DivX 5.0.3 released

[timeToy]

Taken from the Version History at
http://www.divx.com/divx/divxpro_win_versions.php

New:

- Support for interlaced video.
- New de-ringing post-processing algorithm. It is activated when the post-processing level is set to Level 6.
- Video Buffer Verifier (VBV) model (one and two pass encoding).
- Nth Pass™ encoding.
- Support for DivX Certified Profiles. With the new DivX Certification program, DivXNetworks is enabling third parties to create "DivX Certified" products that are rigorously tested and fully compatible with the entire suite of DivX® video technologies. There are four levels of official DivX Certified video products: Handheld Video Devices, Portable Video Devices, Home Theater Video Devices and High Definition Video Devices. Now, when you encode video, you have the option to force your video to comply with one of the DivX Certified Profiles to ensure that your video will play back properly on certified products.
- DivX Decoder verification logo.
- New internal application programming interface (API).

Improved:

- The motion estimation algorithm is better optimized for High Definition resolutions (up to 1080p, or 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution
- The pre-processing performance is now improved with with the IYUY 4:2:0 color space
- The global motion compensation (GMC) algorithm is better optimized to improve visual quality

Changed:

- Updated the quarter pixel motion estimation algorithm (Qpel) to comply to the new revision of the standard 14496-2 DCOR1. Videos encoded with the older version of the Qpel algorithm can still be decoded.
- Removed MP4creator and the MPEG-4 file output option due to some compliance issues. This will return in our next release once these issues are resolved.
- Removed the Intelligent IVTC functionality due to persistent problems caused by lack of variable frame rate file format support.
- Changed the block skipping threshold for high quantizers, which improves visual quality when high quantizers are used.

Fixed:

- Fixed a bunch of little cosmetic bugs in the DirectShow decoder properties page.
- Fixed a bug where the last P frame before an I frame was not displayed when Smooth Playback was selected.
- Fixed a practically unnoticeable YUV->RGB16 color conversion rounding bug.
- Fixed a bug that was the cause of some of VirtualDub's "Cannot Start Video Compression" errors.
- Fixed a few issues with DivX 3.11 compatibility.
- Modified the decoder to deal with a bug in the old OpenDivX encoder
- Fixed a problem where some rounding operations were not done toward zero, as is required by section 7.4 of the spec. This fixed an intra case in MPEG-2 inverse quantization.
- Fixed a bug where some frames would be corrupted by an out-of-range error.
- Fixed several rounding issues related to MMX/SSE/SSE2 optimizations.
- Fixed an MMX bug in RGB32 color conversion.

[timeToy]

I wonder if they post it at 5:03 GMT ?

[cordraconis]

The version info I found there, is a tiddy bit more complete ...

The N'th-pass feature looks promising, but I don't have time to lay it on my testbench :(
(Shouldn't there be a law to prevent new releases of Video codecs during the exams ??? :D )

Nevertheless, I'll have to reboot now to finish the installation.

(I also think it's cool that I have already installed the new release, before even Doom9 himself had a chance to put it in his News-section on his site :cool: )
BTW: for the last weeks, I noticed that the newsupdates on his site are in the afternoon ... or maybe his server is only updating around 11h ??? anyone can comment on this?)

greetz!

[Caleb666]

this new version does looks promising...

makes me think that xVid will never reach the same level as DivX :)

[Ice009]

can you actually download the pro version? i went to the website and it appears you have to purchase it?

don't they have a free adware version like they did with 5.0.2?

[plazz2000]

I've been able to upgrade with this https://secure.divx.com/downloads/DivXPro503Bundle.exe

Does anyone else find that the options for QPel and GMC are greyed out?

And what's this "Bitrate Modulation" for Nth pass encoding?

