac3, and xvid. Looks really good to me.
And I just installed 3ivx. Seems to work great on mpeg 4 (all divx and xvid playback).

[IronLionZion]

11. are you just playing movies or encoding too?

If you are just watching them, keep it simple, don't install more codecs than you need. FFDshow will play anything. get it here: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/codecs_and_filters/ffdshow.cfm

If you come across something that still won't play, VLC player will play it since it uses its own codecs. get it here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/


But if you are trying to create movies, then I've heard good things about Divx and Xvid. This site will give you tons of info on that: http://www.afterdawn.com/


yeah, and you are absolutely gorgeous! :loveya:

[kerrywins]

12. I'm just playing them...

I tried downloading 3ivx....it was smaller than ffdshow...and it works great.