Quality lifted up to H.264/DivX standards?

Some time ago I did a shootout for my personal needs (source
Sony HDV--> web publishing in various resolutions). I really
WANTED the FLV format to come out on top, since it's such a nice
and easy format to work with.
However, it was heart breaking to see how much of a quality
difference there was between h.264 or DivX on one hand and FLV on
the other. Even if I did miss multipass on FLV the difference was
equally big when doing a single pass with the easy to use DivX
converter. And seeing how DivX now has grown into a really usable
format with a really nice webplayer (using Lightbox scripting) that
is what I'm using for the time.
Anyway... I've been anxiously awaiting the next Flash Media
Encoder to see what they've come up with. I will try it out as soon
as I get home from work, but can anyone report if the quality has
improved since the last version, or if multipass has been added?
Thanks
A

Seems this might not actually be the product I thougth it was
(interesting none the less).
I'll stick with the other formats then!
Cheers

Similar Messages

Import quality issue with AVC/H.264 and workaround

When I import from my Sanyo Xacti HD700 using "Import from Camera..." the import quality has significant blocking / compression artifacts. However, if I copy the same file off the SD card from the camera and play it back in QTplayer it does not have this same blocking / compression artifacts.
The file is a .MP4 container using H.264 codec for video and AAC for audio. The resolution is 1280x720p and framerate 30fps.
After spending a significant portion of time messing around with iMovie 08 trying to get it to import without the quality loss I have discovered that "Import from Camera..." and "Import Movies..." have different behavior (in terms of video quality) on the SAME FILE.
*To reproduce*:
1) Record a video with Sanyo Xacti HD700 camera. (One with a nice color gradient is good because it will make the compression artifacts more obvious).
2) Import the video from the camera using "Import from Camera..." (Name the event "Import from Camera" so you can remember which is which)
3) Copy the .MP4 file from the mounted drive onto your local harddrive. (Not sure if this step is actually necessary, but haven't tried without)
4) Import the video from the .MP4 on your desktop using "Import Movies..." (Name the event "Import Movies") Notice that this completes much quicker than step 2.
5) Find the two imported movies in your "iMovie Events" folder. You will notice that both movies are different sizes when you would expect them to be identical. (In my case the movie from "Import from Camera" was 47.4MB while the movie from "import movies" was 33.1MB, and the file on the SD card was 33.1 MB)
6) At this point you will also notice that the movie imported from camera will have a custom name like clip-2007-12-26 14;41;44.mov while the movie from "import movies" will have the same filename as it did on the camera i.e SANY0025.MP4.
7) Now open both files in QTplayer and arrange them side by side showing the same frame. You will see that the quality is much worse in the file from "Import from Camera".
Hypothesis:
My guess is that when you select "Import from Camera" it does some transcoding on these files that it doesn't do when you select "Import Movies". (Maybe Import from Camera always transcodes, whereas Import Movies checks to see if it needs to transcode or not?) I believe this because it takes significantly longer using the "Import from Camera" during which time it would appear to be performing some type of transformation on the movie. Also, because the file name in the folder is different.
I believe that either this transcoding is flawed or of poor quality which leads to the poor quality video when importing.
*Work around*:
Use "Import Movies..." instead of "Import from Camera..."
Note that I have not yet taken this through the export process to know how this will impact the final output.
Finally, for the skeptics, here is a screengrab of the two movies side by side in QTplayer on the same frame. The one on the left was imported with "Import from Camera" and the one on the right with "Import Movies". Look at the right side of the yellow playset and also at the hair. In motion it looks quite bad.
Thoughts?

Really? You don't see the difference?
Ok, well here is it blown up to 2X to make it more obvious:
and here it is blown up to 2X and with the contrast increased to make it even more apparent:
I perhaps didn't pick the best frame as an example, but it is very obvious in motion. If necessary I suppose I could post a small movie clip to show.
Message was edited by: Richard_

Poor video quality when sharing .avi H.264 clip

My video camera produces .avi files, encoded with H.264, aspect ratio 720x400, square pixels.
To preserve the original quality and avoid letterboxing, I want the final shared clip to be the same encoding and aspect ratio. So I've created a suitable project setting and share presets.
Now the problem is that I can edit and share these clips but the image quality is noticeably degraded.
Is there any way this can be fixed?
I am using PrE 10 32bit on Windows XP.
Thanks
K0ICHI

Steve, Bill, John, thanks for your prompt replies.
Steve, I took your advice and used the Flip Mino and changed the frame size to 720x400. I then used the MP4 - H.264 1440x1080p 30, modified again to 720x400 to produce the output. And the result? I can't tell the original file from the output file, except for the audio, that is a bit lower in volume and actually sligtly more pleasant to listen to.
The camera is an AIM SmartyCam:
http://www.smartycam.com/on-board-camera/technical-features.htm
The output is to be viewed on my computer and uploaded to YouTube.
Bill, I agree with your fax of a fax concept in theory, but as I said, the image quality degradation is indiscernable, and the output file is not compressed, it is actually more than triple the size of the original!
John, my video is H.264 inside AVI, and it works... :-) GSpot actually says the file is very similar to the one in the thread you linked to. It only differs by having PCM 16kHz mono sound and a different frame size.
Before I used a modified HDV project setting: These and the Flip project settings seem to be mostly the same except that they use different editing modes, so I guess this is the reason why the Flip works so much better?
In any case, thank you all for the help!
K0ICHI

