DVD vs DivX/Xvid

[videohalp]

The quality of an authored DVD and DivX/Xvid of the same video looks the same to me when I play it on my DVD player.

So is there any advantage(s) to authoring if the player can play DivX/Xvid?

[poisondeathray]

It depends on the source. Do you mean Blu-ray/HD-DVD => DVD or DVD=>DVD or DVD=>AVI ?

It depends on the XviD settings. If you use high bitrate (or quantizer) / good quality settings it might be difficult to tell the quality difference. You might be only able to tell on a frame by frame analysis

Menus, extras on an authored DVD, not on XviD

[guns1inger]

What sort of TV and player are you using to compare the two ?

Newer and larger TVs are more likely to show up the differences and inherent flaws in most Divx files better than an older CRT screen. Things that look OK today might not look so good tomorrow.

[olyteddy]

If your source file is DivX and your player can play it, converting it to MPEG2 (DVD) will only lower the quality. Likewise starting from a DVD you'll take a hit going to DivX. Only you can tell how bad a hit it is.