I am having a rather odd problem while encoding divX movies with Virtual Dub (I use the tutorial on this site, but I still have this problem using other methods) When I encode the movie it works just fine on my PC, but when I try to play the movie on someone else’s computer (using the same version of DivX 5.0.3) the movie is sluggish and when you skip to a latter point in the movie it takes about 30 seconds for the audio and video to go back in synch. When I spilt an AVI file it again works fine on my computer, but on other computers the audio is very badly out of synch (I would say up to 2 seconds) and stays that way. I burned the movies to CD at 4X and transfer them across my home LAN with the same results every time, so I don’t think that I am experiencing any file corruption problems here. Could this have anything to do with CPU optimizations? I encode them on an AMD based system, but all of the other computers are Intel bases (Celeron or PIII)? Any help would be appreciated.
I'd try copying the avi from the CD to their HD and run it from there. It could be their cd or dvd drive or the configuration of it.
That is not a problem itself. If you choose a 25 keyframe value, instead of the 300 keyframes coming as a default, you will "kill" this problem. However, you should encode the video again to make these changes take effect. Always use a 25 keyframe value if you really want to avoid the garbage on screen.
I think Twilite was on the right track. If you try to play a DivX 5.0.3 video on computers that are slower/older, the playback can be sluggish. I had this problem when I was trying to play one of my encodes on my friend's computer. Things to try are: 1) play the movie from the hard drive like Twilite suggested, 2) check the refresh rate of your monitor in Display Settings, 3) in your DivX Decoder Configuration settings (Start Menu), make sure the Quality Level slider is all the way to the left (Min) so the decoder puts less strain on the cpu, and 4) make sure the hard drive you are playing the video from is not seriously fragmented. If all these things don't work and the video is still playing sluggishly then it's time to take a look at what player you're using. I personally love Windows Media Player but it can cause a performance loss on slower computers. You can try installing the free BS Player. It played my DivX v5.0.3 videos flawlessly on my friend's slower computer. Good luck.
w_suther, I just went back and read your post again and thought of one other thing to suggest but Fire-bird beat me to the punch. I always change my "Max Keyframe Interval" (DivX Dialog, General Parameters tab) from 300 to 30. When you do this, it allows the audio and video to be more tightly synched so that when you fast-forward the movie, the audio and video are in synch right away. (Good post, Fire-bird.) This will help your "fast-forward - not in synch" problem. For the "sluggish playback" problem refer to my first post. Good luck.