[cordraconis]

don't be too sure about this ...
Personally I'm a big fan of Lame-Encoder ... I once compared it with the different settings of Fraunhofer, and aldough they are the pioneers of MP3-encoding, Lame is open source and a LOT better than the "official" codec. (one reason why I would never pay to download MP3's, since they would probably use the Fraunhofer, and if I'm gonna pay for it, then I want my *own* settings for the encoder *I* prefer... (but that's off-topic :) )

Right now I'm making a lot of Passes for the first 10000 frames of LOTR Extended edition. (2-pass, 3-pass, 5-pass and 10-pass encode).
The 3-pass is to see the effect of an extra pass, the 5-pass to see the effect of a lot of passes, and the 10-pass to see the effect of the most passes I'll ever plan to use. (In my course of Analytical Chemistry, there is also a technique of doing several reiterations of a given calculation, as to become the final acidity (pH) of a solution. I learned that if you need more than 5 passes, then your assumptions to start from were erroneous. :)
So that's why I'm curious of the result from the 5-pass.
Also, I think that the Curve-modulation (hi/lo motion) is more meant to *reduce the number of passes* to reach optimal results. In theory, if you do a lot of passes, then the bitrate distribution should be optimal, regardless of the amount of High/Low-motion scenes. If you leave it to "Constant quality", and do a high number of passes, the result should be always the same.

My command line in the Encoder is:
-bvnn 600 -psy 1 -key 600 -log "c:\divx.log" -w -mv "c:\mvinfo.bin" -p -b -pq 5 -vbv 7800000,1835008,1376256 -profile 4

(Sharp bicubic, Smart Crop in Gordian knot, resolution 640*..., Fast Recompress, Bitrate 600)

I'll keep you posted on the results of my first test ...
(P.S. Am I the first to test this "Nth-pass"-feature?
:cool: )

[mikeson]

@plazz2000:

Does anyone else find that the options for QPel and GMC are greyed out?

Disable "1 - Choose your profile" and here you go... ;)

[Teegedeck]

Originally posted by Caleb666
this new version does looks promising...

makes me think that xVid will never reach the same level as DivX :)
Have I missed any important new DivX-feature that isn't there in XviD (dev-api), already? Interlaced-support, (real) GMC, maximum bitrate...

This n-pass sounds great: 'We still don't hit aimed filesize in 2nd pass? Bugger, let's just have a couple more passes and we'll hit it eventually! Voila; problem solved.' (I shouldn't be so malevolent, XviD is still plagued by a 2-pass bug that's been introduced a couple of weeks ago.;))

What I like most about this release is the removal of non-working features... (Was a bit daring to have things there that just do harm but still could be listed as 'features'.)

[Iznogoud]

After short testing with 2-pass, pro-features on 5.03 looks very good to my eyes. Compared to XviD hmm.... I guess to my untrained eyes they are quite close but I let the flamers to decide wich is truly better;) Anyways it's good to have competition, so welcome back Divx.

[OBcecado]

Hi, I've encoded a spiderman trailer with following settings, In 5 pass, it seems good, but is it worth the extra time for each pass ?
I used following Cli:
-bvnn 1200 -psy 1 -key 300 -log "C:\divx.log" -w -mv "c:\mvinfo.bin" -p -b -g -q -pq 5 -vbv 7800000,1835008,1376256 -profile 0
Best regards

[cordraconis]

And here are the results form my N-passes, as I already explained before ... (post-processing set to min.)

It's a bit difficult to explain, but the main difference between all the passes comes down to ... Quantisation!

When I started the next-pass, there was a small window popping up for a fraction of a second, and I could read something about Average Quantisizer. In the 8th, 9th and 10th pass this number was the same. I think the N-passes means finding the ideal Quantizer or something ... Correct me if I'm wrong.