Saving full quality HD projects in H.264

Hello,
I'm new to the forum been using a Mac and iMovie for about 5 years. Anyway I recently bought a Sanyo HD700 Vid cam which records onto an SD card in H.264 720p HD video. What I would like to be able to do but have yet to figure out is save my iMovie projects in full HD quality onto an external HD to view via Windows Media Center or Xbox 360 dashboard. I see no need to burn a DVD anymore as my entire home is digital and wired. Is there anybody else doing this and if so could you please help.
Thanks,
Ben

if you download the software called connect360, you can view your saved movies on your xbox. it's seamless and fairly easy. Using Imovie, I had to save the file using quicktime, advanced and save in the highest quality before HD, using mpeg4 compression and aac audio. I did not get the HD to work, it saved it choppy. I'm not sure if that's because my mac is 2yrs old, but i have 1080 stuff already edited on my computer and that works fine.

Severe quality degratation at h.264

A question to you video guys. Look at this. This is a screen dump from my original .mp4 clip from a Go Pro Hero HD camera.
http://www.helikopterfoto.se/quicktime/original1080pmp4.jpg
This is the same frame exported to 10 bit uncompressed, no scaling
http://www.helikopterfoto.se/quicktime/1080p10bituncompressed.jpg
Just a slight quality loss visible
Now the same frame downscaled to 720 pix, 10 bit uncompressed
http://www.helikopterfoto.se/quicktime/720p10bituncompressed.jpg
Slight loss of sharpness, but OK
Now, the original frame exported with h.264 at maximum quality
http://www.helikopterfoto.se/quicktime/1080ph264full.jpg
Whoaa! Is this what to expect from the "best codec available?"
I'm new to video compression and formats, coming from the audio industry where we always handle the material uncompressed. But editing and exporting 10 bit uncompressed isn't doable on a MacBookpro. But the quality degradation from the h.264 export isn't acceptable in any way.
How do you professional videographers do it?

Whoaa! Is this what to expect from the "best codec available?"
Looks like a Gamma shift to me. QTKirk discovered this little gem of information: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3712
You may want to pay particular attentions to the section under the "Gamma 2.2 for videos" heading. Not sure this relates directly to your specifics if not working under Snow Leopard, but it appears to be related to your problem.
Thanks for the link, QT Kirk.

Using divx in "iTunes TV shows" instead of m4v...

Hello everyone,
I'm currently using EyeTV with a PCTV USB Stick, it works just great and I began to record a few TV shows. I usually convert them in to m4v and then to DivX. The only issue is that I can't and them to iTunes then... What should I do to add them to my library?
Thank you for the forum and hope someone has its idea about my problem...
brets.

It's a matter of bitrate and profile. It is possible to get Divx or Xdiv level compression out of h.264, but when you are just 'recoding' a file it is hard to tweak the settings so it does what you want.
The key thing to understand is that if you recode pre-encoded video or audo you can NEVER add quality back in. So if the bitrate on the Divx equates to a h.264 bitrate of 1000...and you recode that Divx with 5000 you are going to have a HUGE jump in the file size without any quality gain (and very possible quality loss depending on other settings).
Oh, and what I mean by "Profile". h.264 has standard profiles that are defined by the standard (sorry, redundant sounding). You can see that when you look at the AppleTV or Quicktime h.264 list. There /are/ higher profiles, and selecting one of them /can/ work, but it's outside the specifications. If you used the profile that equates to "HD" to recode a Divx file then your asking for trouble and non-support.
I'm a Windows person myself, so I can't point you at quality Mac software to recode. However, the guys over at the Doom9 forums may have some insight.

Poor quality when exporting HD project directly from Final cut Express

I am doing some HD projects in Final Cut Express HD. I filmed with the Sony HRD-HC1 in 1080i. I import into FCE using the 1080i 60 preset from Easy setup. I completed the project and it looks great from FCE full screen. I export as Quicktime (not Using Quicktime conversion), and I get a perfect looking output file using the Apple intermediate codec, 1440x1080. The problem is that the client needs to play back the video on windows machine using Quicktime. The windows Quicktime does not support the AIC apple intermediate codec, so I have to export to another format. I tried everything exporting from FCE, MP2, H.264, DivX, everyone option. They all look terrible. Blurry, especially parts that have quick motion. Really terrible. I called Apple support, no love. I then tried taking the AIC version of the file and used compressor. It took forever, but came up with am OK MP2 HD file. It still doesn't look that great, but it is way better. So, is their something broken with the FCE exports using Quicktime conversion? Anyone have similar experiences or workarounds? I don't want to use compressor as I don't have it on my Mac Book pro, I had to move it to another machine to do that.

Being that the dimentions you suggested should be widescreen, I re-ran the conversion to your parameters, this time un-checking "Preserve aspsect ratio.. as letterbox" and this time it is widescreen. Not sure why, but it was putting the black bars on the left and right, not the top and bottom, scrunching to 4:3ish with that box checked. Strange.
Anyway, the quality is the best H.264 I have seen exporting directly from FCE. It still blurs quite a bit on the fast moving video parts, my MP2 version from compressor still looks lots better. Seems like there is some problem with exporting HD from FCE. It just is not coming out sharp, like the Apple intermediate codec version you get with Export - -> Quicktime movie or if you wait for compressor to do the work rather than FCE. Does compressor use a different engine, or does it use the same QT and just take more time to do a better job in the export? Something just isn't right.

