Xvid Development?

[Ranguvar]

It seems rather frozen as of late.

Besides the 1.1.3 security bugfix, new builds are non-existent perhaps partially because Koepi has vanished. But even the daily snapshots show most of the files as dated back to 2006, 2005, or earlier.

Am I being a noob, or is something going on? Shouldn't there be development on 1.2? Or are all the devs taking a break?

[jsquare]

It seems rather frozen as of late.

Besides the 1.1.3 security bugfix, new builds are non-existent perhaps partially because Koepi has vanished. But even the daily snapshots show most of the files as dated back to 2006, 2005, or earlier.

Am I being a noob, or is something going on? Shouldn't there be development on 1.2? Or are all the devs taking a break?
Seems like EOL for XviD and every development effort is been pour into x264.

[Ranguvar]

EOL?

That's kinda sad. I would like to see a fully multithreaded Xvid with better rate control and 64-bit optimized before all the devs switch to x264 and the other newer codecs. ASP hasn't become quite as good as it can get yet.

And by the time I learn enough to help out, something else, probably wavelet-based, will be overtaking x264...

[Sharktooth]

uh? no xvid devs "switched" to x264...

[buzzqw]

yes.. just to Ahead and other locations...

BHH

[Adub]

Shame, xvid is a great codec. And still used all over the place, as adoption for x264 has been slow.

[squid_80]

I don't hear anyone saying what's missing. XviD got to the point where it pretty much had everything done, so there wasn't any real work left to do.

[Zach]

..., so there wasn't any real work left to do.
Says the very guy who tracked down the bug I inquired about last week (link (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1060184#post1060184)). :p

Xvid may be done in terms of R&D, but it certainly has a long way to go in terms of optimization and bug fixes. ;) I mean, DivX outperforms Xvid in terms of speed, and far as bugginess, the fact that it's an explicit forum rule over on the VirtualDub forums not to ask about Xvid crashes says a lot. :(

Of course, that's the general problem with open-source software: the hobbyists get bored easily and move on to newer and more exciting things, not that I can blame them; that, or they get a girlfriend in the case of Koepi. :cool:

[sysKin]

uh? no xvid devs "switched" to x264...

Um? I did, although that lasted only for a short period.

I don't hear anyone saying what's missing. XviD got to the point where it pretty much had everything done, so there wasn't any real work left to do.

Lol, once I had a list of all the stuff I still wanted to do. It was pretty huge you know :)
Mostly revolved around major cleanups, mutithreading, ratecontrol, adaptive quantization and psy optimization.

the fact that it's an explicit forum rule over on the VirtualDub forums not to ask about Xvid crashes says a lot. :(

I think you completely misunderstood the reason for that rule :) It's on legal grounds (a bit paranoid too if you ask me).

[squid_80]

Says the very guy who tracked down the bug I inquired about last week
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=803921
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=825284
http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=ST&f=15&t=12001
http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=ST&f=15&t=11623

I got sick of sounding like a parrot.
(sysKin: any comment on my dodgy fix for this?)
I think you completely misunderstood the reason for that rule :) It's on legal grounds (a bit paranoid too if you ask me).
There's a different rule - no direct linking to xvid builds, which isn't strongly enforced anyway. The one Zach mentions does say don't post bug-reports concerning xvid:Common offenders: Please, no bug reports on the XviD codec crashing. It crashes constantly for reasons that are outside of VirtualDub's control and there is little we can do about it on this board. If you are having stability problems related to a video or audio codec, try looking for a newer version of it first.
...mainly because of the divide-by-zero bug that happens when decoding broken streams. Someone always seems to post a crash report about it once a month anyway, they mostly get ignored.

[sysKin]

(sysKin: any comment on my dodgy fix for this?)
(...)
...mainly because of the divide-by-zero bug that happens when decoding broken streams. Someone always seems to post a crash report about it once a month anyway, they mostly get ignored.

Okay I have a bit of a news for you: Two weeks from now, I will no longer be a silly university student but a proper smart graduate.

What this means is simple: no more one-and-a-half-time weekly workload for me :) ever - even though last ~three years were mostly 1.5-time on paper as uni doesn't take as much work after all.