If I compare the 2 with the 3-pass, then there are less ringing artefacts in general: Around the logo in the beginning, on the panning scenes of the Map of Middle Earth (also less jerckier than with the 5.0.2 codec and GMC :)), around the bodies of people walking around in the battle, etc ... The Macroblocks are also reduced, and that's even clearer in the 5-pass.
If you look at the golden LOTR-logo in the beginning of the movie, then there are small cubes of different brightness that are "dancing around". You also have this in the backgound, and in low-contrast scenes (like the "Clouded" mountains where Gollem lives, and in scenes with a lot of smoke.) In the 5-pass, the "dancing blocks" are reduced, and the "ringing" is gone. In the 10-th pass, there is no ringing and macroblocks any more, and the low-motion parts of the movie look "stable". There are even slightly more details in the massive charging-scene with the orcs and elves/humans. The lack of details is clearly becouse of the low bitrate, but everything has it's limits! :rolleyes:

To summarize:
* The more passes, the better the quantisation, this means:
- No ringing around sharp edges and stationary (or slowly moving) objects.
- Less macroblocks in high-motion scenes.
- A Stable background. (compare a 2-pass scene of the setting sun in the first 10000 frames of LOTR, and a 5 or 10-pass!)
- Better low-contrast encoding. (smoke, clouds, ... see above).

* The GMC is better than in 5.0.2, and acceptable.
* The lack of details (at low bitrates!!!) is mostly because of the reduction of macroblocks. (for me, they tend to "add details", or to mask the lack of them, so objectively it seems that there are less details, which isn't.)

* My advice for 1CD-rips would be not more than 10 passes (which is already overkill :sly: ), and for 2CD-rips, not more than 5 passes (idem dito). If the result is still not satisfying, use gordian knot to recalculate, or to do a comression test.

* It has not escaped to my attention, that if the Quantisizer is indeed the "key setting" for those N-passes, then it could be possible to use this information to manually set 5.0.2 to make optimal rips in 1-pass. Also, if indeed in the 8th, 9th and 10th pass this avg quantizer was the same, this could be used to automate the #of passes till there is no change anymore. Maybe this could be something for Johnny's DivX5 Enc ???

Thanks for staying with me till here :), but now I really have to study for my exam on monday ... Maybe I'll check the forum this evening.

cheers!

[cordraconis]

Originally posted by OBcecado
Hi, I've encoded a spiderman trailer with following settings, In 5 pass, it seems good, but is it worth the extra time for each pass ?
I used following Cli:

Best regards

My guess is your bitrate is wayyyy too high to see differences ... try again with 500 or 600 in stead of 1200 ;)

bye!

[Dark-Cracker]

hi,

is there a way to configure the quantizer and rc period ? it seems to me they have remove these settings.

[valnar]

Anyone know if the latest GKNot works with 5.03?

Robert

[mikeson]

@Dark-Cracker:

Have you tried CLI? Maybe the same settings as in DivX 5.0.2... ;)

[valnar]

Have you tried CLI? Maybe the same settings as in DivX 5.0.2... ;) [/B]

No, but then I'm a L@MeR. I'd prefer to have GKnot do my CLI for me. I hope DivX didn't change any CLI parameters from 5.02 to 5.03.

Just curious... :D

[Dark-Cracker]

@mikeson

yes i have try with the cli mode (it doesn't work) and with the registry key (doesn't work too).

Ps: it seems to me gknot doesn't use climode but a mime64 encoded string, i think it will not work with divx5.0.3, wait and update of gknot.

Ps: nth pass give me a green first frame and a dark video until it rush a kf . does someone have the same problem ?

Bye.

[seewen]

Originally posted by Dark-Cracker
hi,

is there a way to configure the quantizer and rc period ? it seems to me they have remove these settings.

They are not in the GUI, but the Official Guide says that you can use it with CLI :

-dr 12,2,2000,10,20


But maybe that the new "bitrate modulation" option, influence these settings ( Quant Max/min, RC avg period, etc..) .. no ?

And some other parameters ( but not Quant and RC avg Period ) can be tweaked in the registery

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\DivXNetworks\DivX4Windows

[Boulder]

I wonder if they even tested the package properly before releasing it. The decoder can't be configured, it resets itself every time. If you press default, you'll get zero postprocessing:mad:

Back to XviD again, it seems.