How can I export 1080i in best possible quality for internet streaming?

Sorry, I'm not too knowledgeable about this but I have Final Cut 6.0.4 and use/captured in HD-1080i. What's the best possible way to export this in great quality for internet streaming? What dimensions should I use? Any help would be extremely appreciated. Thank you!

ok i used h.264 main profile with 10 mbps and i am using multipass and size is 1280x720. i tried 24 and 30 key frames. quality is still lower
iv been experimenting on a 1.5 minute video to save time. I imported the project from imovie into fcpx and changed nothing. looking at the file that was created by imovie for the same video it is 1280x720 and uses codecs h.264 and aac the file size is 115 mb the extension is .mov and the color profile is HD (1-1-1) and total bitrate is 10,512 kbps. and the quality is the minimum acceptable for me.
The file i created using your settings above in compressor 4 is 118 mb and of lower quality. codecs used are h.264, aac, and Hint (not sure what hint is but noticed it isn't used with the .mov file) color prile is the same as above. total bitrate is 10,405 kbps.
Im not arguing that compressor 4 should be able to surpass imovie but so far i have only been able to do it by making the file size rediculous (>50 gb for 30 minutes). I created a movie that was recorded with the same camera (25 mbps) 1080p 1920x1080. imovie made this 40 minute video just under 3 gb and with the same quality as the movie i am experimenting with.
There is a differnce between theory and practice. SO FAR THE RESULTS I AM SEEING IS THAT IMOVIE IS SUPERIOR IN QUALITY TO SIZE RATIO. imovie has very few options but the hd setting has surpassed what i have been able to do with fcpx.
i am willing to try any settings that anyone sugests.
personally i think i will try to export the movie at max quality then take the super large file to my windows laptop and convert to avi. as in the past i have had much success with that format using divx. i realize that that is not the best method but i don't really want to spend hours re editing this video with imovie since the source footage is about 10 hours.
Thanks for trying still_learning but i am afraid you are still learning.

After Effects riddle (bad quality when I delet sth different)

Hi there. I have one bought project an I am wondering why my logo makes blurred automatically if I delete any different layer who is unseen.
Someone can explain this?
This is an "UNSEEN" layer. It has to be right here. When I delete this invisible layer, my logo ("Logo Animation" name below) makes blurres and got bad quality. But I see no reason for that. "Map 1" has no option or parented or something. Do you know why if I delete unseen "Map1" my Logo makes bad quality?
Here is a whole project:
MEGA
This is not extreme important thing to my job or sth. I am only curious

Compositing Settings:
Resolution: 1920x1080
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Sqaure Pixels
Frame Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Frame Rate: 29.97
Export Settings:
Resolution: 1920x1080
Frame Rate: 29.97
Field Order: Progresive
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Sqaure Pixels
TV Standard: NTSC
Profile: High
Level: 4.0
Bitrate Settings:
Bitrate Encoding: VBR, 2 Pass
Target Bitrate: 8 Mbps
Maximum Bitrate : 8 Mbps
Audio Settings:
Audio Codec: AAC
Sample Rate: 48000 Hz
Channels: Stereo
Audio Quality: High
Bitrate: 320 Kbps
Render at Maximum Depth Unchecked
Maximum Render Quality Unchecked
Frame Blending Unchecked
Key Frame Distance: 90
I've used different file formats and it worked fine. Only it give me poor quality when i use h.264 with VBR, 2 Pass. If i change it to VBR, 1 pass, the quality will be fine
I've also used different compositions with different source files. same result
See the attached images for reference. I hope you can see the difference. Thank you

Variable Frame Rate on H.264 output

I am using AE CS6 (cloud version). I am trying to render compositions to 1080p mp4. Each time the comp appears to render fine. But bringing it into my NLE crashes my NLE. I brought the media into MediaInfo (app from SourceForge that shows everything about a media clip). It says that the Frame Rate is VARIABLE Min: 60fps; Max 60.6 fps. The composition was 80 fps, and I told the renderer to keep it at 80. MediaInfo also said the duration was over 6 seconds. The composition was a little over 4 seconds. So the overall speed of the comp was incorrect. I've been in the video business for about 10 years. I understand frame rates, etc. Never heard of VARIABLE frame rates until this.
I was able to launder the media file through a freeware media format converter, and got it back into constant frame rate so I could proceed in the NLE with the project. But the time was still 6 seconds. So I had to speed up the clip in the NLE to get it back correct.
Since moving to CS6 from CS4, I decided to start using the H.264 output module. So I've just started encountering this variable frame rate problem.
So my questions... What is variable frame rate, how did I 'request' it, why is even the variable frame rate no where near the comp frame rate, and what do I do to simply get an mp4 with the 80fps that I want?
This is very reproducible for me. My comps are usually either HDTV 1920x1080 or HDV 1440x1080.
Add to Render Queue
Select DV Settings, change field order to none
Select H.264 output module
Render
Can someone explain what's going on?
Thanks.
Jerry

