does xvid file require more cpu power than other avi types?

[ej]

Hi, having a tough time playing a xvid avi disc on pent II 335 with 96 mb. I have all the right codecs, but it plays blocky and with crazy waves, etc. Any ideas what could cause this? Disc plays fine on my 450 pent II with 320 mb.

[Prospero424]

Well, as far as I understand it, Xvid doesn't take any more processing power than any other DivX codec, it is basically a modification of the Open DivX (DivX 4) standard. It all depends on how it was encoded as far as the variation in the power required to decode it in real-time.

There are a couple of things that may be causing this on your system. I would think that a PII 335 would have enough power to play any Xvid file, but remember, any PII before the 350mhz used a 66Mhz Front Side Bus (used 66mhz SDRAM) as opposed to a 100Mhz FSB allowing the use of PC100 SDRAM. This made a big difference in performance.

What I really suspect though is a variation in video cards that is causing the discrepancy. Every video card uses different methods of displaying a 2D image, including video, and if the card is old or obscure (lack of good driver support for example) then the card may not be able to display the Xvid file properly. The only thing you can do is maybe swap video cards between machines and see if the display problem follows the card or else just update your video drivers (I also suggest updating your motherboard chipset drivers from intel.com) and hope for the best.

Hope this helps,

Prospero

[ej]

I have a feeling you're probably right, thanks for the great answer.