What is Xvid.

[Lance Mannion]

I've heard about it, I've seen posts about it. So exactly what is it? Can anyone give me an idea or point me in a direction to find out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ZippyP.]

Straight from the Glossary (over there <-<-<-) :

XviD is an ISO MPEG-4 compliant video codec. It's not a product but an open source project which is developed and maintained by people around the world. XviD.org

It's a video codec that is used in many avi files.

8)

[Lance Mannion]

Thanks man, I appreciate it. Someone told me that they had heard that DVD makers were going to start using this on new DVDs. But with your info, I'm starting to wonder.

Again, thanks much.

[ZippyP.]

If they start using Xvid on new DVD's then most (all!) of the machines out there would not be able to play them. DVD's are mpeg2 encoded and changing to something else would be a very bad marketing decision. No one would be able to play it so no one would buy it.!

Unless it's a scheme to get us to replace all of our players. Hmmmmmmm!

[BJ_M]

H.264 AVC (Advanced Video Coding) standard, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10 and also windows media #9 will be found on a lot of dvd players in the coming times ..


windows media 9 is acually very good quality .. both above are quite related and as well the new QT and also XVID ...

XVID and DiVX will never get much to far because they are not taken seriously by the ISO org - at least not yet .. they really dont work very fast either on new standards .

[Lance Mannion]

Sorry, I was away there for a while with major computer failure. Zippy, you aren't one of those conspiracy theororists are you?

Anyway, to what BJ_M said, that seems to make a lot of sense. If you keep adding file formats that a player can actually play, well, people will buy them and they will be realtively easy to use without having to convert them. Okay Zippy, you might have something there.

[ZippyP.]

Zippy, you aren't one of those conspiracy theororists are you?

No, just cynical!

[reman]

The main problem with XVID right now is that there are no tools to repair a video with bad frames.

I have found DivX 5.x to be very good quality and easy to work with.

I have heard that there will be DVD players supporting DivX and WM. That would be great! No more re-encoding.

[CaptainC]

Unless it's a scheme to get us to replace all of our players. Hmmmmmmm!

ZippyP thats the point thats not much you can say Xvid is developed by others at the cost of others of course the industry will eventually develope standards on this format in the future in the last onth there are more and more players being produced that can handle Divx and so on.
If it costs less they'll use it but at the moment DVD is a safe option

[BJ_M]

there are 9 players now anounced that will play divx 4/5 and other formats --including xvid in the future (when released as 1.0 stable w/ b frames and all i am guessing) ...

all based on a sigma chip

[gll99]

Lance Mannion

Not to pull this off your original topic but you seem interested in this subject.

BJ_M is right on about the H.264/wmv9 players. I saw an ad for one and tried to find it to post the brand name here unfortunately I think the wife has already sent it out with the recycled paper.

I also read an article that said that the Realmedia 9 codec is based on the same technology but that they too have licensed their codec for use in standalone players. I wouldn't be surprised to see those out too.

[BJ_M]

no if only the H.264 standard was accually a shipping product ..

[gll99]

Just to correct myself. I still did not find the ad that I mentionned but the DVD player in question as I recall was listed at $299 US and stated an Mpeg4 player but did not specify the version. It may be a v2 and not likely yet a version 10 (h.264) player. The new standard apparently contains interactive features within the video but I don't know if the files produced by that encoder will be compatible with those players that are currently coming on the market or if only certain enhanced features will be unavailable to the older mpeg4 players.