Where did you get that footage and what format was it originally shot in? Was it shot in slow motion or did you change the frame rate in AE? Why would you need 80fps footage unless you're going to slow it down to a normal frame rate?
Also, h.264 is not only a very lossy format, it's also a bad intermediate format. So if you're planning on editting that footage later on in an NLE, I'd suggest rendering it to something else. Premiere should work fine with h.264, but not FCP, although I think they fixed it in FCPX, but you didn't say what NLE you're using.
Second of all, the H.264 encoder is much better in Adobe Media Encoder. Check this post by Andrew Yoole:
3.Andrew Yoole,
Jun 8, 2012 6:34 PM in reply to pkaracas
Report
As the other guys have said, don't use AE to render using temporal codecs. Temporal codecs like H264 rely on storing partial frames based on earlier information. AE renders and encodes one frame at a time, so most of the efficiency of a codec like H264 is lost. The result is that you get much lower overall quality from an AE h.264 render than if you were to encode it externally.
Adobe Media Encoder or Quicktime 7 will encode great quality H.264 files.
Was this helpful? Yes No
As I said I'm not sure why you would need to take an 80fps piece of footage back into an NLE, but if you're trying to make that footage play back in slow motion, you're going to have to re-interpret the frame rate of the footage in After Effects to play back at standard rate. And, if you're going to use the AE Render Queue to output something for more editing, I would suggest using best settings and outputting to a production codec such as a ProRes, Animation, Uncompressed 10bit, Uncompressed 8bit or Black Magic.
Also I've never used that media info app before, but I know that when you open up quicktime and hit command I on the mac to view the inspector, the playing fps jumps around. I think this happens because the player doesn't necessarily play back the correct frame rate at all times.
This Adobe Captivate blog talks about variable frame rates in F4V files. Maybe it might help explain things.
http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2010/11/f4v-or-f4v-fixed-frame-rate-what-should-i-go-with .html

AppleTV quality inferior

When you down load a movie from Apple Store and play it back the quality is not even close to a standard definition DVD forget about comparing it to DTV HD channels or HDDVD or Blue ray. Even though the unit has beautiful high resolution graphics and ability to play stills from Iphoto, unless there is a way to import or sync to higher quality movie content the unit is not usable with high quailty TV's etc unless you like looking at soft, no contrast dim images.
G5 Quad, Power Book Pro 17" Mac OS X (10.4.9)

The quality of the video offered on iTunes needs
to catch up with the capabilities of the Apple TV.
The product is in ways ahead of its time. There are problems with offering high quality, high definition movies to mass markets by downloads, even with advanced H.264 compression: They are simply too large for the existing Internet infrastructure to deliver to large numbers of people at the same time.
Typical "backbone" lines that are the superhighways of the Internet have capacities of 45 MBps. There are dozens of these in the U.S. That is a lot of capacity, but just like with a highway system, not all of them connect every point & they can be overloaded if everyone uses them at once.
This is not a "last mile" problem -- even if someone builds a high speed highway to your door, to reach distant points quickly, you still have to merge with other traffic on progressively larger roads. In fact, as more people are able reach the larger roads quickly, the more likely traffic jams become.
This is also not a problem because of "dark fiber" that goes unused. Like a 10 lane highway that connects to the rest of the highway system only by a pair of narrow roads at its ends, this unused capacity is useless. The entire system must be free of bottlenecks & sized to handle peak loads to keep things flowing at maximum speed.
Of course, the tier one providers can add the capacity necessary to handle tens of thousands of simultaneous, multi-gigabyte movie downloads without affecting other traffic. The sticking point is who pays for it.

H.264 vs. MPEG-4 Export Advice

I'm using iMovie09, trying to get the best quality and lowest file size.
I keep getting conflicting advice so I've been runner a couple of tests.
Here are 2 test examples:
5:47 min movie
H.264 (high quality/2400kbps)= 104 MB; 52 min. to export
MPEG4 (best quality/2400kbps)= 102 MB; 10 min. to export
I couldn't tell the difference in the final movie quality.
Why should I go with H.264 if it takes so long...?
4 min movie (both were set at best quality w/ no data rate restriction)
H.264= 21min. at 57mb awesome quality
MP4= 7min. at 67mb very good quality
I guess the longer the movie, the more I like MPEG4.
See how I'm confused...
Any advice would be greatly appreciated?

The text book answer is you get better quality video with smaller file sizes using .264 over standard MPEG-4. The reality is YMMV depending on content, settings, and other factors as you've seen. In my own tests .264 does look better. Sometimes noticeably better, others not nearly as much. Sometimes the file size is much smaller, sometimes not so much. It depends greatly on the content and how many pixels can be tossed by the compression technology.
It's a trade off, as you've seen, as .264 requires a lot of horsepower to do what it does. I'd suggest, since you've been happy with the results of your MPEG-4 exports, that you save yourself the time and go that route.

Apple TV CANNOT play DVD-quality video, let alone HD.

