Most Compatible Format

alonzo · Post by **alonzo** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:33 am

Hey guys, just wanna confirm 2 things. Correct me if I'm wrong.

1) It seems that if you wanted to get the biggest audience, you'd want to compress using WMV, because most of the world's computers are PCs, and nearly all PCs have some form of Windows Media Player.

However...

2) It seems that most of the pros on this site use Xvid and DivX, because they are higher quality with smaller file sizes. The drawback however, is that less people are able to play these than WMVs.

Thanks in advance. I look foward to showing all of you my next AMV soon!

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:58 am

somewhat.... Most of the "pros" as you put it, use x.264 now. Most of the people not using WMM (and some that do) use DivX/XviD. A large percentage of the people here watch digisubs and since DivX/XviD have been standard in digisubs for at least 5 years, they have the ability to play these files just fine.

Also, at some point it's not worth pandering to the low-end of the gene pool. When someone can't watch something encoded with one of the biggest standards in online video for over half a decade they're really not worth bothering with.

Tab. · Post by **Tab.** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:06 am

Use H.264. It's compatible with QuickTime 7, and QuickTime 7 comes with every version of iTunes, which means 90% of the population, Windows or Mac, can play it. It's also the highest quality codec out there, so it's really win win. Also, WMV9, or VC-1, is actually higher quality than Xvid or DivX. It's about on par with H.264, really. But no, don't encode to WMV. You're alienating Mac and Linux users that way. H.264 is a standard (then again, so is VC-1, but still.)

alonzo · Post by **alonzo** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:30 am

Thanks for your input guys.

See the thing is, I edit using my iMac, and the only good containers I can use are MPEG-4 and Quicktime Movie (.mov), both of which compress with h.264. I question how compatible these are, and if not, what should I do? Do you really think 90% of the population has quicktime?

Oh and Tab, what exactly is x.264?

alonzo · Post by **alonzo** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:31 am

woops, I mean BasharOfTheAges, what exactly is x.264?

Tab. · Post by **Tab.** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:35 am

x264 is an H.264 codec. It compresses better than QuickTime's H.264. There's a QT export plugin for it here:
http://developer.berlios.de/projects/x264qtcodec/

Shazzy · Post by **Shazzy** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:20 pm

alonzo wrote:Thanks for your input guys.

See the thing is, I edit using my iMac, and the only good containers I can use are MPEG-4 and Quicktime Movie (.mov), both of which compress with h.264. I question how compatible these are, and if not, what should I do? Do you really think 90% of the population has quicktime?

Oh and Tab, what exactly is x.264?

You can make DivX encodes on a Mac.

I always download the DivX/XviD encodes because my Powerbook G4 with a G4mb graphics card can't handle the high bitrate H.264/x264s. A fair amount of users here have the same problem (laptop users in particular), so my personal recommendation is to place DivX over H.264 on your priority list.

alonzo · Post by **alonzo** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 5:08 pm

Shazzy wrote: You can make DivX encodes on a Mac.

I always download the DivX/XviD encodes because my Powerbook G4 with a G4mb graphics card can't handle the high bitrate H.264/x264s. A fair amount of users here have the same problem (laptop users in particular), so my personal recommendation is to place DivX over H.264 on your priority list.

I've been looking all over for a DivX or XviD encoder, but I can't find one.

I've tried ffmpegx, but there are some problems with it. D-volution requires OS 10.4 (Tiger), but I have OS 10.3 (Panther). When I downloaded the DivX player, I got a trial DivX encoder, but it exipres in a few days.

Tab. · Post by **Tab.** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 5:57 pm

sudo port install mencoder :)

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:51 pm

The subject line wrote:Most Compatible Format

MPEG-1 will play on virtually any PC out of the box, end of story.

Now if you had asked about which format/codec choice provides the best tradeoff between compatibility and compressibility...

This is why I almost always release stuff in multiple formats.