Specifiying which CODEC to use for playback

[pilotwings]

I noticed something rather anomylous the other day. When I create my own DivX movies using VirtualDub (using the Radium MP3 CODEC for audio), going to File->Properties does not show me which CODEC is being used for playback. All I get "Video Renderer". The main problem is when this happens, the video is no longer playback enhanced with the video card performing antialiasing (or whatever it does to make it look better). Does anyone have any idea what makes my videos different?

Thanks

[OvERaCiD23]

maybe try using a real media player (sounds like you're using Windows Media Player, most player say which codec is being used). however, WMP does say which codec it's using (under properties for the movie, it should say DivX decoder, ffdshow, etc.).

look in the downloads section, BSPlayer and ZoomPlayer are ones I use for TV playback. you can alter filter properties in those, along with a million other features.

[pilotwings]

maybe try using a real media player (sounds like you're using Windows Media Player, most player say which codec is being used). however, WMP does say which codec it's using (under properties for the movie, it should say DivX decoder, ffdshow, etc.).

look in the downloads section, BSPlayer and ZoomPlayer are ones I use for TV playback. you can alter filter properties in those, along with a million other features.

The hard part with using other media players is that I am making my movies for easy playback anywhere, without needing much extra software other than the DivX CODEC.

Like you said, it *should* say DivX decoder but it doesn't. The movie plays back, but evidently without hardware acceleration, and only the DirectDraw filter is shown under which decoders it is using. So my question is, what makes my DivX's different than the movies you get off the internet?

Thanks again

[Snakeisthestuff]

to know with what filter your video should be decoded, simply open VirtualDub, then select the tool menu, click on Hex Editor!
now open your avi, in the first rows you should see an entry like:
'vids' and after that the fourcc used for playback should be shown for example 'xvid' for Xvid Content, Div3/Div4 for Divx 311
mp43 for MS MPEG-4 V3, divx for Divx 5.02!

if you want to know what filters are used to render it on your system you could also use a programm called 'gspot' should be downloadable on doom9s great site :) .

hope this helps you.

[OvERaCiD23]

yes, GSpot will tell you the codec used for the video. I'm assuming the video's you d/l'ed are in DivX3 (I've never heard of a DivX5 movie on a P2P, at least not a 'professional' one). ~~~> but that's bad, and doing the movies YOU OWN will create in much better rips, plus it's legal!.

anyways, if you want easy playback and wish to play the movies anywhere, save ~5MB on your CD and put ZoomPlayer/BSPlayer (not the installer, the actual player) and ffdshow on the CD. if the computer doesn't have those, simply install them from the CD and there you go.