Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with xvid

Ripping a TV series in Handbrake

snap_dragon — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:52:59 -0800

I can rip movies to Xvid using Handbrake and it is all good....it rips the movie but no special features which is fine....But lately, when I tried John Adams (miniseries) or the TV show the 4400, it only took one chunk out of the whole disc and ignored the other episodes. Is there a way around this so I can get all the episodes even if they are lumped into one .avi file? (I really don't mind all the fast-forwarding). Thanks...and to all of those reading/responding...have a great weekend.

What's the best solution for streaming HD media from a PC?

YoungAmerican — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 11:08:27 -0800

What's the best solution for streaming HD media from a PC? I just got my first HDTV. For a couple years, I've been using an XBox Media Center with a wireless adapter to watch downloaded video from my WinXP PC in the other room. XBMC, however, lacks the power for HD video.

What's the best, reasonably priced solution in 2008?

I do have Netflix, and Netflix "Play Now" would be neat, but isn't a requisite. I play video games sometimes, and that would be nice, but again, not required. BluRay, same deal. What is important is that it work really well, not require a lot of hacking on my part, and that it play all the stuff I download -- DivX, Xvid, MPEG, etc. I am not opposed to something with an HD I can easily access over my network, but I don't want any sneakernet. I'd rather spend $150 than $300 or $400, but I'd consider the latter if it was something really kickass.

These questions have some sorta answers, but they're also a year old. What's the latest and greatest?

Need Video Card for...Video!?

Oktober — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:37:28 -0800

What's the best video card to get for xvid/divx and h.264 decoding? Long story short: I've given up on Cable TV, most of what I watch now is either streamed from hulu and netflix or downloaded from the internets. Getting a faster connection has improved my streaming performance, but watching ostensibly "HD" h.264 videos has been somewhat less than satisfying. There's still a lot of noise, and sometimes visible interlacing.

I'm using Media Player Classic under Vista Ultimate for the most part, although I've got VLC and WMP and Quicktime and everything else on this machine. I'm running a GeForce 7600GT with component out on a Core 2 Quad machine.

I've heard here and there that newer videocards "help out" on video decoding, but I don't really need it to free up CPU time or anything, but instead improve the quality of the output video. Games are less of a concern, I'm more or less a full-time Xbot now, so if the Geforce 9600 does it as well as the 9800 GTX+ or whatever, I'd rather save the money. Also, if I'm exporting to a LCD HDTV, would simply going from a component video connection to a HDMI connection solve my problem?

Editing DIVX directly in iMovie/FCP

unSane — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:46:26 -0800

I've got a VIO POV1 helmetcam which records video as .avi files in DIVX format. What do I need to edit this directly in iMovie and Final Cut Pro? Whenever I've tried to do this kind of thing before (using Flip4Mac as I remember) I've run into issues, for example FCP requiring me to render sound for the clips I drop into the timeline.

I've already tried Flip4Mac, Perian and the regular DIVX/XVID codecs and although some will allow me to play the movies with sound in QT, none of them so far will allow iMovie to recognize the files.

Solution before has been to transcode to DV or some other format using ffmpegx or similar, but the movies are long and this takes up a heck of a lot of disk space and it's slow.

Quicktime says the format is 'XVID', 720 x 480, Millions.

(I'll probably transcode to DV for final editing but I'm looking for a quick and dirty way to edit movies on my laptop to play to a group of riders each day on a trip to Moab).

WinAVI crapped out on Vista Premium 64-bit. What other friendly converter such as WinAVI can I use instead to convert xvid/divx/etc to .vob files so I can burn them as a DVD with Nero and such.

cheero — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:28:37 -0800

WinAVI crapped out on Vista Premium 64-bit. What other friendly converter such as WinAVI can I use instead to convert xvid/divx/etc to .vob files so I can burn them as a DVD with Nero and such? Thanks in advance WinAVI crapped out on Vista 64-bit. What other friendly converter such as WinAVI can I use instead to convert xvid/divx/etc to .vob files so I can burn them as a DVD with Nero and such?

Thanks in advance

convert vobs to avis with hardsubs?

kindachris — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:12:04 -0800

How do I add subtitles (hardsubs) to an xvid avi when converting from VOBs under FreeBSD? I have a handfull of VOBs that have embeded subtitle streams, and I want to convert to AVI with hardsubs.

