7 ms·
Why would you ever install DivX when VLC exists?
by rangibaby 13y ago
Why would you ever install DivX when VLC exists?
- derefr 13y agoPresumably, you might want DirectShow codecs for use in something else. VLC is just a binary blob; you can't harness its power to do, say, batch watermark insertion.
- velodrome 13y agoIf your on Windows, you can use a codec pack: http://www.cccp-project.net/ http://www.cccp-project.net/ http://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm http://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
- nyar 13y agoWhy use a codec pack for a single codec? On windows you can use FFDSHOW or LAV or XVID to decode divx.
- velodrome 13y agoIt does have options. You can choose what to install in the codec pack.
- Daiz 13y agoInstalling separate decoders for every single format is just dumb and a waste of time. Something like LAV Filters will handle pretty much everything you throw at it, and on top of that you just need a media player like MPC-HC and a decent subtitle renderer like xy-vsfilter. Incidentally, this is pretty much exactly what CCCP gives you with a simple single installer.
- jules 13y agoBecause my time is more valuable than 2MB of disk space.
- Semaphor 13y agoSo install CCCP and not a codec pack :)
- cdash 13y agoI thought CCCP is a codec pack, it's in the name?
- makomk 13y agoAt this point, I think the only codec CCCP installs by default is LAV, and it may not even include any other codecs anymore; it's called a codec pack mostly for historical reasons. The main advantage of CCCP is that it has sensible default settings and a good configuration app. It also installs various non-codec DirectShow filters for stuff like subtitle support.
- Semaphor 13y agoGabest's FLV Splitter is a FLV decoder. Personally I do not think 2 codecs are commonly understood as a codec pack but HN strongly disagrees. The funny thing is that when people complain about codec packs in general it's that they bloat your system with tons of codecs you do not need, not that you get one codec for nearly everything and one for FLV.
- FedRegister 13y agoCCCP = combined community codec pack
- josteink 13y agoBecause VLC is a merely player, not a system-wide DirectShow component which can be reused and composed in processing pipelines by all third party Windows-applications. That said, there are a million other codecs you can/should install in place of DivX which is fully DivX-compatible and able to decode and encode DivX video properly.
- r0h1n 13y ago> a system-wide DirectShow component which can be reused and composed in processing pipelines by all third party Windows-applications. Why should a user care for this? I don't have DivX on any of my systems for years now and I've never come across a context where I needed it.
- mappu 13y agoDivX specifically is not so useful now that windows (7? vista?) bundles good MPEG-4 decoders for both ASP and AVC (but on XP-class hardware, it was more performant than XviD). I think the DivX software bundle includes an encoder, so there's that. There's still a few reasons directshow is still relevant: - Getting video thumbnails for .mkv, .ogg, and .flv files in windows explorer - Adding postprocessing filters (deblock, aspect ratio correction, pixel shaders, subtitling) to media players that don't otherwise support it (windows media player) - Adding AV format and container support to your existing media player, for formats that Microsoft don't bundle decoders for (e.g. H.265, VP8, theora, daala, silk...)
- Bud 13y agoThese aren't very good reasons: 1. If video thumbnails don't work in Windows Explorer, Microsoft should fix that, or third parties should fix it by means other than malware installs. 2. Nobody should be using Windows Media Player. It's awful. Again, if it needs fixing, it should be fixed without malware. 3. If your existing media player lacks codecs, this can be fixed in several good ways. Malware is not the way to fix this. I conclude that DivX is completely worthless, since it adds nothing that can't be better added in other ways, and is now aggressively evil as well.
- xarball 13y agoI find that vlc (a la ffmpeg) doesn't implement the divx codec properly in some cases. In vlc, some of the videos that i have get slower the farther along you are in the playback stream. Yet with the Divx Player, the media plays back fine. It's only for some media, but it's a problem nonetheless. I suspect that it may have something to do with it being a somewhat reverse-engineered codec in ffmpeg?
- mappu 13y agoDivX video is just standard MPEG-4 ASP, if ffmpeg doesn't play it in time and absolutely bit-perfectly then file a bug.
- josteink 13y agoIncorrect audio-sync was a known issue back in the early days of MPEG4 encoding. Getting it right was very, very hard, and some tools even came with options to "tweak" the output-stream to get things synched up, specifically tailored for the behaviour of the Frauenhofer MP3 decoder. I suspect some videos encoded using these tools may render and synch "incorrectly" on newer players not aware of the workaround done in the past to make improper codecs behave properly, even though they may be 100% within spec. I'm guessing the DivX-player (which sounds like a very stuck in the past kind of thing) uses old codecs and are able to account for this, by not following spec while rendering these "tweaked" video-files.
- jbk 13y agoHello, I would be very interested to fix all that. Please mail me to give me samples, and I'll do my best to fix it.
- Yaggo 13y agoVLC is excellent player. For OS X, there is also open-source software Perian which brings support for wide range of video decoders as a QuickTime component.
- mappu 13y agoPerian is wonderful, but note that it was discontinued early last year.
- Nowyouknow 13y agoMPlayerX is also a great alternative on OSX.
- benologist 13y agoDivX has a streaming web player that's quite good.
- UweSchmidt 13y agoSlightly offtopic, everybody knows of VLC, but do you know of any well-curated list of non-crappy software in general? I'm thinking of criteria such as: No malware, no advertisements, no bloat, no phoning home, no unnecessary/forced updates, in case of mobile: no unnecessary permissions. Recently I needed to rip a CD quite urgently and the software I used has tainted my PC like a terrible sin of the past.
- ivoflipse 13y agoI use Ninite to set up a new computer, there are some elements that I generally skip (Office/anti-virus trials), but it can install a lot of useful programs without having to download dozens of installers.
- Cyykratahk 13y agohttp://portableapps.com/apps http://portableapps.com/apps is a pretty good resource. The apps are portable versions (made with permission of the original developers) that are meant to be installed on flash drives, but you can click through to the official project pages of each one to find the desktop versions.
- fletchowns 13y agobut do you know of any well-curated list of non-crappy software in general? <insert your favorite linux distro here>
- maxerickson 13y agoToo late, but on Windows, use Exact Audio Copy or ImgBurn. I have a list of useful software, but I haven't published it anywhere. Maybe I should do that.
- WickyNilliams 13y agoOn windows I now use Media Player to rip CDs, but in the past I've used CDex. Simple UI, gets the job done without fuss: http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/ http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/
- 13y ago