divx settings won't stay saved & multipass encoding problems

[sincostan]

I apologize if this is in the wrong forum. I wasn't sure which one to put it in.

Alright, I upgraded my Divx from Divx 5 to the new Divx 6.4. (Just the free version.) Since I do a lot of cutting and joining, I always have to recompress my projects (too big for uncompressed avi, has to be in Divx, and if I don't recompress, the videos don't cut correctly.) I use VirtualDub.

So, I keep the bitrate high and the "speed/quality" ratio setting on 8 (highest it will go for best quality in the free version) as shown in the screenshot.



However, since I upgraded, the "speed/quality" setting will NOT stay on 8. (The bitrate and rate control mode stays the same though.) I check, double check, triple and even quadruple check to make sure it's on 8 before I save the file or process batch jobs. Then when I compress, all of a sudden the video's compressing at 22-24fps, when it should be compressing around 7-8fps on my processor. When I abort the job and check on the settings, it reset itself down to 3. This happens every single time.

I wouldn't have a problem with it, but the video has nasty artifacts around things that move. If I'm recompressing a video a couple times over, that's no good. (I had no noticable degradation in the final product with speed/quality on 8 and 1-pass encoding with bitrate of 4000 with Divx 5.)

When I save my projects, I use 1-pass encoding because...well, I've been having problems with multipass encoding and like I said, I haven't noticed any degradation with 1-pass. However, having my final product videos with a bitrate of 4000 is a little steep. I wouldn't mind using multipass encoding with a lower bitrate to finally get a FINAL product with equal quality and smaller filesize. (I'm not sure what bitrate to use, but that's another story.)

When I try to use Multipass-Nth pass, I get this error message either in the middle of compression or when it starts.



What the hell? It compresses fine with 1-pass and all settings of Xvid when I try it, so why this one setting?

When I try to use Multipass-1st Pass, it doesn't even compress the video. It just direct stream copies the audio (which I want it to do) and the video filesize crawls up to something like 64KB according to the VirtualDub status window as it compresses. When I play this file, it just plays the audio.

I also had these same types of problems with Divx 5. I assumed that upgrading would fix them, but I guess not.

Also, Xvid multipass doesn't give me any problems. But I prefer to stay in Divx simply because I'd like to give my videos out to my friends on a Divx DVD since almost all of them have Divx DVD players.

If anybody can help me out, I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks in advance!

[Toastie]

If a dvd player plays DivX, it will also play XviD.

[sincostan]

If a dvd player plays DivX, it will also play XviD.

Really? I thought I heard something to the effect of Xvid would never be supported in DVD Players because it's an open source type of thing where Divx is developed by some company. And I've never seen 'Xvid supported' stamped on any DVD player. Though an Amazon.com search reveals some DVD players that do support Xvid, though they don't say it outright.

I guess I can save my videos in Xvid after all... though it would still be nice to make my Divx settings stay put.

[mats.hogberg]

DivX and XviD are similar enough (done properly) to be decoded by the same decoder. Some players refuse to play XviD nevertheless, but then it's usually only a matter of changing the fourCC with AVI fourcc changer to fool the player into accepting it as a DivX.

/Mats

[sincostan]

I see, thank you for the info! When I'm done with my project, I'll give Xvid a go and if it doesn't work, then I'll try what you suggested.

So...nobody has any idea about Divx multipass not working and the quality/speed settings not staying put?

I'd like my videos to be in Divx because they're easier to cut and join that way. I tried Xvid about a year ago and I remember it being a total pain in the ass because seeking was very slow in VirtualDub and it would take me forever to finish editing one video. But maybe I was just impatient or something. I'll try it again....