Okay this is all over my head, but what makes Xvid different and/or better/worse than DivX? I've noticed that DivX is snobbish about playing back Xvid encodes, but not vice-versa. Anyone have a non-physics-textbook type answer? Am I correct in thinking that Xvid is open-source and DivX is proprietary? Thanks for spending time educating me...
From www.rita.lt, "We use both but tend to lean toward DivX, as we backup many old movies where the source is noisy, as well and black and whites, and DivX seems to do better on those kinds of sources, XviD can be a bit strong for them and look grainy. On the other hand XviD is known for its crisp clear images, so if the source is nice and clear, XviD can give a sharper picture than DivX, which has a softening tendency. We have found DivX is has fewer compatibility issues with standalone MPEG4 dvd players"
Yes XviD is open source. DivX is not what I would call propritary since it is still an ASP MPEG-4 Video codec and the standards are open. Real Video 9/10, VP 6/7 on the other hand are propritary. As for black and whites... Does DivX have a greyscale mode? Because XviD does. XviD offers more ASP features is more flexible (in features and in the fact that you can use it via commandline, etc.). XviD is 100% compliant with MPEG-4 specs so compatibily should not be an issue. Fact is though that players are not 100% compliant, however if you stick with the DXN HT profiles it should be just as compatible as DivX with HT settings. When it comes down to it though it is purely upto the individual which they think is better.
