SVCD VS. Divx

[King-Of-DK]

Now i have heard a lot of ranting about the joys of Divx VS. SVCD,Which format is the better? Is the resolution of DIVX better that SVCD? If so does it pay to convert DIVX into SVCD and not VCD? Why is the Divx versin of sme films in WS,while the exact same film in SVCD is P&S? I am reffereing to Resident Evil,the VITE version is DIVX,WS and the other SVCD,P&S,how can that be?

[Craig Tucker]

Unlike VCD, and to a lesser extent SVCD, divx does not have a standard format. i.e. the framerate, resolution or bitrate can vary. So the question cannot really be answered, other than to say, depending on how its been encoded a divx file could look absolutely crap or excellent.

Craig

[bugster]

As craigtucker said, there is no standard resolution or bitrate for divx, so the quality of encodes varies. SVCD is a standard, with a max bitrate and fixed resolution, using mpeg-2 for encoding within those parameters. If we take away the SVCD part of the equation and just look at mpeg-2, it too allows a range of resolutions and bitrates. Any video encoded to equal 'quality' (and remember, quality is a very subjective matter) in both divx and mpeg-2, the mpeg-2 version will be larger because it uses less aggressive compression techniques but it also requires less processing during playback.

SVCD will play on many consumer DVD players, divx will play on none. SVCD does not support widescreen within its specs, so SVCD movies downloaded from the net are either pan & scan or letterboxed. If a movie were encoded in mpeg-2, (but not SVCD spec) it too could be widescreen but far fewer player would play it, if any.

Hope this helps