I'm interested in HDTV, and I was downloading some 720p clips off of divx.com. They're divx files within zip files. It makes a 20% smaller file roughly. Windows Media HDTV clips are the same way. If divx is so great why zip these files? Why not just zip uncompressed video; then there would be no data loss? I've been searching around the internet, and I couldn't find any answers. I thought someone here might be able to help. Thanks in advance.
I've tried zipping divx files before and found that it barely compresses any smaller than it already was. What's the size and length of the files you're downloading, could be that the divx files aren't as compressed as they could be and so zipping compresses them by a signifigant amount, most divx's don't though.
DivX and XviD are compressed, but optimized for smooth playback with minimum CPU usage, at high bitrates for long stretches (hours). Sure a ZIP or RAR might compress more, but try playing one back at 30fps! LoL It takes ages to zip them and unzip them, and the savings are really miniscule. To their webserver, though, every few hundred megabytes saved is a dollar in their pocket (and they don't care how long it takes you to unzip the thing) so, they do that. Regards
