Why are people replacing XVID over DIVX??

[torex88]

Why are people starting to use XVID instead of DIVX?? Before everyone was using DIVX and it worked dammed great. Now people are starting to use XVID to replace DIVX, and it's causing a lot of software problems. Why are people doing this? Does anyone knows? Thanks.

[Skynet107]

I think the biggest reason is that DivX is not open source and Xvid is. Also Xvid has many more encoding options and also is higher quality. Myself I don't bother with DivX anymore unless I have no choice, I prefer the quality of the Xvid codec.

[vhelp]

hmm..

I've even tried XviD too, due to the hype that it's suppose to be better quality,
but in all my attempts to enjoy it, it always disables my TMPG ability to accept
any frameserving of an .AVI files, even XviD

That just stumpped me becaues that means a few steps backwards for me
and TMPG

Course, if you have any suggestions as to what's going on and HOW TO fix,
I'd be all ears and would give XviD another shot :P

-vhelp

[feenix]

vdhelp,

Your post intrigued me as I use Xvid all the time as the quality (to my eyes anyway) is excellent, but I'd never tried to frameserve to TMPGENC. All my frameserving is done to create the Xvid in the first place.

However I did give it a try with an Avisynth script and .........lo and behold it didn't like it at all. Then the thought occured to me that most Xvid/Divx will have mp3 or ac3 soundtracks to I created one with a straightforward PCM soundtrack and ........no problem. I tried it with an Xvid source avi and an mjpeg source avi and both worked fine.

So my ,possibly hasty ,conclusion is that the format of the audio stream is the problem not the video codec.

Maybe this will work for you

[vhelp]

@ feenix, ..thanks

Ok, that's something to think about - - why didn't I think of that
I'm very surprised at myself for not catching that one
And, its funny.. how I always in the end, find out why I have trouble w/ some
source files (via vdub's .vdr) that don't work, when it was due to the audio,
and when I blanked out the audio under TMPG, things encoded.. but that it
took me a while before I figured it out. For some goofy reason, I missed
this reasoning w/ my first attempts in XviD testings :P

Thanks again,
-vhelp

[feenix]

vdhelp,

As an aside - I've just tried frameserving to TMGPENC from Virtualdub and the results were exactly the same (ie wouldn't accept mp3 audio)

Cheers

[vhelp]

hi feenix,

FWIW.. I've just installed XviD again, and for some strange reason, I did
not have any issue w/ TMPG w/ other files and the XviD file.. though I was
using a test XviD file just now, and I only have one file sample.
Here's the file I installed: "XviD_Install.exe" and it installed these two
files: "xvid.dll" and "xvid.ax"

So, I figured I'd try a few encodes in vdub, but it did not list XviD as a codec
anyweres' What gives now ??

Also, I'd be interested in D/L'ing any SHORT XviD clips for testing quality
comparisons.

@ torex88..
I don't think that peoples are giving up on divX, but as for myself, I always
like to stay on top of things w/ latest tech and so forth, but even then, there
are times when I leave something alone, for forwhatever the reason

-vhelp

[vhelp]

@ feenix..

ahh, that's a negative.. cancel that order above. All is working. I had to
close down vdub (had it opended while installing XviD) I reopended and
selected the default "XviD MPEG-4 Code" and used the 900 as bitrate, and
I was satisfied w/ the results thus far. I used some footage I shot from my
Sony TRV22 cam :P

Looking good so far
-vhelp

[LanEvo7]

Mainly because XVID is free and its open source.

[FulciLives]

As far as I am concerned DivX is easier to encode than Xvid and if you use a high enough bitrate (I always put a movie across 2 CD-R discs as trying to fit a movie to one CD-R uses too low a bitrate for my quality tastes) then any difference between the two is extremly minimal if even noticeable.

Factor in the fact that there are a few stand alone DVD players that can play DivX well but not Xvid and it is a no brainer to me ... especially as more and more DivX capable stand alone DVD players hit the market.

These days I almost never use any MPEG-4 codec but if I eventually get a stand alone DVD player that does DivX (that LITE-ON model that people have been talking about sounds nice and I'm itching to buy it) then I can see myself going back to DivX as I found the quality to be very good and it will allow much more QUALITY output on a DVD-R disc ... a DVD with 2 or even 3 movies will have EXCELLENT quality whereas now even using half D1 I don't like to do less than 4000kbps which only allows 2hours 15minutes give or take. You can't really fit 2 movies on one DVD-R at that rate with MPEG-2 but with DivX you could EASILY fit 2 movies if not 3 per disc.

Just a thought ...

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

Think about it ... what would look better ... a DVD at half D1 resolution (352x480) with a bitrate of 3000kbps (that woud allow about 3 hours on the DVD) or a DivX file at 640x480 at 1500kbps ... at that rate you get quality nearly as good as D1 (720x480) but with the ability to fit 3 movies per DVD.

[feenix]

vdhelp,

Glad you got it working.

Something you might want to try is using 1 pass CQ mode. I tend to use this at a setting of 90 to 95% and get excellent results, usually using mjpeg avi as source but it works equally as well with mpeg 1 or 2. Admittedly the file size can be quite large and not really be pre-determined but ...........quality rules and all that!

I've tried Divx 5 but , probably due to my ignorance and refusing to pay for the pro version, I couldn't get anywhere near the same quality

Cheers

[vhelp]

@ feenix and others..

@ FulciLives..
I understand your point. right now, I too, am learning about this new codec
and want to give it a fair assesment, but based on MY experience and use,
not others out their that didn't use it properly and w/ proper sources and
w/ proper settings and things.

@ feenix.. thanks.

I'm eager to try other settings and things too see what would be best etc.
I'm wondering if I took an HOURS worth of footage from my CAM, and then
encoded it to XviD, what would the final filesize be, if my aim was as perfect
as can be, quality ? hmm..
..any input ??

FWIW, I did a quick test of XviD on a CAM sample and I really liked how it
cam out when I re-encoded it to MPEG-2. I couldn't believe that there were
NO issues as far as artifacts or anything else for that matter, that I could
tell. I'll look cloosely when it gets darker out (too much light taints my
ability to judge fairly)

Listen, I just went out for a quick break, and found that there is a fair or
something ging on in another town. I'm off to take some footage of what
ever it is.. got my RED battery for many hours (not that I'm gonna) of CAM
operations. I'm excited to see what's going on their hehe :P

I'll be back shortly,
-vhelp

[feenix]

vdhelp,

Well, as quality very subjective , I would just try it on different settings until you get something like the quality that YOU like and within any file size limits that you find acceptable. I guess with a constant bitrate you could use a bitrate calculator and see what the output file should be whereas with CQ mode (which basically uses variable bitrate) any file size would be a guess.

So give it all a try and good luck

Oh yeah - one other thing. As you're capturing from a camcoder I'm guessing that the audio quality will not be the greatest so you could drop the audio bitrate down quite a bit and that will save you some file space - not a lot but some!

Cheers