Ok, somebody needs to teach me a lesson (literally). This video encoding stuff is giving me headaches...
If I rip a DVD using MPEG-4 and H.264 at 100% quality the resulting file is over 8000kbps, which is higher than the 5000kbps Apple TV supports.
So, resolution-wise Apple TV may display DVD and HD signals, but when it comes to quality, it's not even close to what it should be. Is that an accurate statement?
According to the wikipedia, DVDs are encoded with MPEG-2 at 8000-14000kpbs. Now, it also says that MPEG-4 H.264 allows you to have similar image quality at much lower bit rates and much lower file size.
So the question would be, can a 5000kbps MPEG-4 be comparable to a 10000kbps MPEG-2 from a DVD?
....Or do I get all this completely wrong?
Thanks for any insight,
Julian
Dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2.5 Gb RAM

I'm pretty critical about my video quality and I've done a fair amount of testing using Apple's H.264 codec (using QuickTime Pro and Final Cut Studio). So, here's my take on H.264 -- it's NOT as good as many would have you believe. It's better than MPEG2, but I'd question any claim that it is four times as "good." I'd say that under the best of circumstances it's more like twice as "good" or twice as efficient as MPEG2. In any case, a 2X improvement over current state-of-the-art MPEG2 is still a pretty remarkable achievement.
So, where does that leave us with the AppleTV? First, you're not going to get consistent, solid HD quality at only 5Mbps (the limit on AppleTV). However, if you have good material and you encode with care you can definitely produce content that will exceed the quality that you might see on a standard definition DVD (or for that matter, probably as good as any anamorphic DVD).
Then there is the issue of frame rate, since the AppleTV will only do 24fps at 720p (spec) you're probably going to experience frame rate conversion artifacts on some material. Finally, the AppleTV lacks a "true" 1080i mode since for 1080i it just scales the picture up by two times from an internal video source at 960 x 540.
In any case, I'd say that given the proper source material (and the "proper" encoding) that the AppleTV potential sits somewhere between DVD quality and true HD. Of course, the video material that Apple currently sells on the iTunes store is encoded at approximately 1.5Mbps and at frame sizes equal to or smaller than 640 x 480. Given those (low) numbers, you should not expect anything that even approaches DVD quality (assuming that you compare against a good DVD). However, I don't believe that Apple has ever claimed "DVD quality" with the current iTunes content. Under the best of conditions -- and the quality varies widely -- the current iTunes content is most similar to a decent standard definition broadcast, but with a slightly different "look" and a different set of defects than you would see in an analog broadcast.
In the interest of a full disclosure, you should know that I already own an AppleTV and I think it's a pretty good product (i.e. it's worth the $300 even though it may never really achieve HD quality). But let's be fair, if it offered solid HD playback, 30fps 720p, and true 1080i it would be a near "steal" at only $300 (given its audio and still photo capabilities, its wireless 802.11n features, the internal HD storage, and its beautiful "10-foot" GUI).

MPEG 4 and H.264

Someone tell me what is better quality MPEG4 or H.264.

From the Wikipedia entry on MEPG-4
+"MPEG-4 is a patented collection of methods defining compression of audio and visual (AV) digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) under the formal standard ISO/IEC 14496."+
... and the entry on H.264
+"MPEG-4 is a patented suite of standards which has many "parts", where each part standardizes various entities related to multimedia, such as audio, video, and file formats. To learn more about various parts and what they mean, please see the entry for MPEG-4.+
+H.264 is a standard for video compression, and is equivalent to MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding). The final drafting work on the first version of the standard was completed in May 2003.+
+H.264 is the latest block-oriented motion-compensation-based codec standard developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) together with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), and it was the product of a partnership effort known as the Joint Video Team (JVT). The ITU-T H.264 standard and the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 Part 10 standard (formally, ISO/IEC 14496-10) are jointly maintained so that they have identical technical content."+
The essence is that MPEG-4 allows for a wide variety of uses and implementations, leading to a wide variety of compression levels, whereas H.264, being a subset, is more tightly defined for specific uses.
AVCHD is also an implementation of MPEG-4, and you'll find most often that AVCHD files are smaller than either H.264 or 'standard' MPEG-4.
Hope that does more than just confuse things further

DivX "for Mac" and Safari -- anyone get it to work on Snow Leopard?

