Divx movies versus avi or mpeg2

[raunchpup]

does anyone have any comments on quality of divx movie making?
just a thought for trying out different formats for vids
raunchpup

[DirtyRatStudios]

AVI is just a container that can hold a number of different types of audio and video 'codecs', including DivX. A codec is a piece of code that tells the computer how to play a piece of video or audio.

If you're talking about online videos then MPEG2 isn't worth considering because at low bitrates in terms of quality it has little advantage over MPEG1. Also people need to install an extra player to play MPEG2 but not MPEG1 (not sure about with Vista).

DivX is a variant of MPEG4, so designed to look good at low bitrates and a step up in quality from MPEG1 and 2. You can stream it embedded on a page if it's in a .mov (Quicktime) container. But an AVI file will not stream. So an AVI containing DivX is download only. In terms of quality DivX is about the same as Windows Media 9 or Real Video. But not as good as the newer h.264 (which can be contained in an mp4, mov or flv file.

One thing to consider is that more recent codecs are more demanding on the computer. For instance some older PCs will struggle playing a large format DivX or Windows Media file (eg. 640x480 or 720x576). Flash Video is even worse.

[DirtyRatStudios]

I meant to say embedded Flash Video is worse, due to being played via Flash Player 9.

[raunchpup]

Ahh ok thankyou for that information thats a great help.
Im trying to find the best way to deliver clips and since i am still a bit new
on the delivery end of things thought Id ask especially since there are so many new thingscomming out today
again thankyou SIR
raunchpup