[seewen]

Originally posted by Boulder
I wonder if they even tested the package properly before releasing it. The decoder can't be configured, it resets itself every time. If you press default, you'll get zero postprocessing:mad:

Back to XviD again, it seems.

Exactly the same with the encoder GUI :

If you choose profile "home cinema" for example, you can choose "B-frame" for 1st-pass, but not for Nth...
Maybe it's automatic, but it's strange so. Beccause if you un-select profile(s), then you can set "b-frames" for "Nth pass too".

And if you unselect profile(s), and you want to set "Avg bitrate @1000 kbps" and "Max Bitrate @5000 kbps", if you go in an other tab ( "manage setting" or "profile" ), and then you come back in the "bitrate control" tab, the "Max Bitrate" is reset at ( 10 * Avg Bitrate )...

Maybe divxnetwork will release 5.0.4 in a short time ;)

[Caleb666]

QPel and GMC are disabled by default.

Why?
Since the upcoming hardware divX players aren ot supporting these optionsy yet.. so they also disabled them by default in this version.

YOU CAN STILL ENABLE IT! so don't panic.

[symonjfox]

Now I'm encoding a movie to test it ... 5 pass VBR. I don't like that there isn't a 1 pass quality based (like in divx 5.02 or xvid). All my movies were encoded by that way and looks better than 2 pass vbr (5.02) let's hope well with 5.03.

I have a good speed increase with 5.03 using my athlon xp.

[seewen]

Originally posted by symonjfox
[B]Now I'm encoding a movie to test it ... 5 pass VBR. I don't like that there isn't a 1 pass quality based (like in divx 5.02 or xvid).

of course there's "1 pass Quality based". Just disable "profile" option ( in "profile" tab), then you could choose +1 pass quality based", " 1st pass OLD pass", "2nd pass OLD pass", etc..

[CruNcher]

QPel and GMC are disabled by default.

Why?
Since the upcoming hardware divX players aren ot supporting these optionsy yet.. so they also disabled them by default in this version.


hmm good argumentation but maybe also because they saw that their a mile away from the standard also ;)

[X-guy]

Im sorry for the maybe dumb question,but how do i enable more then 2 passes on the 5.03?

[oddball]

Use nth pass on the drop down and select how many passes you want.

[X-guy]

Originally posted by oddball
Use nth pass on the drop down and select how many passes you want.

Where? i dont see any options to choose passes...maybe i need to put it menualy in the CLI line? if so where exactly?
thanx.

[plazz2000]

You don't actaully enter how many passes you want. Just keep on saving it five times, with the same settings for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th times.

Big speed increase on my Athlon XP2400+, 32fps+ on the nth passes.

[jonny]

@cordraconis:


* It has not escaped to my attention, that if the Quantisizer is indeed the "key setting" for those N-passes, then it could be possible to use this information to manually set 5.0.2 to make optimal rips in 1-pass. Also, if indeed in the 8th, 9th and 10th pass this avg quantizer was the same, this could be used to automate the #of passes till there is no change anymore. Maybe this could be something for Johnny's DivX5 Enc ???


:D
some testing about this is required first (and for sure... i must first adapt divx5enc to this new version... i was planning to release the new version this days... i guess i was wrong :))

[kakomu]

Whenever I try to set my confog settings, this version isn't keeping them saved (as in the quality settings will reset itself all the way to the left). Is anyone else encountering this problem?

[X-guy]

Originally posted by plazz2000
You don't actaully enter how many passes you want. Just keep on saving it five times, with the same settings for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th times.

Big speed increase on my Athlon XP2400+, 32fps+ on the nth passes.

ahh thanx a lot man,now i hope that a new version of GK will be out quick ;)

[cordraconis]

Here is an interesting analogy that I came up with for the "Curve modulation":

"I believe that with "High motion modulation" the codec will give more bits to the high-motion scenes, and less to the low-motion scenes. It will do this anyway after lets say 10 passes, but if you use the "modulation", then it'll give more bits *faster*, so you'll have the same result after lets say 5 passes. Something like a N2O injection in your engine: Your top-speed will still be the same, only you'll get there a lot faster !!! :D "
(taken from another thread)

After the exams, I know what to test!
(the Curve modulation that is ! ;)
Hahaha!