Pardon me for the length of this post -- it's just a very involved question to which DivX has no answers, and I've literally wasted this entire week trying to get the so-called DivX "Bundle for Mac" to work, with absolutely no joy.
27" iMac Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz, 12 GB RAM, OS X 10.6.7
Safari (v. 5.0.5 [6533.21.1])
Safari Extensions:
DivX HiQ 2.1.1.94
DivX Plus Web Player HTML5 <video> 2.1.1.94
As anyone who has used YouTube in the past year or however long this option has been available, many videos, under the regular YouTube control bar at the bottom of the video window, have an additional option: DivX HiQ, with a blue "play" button with black arrow, and in white text on black, the message "Press play for higher quality video." EVERY SINGLE time, until yesterday (about which more anon) I've selected DivX HiQ, the YouTube screen turns into the gray DivX Plus player window for a few seconds, sometimes I get a brief "Buffering…" message (sometimes not)* (see below), then a window pops up telling me "DivX Plus Web Player could not download the video, please check your internet connection." (screen shots on request).
I have DL'd AND installed -- several times over the past few days -- DivX for Mac, version 7.3 (right up-to-date as of 11-30-10 -- great support for the Mac OS), with little or no success or noticeable results. Finally, yesterday, it somehow (I thought) installed correctly: at least instead of nothing whatsoever happening after the install, this time I was whisked magically away to <<http://www.divx.com/en/software/download/installed/mac?os=mac>> where I was rather breathlessly informed "Congratulations! You can now enjoy the highest quality digital video | divx.com." Well, this was something new -- this was the first time I'd ever gotten this far. Then I was shown many movies, promising new marvels:
The first movie informed me "You have successfully installed DivX software." This WAS something new. Then it told me about the "DivX Plus Web Player… Now Featuring: DivX HiQ… Boost web video quality and performance… … Look for the DivX HiQ Button on your favorite video sites… see better quality and performance with a simple click… Try it out on your favorite sites… YouTube. Vimeo. And more.
Then I played the NEXT movie, all about the DivX Plus Player, and here I TRULY saw something I'd never seen before: *a DivX Plus Player window, that actually said " Connecting… Buffering: … " and then -- mirabile dictu! -- an actual video began to play, and actually continued to play, with no stops, fits, or error windows, right up until the end. This WAS something new under the sun. It continued, extolling the manifold virtues of "DivX to go," which was of no use to me. The next video was about the DivX Plus Codec Pack, and the video told me about the wonderful things DivX could do in Windows 7, if I was brain-dead enough to USE Windows 7. Useless info, but that video, too, opened up the way I believe the *HiQ videos are supposed to open up in YouTube, for example: "Connecting… Buffering: …," and then actually opening and playing. BTW, I hate to sound like a troglodytic Luddite, but I have no idea what "MKV" video is.
The final video, which ALSO opened up the way I believe the *HiQ videos are supposed to open up in YouTube, for example: "Connecting… Buffering: …," spoke to me about the manifold joys of DivX Plus converter, which ALSO requires the DivX Player application, and since the DivX Player application (v.7.2 (build 10_0_0_184, Copyright © 2006-2009 DivX, Inc.), which, I was given to understand, was actually a PART of the DivX software I had finally "successfully installed" (according to divx.com's delirious greeting), has never worked, none of what all these videos talked about was going to do me much good. HOW has it never worked, you ask? It has never worked in this way: I click on the DivX Player app icon, the DivX Player window opens, and the Mac OS beach ball spins merrily away, and spins, and spins, and spins -- at this point, I usually go to the kitchen for another cup of the strengthening coffee and the hopefully headache-reducing ibuprofen. When I come back, the beach ball is still spinning, so, resignedly, I go to the "Force Quit" command, where, invariably, I see the message "DivX Player not responding," and, resignedly, I force quit it. Again. This scenario has occurred without variation every single time I've tried to open the DivX Player application. It has never actually opened correctly, it has always shown up in the "Force Quit" window with the comment "DivX Player not responding," and I have always had to Force Quit it.
Now Here's what may be termed the icing on the cake: fairly well buried in the "DivX for Mac" install package is a pdf "read me." Among many other fables is THIS whopper:
"For online video tutorials visit the following URL in your web browser: http://go.divx.com/mac/tutorials"
I did just that, and though the link works, there IS no page on the DivX site for "Mac tutorials." When you click on the link, you get redirected to "http://support.divx.com/faq/view/supportFAQen100/video_tutorials_main." Except for a video tutorial under "DivX Converter_ -- for which I have no use -- entitled "How To Edit Your DivX Converter for Mac Output Settings," and these two: "How To Export To DivX In Final Cut Pro for Mac," and "How To Export To DivX Using QuickTime On A Mac" -- neither of which do me the slightest bit of good, since A) I don't use, nor can I afford, Final Cut Pro, and B) what good would it to to export ANYTHING to DivX when the DivX Player for Mac does not, and has never, done anything but hang until Force Quitted?
