Hydrogenaudio Forums > DivX 5.2 released

CiTay

Jul 15 2004, 15:09

DivX 5.2, DivX 5.2 Pro and Dr. DivX 1.05 released.

http://www.divx.com/divx/

http://www.divxnetworks.com/products/

QUOTE

New:

* Localized versions for French, German and Japanese
* Bi-directional coding using an adaptive method
* Fully adaptive multiple consecutive B-frames
* MPEG-2/H.263 quantization choice
* Built-in bitrate calculator
* Update checking tool
* Automatic update notification for the DivX encoder
* Fast mode, revamped for better performance, compression and quality
* Feedback mode which is now multithreaded, taking advantage of HyperThreaded or dual CPU for better efficiency
* Intel SSE3 (Prescott) Optimizations
* 3 point GMC support in the DivX decoder

Changed:

* "Slowest" mode removed as the quality differential with "Slow" mode was insignificant, yet the performance differential was massive
* DivX Pro Adware bundle replaced by DivX Pro 6-month free trial

Improved:

* Smooth playback supporting multiple consecutive B-frames
* Quantizer, now using quant scale in video packets

Fixed (Encoder):

* A rare issue where rate control sometimes inserted Q=31 frames in video combining low light conditions, high bitrate and specific motion patterns
* Fastest mode to respect the user-specified average bitrate (Old "Fastest" behavior can be obtained by disabling profiles and performing 1-Pass, Quality-based encoding with Q=3)

Fixed (Decoder):

* A crash occurring in some rare cases with clips that have dimensions divisible only by 2 and use YUY2 color mode
* Black screen when decoding old buggy MPEG-4 clips that lack VOL header
* Internal flush operation with "Smooth playback" feature
* Intra inverse quantization (type 1)
* Support for generic MPEG-4 (XVID and 3ivX)
* Data partitioning clip
* Deblocking to no longer cause solid blocks to appear during playback
* DivX decoder to always play DivX video

rutra80

Jul 15 2004, 16:07

Anyone knows if the free version is really free? I mean, no adware nor anything like that? Can't find the info.

CiTay

Jul 15 2004, 16:26

QUOTE(rutra80 @ Jul 16 2004, 12:07 AM)

Anyone knows if the free version is really free? I mean, no adware nor anything like that? Can't find the info.

DivX (non-pro) is really free, but of course lacks some more or less important features. DivX Pro is an ad-free 6-month trial. Guess they're getting a load of money from licensing now...

videonut

Jul 15 2004, 17:01

QUOTE(CiTay @ Jul 15 2004, 02:26 PM)

DivX (non-pro) is really free, but of course lacks some more or less important features. DivX Pro is an ad-free 6-month trial. Guess they're getting a load of money from licensing now...

I guess so: My friend on Doom9, who is not a DivX supporter but a regular member, was given a free serial by Gej via PM. He told me that some other Doom9 regulars who are mostly more interested in xvid rather than DivX, are also privately offered gifts, like official serials and even hardware DVD players by Divxnetworks.
I suppose there´s a chance taht you probably won´t be writing too much critique after getting a DVD player, who knows what nice gifts you´d miss in the future.

Omion

Jul 15 2004, 17:39

QUOTE

New:
* 3 point GMC support in the DivX decoder

I noticed that this makes no mention of 3-point GMC in the ENCODER, indicating they're still using 1-point, which is still suboptimal. From what I've been told, 1-point GMC is completely worthless. (In fact, if Xvid calculates that a frame only needs 1-point GMC, it's encoded as a regular P-frame. Apparently there are some things that you can do with a P-frame that you can't do with a GMC-frame)

They probably just added that to support decoding Xvid correctly. 3-point GMC and multiple B-frames were the two major problems decoding Xvid with Divx, and I see that they've both been fixed.

I use Xvid exclusively, but I suppose it's good that all the things I've encoded are supported in more decoders.

QuantumKnot

Jul 15 2004, 17:50

What does it mean when they say 6 month free trial? Does it mean that after 6 months, it stops working and asks you to buy it?

DigitAl56K

Jul 15 2004, 18:12

QUOTE(rutra80 @ Jul 15 2004, 02:07 PM)

Anyone knows if the free version is really free? I mean, no adware nor anything like that? Can't find the info.