[stax76]

now i hope that a new version of GK will be out quick


because GK uses mime encoded strings, a new codec version
is always a problem. There is a GKnot similar tool with
support for DivX 5.03 incl. multi pass support, the program has
more then 20 dialogs and supports everything that can be done
manually. You just type in how many passes you want. It works
with the original codec dialog, you can invoke the original
codec dialog for the first, the second and multi pass and for
the credits, no need for jobs at all, the latest beta version
can be found here (http://www.planetdvb.net/board/index.php?act=ST&f=22&t=31&st=75)

'Dolemite

[leadman584]

I have tried to get into the Divx Forums to post these comments, but it is either down or blocked. I just loaded the new codec and experimented some. Obviously these are merely first impressions.
I still use Avisynth 2.07, till Wednesday or Thursday anyways, after the more stable build of 2.5 is posted at the Avisynth site. Also still using VDub 1.14.13 P4, at least till I get a stable build of Avisynth 2.50, then off to VDubMod.
I attempted a 5 pass encode with Divx 5.03Pro(don't ask), The last pass #5 would not complete due to missing Index blocks. I muxed the audio into the video from pass 4 and it is incredible. My settings were as follows: resolution 512x384(kinda a pain to type these in every pass, framerate 29.97, though input to 30fps in Divx. bitrate selected was 905. final filesize for a 8:22.8 clip was 62.7MB, including mp3 cbr 128 track. The results were very nice. Tried a 1 pass with max q, and the final filesize using the same .avs file was 118 MB, again including the same mp3 track. There was very little noticeable difference between the 2 files. Mostly artifacts around print.
The most annoying part of this encode was confirming the overwrite to each dix logfile, every single darn pass. Gotta be a better way, I'm sure one of the encoding masters will enlighten me on this point.
For me each pass encoded around 32 fps, but with 5 passes almost, that's still gonna take awhile. I suppose I should be happy that it's not as slow as an H264 encode. The divx logfile showed every other frame as a B frame, you don't notice it, I've tried.
The new Divx player looks very nice, makes my old encodes look better in playback (with post processing settings at max). You still can't seek in a video that used Nandub to mux CBR MP3 audio track. The WEF will definitely need to take a look at this newest release by the folks at DXN. I'm sure I screwed up somewhere with the last pass(I hope). The lack of GMC or Q-pel in supported modes does not seem to degrade the Video at all. I'd be interested to hear from other folks that have tried this new Divx release, but from what I've seen so far, Xvid has some competition again(I've used Xvid for the last coupla months, looks like it's back to Divx, maybe).

[smok3]

ok, iam testing the interlaced input, i tryed almost everything so far, it does not look that it is recognized by the encoder and marked such for the decoding process (just a plain ntsc interlaced feed, no resizing, and i try to swap field priority also), any ideas on how should that work?
tia :D

edit: ok i think i got the idea, things should stay interlaced no-matter if played on computer screen or tv :rolleyes:

[Snollygoster]

Originally posted by leadman584
The most annoying part of this encode was confirming the overwrite to each dix logfile, every single darn pass. Gotta be a better way, I'm sure one of the encoding masters will enlighten me on this point.

Just click "Do Not Prompt With Errors and Warnings" on the DivX 5.03 encoding tab...

[leadman584]

Thanx gotta set of VOB's to try this new codec on a full feature.

[dTb]

Won't get to test this for a few days, maybe that's a good thing, wait till there's a bit more feedback.
The divx forum does seem to be down atm, they upgraded yesterday, I was able to get on and post but there were a few bugs. Maybe not such a good idea to update the forum and release a new divx version at the same time.
To people wondering about the adware version, atm it is temporarily unavailable to some countries for some legal reasons. Someone gave me a link for it on a google cached page, I'd never heard of this but I'm sure many of you will know what to do.