A brief digression on that very subject of "hanging:" there's a little section in the obscure "DivX for Mac" pdf that reads:
"5. Known issues
Network connection is lost during download
A lost network connection in the middle of a download may hang the DivX Player For Mac. If this occurs, you may 'Force Quit' the DivX Player For Mac by simultaneously clicking command-option-escape and selecting the application from the list or by right-clicking the icon in the dock and selecting 'Force Quit.' You may then resume the download by re-launching the DivX Player, selecting 'Download Manager” from the File menu and clicking 'Resume.'"
Wonderful advice, if I could ever get to the point where I was actually downloading something, but since MY particular edition of DivX Player for Mac saves me all that bother by hanging immediately upon launch, DivX has very kindly saved me the trouble of having to go through all that "Force Quit" - "Resume" nonsense. Of course, I never get to download anything or use the DivX Player on YouTube or anywhere else, so that's a bit of a downside.
So back to the putative "Mac tutorials" on the non-existent "http://go.divx.com/mac/tutorials" page: other than the three totally non-germane examples I cited above, there is nothing that I can find on the re-direct page (http://support.divx.com/faq/view/supportFAQen100/video_tutorials_main) that is the least concerned with the usage or behavior of any component of DivX on a Macintosh computer. That's certainly not uncommon, but for a company that purports to sell products that actually work on the Mac OS X platform, EVERYTHING about the DivX site is so totally Windows-centric, one would be inclined to believe that DivX is not even aware the Mac OS X platform exists. For example, here's the list of tutorials under "DivX 101 - Learn How" on the page that, according to the DivX for Mac Read Me, was supposed to solve all my problems with running DivX on a Mac:
Featured Video Tutorials
How to register your PS3 for DivX VOD playback
How do I make DivX player my default video player?
How to register your DivX Certified device with the DivX Plus Player
How to stream DivX Plus HD (MKV) files to your Xbox 360
How to use the DivX Plus Converter
Featured Text Guides
DivX Plus Converter for Windows User Guide
DivX Plus Player for Windows User Guide
DivX Codec 5.x User Guide
DivX Codec 6 and Virtual Dub Guide
It's wonderful that DivX has tutorials dealing with XBox360 and PS3, but the Mac seems to have been lost in the shuffle -- I think, from an aesthetic point, the guy in the sideways hat and the emphasis on animé and "blow 'em up" games in what few tutorials are actually there pretty much sums up DivX's idea of their market focus. Maybe they're right, but if this "free" version, that so far I have not been able to get to work as advertised on my 27" iMac, is supposed to entice any Mac user into forking over even the piddling $20.00 for the "Pro" version, the "free" version isn't DivX any "gotta have it" favors.
Now for the final mystery: I have two Safari -- v5.0.5 (6533.21.1) -- extensions from DivX:
1. DivX HiQ 2.1.1.94, which is supposed to allow you to watch videos on YouTube, Vimeo, etc. in the DivX Player for Mac, but refuses to work when enabled: EVERY SINGLE time I've selected DivX HiQ, the YouTube screen turns into the gray DivX player window for a few seconds, then an error window pops up that says "DivX Plus Web Player could not download the video, please check your internet connection."
2. DivX Plus Web Player HTML5 <video> 2.1.1.94, the little blurb in the Safari Extensions window for which says "Increase performance and video formats for your HTML5 <video>
Clicking on the "by DivX, Inc." link in the Safari Extensions window of either of these extensions takes me to http://www.divx.com/en/software/divx-plus/web-player
"High-quality video shouldn’t stop at your browser. DivX Plus® Web Player gives you the best web video performance around, even on sites using Flash®. The latest feature, DivX HiQ™ beta, lets you replace the default Flash player on popular sites for improved performance. Of course you can still watch stunning DivX® and DivX Plus HD (MKV) videos right in your browser, and even enjoy MKV features like multiple audio tracks, subtitles and 5.1 channel AAC audio."
That's all well and good, but, not when it doesn't work. I don't know what the story is with these Safari Extensions: a manual (unfortunately the only way you can do it), category by category search of Apple's "Safari Extensions Gallery" turns up NO information about these extensions, neither does -- as far as I can tell -- a search of the DivX site. Am I supposed to use BOTH extensions? Neither? One or the other? Which? So far, if I use them, I get the HiQ option in YouTube (and elsewhere), but when I click on it, I get the error message above, and the window reverts to the usual plain old YouTube window. If I disable the DivX Safari extensions, I don't even get the HiQ option.
Has ANYONE gotten the DivX for Mac Bundle v7.1, or even the DivX Plus Web Player for Mac, v2.1.1, to actually work on a Mac running OS X 10.6.7?
If so, PLEASE tell me how you got it to work.
I'd gladly for over the 20 bucks for this product if it actually worked, but not until it does.
Bart Brown

