Questions from a new XviD user

[Zarxrax]

I've pretty much been ignoring XviD, but after doing etensive testing of the divx5 codec, and realising that I can achieve similar or even better quality through nandub, I decided that divx5 is not worth my time. I've looked at xvid a little bit now, and though I haven't used it yet myself, I think its looking to be an awesome codec, and could very definately replace nandub for me sometime in the future. These questions may be already answered elsewhere, but hopefully someone will be nice enough to answer them right here for me.

1) Will Xvid be able to make .mp4 format files, and if so, will this be implemented soon?

2) Does an mp4 file require the specific codec, such as xvid or divx5 to be installed in order to view it, or will a player handle it?

3) Can a luminance correction feature like nandub has be implemented into xvid? Would it even be usefull in xvid? Or does the luminance masking do something similar?

4) Doesn't Xvid have scene change detection? I havent seen anything about it, or how to configure it. Or could this possibly not be of much use after B-frames are implemented?

[Koepi]

You are ignoreing every rule on this forum.

As I wrote some threads back,


PLEASE don't draw conclusions from nandub to XviD.
Nandub was necessary to workaround the shitty DivX3 codec.
XviD has a different core and doesn't need all those attempts - they are in the core or superfluis.


If you'd read the XviD help or the XviD Options Explained, you could have given yourself all the answers you need.

MP4 is a "new" file format (it's quciktime basically.)
So a player will handle it.

Annoyed,
Koepi

[Teegedeck]

Hi,

Koepi is right, read the availabe material, first - but anyway, nice that you take interest in the codec. :)

For your questions:

1) XviD is fully MPEG4-compliant - though I haven't tested it personally, it should be possible to transform XiD-files into MP4-streams. There also was a GPL'd tool for creating streams, I seem to remember, but I can't recall its name...

2) EDIT: misunderstood that one, Koepi is right.

3) Luminance correction in Nandub was only there to counter a weakness of DivX3.11. It's not needed for XviD. Luminance _masking_ is a 'psychovisual' feature that compresses parts of the picture stronger that are even very dark or very bright and thus less noticeable to the human eye. Look up the guides for this.

4) You don't have to configure scene-change detection. Just let the codec do the job.

Perhaps I shouldn't write any anwers - right now, I'm half asleep. -_-

[Neo Neko]

Originally posted by Zarxrax
1) Will Xvid be able to make .mp4 format files, and if so, will this be implemented soon?
[/B]

You can make an Xvid AVI with MP3 sound and use Divxnetworks AVI2MP4 to convert the AVI into an MP4 file playable by any ISO-MPEG4 player including the Playa 2.0 beta. Check out my post "Xivd inside DivxNetworks MP4".

Originally posted by Zarxrax
2) Does an mp4 file require the specific codec, such as xvid or divx5 to be installed in order to view it, or will a player handle it?
[/B]

As long as you use ISO-MPEG4 codecs it should be playable by most any other MPEG4 codec. If you use Divx5 with B frames at the moment I doubt that the Xvid decoder could handle it at the moment. I am not sure though. But the Divx devoder can indeed handle Xvid content and Quicktime 6 should as well.

[Zarxrax]

Teegedeck: thanks for the answers, its nice to know that I can convert xvid to a format that can be played anywhere that has a compatable media player. I think it would be nice if you could adjust the sensitivity of scene change detection though, I guess I'll just have to make due with the other keyframe spacing setting.

Koepi: sorry... :rolleyes:

[Zarxrax]

Neo Neko: Thanks! I'll go check that out. I'm a bit confused by your response of the codec/player though. Basically what I'm asking, is I need my stuff to be able to be played by many people. People dont like having to download a new codec just to watch something. But for instance, lets say they dont have any codecs like xvid, divx, or anything. Now if they have Divx Player 2.0 or quicktime 6, or some other mpeg-4 player, they will still be able to view the file, right?

[Neo Neko]

If you create an XVID AVI it has an option to use the DIVX fourCC code. If you do this then the divx decoder filter does the render and they do not need to download anything more than Divx to watch it. The Divx decoder filter has not worked for everyone with Xvid. But it does a snazzy job for me. When quicktime 6 is finally released it should play em fresh out of the box as well with only minor alterations. You can rest assured that when it is ISO no matter where you go it will work.