AVI XVID with GMC / QPEL not recognised by hardware players

[SmurfRecorder]

Years ago I encoded some videos in Divx, some in Xvid.
Years later I learned trick using Visual Avi FourCC changer to fix DivX videos not playing on DVD
I also learned using MP4 modifier to unpack packed bitstream

But currently I found some AVI+XVID files I can't play on any of my hardware (TV, DVD, Bluray)
All of them have GMC in media-info (or GMC/QPel).
Any fix for that, beside re-encoding?

I know XVID is outdated etc. but I have too many movies

[dannyboy48888]

Only feature you can do lossless is unpacking b-frames if you have qpel and gmc a recode will have to be done.

[ProWo]

Can you play them on your computer with a media player?
Post a mediainfo report (text mode) from one of this files here.

[SmurfRecorder]

This is one of problematic files:

ID                                       : 0
Format                                   : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile                           : Advanced Simple@L3
Format settings                          : BVOP2 / GMC2
Format settings, BVOP                    : 2
Format settings, QPel                    : No
Format settings, GMC                     : 2 warppoints
Format settings, Matrix                  : Default (H.263)
Codec ID                                 : XVID
Codec ID/Hint                            : XviD
Duration                                 : 22 min 27 s
Bit rate                                 : 1 301 kb/s
Width                                    : 512 pixels
Height                                   : 384 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.265
Stream size                              : 209 MiB (90%)
Writing library                          : XviD 0.0.09 (UTC 2003-03-25)

[dannyboy48888]

GMC is the problem. Older players and android devices may stutter with b-frames, but most recent players won't. Keep the h263 matrix as well. For hardware compatibility a lot of the feature set is not used (qpel, gmc, multiple b-frames,mpeg-quant etc) but the quality loss is usually minimal when running in constant quant mode. if not using b-frames a gop setting of 30 will help with image color drift but not add too much to the file size. if using b-frames I'd still not go above 60 as color drift starts to accumulate from all the p-frames before a new i-frame is made. Also set the threads to 1. I've noticed for me at least that multiple threads may speed things up but cause color drift to occur with anything above a GOP of 15.

[ProWo]

Read this, maybe useful:
https://www.avforums.com/threads/a-simple-trick-to-play-avi-xvid-divx-videos-on-samsun...oding.2341579/

[SmurfRecorder]

ok thanks. I know about FourCC changing
Strange that my Samsung TV (manufactured about 2015) plays DIVX3 video while not playing this XVID with GMC
(my question about DivX3: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/418219-Change-fourCC-of-Divx3-Low-to-XVID )

I finally learned to use Avisynth, with help of AI which suggested to use script like that (currently I'm reencoding old cartoon):

#step 0: download & put needed plugin files in Avisynth plugins directory

video = FFmpegSource2("FILENAME") 

# Step 1: Gentle Deblocking for Clean Edges
video_deblocked = Deblock_QED(video, quant1=12, quant2=18, aOff1=2, bOff1=3, aOff2=2, bOff2=2, uv=1)

# Step 2: Soft Denoising for Smoother Flat Colors
video_denoised = video_deblocked.FFT3DFilter(sigma=1.8)  # Balanced filter for cartoons

# Step 3: Slight Gamma Adjustment for Depth
#video_gamma = video_denoised.Levels(0, 0.85, 255, 0, 255)  # Gentle darkening to aid compression

# Step 5: Resize with Lanczos for Sharpness
video_resized = video_gamma.LanczosResize(720, 576)

# Step 6: Banding Fix for Smooth Color Gradients
video_final = video_resized.GradFun2DBmod(thr=1.0)  # Conservative threshold to avoid excess blur

video_sharpened = video_final.LSFmod(strength=100)  # Controlled sharpening after banding fix
return video_sharpened

Then I encoded with VirtualDub2 XVID (profile Generic standalone, disabled packed bitstream) and set quality to 4 or 5 (lower=better)
And I think result looks little better than source.

btw.1 I know about h264 etc. but I'd like to keep whole series in one format.
btw.2. I don't know why ffmpeg xvid created 2x bigger file at same compression level

Btw.3. I have also one movie in more strange format, do you know what is it:

ID                                       : 0
Format                                   : MPEG-4 Visual
Codec ID                                 : MP42
Codec ID/Info                            : Microsoft MPEG-4 v2 (pre-standard)
Codec ID/Hint                            : Microsoft
Duration                                 : 22 min 35 s
Bit rate                                 : 1 016 kb/s
Width                                    : 320 pixels
Height                                   : 240 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate                               : 15.000 FPS
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.882
Stream size                              : 164 MiB (90%)

[dannyboy48888]

Very old video, made with second draft mpeg-4. the stuff Microsoft originally made before the version that divx based it's hack off of. FFms2 in avisynth should open no problem

[jagabo]

MP42 is Microsoft's old MPEG 4 Part 2 encoder. It is mentioned in ProWo's link. Basically, not compatible with any other MPEG 4 Part 2 codecs like Xvid and Divx. ffmpeg has a decoder for it.

[hello_hello]

# Step 5: Resize with Lanczos for Sharpness
video_resized = video_gamma.LanczosResize(720, 576)

The original video is 512x384, or 320x240 for the second one you posted, so both are exactly 4:3 (512/384 = 1.33333).
If you're going to resize, you should resize to exact 4:3 dimensions such as 640x480 or 768x576.