DivX is completely free - it has no adware at all.

The DivX Pro 6 month trial is also completely free. It also has no adware, and you can use all of the DivX Pro features.

Both bundles contain the Google Toolbar, but its 100% optional. You don't have to install the toolbar to take the trial, and uninstalling the toolbar doesn't affect your trial period either. If your system is compatible with the Google Toolbar, it will be offered to you during installation. You can say no if you don't want it, its completely up to you

Digga

Jul 15 2004, 18:27

from the changelog it sounds like I'll use the good old 5.1.1 pro-adware (made non-extrusive) codec for a long time to come, aslong as there are no fundamental encoding changes.
good bye pro-adware

it was only a matter of time though I guess

understandable from their point of view.
competion pushes development, let's see how it goes.

videonut

Jul 15 2004, 18:28

QUOTE(Darrius @ Jul 15 2004, 04:15 PM)

Whenever we do releases or have extra devices we send out serial numbers and toys to people in the community that are great at providing feedback. No better way to get both feedback and also no better way to say "thanks".

Darrius

Great, but isn´t a DVD player quite an expensive gift before even any feedback has been given, and the new product is only few hours old? And why do you keep this private?
Who knows how many DVD players you would have given to people if I hadn´t posted my message so early.
At least I´d like to know which person got a DVD Player from Divxnetworks when reading comments about it..

amano

Jul 15 2004, 18:29

hmm. I like that new calculator thingie. that comes in handy without having to use external calculation apps.

Peter

Jul 15 2004, 18:29

Well, very nice of Mr. 66.146.163.164 to flood HA registration system, apparently using *@divx.com and *@divxnetworks.com email addresses (responding to validation emails too). Multiple clones (incl. one obvious troll) banned, topic split in progress.

Bonzi

Jul 15 2004, 18:37

QUOTE(Omion @ Jul 15 2004, 03:39 PM)

QUOTE

New:
* 3 point GMC support in the DivX decoder

They probably just added that to support decoding Xvid correctly. 3-point GMC and multiple B-frames were the two major problems decoding Xvid with Divx, and I see that they've both been fixed.

Yes, I filed that bug report several months ago. Good to see that they fixed it. I guess it was somewhere about divx 5.1 when they decided that they wanted to make their decoder support all sorts of other mpeg4 codecs.

BTW it isn't a big deal that divx does not support 3-warp GMC encoding since it really isn't that helpful. Sure it is a lot better than 1 warping point but the quality boast is quite minimal in XviD considering that the slowdown is quite big.

superdumprob

Jul 15 2004, 19:01

QUOTE(Bonzi @ Jul 16 2004, 01:37 AM)

QUOTE(Omion @ Jul 15 2004, 03:39 PM)

QUOTE

New:
* 3 point GMC support in the DivX decoder

They probably just added that to support decoding Xvid correctly. 3-point GMC and multiple B-frames were the two major problems decoding Xvid with Divx, and I see that they've both been fixed.

Yes, I filed that bug report several months ago. Good to see that they fixed it. I guess it was somewhere about divx 5.1 when they decided that they wanted to make their decoder support all sorts of other mpeg4 codecs.

BTW it isn't a big deal that divx does not support 3-warp GMC encoding since it really isn't that helpful. Sure it is a lot better than 1 warping point but the quality boast is quite minimal in XviD considering that the slowdown is quite big.

From what I know none of the MPEG-4 codecs have optimal or near-optimal GMC implementations. I recall one of the XviD developers saying "GMC is fairly useless. The quality boost is negligible and the encoding/decoding performance is greatly impacted." or something to that effect.

QuantumKnot

Jul 15 2004, 19:24

I've had a play of it and tried setting my clock forward to see what happens. It just comes up with a message saying the Pro version has expired and the Pro features are disabled....so it becomes the free version.

