To Switch or Not to Switch?

[palesi]

Hi.

I'm one old fashioned fella who still uses old fashioned tools. Namely: DivX PRO 5.0.5, Ogg Vorbis DirectShow filters, BSPlayer build 499 for playback - mpeg2avi and BeSweet for encoding. I can hear you laughing now.

DivX settings I use: B-Frames, no GMC, no QPel, light PSY.

I'm sticking with the old stuff because the playback is acceptably smooth on my old fashioned CPUs: we're talking Celeron 300-400 here with silly on-board graphic adapters.

Now, is there any way to produce videos with the new codecs (DivX or XviD) that can play "acceptably smoothly" with this antediluvian hardware? Any advice on new video players that have the lowest memory consumption (such as the good ol' BSPlayer build 499) would be appreciated, too.

I don't like bloatware. Should this rule out the new DivX?

[obieobieobie]

I'd at least recommend switching to Divx 5.11

[DigitAl56K]

Originally posted by palesi
Hi.

I'm one old fashioned fella who still uses old fashioned tools. Namely: DivX PRO 5.0.5, Ogg Vorbis DirectShow filters, BSPlayer build 499 for playback - mpeg2avi and BeSweet for encoding. I can hear you laughing now.


Not too bad, DivX Pro 5.0.5 was a nice build, although I would definately update BSPlayer :)


DivX settings I use: B-Frames, no GMC, no QPel, light PSY.


The main things you're missing in this case are the Rate-Distortion algorithm introduced in 5.1/5.1.1 (Slow/Slowest modes at the time of that release, Slow mode under 5.2/5.2.1 - Slowest mode was marginal improvement for 3x performance hit), Fast mode under 5.2/5.2.1 (Similar quality/compression as Standard mode, but faster) adaptive bi-directional coding introduced in 5.2/5.2.1(improvement over the old B-Frame selection method), new PSY implementation introduced in 5.1/5.1.1 (Uses intelligent manipulation of the image in the frequency domain as opposed to adaptive manipulation of the macroblock quantizer).


I'm sticking with the old stuff because the playback is acceptably smooth on my old fashioned CPUs: we're talking Celeron 300-400 here with silly on-board graphic adapters.


The new 5.2.1 decoder should be just as fast, if not faster, better quality, and less likely to drop frames thanks to real-time adaptive post-processing. Be aware of this support article (http://support.divx.com/cgi-bin/divx.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=982) before you make the switch.


Now, is there any way to produce videos with the new codecs (DivX or XviD) that can play "acceptably smoothly" with this antediluvian hardware? Any advice on new video players that have the lowest memory consumption (such as the good ol' BSPlayer build 499) would be appreciated, too.


Just stick to similar encoding settings (i.e. those allowed by Home Theater profile) and you should be fine - run a 5 minute test clip to check.


I don't like bloatware. Should this rule out the new DivX?

Of course not! :)

[palesi]

DivXPro505GAINBundle.exe - 3.65 MB

DivXPro521XP2K.exe - 7.06 MB

No bloatware, right?

[DigitAl56K]

Right! :)