comparison DOCS/codecs.html @ 5018:0cb063e71d9a

DivX5 support

5017:940f3bf0c3a0

<P>If you have a Win32 codec not listed here, and not supported yet, just read the <A
HREF="#2.2.3">codec importing</A> to get info about how to help us adding support
for it!</P>

<P><B><A NAME=2.2.1.1>2.2.1.1. DivX4</A></B></P>

<P>This section contains information about the DivX4 codec of
<A HREF="http://www.projectmayo.com">ProjectMayo</A>. Their first available alpha version was the OpenDivX 4.0
alpha 47 and 48. Support for this was/is included in <B>MPlayer</B>, and built by
default. We used to use its postprocessing code to optionally enhance visual
quality of MPEG1/2 movies. Now we use our own.</P>

<P>The new generation of this codec can even decode movies made with the
infamous DivX codec! And it's not everything, it's MUCH faster than the
traditional Win32 DivX DLL's (note that libavcodec's decoder is EVEN FASTER :).
See below for configuration. The only disadvantage of this codec is that it's
currently closed-source. :(</P>

<P>The codec can be downloaded from the following URL:</P>

<P>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="http://avifile.sourceforge.net">http://avifile.sourceforge.net</A></P>

<P>Unpack it, and run <CODE>./install.sh</CODE> as root.</P>

<P>Note: do NOT forget to add <CODE>/usr/local/lib</CODE> to your
<CODE>/etc/ld.so.conf</CODE> and running <CODE>ldconfig</CODE> !</P>

<P><B>MPlayer</B> autodetects if DivX4 is (properly) installed, just compile
as usual. If it doesn't detect it, you didn't install it exactly as above,
and/or has messed up config (see last question of 5.1 section).</P>

<P>Using it is a bit tricky. As it conflicts with the old OpenDivX (its API is
very similar to OpenDivX's), OpenDivX code is disabled, and the OpenDivX
driver calls this library too.</P>

<P>Generally we can pinpoint this issue to that you have two options to use
this codec:</P>

<P><TABLE BORDER=0>
<TD>&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">-vc&nbsp;odivx</TD><TD>&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
<TD><FONT CLASS="text">using divx4 codec as a new version of OpenDivX.
in this case it produces YV12 image in its own buffer,
and <B>MPlayer</B> (libvo) does colorspace conversion. (<B>RECOMMENDED!</B>)</TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">-vc&nbsp;divx4</TD><TD></TD>
<TD><FONT CLASS="text">using divx4 codec's colorspace conversion.
in this mode, you can use YUY2/UYVY too.</TD></TR>
</TABLE></P>

<P>The 'odivx' method is usually faster, due to the fact that it transfers
image data in YV12 (planar YUV 4:2:0) format, thus requiring much less

<TD></TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text">hard prostprocessing, eats many CPU (like level 4 with divxds</TD><TR>
</TABLE></P>

<P><B><A NAME=2.2.1.2>2.2.1.2. ffmpeg's DivX/libavcodec</A></B></P>

<P>Beginning with version 0.4.2 , <A HREF="http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net">ffmpeg</A> contains an <B>opensource</B> DivX codec,
which is compatible with the traditional DivX. <B>MPlayer</B> supports this codec,
and this makes it possible to <B>watch DivX/DivX4 movies on non-x86 platforms</B>,
and gain much faster <B>DivX/DivX4</B> decoding speed than the Win32 codecs and
the original DivX4 library has!</P>

<P>It also contains lots of nice codecs, such as RealVideo 1.0, MJPEG, h263,
h263+, etc.</P>

<P>If you use MPlayer

<P>To achieve the <B>greatest speed</B> on my K6, I remove the
<CODE>ffmpeg12</CODE> section from codecs.conf (this codec isn't optimized, and
libmpeg2 is twice as fast), and place <CODE>vfm=5</CODE> in my config file.
Then <B>MPlayer</B> always uses <B>ffdivx/ffodivx</B> to decode
<B>DivX/DivX4</B> files, and libmpeg2 for MPEG1/2 . With this and my Matrox G400, I can view even the
highest resolution DivX/DivX4 movies on my K6/2 500, without framedrop.</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.2.1.3>2.2.1.3.  XAnim codecs</A></B></P>

