xvid-0.9.1

Introduction to Xvid

Download location (HTTP):       http://files.xvid.org/downloads/xvidcore-0.9.1.tar.bz2
Download location (FTP):        
Version used:                   0.9.1
Package size:                   464 KB
Estimated Disk space required:  3.9 MB
Estimated build time:           0.55 SBU

Xvid is a mpeg4-compliant video codec.

Xvid will utilize:
nasm

Installation of Xvid

Install Xvid by running the following commands:

cd build/generic &&
./configure --prefix=/usr &&
make  &&
make install &&
cp ../../src/divx4.h /usr/include

Command explanations

cp ../../src/divx4.h /usr/include : This command puts this header files in the header search path in order for xine and mplayer to locate this package.

Contents

The Xvid core package contains the library libxvidcore and the appendant header files. The library itself provides functions to encode and decode most mpeg4 video data.

Following features of mpeg4 are supported:

I, P Frame encoding

I-Frames are image frames, while P-Frames are Pattern Frames. Image Frames contain full images. P-Frames contain patterns of what changes in the image, thusly saving a lot of space.

PMVFast and EPZS with diamond a sqare pattern motion estimation

Fast Motion detection that can refer a square or diamond shaped pattern to different directions.

inter4v mode

Fast interpolation ability.

fullpixel and halfpixel precision

Even halfpixel movements can be encoded. Better precision results in better compression at better quality.

both MPEG4 and H263 quantizations

MPEG4 is the standard DivX was derived from. H263 is a slightly changed subset of that standard made by Microsoft. Quantization means to map the quantity of color values to numbers.

custom quant matrices

The quantization can be done using custom matrices, possibly giving better results if the matrix is made to suit the video data. Every normal user should be fine with the default matrix that comes with Xvid.

Adaptive quantization / Luminance masking

Qantization and Luminance masking are variant, depending on the input material, therefore providing better results on dark or very contrasting images.