What is the best encoding program and is there a better codec than divx?

[Enchanter]

Originally posted by hacker_on_fire
however i would like to know if anybody knows when their will be a 'stable' version released of the codec.

I tested Nic's latest build (the one released in December) and it yielded excellent quality.

Avoid Koepi's 15012003 Unstable build since it is suffering from oversized-AVI problem (2 times I repeated the conversion and 2 times I got an AVI 300MB larger than my desired 700MB). Koepi's older build at 03012003 does not suffer from the problem though.

However, if you want a really stable build of the codec, Koepi's older Stable builds will provide you with that, though it lacks the availability of tools such as B-frames, GMC and QPel.

Hope that helps a bit.

[UncasMS]

@ all xvid users

i would like to ask you a question, folks.

so far i have NOT seen a really perfect xvid sample.
dont get me wrong, i'm not indending to say xvid is not capable of proving highest quality.

all i'm saying is: i never came across hq sampes.

i did a couple of tests myself with numerous xvid version (no-bframe, bframes) but still i wasnt satisfied with the quality.

since i'm very much interested in this stuff i'd like to broaden my horizon and learn how to properly set up xvid.

having said this i'd like to take a look at 1 or 2 minutes of any sample that someone has transcoded himself, considers it really high quality (no macroblocks, sharp picture, no ringing effects) and would be able to provide me with the information on how exactly this quality was achieved.

in case anyone could help me out on this, i'd like to hear from you.

[hacker_on_fire]

I tested Nic's latest build (the one released in December) and it yielded excellent quality.

could you direct me to where i could get this build from. thanx a lot.

@uncasms, i have seen good rips of '8 mile' 'xXx' and LOTR: Two Towers, however which suffers from freezing and none are my rips. i would also appreciate tips of xvid encoding anybody.

[WildmanJoe]

Hi, just here to add a few comments... (hope I don't get banned)
I'm a ferverent supporter of XVid (hope I spelt it correctly) and have been using it since I started encoding... however recently I noticed something unusual about XVid... Although the quality of XVid is indeed superior to it's counterpart spelt backwards, there is some detail I thought everyone ought to look out for...
Enlarge your XVid movie to full screen or large screen... look at any portion of the screen. Do you notice something.... specks or dots or spots or whatever you would like to call them. Compare this with a movie from some other codec and you will see what I mean... I've got a few movies in XVid and the spots/specks/dots are still there!

If you don't believe me, go try it out... remember to have another movie encoded in another codec as a comparison, otherwise you won't know what I mean.

If I am wrong (I hope I am) or if you don't agree with me, post a reply, thanks.

[UncasMS]

@ hacker on fire

i know that LOR-TT version and that is exactly what came out in my own tests - i dont consider that best quality.

it's fine, but i DID achieve better quality with my divx5 routines using lanczos + convolution when doing LOTR-1 which had a similar running time and was therefor comparable with this vite version.

[Batman]

The vite version, simply put, "sucked." It does not accurately represent the full potential of xvid.

Searching the doom9.org forums and reading the xvid encoding guides there (as well as iago's xvid 2-pass encoding document) might provide you with some helpful tips on xvid encoding.

[UncasMS]

thanx batman

i'll have a look at it as soon as the necessary divx 5.0.3 test will be done

[Batman]

Glad to help

Yeah divx 5.03 looks interesting (there seem to be a few bugs) because of the nth number of passes you can do (5 passes for instance which theoretically should improve quality) and a noticeble speed gain.

[magnoliafan]

Originally posted by UncasMS
@ all xvid users


having said this i'd like to take a look at 1 or 2 minutes of any sample that someone has transcoded himself, considers it really high quality (no macroblocks, sharp picture, no ringing effects) and would be able to provide me with the information on how exactly this quality was achieved.

in case anyone could help me out on this, i'd like to hear from you.

Hi there. Did you ever get any samples? I did some stuff comparing DivX 5 and xvid, and I got much better results with xvid. I have some sample files, but they are pretty big (done at 720x480, highest bitrate). If you want to see a couple, let me know how to get them to you.