So, this way or another, I will finally have some time. Under the assumption that UT3 won't take its place fully ;))) I might return to xvid development, at least during summer holidays.

Once that happens, I'll require that broken divide-by-zero stream, as well as any other bug reports you can give me. I'll happily take a look at your patch as well :)
I have some other MT patches in my mailbox as well, I hardly even took a look at them :( which makes me sad.

[squid_80]

You're not following the aussie tradition of being drunk from end of classes till graduation? Maybe that was just me...

I don't have a stream that triggers the divide-by-0 crash (since I encode my own stuff :)) but can probably find one.

I say get the MT patches out in the open, put the dev mailing list to use.

[sysKin]

You're not following the aussie tradition of being drunk from end of classes till graduation? Maybe that was just me...

It is not just you, no. But I still have exams before me :)

Between exams and graduation, now that's a different matter ~~~

[Satviewer2012]

I'm a noob, but isn't the most likely reason for a declining interest in Divx/Xvid due to the marked increase in interest in HD material? I realize that Divx/Xvid can also process HD files, but not even close to the quality that x264 can render for a given file size. Divx/Xvid's time is coming to an end with the passing of the era of SD IMHO.

[Sharro]

...Divx/Xvid's time is coming to an end with the passing of the era of SD IMHO.

Eheheh.

First: SYSKIN!! Good to see my little rare antipodic bug implementing bird active here.

Graduation :) Great!

Now, back to subject:

Satviewer that's your newbyness talking :).

Google mpeg2 standard to see when it was created.

If I think the number of dvd SD players out there, the war between B-Ray and HD-Dvd, how many Xvid files people have and stand alone players compatibility, I can't agree with you.

I guess some (or many) of the original Xvid dev team has broken apart mainly because they are getting older and with age you get many other things that demand most of your time (profession, family are just some).

Still, I believe that there's still a bunch of people really interested in Xvid Dev and even the ones whose lives changed certainly keep Xvid in their heart.

Just my 5 cents.

All the best,

Sharro

[Ranguvar]

At everyone saying there is no point working on MPEG-4 ASP anymore: ...

ASP has plenty of life left in it. It's just not going to be the go-to codec for high-quality backups anymore. You know how MPEG-1 seems to be the quick, easy encode solution right now? That's where Xvid is headed.

So yeah... here's hoping the devs keep spending a little time on Xvid...

[Sharro]

I would still like to see the blocks in dark-areas killed :-)

[raeltheimperialaerosolkid]

I know that I colud be annoying in raising up again this question but I really love xvid because of its SAP compatibility, encoding/quality speed.
Now, is there some hope to see the official release of Xvid 1.2?
Is the 1.1.x version under some kind of developement?
I think that beside that the developement of xvid is almost still, this codec has a looooong future ahead anyway. Just look to ".mp3"... it's old like the hills but still everyone use it....:p
Xvid will be the same.

[Brother John]

Xvid as well as all MPEG-4 ASP codecs are nothing near as ubiquitous than MP3. And the move towards newer formats (esp. H.264) is a lot stronger than with MP3. So I wouldn’t be so sure about “eternal” Xvid.

Recent development: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=135093

[Lenny_Nero]

Some searching in the forums might help people with older Xvid 'installs' ..took me 8~10 minutes to find this XviD_1.2.127-10012008.exe a month [ish] back.

I really like Xvid IMO its the very best I have found (speed against size|quality) for squashing my DVB-TV captures from the big mpegs into a good quality Xvid's (via Staxrip) that play on my SAP's and most other things.

Yes I would love to see much more going on with it, as said dark/black areas can have problems, but giving the encode some more room/size works ok for now I am still learning all of the settings and what does what. But I am happy and think it still has the legs for some time yet. I dont have much HD content to work with ATM, but dont think that is too big a deal 'cos I get what I think is very good quality from the above pair (Stax + Xvid) after some time testing :) and feel I will be able to do the same for HD content as it comes more available.

A big thanks to all involved with its devel :thanks:

[clsid]

For those who can't find the binaries:
http://www.codecguide.com/xvid_codec.htm

[Ranguvar]

The Multithreaded Xvid thread has some recent working 1.2.-127 builds.