I have not yet been converted to the world of DivX and/or XviD...though I am not against the format. I'm simply looking for a reason to use it. I can really only think of one at this time...size. Would I rather store or copy a movie on my computer in the DVD format? Well, if size was my concern then probably not...but when it comes to quality...no thank you. I once went to the trouble of converting one to compatible version that I could burn it to a DVD and watch it on my TV. It took forever and was a complete waste of my time. I would rather have watched nothing at all. Once I have a DVD on my computer it takes about 8 minutes for me to burn it and watch in on my TV. As far as keeping them on my computer...I purchased a cheap external hard drive. If I choose to go the torrent route I have a DVD replica in 1.5 - 2 hours. A DivX/Xvid would be quicker, but not enough for me sacrifice quality. So, what are your reasons for using these types of files? Thank you...
Size...I can understand that Quality...I don't think so. I personally would rather have a larger file that would have a decent quality. What I have seen isn't even close to DVD quality. The negative seems to beat out the positive in my opinion.
MPEG-4 can achieve transparency at a lower filesize than MPEG-2. So same quality, lower filesize. It's called progress and AVC is even more efficent. Makes it possible to fit HD content on a regular DVD where with MPEG-2 only SD was possible. Sounds like you just want to troll people who download 1/2CD XviD/mp3/AC3 avi rips. If you don't want to download them, then fine. No need to post. Maybe everyone's connection isn't as fast as yours (5Mb). Say they really aren't that interested in the movie and would rather wait 1.5-3 hours vs. 8. Maybe they don't care as much about quality, don't have a nice enough TV to pick the difference.
@jrcorwin, With mpeg4, you can definately compress movies more than with mpeg-2. With animations, it does not make a big difference, although you will get better picture with a smaller filesize. i.e. 250MB mpeg4 > 400MB Mpeg-2. It is hard to imagine going as low as 1000kbps with mpeg-2 because at 3500kbps you are already getting a lot of mess. If all you want is to watch it on your DVD player, then mpeg-2 is fine. You will rarely need more than 1 DVD5 for a movie and the quality will be near identical. However, if you want to compress a movie down to 2GB or less, another encoder will be better. @celtic_d, How can I get the quality high on mpeg4? Are there any free programs with some advanced options so that I can get some quality? I was experimenting with wmv9 and can get pretty good results for a 1CD backup of a movie, but with mpeg4, I get smeared video, however all I am allowed to set is bitrate and framerate... I know there is a better way to encode though because I got almost as good results with mpeg-2 with identical bitrates (picture quality was better, but there were more motion artifacts with mpeg-2). Only framerate was higher so the file size was larger. The thing is I am more familiar with mpeg-2 encoding, so that is why I can get really good results, but say I want to back up a DVD to 1 CD or throw 5 or 6 DVDs on one DVDR for PC playback only. Do you know of any guides or what settings I could tweak to get the best quality possible? And, I was considering trying x264 encoder. That has the ability to use High Profile. Would that be better than main profile? Also, what software would I need to playback the mp4 files done in Advanced Profile? Thanks
Thank you for your expert opinion there. My intent was never to "troll" people. I had an honest question and I thank those of you who actually answered it without the flaming. If I feel like posting a question...then I will. I don't remember evering reading where I have to ask your permission to do so first. Then why download it at all? 8 hours!?! I could have downloaded 2,3, maybe 4 DVD's in 8 hours on an average connection with a strong pool of seeders. I have the basic cable connection available via my providor. How difficult is that? How many people are downloading dvd's, DivX, or XviD with a dial-up connection these days? I find it hard to believe that a community of people using afterdawn don't care much about quality. Also, the 15.5" screen on my laptop is more than enough to "pick the difference"...many people here using viewing movies and such on a TV smaller than 15"?
You never really asked a question. You stated an opinion bashing those who download XviD rips, then asked a question to justify it. Example: I hate 4WD's, they suck. Why would anyone want to buy one? 4.37GB's = 4582277kByes. A 1.5Mb connection will give you ~160kB/s so that's 7.95hours to download and that is only if the connection is maxed out from the start. Here there are people with 256k connections as well as people still on dial up (ok probably not downloading large amounts of stuff). Also most people are not on unlimited plans. 60GB/month if you want cable, 40GB's of which is offpeak with one provider (much cheaper than the other, plus they don't count uploads). 60GB's means 13 DVD's a month vs. 85 700MB rips. You can't compare PC monitors to TV's like that unless you are comparing decent LCD/Plasma's. On a decent size CRT TV a VCD looks ok, better than on a 15" PC monitor anyway. Especially if you don't have your head right up against it looking for artifacts.
Really? That looks like a fairly obvious question to me. Maybe I should have put it in bold for you. I could care less if you are a "senior member". Apparently you have nothing better to do with your time than troll around...yes, I said TROLL around...and police the threads. If you have a problem when my thread, my opinions, or my questions...then do us all a favor...go somewhere else and stop whining. If you come across a thread or topic you don't agree with or have an interest in...leave it alone and troll somewhere else.
That's rich. You complain about me telling you to not post and then turn around and tell me not to. I never said that you didn't ask a question, I simply questioned your motivation for posting. You ask why DivX/XviD when you have clearly already decided against it. So therefor no point to the post. What answer did you expect? Someone states quality, which is their opinion and you just turn around and say that the quality is crap. Someone might say that they are quick to download, but you would just turn around and say again that you can download a DVD in 1.5-2 hours. So what is the point? I don't see what ranks have to do with anything. I never mentioned yours since all they mean is that someone has a certain amount of posts. You can't read anything into that. Also where are all these threads that I am policing?
iv converted alot of my dvds into divx them burned them back to disk coz im lazy. i can now get 12 eps of a tv show or 5 movies on 1 dvd5 and play them back with the same quality on a 28inch ws 100hz crt tv which saves me getting up and swapping disks every 2 hours i should of added that my stand alone dvd player plays divx
I've actually never encoded DivX to play on a standalone player. I have an old RCA player that is DivX compatible. Are you saying that I can throw DivX files on a DVD and they will play on my DivX player??? That would be pretty cool, because the most I can get on a DVD5 in DVD Format is about 3 1/2 hours (205 minutes with DD 5.1), but if I were to go with DivX, I know I can fit at least 6 hours and the quality will be better. I use DivX as a means of storing movies on a disc to watch on a PC. It would be nice to watch with my DVD/DivX player. Also is it possible to get a menu? I don't care if it is simple as long as it can allow picking different movies/episodes. I would appreciate any info on this matter.
Possible if the player is old that you are confusing D-I-V-X (had to add the - to keep it CAPS) with DivX. Most players will give you a file browser (if it is half decent then there will be 36 characters, some will truncate to 8). If a player is DivX Ultra certified then it will support the DivX Media Format (hack/extension of the avi container) including menus.
Yeah all caps on my player. Also, there is no file browser, just the menu to activate discs. So it won't work on those players?
No. D-I-V-X and DivX are not the same thing. D-I-V-X was a failed competitor of DVD where the player was hooked upto the phoneline as I understand it. The original DivX (hack of MS MPEG-4 V3) was named after it as a joke I guess.
