Question regarding codecs?

[incognito]

Hey guys and gals...mostly guys.

I was thinking of buying the Creative ZEN Vision M. It's similar to Apple video Ipod but more flexible in terms of the type of video formats it can support. This is what is says on the web site:

Video Playback Format: MPEG1/2/4-SP, WMV9, Motion-JPEG, compatible DivX® 4 and 5, XviD and AVI

And then at the bottom of the page it says this about DIVX and XVID:

DivX and XviD encoded files are playable if they are encoded as standard MPEG-4 Simple (SP) or advanced Simple Profile (ASP) without GMC support. This product is not certified by DivX Inc. May not play all DivX 4 and 5 files.

What does this mean? Please give examples as i am not a technically detailed person.

I download a lot of anime and these are mostly encoded with XVID. I'm sure most other shows that are downloaded are encoded with either codecs so i need your help folks.

 

[mprex]

DivX and XviD videos are encoded according to a number of "profiles", depending on how the video was intended to be used. Basically each profile gives some restrictions on how the video may be encoded.

The "Simple" profile (as the name implies) is a very basic profile, meant for low-bitrate (quality) use... suitable for things like webcams, streaming video to a cell phone, PDA, etc.

Most video you download will use the "Advanced Simple" profile (ASP) instead. A video encoded in ASP may use higher bitrates and employ several encoding "options" not allowed with the Simple profile.

One such option is GMC, or Global Motion Compensation. Simply stated, it is an advanced technique to determine how the camera movement during recording affected the video image (for example, if the video camera was panned from left-to-right within the scene, or if the camera was zoomed into a portion of the scene.) This information can be used to better compress the image.

What does all this mean?

The vast majority of videos you will have will be encoded in ASP without the GMC option, so you should be fine.

If you do encounter the rare video encoded with GMC (it might refuse to play or you might see weird colors), you can always "re-encode" the video without GMC, using free tools like VirtualDub.

 

[incognito]

Thanks friend.