My lifelong question: Is DiVX the same as XViD, but in disguise? If not, what's the difference? I normally seem to notice that DivX is always advertised compared to XViD. I am more interested in XviD b/c I mostly download material in XviD format. Are they interchangeable?....meaning can they both play each other's format? Due to the fact that I rarely see XviD mentioned in ads, I assumed DivX can also play XviD movies. Is this True? As for MPEG-4 (MP4), can it play both since DivX and XviD? If not, what format can simply play both?
DivX and Xvid are both ASP MPEG-4 Part 2 video codecs. In mp4 there is no difference since an MPEG-4 video stream is an MPEG-4 video stream. In an avi container they have different fourCC's, but can handle each others. Should point out that DivX 4 was SP only and DivX 3 wasn't MPEG-4 at all so Xvid can't handle it. So they are not the same, but they conform to the same standard, so in that respect they are interchangeable. Also DivX is also a container; hacked/based on avi.
