Software Update: DivX 6.1

DivX has been updated to version 6.1. DivX is a collection of programs, including the DivX codec, a media player, some utilities and documentation, in short everything you need to create and play DivX files. The DivX codec is based on the MPEG-4 compression standard and is capable of compressing MPEG-2 video files to approximately ten percent of their original size. Two different versions are available; first, there’s the free one DivX Play Bundle which can only play DivX files. In addition, there is also the DivX Create Bundle which can also create DivX files. The changelog of this release looks like this:

The new feature and enhancement list for this release:

• The encoder now includes full support for single CPU, HyperThreaded (HT), dual CPU (SMP) and dual core processors. Encoding performance is vastly improved on systems with multiple logical processors and even on those with only a single CPU. We benchmarked the encoder on everything from stock P4 processors to those with HyperThreading(HT), Dual AMD systems, AMD’s new dual core X2 chips and Intel’s flagship dual core + HT Pentium D Extreme Edition.
• The decoder now supports multithreading for improved playback performance on all HT, SMP and dual core processors. To enable it you need to use the Decoder Configuration Utility (which you’ll find in the ‘DivX’ group on your Start menu) to ensure “Reduce CPU spikes using one frame delay” is enabled and some level of post-processing is set (we recommend the default, “Automatic Deblocking”). Multithreading will then be applied to any video with B-frames, including most Home Theater and High Definition media.
• The performance of Extreme quality and Insane quality modes has been improved – you can now get production quality video in even less time! Our testing shows that these modes are between 70% and 80% faster, even on regular single CPU machines.
• A new High-performance mode has been created which benches anywhere from 90% to 160% faster than Balanced mode in the 6.0 codec depending on CPU type. This mode yields slightly lower compression but has good quality and is perfectly suited to live-capture applications and other rapid encoding applications. When we used a D1 MPEG-2 source video using AVISynth and VirtualDubMod on our Pentium D Extreme Edition we averaged 150fps, encoding a clip that was 5.3 minutes long in just 51 seconds! Best of all, the output from this mode will play on DivX Certified devices!
• We have significantly enhanced Fastest mode, with virtually zero performance impact. In the DivX 5.x and DivX 6.0 codecs Fastest mode used no motion estimation and was therefore capable of producing very high quality video but with very low compression. That meant that it was possible to use this mode for live capture on slower computers but with two major drawbacks: file sizes were huge and the output could not be played immediately on DivX Certified devices – you had to re-encode it in one of the other encoding modes first. In the 6.1 codec, compression for this mode has improved so much that it’s possible to encode directly into DivX Certified profiles with small, good quality files.
• You can now specify a target quantizer instead of an average bitrate during encoding, enabling you to avoid multipass encoding altogether in certain circumstances, reducing encoding time by half! This new method even works with DivX encoding profiles!
• We’ve added more optimizations for processors supporting SSE2 extensions. English translation: If you have a newer CPU things will go slightly faster for you.
• DivX High Definition profile now allows up to 6Mbps average bitrate for crystal clear HD video, even with your nose pressed against your 60″ HD plasma TV.
• A new Lanczos resize filter is included in the encoder, enabling very sharp resizing during export from any video suite.
• Quarter-pixel motion estimation has been enhanced for performance, and is now available in all modes from Balanced through Insane when Unconstrained Profile is selected. Please remember that using quarter-pixel motion estimation (or simply switching to Unconstrained Profile) means that your videos are highly unlikely to play well, if at all, in your DivX Certified device.
• The Feedback Window now displays VBV level and has variable axis for PSNR plots, making it easy to monitor encodes with very high PSNR metric results.
• The Feedback Window now contains controls for changing VBV bitrate, performance mode, and psychovisual enhancement in real time during encoding.
• MPEG quantization has been improved
• Brightness, Contrast, and Saturations controls now operate correctly in the DivX Decoder for DirectShow

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