Currently using ffmpeg to do the conversions, but I can't seem to find the options to make it hardsub. There has to be a way, right? I'm willing to compile/install whatever I need to.

For some reason, the only [somewhat] useful results I can turn up on Google want me to use Windows, which I'd rather not.

And just for the record: No, I'm not doing anything illegal. I have the license to do what I want with the DVDs ... I just don't want to pay the production company to do it for me.

Videoplayback in Vista

Iax — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:51:18 -0800

Windows Vista seems to have much worse video playback compared to Windows XP. Any way to fix this? I just got a new computer intel duo 8400 with 4 gigs of ram and two Nvidia 8800 GT in SLI.

Ive installed windows xp on one harddrive and windows vista on the 2nd harddrive. So I can easily boot into either one.

Neither XP or vista could play some my video files (just audio of the files), so I installed the CCCP (it also comes with Zplayer, which i like) and it works fine on XP, but in Vista the edges of moving stuff seem noticably blocky. Is there a way to fix this?
Playing XVID files in vista, this is the most noticable.
Also, after installing the cccp, windows media player can play the video, and the video looks finr, not blocky atall. but I hate the user interface for any version of windows media player.

Cannot see .XviD avi files inside Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, am I missing a codec?

cheero — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:24:41 -0800

Cannot preview .XviD avi files inside Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, am I missing a codec? Hello all,

I'm trying to edit some video files I downloaded that are compressed with .Xvid. I basically try to load them inside Premiere Pro CS3 and its all black with no audio. Then I have to convert the file via TMPGEnc to windows media format which takes about an hour or so (for 25 mins worth of footage) and only then am I really able to see real footage. I am wondering if there is a faster way of doing this? Am I missing a codec for Premiere?

DIVX/XVID from PC to TV by DVI

onshi — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:08:45 -0800

I want something just like an Apple TV, but without the reliance on iTunes. Specifically, I want to view DIVX/XVID content from my Vista PC, wirelessly, with DVI output. With a $200 budget, have I no hope? All the CES coverage has reignited my interest in this product category. If streaming devices are too expensive, are there any simpler products analagous to the SanDisk TakeTV... again, with DVI or HDMI out?

DVI out (or HDMI in a pinch via a converter) is important because I'll be viewing content on an LCD monitor lacking component inputs.

Streaming video from a Mac to an Xbox 360

ssmith — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:28:06 -0800

I was reading the December 2007 Video Playback FAQ about the new video options that are going to be incorporated in tomorrow's Xbox 360 dashboard update. And I was surprised to see question #28: "How can I stream content from my Mac?". They imply that it's possible, but they don't mention any 3rd party solutions. What Mac software can I use for this?

Convert an XviD video to a standard codec?

whataboutben — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:21:03 -0800

How can I cut a video that uses an XviD codec into a few short clips, and convert them into a regular format that needs only Windows standard software to play? I need to make a presentation in one week, in which I will be showing clips of a video that I currently have as one long XviD (.avi) movie. The computer that will run the presentation won't have any non-standard codecs on it. So, in order of priority, I need to:

1) Convert to a standard format, playable on Windows Media Player with no extra codecs installed.
2) Cut into a few short (30 seconds - 1 minute) clips.

What is the easiest way - e.g. the best free software - to do this? I don't need the software to do anything else besides 1); 2) would be a nice bonus.

Hey buddy, ya want to buy an algorithm?

toxic — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 23:57:58 -0800

What is the legal status of the XviD codec libraries, ffmpeg, and/or other F/OSS programs that implement the (patented) MPEG-4 algorithm? The libraries I linked to are distributed under the GPL or LGPL, but it's clear that because of the patents that apply to MPEG-4 that the software is of somewhat dubious legality in the US. Most of what I've found online consists of either academic debate or an almost comical disclaimer. I haven't been able to find any clear description of what is and isn't legal with regard to this sort of software. Can a user in the legally use it to decode files? encode files? Modify and redistribute the source code?

I'm primarily interested in the US, but data points from other countries would probably be interesting, too.

