Codec Confliction?
by Tyler DeMuth
on
May 29, 2008 at 5:06:51 am
After I installed AE 7 on two computers (both running XP, but otherwise vastly different), both computers act oddly around videos that have been rendered using DivX codecs (in .avi format).
Even when viewing the files in Windows Explorer, explorer will close itself and I have to restart it with the Task Manager. That, or I can wait some time for it to restart itself. DivX player will still play the videos when I can get to them, but I have to use DivX's open function to get to the folders they're contained in, so it seems to be a conflict within explorer?
What can I do to fix this problem? I have had to move files around using the Command Prompt just to get into folders now because folders containing videos rendered using the DivX codecs, even those downloaded off the internet (not rendered by myself), are closed very quickly due to the video that uses the divx codecs.
Re: Codec Confliction? by Dave LaRonde on May 29, 2008 at 10:44:07 pm
It sounds like you're a satisfied DIVX user who has experienced few or no problems before now. You probably have tons of stuff in DIVX. So it pains me to have to say the following:
I don't know of any AE user who does any work whatsoever in DIVX. The reason: changes and upgrades in DIVX aren't always backwards-compatible. A file compressed in an earlier version may not play in a later version's player. It can be a real crap shoot. As one former host on this forum used to say, "DIVX is evil."
My advice would be to drop DIVX like a hot potato. Sorry about that.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: Codec Confliction? by Tyler DeMuth on May 29, 2008 at 10:53:30 pm
I used DivX mainly because I liked the compression rates I could get using it. I have slow internet, and I upload a lot of my stuff to youtube, so I have a real need to keep compression high while maintaining quality. DivX did that very well for me, but if there's an alternative that can produce video that looks very much the same as it does before being rendered and keeps file sizes to a minimum, I'd like that very much ^^
Any suggestions to replace my beloved DivX codecs?
Re: Codec Confliction? by Dave LaRonde on May 29, 2008 at 11:03:10 pm
Quicktime's H.264 does a darned good job, although it encodes slowly. It comes with Quicktime Pro, the best 35 bucks you'll spend in the next six months.
Unless, of course, you happen to stumble upon a station selling gas for $1.79/gal.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