Well, I can start banging my head against the brick wall again.
"I have never knowingly come across Divx in any shape or form. YouTube uses either Flash or HTML5."
I don't understand how you can make that statement, considering the discussion you participated in at:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/12210423#12210423
under: Apple Support Communities > Mac OS & System Software > Safari > Discussions
DivX Web Player and Safari
...from July 2009 to September 2010, sections of which you copied and pasted verbatim into this discussion, for example:
"Klaus1
Somerset, UK
Level 7 (22,700 points)
Re: Plug-ins
Jul 12, 2009 2:09 PM (in response to Martin Alper)
"...In Macintosh HD/Library/Quicktime/ delete any files relating to DivX (Perian already has them). However it should be noted that Perian is not an internet plugin and will not play DivX files imbedded on a website. For that you will need the DivX Player browser plugin available from http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/"
And on September 4, 2010:
"Klaus1
Somerset, UK
Level 7 (22,700 points)
Helpful AnswerRe: DivX Web Player and Safari
Sep 4, 2010 5:31 AM (in response to Philippe Pauwels)
You should read this support page http://perian.org/#support in case you need to delete older codecs. In Macintosh HD/Library/Quicktime/ delete any files relating to DivX (Perian already has them). However it should be noted that Perian is not an internet plugin and will not play DivX files imbedded on a website. For that you will need the DivX Player browser plugin available from http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/"
And, in reply to Philippe Pauwels response to the above post:
Philippe Pauwels
Level 1 (0 points)
Re: DivX Web Player and Safari
Sep 4, 2010 6:28 AM (in response to Klaus1)
Hi,
Thanks for your answer. After some more experimenting, i finally got it to work ... However, not every embedded DivX movie will play.
I just deleted another codec in the Macintosh HD/Library/Quicktime folder. (One of the codecs mentioned on http://perian.org/#support was still in the folder). Before I had only deleted the files whose name has "DivX" in it.
I did NOT install the DivX Web Player plugin.
Now some DivX videos play, some don't... So maybe I should re-install the DivX Web Plugin? But the Web Plugin never worked for me ... If I re-install it, won't I go back to where I started?
You replied, 10 minutes later:
Klaus1
Somerset, UK
Level 7 (22,700 points)
Re: DivX Web Player and Safari
Sep 4, 2010 6:38 AM (in response to Philippe Pauwels)
It could be that your previous DivX player was out of date.
As Perian says, you need both.
First, I certainly wish you (or my search of Apple Discussions, which, inexplicably, did not turn up this discussion) had referred me to this discussion before -- it would have saved a LOT of time.
Now, to your reply to Philippe Pauwels: "As Perian says, you need both." Both WHAT, exactly?
From the initial release of Perian 0.5, September 29, 2006, to the latest release, Perian 1.2.2 - Tuesday, April 13, 2011, there is not a single mention of DivX in the entire 2006 to 2011 version history. The only information on the Perian support page regarding DivX is the paragraph that states, in part, "Please consider removing obsolete QuickTime Components: ...DivX, DivX Decoder..."
Can you please tell me what you mean by "Perian says, you need both," in regard to putative DivX Extensions, Plug-Ins, Components, whatever?
Finally, on July 12, 2009, you posted, in a reply to martin Alper, a list of "the downloads and the settings you need in order to view/hear/play pretty much everything that the net can throw at you." Taking into consideration that it's 2 years later and most versions have newer updates -- including Mac OS X itself -- some items are no longer among us, and some NEW ones have shown up. could you please update or comment on this list, for the benefit of all sufferers?
Thank you very much,
Bart Brown
Your list as of July 12, 2009, taking into consideration your wise caveat that "nothing in life carries a guarantee!:
The setup described below has proved repeatedly successful on both PPC and Intel macs, but
It is known to work in the great majority of cases with Safari 3 and 4, QT 7.4.x, 7.5.x and 7.6 and OS 10.4.11 and 10.5.7.
Download and install (or re-install even if you already had them) the latest versions, suitable for your flavor of Mac, of:
RealPlayer 11.1 for Mac from:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/15540
Flip4Mac WMV Player from http://www.telestream.net/flip4mac-wmv/overview.htm (Windows Media Player for the Mac is no longer supported, even by Microsoft)
Perian from http://perian.org/
You should read this support page http://perian.org/#support in case you need to delete older codecs.
The latest version of Adobe FlashPlayer can be obtained from here:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1ProdVersion=ShockwaveFlas h
(You can check here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/ to see which version you should install for your Mac and OS.
It is suggested that you first uninstall any previous version of Flash Player, using the uninstaller from here (make sure you use the correct one!):
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157
and also that you follow the instructions closely, such as closing ALL applications first before installing. You must also carry out a permission repair after installing anything from Adobe.
You should also ensure that you have downloaded and installed the correct version for your Mac of Security Update 2009-001 (and for Tiger only, 2009-002). (N.B. Security Updates require both a restart and a permission repair.)
In Macintosh HD/Library/Quicktime/ delete any files relating to DivX (Perian already has them). However it should be noted that Perian is not an internet plugin and will not play DivX files imbedded on a website. For that you will need the DivX Player browser plugin available from http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/
Now go to Safari Preferences/Security, and tick the boxes under Web Content (all 4 of them) to enable Java.
Lastly open Audio Midi Setup (which you will find in the Utilities Folder of your Applications Folder) and click on Audio Devices. Make sure that both Audio Input and Audio Output, under Format, are set to 44100 Hz, and that you have selected 'Built in Audio'.
Important: Now repair permissions and restart.
You should also consider having the free VLC Player from http://www.videolan.org/ in your armory, as this plays almost anything that DVD Player might not.
There is an additional 'fix' you could try if you are having problems with Flash and Quicktime, depending on which type of Mac you have:
On Intel Macs, make sure that you are not running Safari in Rosetta. You can check this, and change it, in the Get Info window.
On PPC Macs, go to the Hard Disk/Library/Internet Plug-Ins folder, and drag the file 'QuickTime Plugin.webplugin' to the desktop. Quit and restart Safari. If things have improved you can trash that file. If they haven't put it back, as the lack of this plug-in can cause QT content in some widgets to cease functioning.
And there is an additional kid on the block: SilverLight. Microsoft has created their own version of what a replacement for Flash could be. You can read more about it here:
http://silverlight.net/
So, if you go to any sites that have been designed for this new Silverlight stuff, you can download the plug-in from here (but make certain that you are downloading SilverLight v.1.0 for OS X (10.4.8 upwards) if you are using a PPC Mac. Version 2 only works with Intel Macs:
http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/
Recommendation: Close all applications before installing any of the above, repair permissions, reboot, and repair permissions again.
Thanks again
Bart Brown
PS: You wrote "It is a pity you chose a camera that produces video in that format! As you have discovered it is incompatible with iMovie." Uhh, I don't know where this question came from -- more stray copying and pasting, perhaps? I have no camera, and am not trying to do anything pertinent to this discussion with iMovie.

Quality lifted up to H.264/DivX standards?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for