DVD archiving to a media server - best practices?

lifeless — Tue, 22 May 2007 07:03:16 -0800

I'm planning on ripping my DVD collection to a media server, with varying amounts of losslessness depending on the film. There are a lot of ways to do this, and I'm looking for the "best" way. After the jump I'll describe my current plan, please comment on and clarify the various technical considerations. I own about 250 DVD movie titles, and a lot more non-movie DVDs. In trying to reduce clutter from my life and home, I intend to sell all of the movie DVDs except for a handful that have some special significance to me. However, I don't intend to lose the movies, but instead rip them to a fault-tolerant HD array (maybe Drobo, maybe ReadyNAS, maybe something else). Not completely legal, I know, but I'm going to do it anyway.

For proper archival, losslessness is very important. The obvious tricky thing that results from that is the amount of hard drive space required, especially since fault tolerance is a must. There's no way around the fact that a lot of money needs to be spent on hard drives.

To lower the HD costs somewhat, I'll divide the DVD's into two categories: 1) lossless ripping for important films with several discs, particularly good extras or otherwise high bitrate requirements, and 2) lossy ripping for less important films and films with unimportant extras. The lossless option is simple: I'll just decrypt the DVD and copy the VIDEO_TS folder onto the HD array. I have all the tools I need for this part, so the lossy part is the meat of this post.

I'm probably going to divide the lossy category into two subcategories: DVD9->DVD5 for movies where the retention of some extras and "navigable" DVD bits is necessary, and XviD/H.264 for movies where the main feature is enough.

This is where my knowledge ends. There are so many movies that I don't want to spend too much time tweaking individual rips for best possible quality, so I need some general guidelines. Actual questions:

1. Codec: Should I go with XviD or some H.264 variant for the "main feature only" movies? Relevant issues: quality/disk space, openness, quality of encoders, cross-platform compatibility, expected longevity of the format.

2. Continuing from the last question, what if the main feature fits on a DVD5 without recompression? Then it's really only a matter of HD space: 4+ gigs for the original MPEG2, or X gigs for a lossily encoded format. How big would an H.264 encoded movie file have to be before the loss of quality is near-imperceptible from the original? How about XviD? (Obviously I'm not going to scale the picture down from its original dimensions, i.e. 720x576 for PAL movies which most of my DVDs are.)

3. Container format: Matroska is very flexible with multiple audio and subtitle tracks, but sparsely supported by stand-alone players. Currently I'm using Xbox Media Center which works fine, but there's no telling what I'll use in the future. AVI seems too limited, and I don't really know much about MP4. The factors of question 1 apply. Which one should I pick?

4. Audio encoding: I'll want to preserve multi-channel audio: usually DD5.1, but preferably DTS when available. Can VBR MP3 handle these, or do I have to include the audio track as-is even if the video is XviD or H.264? AVI doesn't support multi-channel (IIRC), any caveats with other containers?

Any other relevant considerations are welcome, too. I have access to Mac, Windows and Linux computers, so I'll be able to use pretty much whatever tools you suggest.

Best media streamer for HDTV (under $300) ?

lattiboy — Tue, 01 May 2007 10:32:06 -0800

Now that I found out the XBox 360 won't have Xvid support in the Media Extender (thanks M$), what alternative media streamer would the mighty filter suggest to view the LOADS of Xvid (and perhaps x.264 HD) content on my PC via my HDTV over a wired network connection? This is wordy, sorry:

I've tried 3 different streamers (pinnacle, Dlink, Buffalo) and all have had some serious problems with speed or compatibility or image quality. I built a myth tv box, but MySQL is the devil and I don't have 3 weeks to work it out.

I'm not against building a front-end type system for viewing the content, but would like something more manageable (and cheaper) for the girlfriend. I've seen a lot about the Netgear EVA8000, but its so expensive you could build a decent HTPC.

My current PC is a in a HTPC case, so I could connect it to my TV, but its so powerful it would be a waste. Also, I'm running Windows MCE and my motherboard doesn't play nice with Linux.

I've read hundreds of opinions, but I always value the thoughtfulness of MetaFilter members. Thanks!

How do I encode for a standalone DivX player with Handbrake?

obiwanwasabi — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 02:00:08 -0800

If I use Handbrake for Mac to encode a DVD title to an AVI file with MPEG-4 video and MP3 audio, will it play in a standalone DivX player if I use the ffmpeg codec, or must I use the (much slower) XviD codec instead? My very limited understanding of these things is that ffmpeg / DivX / XviD are just different codecs that do the same thing - encode and decode MPEG-4/MP3 video streams. Is this right? Or will a standalone DivX player not have the faintest idea what to do with an ffmpeg'd stream, and spit it out?

