Divx vs. Xvid performance on portable player...

[abobrien]

I have a Creative Zen Vision:M 30GB player and I have a simple question about the codecs it uses. I can run WMV, Divx or Xvid AVIs, and MPEG4-SP on my player. I've found a good frontend for Mencoder that gives me the option of Divx or Xvid encoding for a plethora of formats. What I am wondering is what will give me the best battery life? I know that my player can only play about 4-5 hours of video before a recharge, but I often watch podcasts and small clips on my player throughout the day and I want to encode in the format that will look good (I notice little difference in quality with a 320x240 screen) and not kill my battery life. Would Divx (this is Divx 5, BTW) or the newest Xvid codec be less harsh on my player's resources?

TIA, all.

[jagabo]

There's probably little difference betwen the two in terms of playback battery life. They're both MPEG 4 ASP codecs.

[abobrien]

Is WMV known to or to not influence battery life any more or less? I am really just curious as to what my best bet would be in terms of battery life, because even 30 mins could make the different between one extra podcast. I also want to have an idea of how I can best use it when I go back to school in a few weeks.

[baka99]

It shouldn't matter which encoding the video file is in when considering battery life. If you really do want to conserve battery life then reduce your brightness to minimum.

Between the 2 codecs, i agree with the previous post that there is little difference in the quality. However, the fact that Xvid is free with no ads is a plus. On the other hand, sometimes even though they say Xvid/Divx compatible some Xvid files will not play. So if you're after ease of use for your own encoding then get Xvid. If you're just viewing files then go with Divx.

[jman98]

With regards to Xvid, I advise caution only in that people who use Xvid also seem to use options that playback devices don't like very much. Specifically you should avoid the use of GMC, QPel (Quarter Pixel) and packed bit stream, all of which may be a problem for your player. If you encode with the commercial Divx codec, the main encoding tools turn those options off by default. I doubt you'll notice any difference in battery usage between Xvid and Divx.

WMV is pretty kind to CPUs. It's possible to play high def WMV on systems that can't handle high def H.264/X.264. I really don't know if WMV is less intensive than Divx/Xvid or not. You'll have to test.