A couple of DivX questions for the experts ???

[loraquest]

I am going to reformat my hard drive and do a fresh Windows XP install, and I was wondering about the proper way to install the DivX codec(s) on my machine. In the past, I installed version 3.11 first and then I installed version 4.12. When it asked if I wanted to use 4.12 to play back 3.x content I said "no". This method has always worked great for me, but now I would like to throw DivX 5 into the mix as well. This is where I get confused, as I have no experience with this newer codec. Is it still necessary to install both 3.11 and 4.12 first, or can I simply install DivX 5 and it will play back all the older stuff fine?

Also, I have recently been having some problems playing back certain DivX files with Windows Media Player 8 for XP. When I open the file, there is only audio, no video, as if the proper video codec isn't installed. When I open the same file with the older Mplayer2, however, it plays just fine. Again, this problem only occurs with a small percentage of DivX files, so it's not that big of a deal, but I would still like to know why this is happening and how I can fix it? Does anyone have any theories? Perhaps there is a better player I could be using instead of Media Player? Any suggestions? Thanks!

-Brian

[aguillon]

Look for a utility called GSpot - www.doom.org should have it - it gives you the name of the codecs used by your file.

Sometimes the 4cc is just DIVX and some players have problems with that.

For media player, I use BSPlayer and am very happy with it (particularly since it lets me select subtitles manually and resize the output very easily when the files are in 4:3 or 16:9).
You can get it at www.bsplayer.org