Can't play divx files in powerpoint

allthewhile — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 21:42:40 -0800

Whenever I embed divx or xvid files into my powerpoint presentations they speed way up and there isn't any sound. I have all the proper codecs installed as they play correctly through windows media player.

Why does Entourage hate me?

adamdrici — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:08:16 -0800

Why does the first episode of the third season of Entourage refuse to play on my mac? The second episode of this season, as well as the the entire second season play fine (all hd xvid). I've downloaded several copies but none of them play. Any advice?

What files can be burned to a DivX disc?

tweebiscuit — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:09:44 -0800

I just got a DivX-capable DVD player. Is there some way of telling (on OS X) what DivX/XVid files can be burned directly to a DivX disc without requiring conversion? I've tried dropping a few DivX files into Toast, but it wants to convert them all first, which is going to lower their quality some more -- the reason I wanted DivX in the first place was so that I could watch downloaded files on my TV without having to lose quality by having to convert them before watching. Is a particular framerate or resolution required to make a valid DivX disc?

What does everyone know about XVID settings that I don't?

chudmonkey — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 09:50:31 -0800

double-pronged question about working with XVID I download TV shows using BitTorrent on occasion, and I find the bulk of the videos I download are encoded similarly so half-hour programs and hour-long programs are almost always ~175 Mb and ~350 Mb in size, respectively. (with commercials removed, of course.)

I understand the basics of codecs and rendering, have several low-to-high-end apps that can covert video, and have played with the XVID configuration panel, but I just don't know what settings to apply to create video files like the ones I download.

Considering that there are hundreds of identically-encoded videos added to BitTorrent every week, I feel like there must be some standard format or setting being used, and I feel like an idiot for not being able to find anything using Google. Can anyone tell me what I should be doing?

And since we're on the topic, I'm also wondering if there is any means by which someone could erase a few frames from within a XVID-encoded video without having to re-encode the video to save the changes. For example, if I download a show that has 25 seconds of blackness where a commercial break should have been, can I trim out that blackness without having to re-encode?

Windows equivalent to FFmpegX

weaponsgradecarp — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 22:33:03 -0800

MPEG4Filter: I'm looking for a windows equivalent to ffmpegx on OS X. I have loads of DivX 3.11 and Xvid (and even a few 3ivX) movies, about 700mb each, which i want to convert to MPEG4 SP (with B-frames) or DivX 4 or 5, at a resolution somewhere in the ballpark of 480x272, to play on an Archos AV500. FFmpegX is great for this on my powerbook, but i simply do not have the HD space to convert 20 gigs worth of movies. Any ideas?

DVD to XVID converter

null terminated — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 19:15:45 -0800

I used a dvd to xvid, divx converter constantly until I had to reinstall windows. I can't remember the name of it for the life of me! It was basically a collection of different programs (like gordian knot), including smart ripper, vobsub, etc. The interface was blue. When you opened it you chose between simple and delux. The most recent version was 9.

Has anyone used this? I'd really like to find it. Google is of no help. Thanks.

Why are movies embedded rather than linked?

Nelson — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 10:17:07 -0800

Why do sites show movies embedded in a tiny web page rather than linking to it so I can view it in the media player of my choice?

Writeable DVD applications

armoured-ant — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 04:34:54 -0800

I have an xViD .avi movie, 119minutes, that I'd like to put onto DVD. Toast claims that it can't fit it on (5.7gb required, 4.4gb of my 4.7gb writeable DVD available). What I'd like is to be able to requantize the movie so that it fits onto the DVD. Bonus points for an OS X application. Super bonus points for a free one. That I don't have to find a crack for.

Best "works-out-of-the-box" "all format" video player?

PinkStainlessTail — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 13:32:14 -0800

What's the best "works-out-of-the-box" player for watching DivX/XviD/MPEG-4/etc. videos on my living room TV?

Xvid movies shake due to software problem; what can I do?

Masi — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 09:10:01 -0800

Some of my XVid movies shake when I play them, regardless of the player used. This does not happen with all XVid movies, and GSpot says they have no errors.

Also, they do not shake when I play them in my DVD player, so it's something software-related. Other than uninstalling my codecs and re-installing them, have you got any suggestions? Thanks!