I think I will also continue using 5.1.1 (adware-supported) or switch to Xvid *shrugs*

Omion

Jul 15 2004, 20:09

QUOTE(Bonzi @ Jul 15 2004, 04:37 PM)

QUOTE(Omion @ Jul 15 2004, 03:39 PM)

QUOTE

New:
* 3 point GMC support in the DivX decoder

They probably just added that to support decoding Xvid correctly. 3-point GMC and multiple B-frames were the two major problems decoding Xvid with Divx, and I see that they've both been fixed.

Yes, I filed that bug report several months ago. Good to see that they fixed it. I guess it was somewhere about divx 5.1 when they decided that they wanted to make their decoder support all sorts of other mpeg4 codecs.

BTW it isn't a big deal that divx does not support 3-warp GMC encoding since it really isn't that helpful. Sure it is a lot better than 1 warping point but the quality boast is quite minimal in XviD considering that the slowdown is quite big.

That's what I finally decided after trying to find optimal encoding settings. The slight advantage is outweighed by the additional 20% CPU usage during decoding (encoded at 704x480, 24fps on a P4 1.5GHz).

yourtallness

Jul 15 2004, 20:18

QUOTE

or switch to Xvid *shrugs*

Why *shrugs* ?

I was under the impression that Xvid is a very competitive codec...

thekid

Jul 15 2004, 20:20

QUOTE(zZzZzZz @ Jul 15 2004, 04:29 PM)

Well, very nice of Mr. 66.146.163.164 to flood HA registration system, apparently using *@divx.com and *@divxnetworks.com email addresses (responding to validation emails too). Multiple clones (incl. one obvious troll) banned, topic split in progress.

What are you talking about zZzZzZzzzzzZzzzzzZZzZ?

you don't let multiple people from one company sign up on the forums?

thekid...

CiTay

Jul 15 2004, 20:25

QUOTE(thekid @ Jul 16 2004, 04:20 AM)

What are you talking about zZzZzZzzzzzZzzzzzZZzZ?

you don't let multiple people from one company sign up on the forums?

In his defense, it looked kind of suspicious to get four consecutive new members from that IP in such a short time. Especially since you first registered Taisho. Please keep such gimmick accounts to yourself.

thekid

Jul 15 2004, 20:27

QUOTE(CiTay @ Jul 15 2004, 06:25 PM)

QUOTE(thekid @ Jul 16 2004, 04:20 AM)

What are you talking about zZzZzZzzzzzZzzzzzZZzZ?

you don't let multiple people from one company sign up on the forums?

In his defense, it looked kind of suspicious to get four consecutive new members from that IP in such a short time. Especially since you first registered Taisho. Please keep such gimmick accounts to yourself.

those where four different people signing up to reply

Ryan - the crazy japanese replying guy (we will tell him to stop)
Ben - me, thekid, the sarcastic one
Darrius - he's the straight forwar guy
and Al - he's the hunky boy band type

There were no fake accounts created

thekid...

JohnV

Jul 15 2004, 20:32

Ok, please continue on-topic now.

QuantumKnot

Jul 15 2004, 21:11

QUOTE(yourtallness @ Jul 16 2004, 12:18 PM)

QUOTE

or switch to Xvid *shrugs*

Why *shrugs* ?

I was under the impression that Xvid is a very competitive codec...

The *shrugs* was meant to say I'm undecided on whether to switch to Xvid or not.

It does have quite a lot of options which I'm not familiar with.

hyper84

Jul 15 2004, 21:15

QUOTE(yourtallness @ Jul 15 2004, 09:18 PM)

QUOTE

or switch to Xvid *shrugs*

Why *shrugs* ?

I was under the impression that Xvid is a very competitive codec...

Xvid actually won the codec shootout on doom9 a while back, and that was beta. Now it's final and really rocks. I am looking forward to an good test between the new divx 5.2 and xvid >= 1.0.1 even though I will probably always use xvid

. AutoGK and Xvid = free and easy, the way I like it

.

StoneRoses

Jul 15 2004, 22:23

QUOTE(Digga @ Jul 16 2004, 07:27 AM)

from the changelog it sounds like I'll use the good old 5.1.1 pro-adware (made non-extrusive) codec for a long time to come, aslong as there are no fundamental encoding changes.