[PkmoNk]

I think I caught a bug or something.

I encoded some music videos @ 1-pass batch.
Some sync properly while, while some gets asynced, and while comparing it to the original, the avi video seems to be ahead of the mpeg video.

Does anyone know why this happens? and how to fix it?

[Rash]

Just a stupid question. If you don't set how many times you want Nth Pass to encode, then how does the encoder know which is the last pass to actually create the video file? Or it simply keeps creating real video files and you have to keep overwritting them?

Sorry, I just haven't downloaded the 5.03 yet, just curious. :)

[Snollygoster]

Yup it overwrites every file after the 2nd pass...

[WRFan]

I wonder if they even tested the package properly before releasing it. The decoder can't be configured, it resets itself every time

yeah, the divx people get on my nerves, the forum and forum registration don't work properly and such stupid bugs in the programme. I found out that one can set the decoder settings by starting the windows media player classic, starting a divx file in the player and then go to properties and from there start the decoder settings. then I set them and clicked ok, and they were set. but when using the decoder settings programme directly, the settings used to reset themselves. and I can't start the registration dialogue - before it started and said something like "you are already registered, do you want to reregister?" but now it doesn't start at all. the programme itself is however registered, I have no problems with encoding, so that doesn't matter that much, just shows that there's something wrong with the divx team's heads. updating their forums when a new version comes out, what a "good" time for that!

[dTb]

I was just running a small test and I realised something, the nth pass is essentially the same everytime. Maybe this is already implemented in virtualdubmod, if not they should implement a feature to copy the nth pass job in job control. Instead of repeating the same steps n number of times you could just copy and paste the number of nth jobs you want. :cool:

I was also thinking about the gknot compressibility test, for the time being I suppose manual tests are the only way to go using the same 2-pass first pass method that was used previously. I might give the multipass first pass a try and see if it works.

[Atlantis]

Ok nobody has mentioned this. Have you noticed? Every time I play a Divx file, the decoder shows a Divx logo for a few seconds at the beginning. It’s very annoying. ---(Edited)

[bond]

You can turn the display of the logo on or off in the codec properties dialog.

[Atlantis]

Ah Thanks!

[n9801904]

I really don't get the version numbering they are using! Surely that last digit should be used for big fixes and the second digit for new features. Not that it makes any difference (a rose by any other name... ;)

Shouldn't this be DivX 5.1.0 and then, when the bugs are fixed they could release 5.1.1, 5.1.2 etc..

[Snollygoster]

Originally posted by WRFan
yeah, the divx people get on my nerves, the forum and forum registration don't work properly and such stupid bugs in the programme. I found out that one can set the decoder settings by starting the windows media player classic, starting a divx file in the player and then go to properties and from there start the decoder settings. then I set them and clicked ok, and they were set. but when using the decoder settings programme directly, the settings used to reset themselves. and I can't start the registration dialogue - before it started and said something like "you are already registered, do you want to reregister?" but now it doesn't start at all. the programme itself is however registered, I have no problems with encoding, so that doesn't matter that much, just shows that there's something wrong with the divx team's heads. updating their forums when a new version comes out, what a "good" time for that!

If you open any player eg: ZoomPlayer and you configure the decoder in there it will keep its settings ;)

[WRFan]

Originally posted by Snollygoster
If you open any player eg: ZoomPlayer and you configure the decoder in there it will keep its settings ;)

yes, that's what I said in my post above: setting the settings in windows media player classic works, but not in the standalone programme. the disadvantage is of course you have to have a divx file on your harddisc to play so that the settings dialogue becomes accessible in the player. but it's kind of annoying to start the player every time one wants to change settings. I use wmp 9 for playback and one can't access the divx settings from there. meaning I have to start the other player just for settings change. hope the divx people fix this bug soon.

another question: are the Quarter Pixel & the GMC greyed out in your settings? because they are on my pc, and I have no idea why. Bi-directional Encoding is accessible, but not the other two.