Xvid - Playing Xvid Encoded Files

Playing Xvid Encoded Files

Primarily due to concerns over patents, the official Xvid web site does not provide binary versions of the Xvid codec. However, it does link to supporting web sites that provide Video for Windows codecs (and DirectShow decoding filters) for Microsoft Windows.

Xvid is not a video format – it is a program (codec) for compressing and decompressing to the MPEG-4 ASP format. Since Xvid uses MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile (ASP) compression, any video that is encoded with it is termed "MPEG-4 ASP video" – not "Xvid video" – and can therefore be decoded with all MPEG-4 ASP compliant decoders. This includes a large number of media players and decoders, in particular all the ones based on the free/open source libavcodec library from FFmpeg (for example, MPlayer, VLC, ffdshow or Perian).

Xvid encoded files can be written to a CD or DVD and played in some (not all) DivX compatible DVD players and media players. However, Xvid can optionally encode video with advanced MPEG-4 features that most DivX Certified set-top players do not support. Files encoded with global motion compensation, Qpel, MPEG quantization, multiple B-frames or files that exceed the VBV limitations may not play back properly on DivX Certified hardware devices.

For example, Xvid specifies three warp points for its implementation of global motion compensation as opposed to the single warp point implementation of DivX. Enabling some of the more advanced encoding features can compromise player compatibility. Some issues exist with the custom quantization matrices used in tools such as AutoGK that automate encoding with Xvid. This can (depending on the decoder chipset of the set-top player in question) produce videos that have unstable playback and artifacts. However, most recent model DivX compatible DVD players have improved support for custom quantization matrices.

See also: Video format ability