the divx-avi connection

[kjmdigital]

I recently converted a dvd movie to an avi file via AGK.......I wanted to make a windows media player compliant movie cd (700mb) but i notice when you go under the advanced function, im confused...........I see that there were 2 choices for format...divx, or xvid...yet, when the movie is trancoded, its an avi format (which is what I wanted) but, if i play the avi through wmp9, there is no playback, because of a missing codec. what is this divx-avi connection all about?.....I would like to make an avi movie that any wmp can read..

thanks in advance

kevin

[celtic_druid]

To make an avi that any WMP can play, you have the wrong app. You would need something that can encode with a crappy old codec like Cinepak or Indeo (basically something that ships with windows).

Anyway, Xvid and DivX are video codecs. avi is a container which contains the video along with audio.

For WMP compatibility you would probably be better off with wmv.

[kjmdigital]

whats the function of a container ? and how do they work ?

[guns1inger]

A movie consists of two parts - video and audio. AVI is a place to store both of these to give you a movie you can play. In order to make the movie small enough to be practical, the data is usually compressed. How it is compressed is based on the codec you use. Divx and Xvid are just methods for compressing video data. Once compressed, your player needs to be able to uncompress it, Again, you need the right codec.

Think of a container as a box to put video and audio data in, and the codec is the method by which it is packed and unpacked from the box.

[kjmdigital]

thanks so much for the explaination gun....now everything is clear.

(nick dundee voice) Be well mate !

[Ai Haibara]

To make an avi that any WMP can play, you have the wrong app. You would need something that can encode with a crappy old codec like Cinepak or Indeo (basically something that ships with windows).

Anyway, Xvid and DivX are video codecs. avi is a container which contains the video along with audio.

For WMP compatibility you would probably be better off with wmv.

I'm not sure that all versions of Windows come with Cinepak. (Of course, I could be wrong.) Indeo - not all versions of XP have Indeo codecs, anymore, and Vista probably doesn't include them at all. As for WMV, pre-XP systems might need to have support installed for WMA/WMV.

The safest bet is still probably MPEG (MPEG-1), if you want to be relatively sure a Windows system can play it without installing anything else.