XviD vs DivX

[desijay]

I have been disconnected from DivX for a while so don't really know how DivX codec is nowadays but last I remember, the tests revealed that XviD is better than DivX and so I started using XviD. Now, I am in a position where I would like to rip a DVD to avi 'with chapters'. This feature was on 'to do' list of DivX developers, I was wondering if it is available now with this new DivX converter? and how does current DivX codec perform against latest XviD release?

I understand that everybody has their own preferences but I am curious if anybody has performed these tests recently.

Many thanks

[jagabo]

Xvid may have slightly better image quality but it's close enough that it doesn't really matter. At the fastest settings (referring to Xvid's "Quality Presets" vs Divx's "Codec Performance" settings -- the major determining factor of encoding speed) Divx is much faster. At the default settings Divx is faster. At the slowest settings Xvid is a little faster. This can vary a bit with the video being encoded though. I ran all these tests on a Core 2 Duo E6300, Divx 6.4 vs Xvid 1.2 beta (multithreaded) from about 6 months ago.

I usually encode in constant quantizer mode with the quantizer set to 2 or 3, no B frames, key frames at 100 frame intervals. With those settings both give very similar quality but Xvid gives slightly smaller files (~5 percent). These are higher quality settings than most people use. But I've run the tests at more moderate settings, constant quantizer, constant bitrate, and 2-pass VBR, and find pretty much the same thing for all.

In short, with the exception of real-time encoding where Divx has a definite advantage, the two codecs are pretty close in quality and speed.

[RabidDog]

Divx have worked on their container as well so it now has chapters and menus but only if your hardware recognizes it eg player software on computer or the actual hardware divx player. I have lost touch a bit as well, I thought nero mp4 was coming up on the rails, but appears to be nowhere. I suspect all development is going into Hi-DEF nowadays. I used to find xvid better on Amd and divx better on intel but that was in previous codec iterations. you pays your money and you's take your choice, horses for courses, mules for schools...

[desijay]

I just downloaded DivX encoder trial version and looks like there is not much option for tweaking the settings so I wonder how anybody can tweak it like jagabo?
Same goes for chapters, does it take that by default?

[celtic_druid]

You use something else to encode, something that gives you access to DivX's VfW encoder settings.

[desijay]

And may I know what is that something else?

[guns1inger]

virtualdub or one it's variants

[celtic_druid]

My point was that there isn't a single answer. Plenty of apps that can encode via DivX VfW. Also I believe Dr. DivX 2 can interface with DivX.

VDub (as per above including variants (VDubMod, VDub-MPEG2)) I would say is the most popular VfW based encoder.