H.264-based DivX 7 makes landfall
By Darren Murph 
posted Jan 14th 2009 3:04AM
posted Jan 14th 2009 3:04AM
Read - DivX 7 launches
Read - DivX Plus HD Certification program
posted Jan 14th 2009 3:04AM
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Hoping this means that PS3 will start supporting MKV. :)
I know me too, it seems very likely know. Fingers crossed!
DivX 7 apparently only supports H.264 video AND AAC 2.0 or 5.1 audio inside the mkv container. The video decoder looks better than the other h/x.264 decoders but there is no sound when a mkv file containing Dolby Digital or DTS audio track is played using the DivX Player.
How can the decoder look better? It either decodes the content as defined, or it doesn't. Perhaps encoding looks better with the same input, the same target filesize but considering how great x264 looks, it would probably have to put to a formal test by some doom9 folks.
I can well understand that DivX doesn't support every format that MKV offers. After all MKV basically allows you to stuff any content into itself and its at a players discretion what it decodes. I would hope at least that their "profile" specifies subtitles, chapters and a few bits and pieces in addition to audio.
More interesting is DivX *hasn't* said, concerning the way encrypted movies will be delivered and encrypted. This is where the real money lies. The certification is a trojan horse to get the devices into homes, and then be able to sell them content afterwards. Didn't exactly work with older versions but the brand is stronger now.
The sound thing sounds like a problem to me. How many receivers have AAC decoding support? I know mine doesn't.
Unless something out there transcodes AAC to AC-3 or DTS, I can see that being a major block towards it being used for serious downloads.
Or is there a workaround, say, support for an optional AC-3 or DTS audio track?
squiggle, I don't think there's much of a reason to worry about AAC decoding too much. Most of the DivX Plus certified devices would have had to support AC3/DTS anyway for their other functions. Any device that has this support but doesn't play these surround formats wouldn't sell anyway. When (not if) the PS3 supports MKV, its gonna play these audio formats.
On the PC, as long as DivX 7 is installed, your regular DirectShow player (Windows Media Player, etc) should be able to playback the MKV properly, as Windows already has a AC3/DTS decoder for its built-in DVD playback, and if not, AC3Filter is free. DivX Player isn't much of a player in and of itself anyway.
xem - the issue is the content. If people have to make MKVs that eschew AC-3 and DTS in order to be "DivX7 compliant" (with all of the associated DivX7 tools orientated towards AAC too) then it doesn't matter if most of the players support DTS and AC-3 anyway, the content will contain audio incompatible with most receivers. Presumably the player can decode it and send it as stereo through the SPDIF port, but then you lose the surround sound/SW experience.
It's not as if the effects of using a poorly supported codec aren't known. The only major criticism I've heard of the Netflix box is that the audio is stereo. Why is it stereo? Because they're using WMA. How many receivers out there support WMA surround sound? Not enough for anyone to feel they can distribute audio in the format and claim, honestly, that they're distributing surround sound. Given that DivX announced DivX7 after the Netflix problems came to the surface, you'd have thought they'd have realized they may have a major problem going with AAC.
I don't want to sound like I'm down on AAC. It's an excellent codec. It's just... well, it has poor hardware support. If you're going to go with that, why bother with AAC? Why not standardize on Ogg Vorbis and FLAC, with Dirac and Tarkin specified as the video codec choices? You don't, of course, because you get the same problems.
DrXym - it's quite possible for two H.264 decoders to generate slightly different results. There's quite a bit in the standard to do with fixing certain artifact problems, such as macroblocking, that's considered optional. The idea is that slower machines can still decode the same content, just with more artifacts, but faster machines can display a higher quality version using optional information in the stream.
My guess is that if Breakthru is seeing higher quality H.264 output, then the DivX decoder is somewhat more efficient than the one he's comparing it too, and thus is able to decode at a higher quality for the same CPU power. Or, of course, he's forgotten to turn certain features on, like the loop filter in VLC, as some implementations do not automatically switch on and off the various optional features depending on how much spare CPU they're detecting.
Well, as for the AAC support for the bought media.....I've already posted that their DRM movies won't come close to matching Netflix and the other competitors in that space. At least that's what I think.
I agree about what you say about the audio formats, FLAC, Ogg, AAC, whats it matter if the receivers can't decode it anyway? Well, here's why, bandwidth isn't up to snuff to do more than stereo. That's why its stereo, not the format used. The format used is only the end to the means in terms of DRM. MS has worked very hard to make their format work well for this sort of application.
As for receivers that decode WMA. Probably more than any other non standard format. In fact, it has to be, I dunno of any other format that's supported at any level. If Netflix goes surround, it's probably gonna use that. Then I guess the players can use some sort of on the fly AC-3 re-encoding or something.
DIVX Plus, damn. My dvds a dvd ultra certifred. That means Ill have to watch em vids on my machine. Hope all theose linux guys r working on a plugin.
Yawn. Wake me up when the PS3 or 360 has real mkv (with softsubs) support.
With MPC-HC, CoreAVC, and FFdshow, I think the divx player is pretty useless for PC , unless you want to play divx7 content I suppose.
I already set the record straight about DivX 7 the last article...seems DrXym is still spreading his FUD (not that they don't deserve some venom spit in their direction). I'm not gonna repeat it all here, just read the last one http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/12/23/divx-7-gets-january-2009-release-date/
But I will bring up the point that Divx 7 is _as fast_ as CoreAVC, and the decoder is free. Not only that, you can get just the decoder. Most people I see who speak so highly of CoreAVC haven't even paid for it.
No one really cares about however DivX plans to sell movies, especially in this ecosystem. There's just so many more and better options for that. Not only that, there is MPC-HC as solidunit has mentioned, and Windows 7 supports H.264/AAC decoding.
The only real benefit from all this is twofold.......a free decoder that's as fast as CoreAVC, and their DivX Plus Certification will make MKV a standard across many hardware devices. Nothing else really matters and not much else DivX plans to do will get anywhere anyway.
Check out the DivX 7 Showcase here:
http://www.divx.com/en/downloads/divx-7-showcase
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