Should we use DivX3 or DivX5??

[Boathouse]

I've been encoding movies for a while and have been successful with DivX3 and DivX5.

In my experience DivX5 produces slightly better results and the encoding process is a lot quicker, however many new movies still seem to be encoded using DivX3.

Therefore which codec do you think we should be using?

Apart from the fact that only one of the codecs is legal, please can you share your advice on the advantages and disadvantages of each?

[Deus]

Yes most movies are in Divx 3. but sooner or later we will all swith to 5. so I would use that

[Enchanter]

There is a link in Doom9, highlighting the differences between those two codecs. However, I haven't been able to find it. If anyone has a link to it, we'd appreciate it.

I personally like both codecs, though I'm pretty much an old-schooler, sticking to 3.11 for now.

[UncasMS]

use what you think produces best quality

for me it's definitely divx5 via gordianknot

[Boathouse]

Test Results

I've been testing out DivX3 and 5 encoding using Gordian Knot, encoding the same chapters with each codec and then comparing them.

My efforts show that DivX5 does produce slightly better results, although if you're giving your movie plenty of bitrate I think the difference is hardly noticeable.

At the end of the day both codecs produce great results, although DivX3 is more challenging to setup, more prone to coding errors and takes longer!

So why aren't we all using DivX5? I have quite a large movie collection and I've found that only about 2% are in DivX5!

Perhaps it's because you're supposed to pay for DivX5 or put up with crappy adware?

[Enchanter]

Perhaps it's because you're supposed to pay for DivX5 or put up with crappy adware?

One of the major reasons for me. Even if it is easily blocked by a firewall, it still irks me to know that a spyware resides in my system and removing it disables the codec. Maybe I should consider using the standard (non-pro) edition...

[Boathouse]

Yes I couldn't agree more, the spyware aspect is really off-putting.

Of course their are workarounds like firewalls and hacked copies of the purchase-only coded, but it's hassle we could do without

[Enchanter]

I do remember that one time when I ran ad-aware and accidentally removed the 'crucial' Gator component (pun intended). The next thing I knew, I couldn't encode in DivX 5 using the advanced MPEG-4 features anymore (if I remember correctly) and I had to reinstall the codec (along with the annoying spyware). Hence, my preference for the freeware-free 3.11 & MS MPEG4 V2.