Why does the Archos Gen 5 DVR Station record in OpenDivX?

[Bix]

I picked up a Archos 605 WiFi (30GB) and the DVR dock for it at a Blockbuster Video that's closing and had great deals on them. I'm absolutely in love with the device(s) but I noticed something strange. Out of curiosity, I ran a file recorded using the DVR Station through GSpot, and I learned that the video was encoded using OpenDivX of all things. Why would they use a codec that hadn't been updated since 2001 for a device being released in 2007 instead of the most recent available version of Xvid? Does OpenDivX work better with hardware encoders? Also, the audio is recorded in DVI ADPCM (48000Hz 387 kb/s) as opposed to MP3, is this for speed/not straining the CPU reasons?

As I said, it's a great device but the codec choices are curious.

[yoda313]

It's probably a specialized version of divx for the archos. I can't imagine its exactly the same as the divx you'd use from divx.com. There are probably settings on it to optimize it for that hardwares exact specifics.

As for the audio that format probably doesn't require licensing, mp3 does.

[Bix]

I figured it could be something like that, but if someone's gonna modify an open source codec, why use OpenDivX instead of the more advanced Xvid? The vaguely defined patent concerns that that led to Xvid binaries not being hosted on the project site? Less hardware customization? Both? Something else?

[whatshisname]

I've been using 605 for recording for over a year and I never really looked at the format until you brought it up. Maybe that is why my PS3 won't play my recordings. GRRRRR

[Bix]

The OpenDivX probably isn't the issue. The ADPCM audio probably is. See if you can re-encode it as MP3 and re-mux it w/ a direct stream copy of the video.

[whatshisname]

Its probably not that hard to remux it but my problem is that my recordings is usually sports related and thus very long. I don't to have to deal with recombining the avi, av2, av3, and etc. I'll just stay with using the archos to play back the contents.