Why is everything converted to Xvid and not Divx?

[atoledo123]

I've noticed that 9 out of 10 videos/movies/tvshows found on p2p networks is encoded with Xvid. Why not DIvx? Is Xvid better quality?

I have a Philips 642 DVD Player and it plays any divx file that I create/find but less than half of the Xvid files. I almost always end up reencoding it to Divx in order to play correctly.

To whoever has this machine, how do you get the xvid files to play properly? What software do you use and what settings?

[G)-(OST]

Is Xvid better quality?

Yes, also xvid is free, divx is not.

[DVWannaB]

Personally, I think XviD is better.

The reason why the XviD files didnt play on your set-top player I think is due to the settings used. Many set-top players cannot play certain XviD files when they are encoded with Q-pel, GMC and other such techniques. They can help to make videos look better, but unfortunately they are limited, for the most part, for computer play. It would have a good idea to alert downloaders of this fact, as many have no clue or probably care what GMC or QPEL is. They just to DL and watch, period.

[offline]

To whoever has this machine, how do you get the xvid files to play properly? What software do you use and what settings?

This *may* help

go here: http://moitah.net/
and download MPEG4Modifier . Use it to change the header of the unplayable xvid files to unpacked and user data to DiVx. It is written in C#, so you need the .NET v2 Framework to run it. Burn the "saved as" AVI as normal.

[handyguy]

Get a better phillips, like a 5940 or 5960. Check our dvd recorder section to see what it plays.

'xvid' is just divx backwards.

[celtic_druid]

XviD is better (matter of opinion) as well as free (fact). Also all scene releases must be XviD. Doesn't mean something else can't be used for an internal or non scene release though. These days if you wanted to use something other than XviD you would be better of going with x264... No advantage in DivX.

Fact is that with a HT profile an XviD encode should be perfectly compatible with all DivX HT certified players. I'm sure that by far a majority of files played back on DivX players are compressed with XviD.

Don't think ESS based players were ever effected by packed/unpacked bframes.

[jman98]

The people who bitch the most about how Divx sucks compared to Xvid haven't looked at the latest Divx codec releases which are a lot better than the older versions. Having said that, with some it's a religious issue and they have made up their minds already that Xvid is better, case closed. Some people like oranges, some like apples, so I don't really care which someone prefers, but Divx is not as bad as Xvid advocates believe it is.

celtic_druid, what on earth is a "scene release"? Surely I'm not the only person who has no idea what you are talking about.

[celtic_druid]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_scene

[somebodeez]

Personally, I have found XviD to be too problematic for my players and so I do all of my stuff using DivX and it suits myself which is all I need to please.

[offline]

Don't think ESS based players were ever effected by packed/unpacked bframes.

Yes, you are right. That was the earlier (non certified) mediatek chipset. The other info is relevant though.

[celtic_druid]

Effected several MTK chipsets all of which I think were certified. Certainly there were certified players effected.

Fact is that for DivX HT certification you only need to support 1 bframe packed. The problem was with multiple bframes being packed. XviD's VfW default settings are 2 bframes packed which is why a lot of encodes were effected. The safest setting is 1 bframe packed, like DivX, which is what XviD's HT profiles give you anyway.