What is the Best Divx Codec? 3.11 vs. 4 vs. 5

[postul8or]

What is the Best Divx Codec? 3.11 vs. 4 vs. 5

[jkl]

check out this post

http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=112931

please comment

[postul8or]

I looked at the post a few minutes ago and it only seemed to compare 3.11 vs. 4 (but not 5) along with this XviD codec. I didn't take a look at all the individual pictures to judge for myself, I just read his conclusion.

Perhaps I'll take another look and look at the screenshots this time. I'm skeptical about screenshots because it says nothing about how smooth the frames in the movie are.

To me that's the crux of the problem with DivX...it's right on the setting where you pick Crispness vs. Smoothness. Isn't this something that should adapt to the input, if it's 2 people sitting in chairs make it crisp vs. if Keanu Reeves is running make it less crisp but more smooth. Maybe things like this XviD or DivX 4, 5 can do. I'm still using 3.11 because I heard so many rumors that it's the best (and I haven't been doing this stuff for like 6+ months).

[bbb]

3 (SBC) is the best but difficult to make. It gets a bad rap even by it's creaters just because it infringes on (MS's?) copyrights. Rest assured though, it's the best. Don't believe the bad rap. I think that the creaters are just trying to kill it with bad rap because they don't want legal problems.

4 is not as good as three and not as good as 5 in visual quality but it's not as buggy as 5. I've never seen a 4 clip that looks as good as a 3 SBC clip.

5 Pro looks pretty good in 2 pass mode with all the options enabled but its got bugs. 2 pass mode is pretty easy to make. However, if you choose top quality decoding mode, the sound will be ahead of the video. This is true even if you have a fast processor. In normal decoding mode, the sound is fine.

Xvid -- I've heard of them being another alternative to 5 and now the Sigma situation. I don't plan to test this one out anytime soon. I also hear it's got bugs.

As far as the best, I would pick 3 but making SBC is a pain compared to 4 and 5. Next, I would pick 4 simply because 5 got the sound bug. And 5 would be the last, at least until they work out the sound bug. Again, I won't consider Xvid because it's not very popular at this point, support and development has stopped due to the Sigma infringement situation, and Divx just sounds better.

Yes, I'm rambling today but I didn't get sleep last night.

[postul8or]

Thanks for you comments bbb,

Most of my encoding experience has involved capturing hockey games off of old VHS tapes. The main weakness I've found with divX 3.11 is the choppyness, and in hockey where it's fast and the camera pans fast to catch up to the play the choppyness is super noticable.

It's VHS so it's not going to be very clear and crisp and I think that's just obvious. I admit I need to work on some filter experiments because I could be making some cleaner things as well. The other thing with hockey is the white ice surface makes your brightness/contract settings very important compared to plain old movies.

People always told me to use the 3.11 slow motion codec, have always wondered if fast motion would be better for hockey. Have also wondered about how to optimize the use of the Crispness vs. Smoothness setting.

bbb or anyone else have any words or wisdom or opinions?

[bbb]

postul8or,

There's Divx 3 slow motion codec, Divx 3 fast motion codec, and then there's the special (difficult to make) Divx 3 2-pass SBC mode which gets the best of the slow motion and fast motion codecs.

I gave up halfway trying to figure out how to make a Divx 3 2-pass SBC encoding. doom9.net has the guides.

You can try 5 Pro. It's easy to make in VirtualDub. I was using this a few days ago.

Tip: with Divx you can resize your clip smaller as to better use lower bitrates (but I wouldn't go lower than 320x240). Get the Xvid created Divx bitrate calculator/window resizer. It works well.

Personally, I'm a newbie at Divx encoding, just started last week.

[biggantdogg]

Hey bbb,
What are the necessary tools and codecs I need to get started with Divxpro5 I believe? I never used divx before...

Also, any good guides on creating VCD or XVCD's? (where)

Is divx a good competitor or better than TMPGEnc that I've been using forever?

Thanks!!

[banjazzer]

DivX 5 Pro (used properly) using b-frames and GMC will give the closest you can currently get to DVD quality. (~100m/80minCDR). XviD can also give comparable quality for equivalent filesize, but is arguably a little more difficult to use. 8)

[jkl]

http://koti.mbnet.fi/website/mpeg4test/2002.03.08_devils_advocate/devils_advocate_mpeg4_eng.html

[postul8or]

Divx 3 2-pass SBC mode....definitely interested in checking that out. I'll look into it.

I dunno now that I have a new CPU I can capture at 640*480 without dropped frame problems. I encoded a DivX at 640*480 and 1000kbps on the video compression. In the past I would use maybe 320*340 and lets say 800kbps compression. I think this 1000kbps with double the resolution (ie. 4 times more pixels) to be way better. Seems like before increasing the kbps didn't do much because 320*240 is just not enough for a full screen.

I dunno there's so much optimization to look at here and it all seems really subjective. Gotta encode, check it, encode another, check it, compare etc.

Hoping I can hear more comments and experiments and figure this mess out.