<P>Foreword: using (some) XAnim codecs with other program than XAnim, is

5018:0cb063e71d9a

<P>If you have a Win32 codec not listed here, and not supported yet, just read the <A
HREF="#2.2.3">codec importing</A> to get info about how to help us adding support
for it!</P>

<P><B><A NAME=2.2.1.1>2.2.1.1. DivX4/DivX5</A></B></P>

<P>This section contains information about the DivX4 codec of
<A HREF="http://www.projectmayo.com">ProjectMayo</A>. Their first available alpha version was the OpenDivX 4.0
alpha 47 and 48. Support for this was/is included in <B>MPlayer</B>, and built by
default. We used to use its postprocessing code to optionally enhance visual
quality of MPEG1/2 movies. Now we use our own.</P>

<P>The new generation of this codec can even decode movies made with the
infamous DivX codec! And it's not everything, it's MUCH faster than the
traditional Win32 DivX DLL's (note that libavcodec's decoder is EVEN FASTER,
so the usage of this codec is <B>DISCOURAGED</B> - you need it only for
encoding). See below for configuration. The only disadvantage of this codec is
that it's currently closed-source. :(</P>

<P>The codec can be downloaded from the following URL:</P>

<P>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="http://avifile.sourceforge.net">http://avifile.sourceforge.net</A></P>

<P>Unpack it, and run <CODE>./install.sh</CODE> as root.</P>

<P>Note: do NOT forget to add <CODE>/usr/local/lib</CODE> to your
<CODE>/etc/ld.so.conf</CODE> and running <CODE>ldconfig</CODE> !</P>

<P><B>MPlayer</B> autodetects if DivX4/DivX5 is (properly) installed, just
compile as usual. If it doesn't detect it, you didn't install it exactly as
above, and/or has messed up config (see last question of 5.1 section).</P>

<P>Using it is a bit tricky. As it conflicts with the old OpenDivX (its API is
very similar to OpenDivX's), OpenDivX code is disabled, and the OpenDivX
driver calls this library too.</P>

<P>Generally we can pinpoint this issue to that you have two options to use
this codec:</P>

<P><TABLE BORDER=0>
<TD>&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">-vc&nbsp;odivx</TD><TD>&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
<TD><FONT CLASS="text">using the codec as a new version of OpenDivX.
in this case it produces YV12 image in its own buffer,
and <B>MPlayer</B> (libvo) does colorspace conversion. (<B>RECOMMENDED!</B>)</TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">-vc&nbsp;divx4</TD><TD></TD>
<TD><FONT CLASS="text">using the codec's colorspace conversion.
in this mode, you can use YUY2/UYVY too.</TD></TR>
</TABLE></P>

<P>The 'odivx' method is usually faster, due to the fact that it transfers
image data in YV12 (planar YUV 4:2:0) format, thus requiring much less

<TD></TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text">hard prostprocessing, eats many CPU (like level 4 with divxds</TD><TR>
</TABLE></P>

<P><B><A NAME=2.2.1.2>2.2.1.2. ffmpeg's DivX/libavcodec</A></B></P>

<P>Beginning with version 0.4.2 ,
<A HREF="http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net">ffmpeg</A> contains an
<B>opensource</B> DivX codec, which is compatible with the traditional DivX.
<B>MPlayer</B> supports this codec, and this makes it possible to <B>watch
DivX/DivX4/DivX5 movies on non-x86 platforms</B>, and gain much faster
<B>DivX/DivX4/DivX5</B> decoding speed than the Win32 codecs and the original
DivX4 library has!</P>

<P>It also contains lots of nice codecs, such as RealVideo 1.0, MJPEG, h263,
h263+, etc.</P>

<P>If you use MPlayer

<P>To achieve the <B>greatest speed</B> on my K6, I remove the
<CODE>ffmpeg12</CODE> section from codecs.conf (this codec isn't optimized, and
libmpeg2 is twice as fast), and place <CODE>vfm=5</CODE> in my config file.
Then <B>MPlayer</B> always uses <B>ffdivx/ffodivx</B> to decode
<B>DivX</B> files, and libmpeg2 for MPEG1/2 . With this and my
Matrox G400, I can view even the highest resolution DivX movies on my
K6/2 500, without framedrop.</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.2.1.3>2.2.1.3.  XAnim codecs</A></B></P>

<P>Foreword: using (some) XAnim codecs with other program than XAnim, is