From change log
* Fully adaptive multiple consecutive B-frames
* MPEG-2/H.263 quantization choice

This two items will make HUGE differences to the previous version of DivX. This is my speculation since I switch to XviD since its 1.0 beta. (and never look back)

In XviD, consecutive b-frame help improve compression ratio (and overall quality in the end) since b-frame is significantly smaller than P-frame. (previous version of DivX support only 1 consecutive b-frame)

MPEG quantizer is definetely A MUST for high bitrate encode (>900kbps for D1 resolution), you will get a lot shaper image from MPEG quant.

If you really hate adware (I do), you should consider XviD. Better quality if you config it correctly. BTW XviD interface is a lot better and easier to understand since 1.0.

DigitAl56K

Jul 15 2004, 23:48

QUOTE(StoneRoses @ Jul 15 2004, 08:23 PM)

If you really hate adware (I do), you should consider XviD. Better quality if you config it correctly. BTW XviD interface is a lot better and easier to understand since 1.0.

Why? DivX 5.2 has no adware in any bundle

krmathis

Jul 16 2004, 00:17

Not available for Mac yet!

StoneRoses

Jul 16 2004, 02:16

QUOTE(DigitAl56K @ Jul 16 2004, 12:48 PM)

QUOTE(StoneRoses @ Jul 15 2004, 08:23 PM)

If you really hate adware (I do), you should consider XviD. Better quality if you config it correctly. BTW XviD interface is a lot better and easier to understand since 1.0.

Why? DivX 5.2 has no adware in any bundle

Oh my mistake.

Sorry

You know, I have been DivX user since version 3, I have try pre 1.0 XviD 2 or more time but swithch back to DivX bacuase at that time XviD is not mature enough and the interface was varied version by version and they always seems to have something broken every release. But after they reach 1.0 most thing is work great, the quality of encoded video is just great.

Now I use XviD exclusively even on small 128kbps mobile phone video (mp4 in 3gp flavor). XviD video is superior than those of mpegable PVAuthor and Quicktime. (even I have to mux xvid stream into .3gp manually with the commandline tools)

plonk420

Jul 16 2004, 02:28

QUOTE(QuantumKnot @ Jul 15 2004, 08:11 PM)

QUOTE(yourtallness @ Jul 16 2004, 12:18 PM)

QUOTE

or switch to Xvid *shrugs*

Why *shrugs* ?

I was under the impression that Xvid is a very competitive codec...

The *shrugs* was meant to say I'm undecided on whether to switch to Xvid or not.

It does have quite a lot of options which I'm not familiar with.

i guess i didn't THOROUGHLY test Divx5, but i did a 1CD of The Cell with Divx5 and a 1.0RC of Xvid that i COULD compare, and the main thing that bugged me was the blockiness of the edge between two colors, IE the sand dune and blue sky. totally fugly in Divx5, but not present in Xvid. i think i even tried different decoders, decoding both with the same decoder.

all in all, i'm totally sold on Xvid. it even blew my mind further when i realized that with different mpeg matricies i could get near, if not almost identical performance at extremely low bitrates comperable to VP6 which can do low bitrates out of the box.

the only thing you really need to worry about is Motion Search Precision. VHQ doesn't to a terrible lot for you (mainly just gives you a smaller rip by a meg or five on a 1CD encode). there's a reason certain "scenes" have completely switched to Xvid

fileman

Jul 16 2004, 06:20

I also switched from DivX 5.11 to XviD 1.0x - and I'll never go back

CiTay

Jul 16 2004, 10:20

XviD / DivX guide split: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=23728

amano

Jul 19 2004, 06:05

@plonk420, fileman:

We talk about DivX 5.2 in this thread. Don't spam it with your experiences with older versions or other codecs.

Give 5.2 a try and then report your new experiences.

QuantumKnot

Jul 19 2004, 07:04

I'd be interested to know whether there has been any speed tweaks in 5.2.

NeoRenegade

Jul 19 2004, 07:14

There's a bad mistake on DivX's website. When buying DivX pro, entering your billing information, you are required to choose a state/province, but only US states are listed, and it's a *required field.

mp3chan

Jul 19 2004, 09:28

I don't know why this codec makes my Zoom Player 4 Pro hang everytime I go to the next track or just stop the video. Do you guys also have this problem?