Installation

Dr. DivX takes residence with very little fuss. Simply run the Dr. DivX installation program. If you have previous versions of Dr. DivX installed, there is no need to remove them. The installer will replace older versions as needed.

You may see a brief progress display while the installer loads. You will then be prompted to select a language. English is the default choice but if you prefer another dialect make your selection using the drop down list and press the OK button. You can always change the doctor's language later. Look at the Preferences section for more details.

After choosing a language, you'll see the Dr. DivX splash screen. This page doesn't do anything but showcase the doctor's handsome mug and pass on some trademark claims in fine print. Click the Next button and move along, nothing to see here.

The next page you'll encounter is the License Agreement. Read the terms carefully. You might find Waldo. Even if you don't, it's a riveting read. If you have no objections with the Dr. DivX license, click the I Agree button to continue your journey.

You will next be pestered to choose the components you'd like to install. There's really not much choice to make although if you don't want the Dr. DivX icon placed on your desktop then uncheck the Desktop shortcuts box before you click the Next button.

The last choice you need to make is for the Installation Location. By default, the doctor chooses a home in the DivX program directory. You can move it if you'd like but there is probably no need for such antics. As long as you can live with the default choice, press the Install button and enjoy the show.

Assuming all goes well, various progress bars will flash by and you'll be notified that the installation is complete. When you are done staring at the Installation Complete page, press the Finish button and it will simply vanish.

You probably want to have a quick look at what you've just installed. Move on to the Quick Start section for the nickel tour.

Quick Start

The quick start guide will talk you through the following steps:

1. Start Dr. DivX
2. Press Open and choose a video file to convert
3. Press Encode to see your choice queued up for conversion
4. Press Resume to start the encoding
5. Press Play to view the results

Creating your first DivX file is a snap with Dr. DivX. Look on your desktop for the Dr. DivX icon to launch the program or look on your Start menu under All Programs->DivX->Dr. DivX...

Once the doctor is up and running, press the Open button next to Input file(s). Find your way to any old video file you have laying around. You might want to pick a short one just to test things out.

Dr. DivX will do a quick analysis of your file. There's no telling how long the analysis will take. It will depend a lot on the size of your file and the speed of your computer. However, the doctor will display a progress bar to let you know that the analysis is underway. Short videos on fast computers will be analyzed in a few seconds.

All kinds of buttons will light up in Dr. DivX after the quick analysis is complete. You may also notice a much slower analysis progress bar working in the background. There's no need to wait for the slow analysis. After all, this is supposed to be a quick start.

Some video files may come with multiple audio tracks. You can selectively choose one or more of them from the Audio track(s) list. Likewise, not all videos include subtitles but those that do will allow you to choose one or more subtitles to include. By default, you will get all audio tracks and all subtitles.

A DivX certified profile such as Home Theater will be selected along with Balanced quality. Assume these are fine for now and just leave those settings as they are.

Dr. DivX will automatically choose a Title based on the name of the file you selected. You might want to change that title or at least mentally note what the doctor decided.

Press the Encode button and you'll be transported to the Batch page. You can flip back and forth between the batch page and the file page using the batch and file icons on the toolbar across the top.

If this is your first time using Dr. DivX, the first and only line in the Jobs window on the Batch page will show the name of the input file you selected, the name of the output file that will be created, and the current status of the conversion. The status will probably be Waiting or something similar.

Find and press the Resume button in the Jobs window. Then go make some popcorn. It might take a while. The status will change to Running and a progress bar will start grinding away in the Job Status window. Dr. DivX tries to estimate how much remaining time will be required to complete the conversion, but this isn't an exact science. The doctor is known to make some pretty awful guesses at first, but usually a more precise estimate appears shortly.

During a quick test while writing this document, Dr. DivX took about 6 minutes to encode a 5 minute long, high quality video on a fairly average PC. The resulting file was 4 times smaller than the original but visually looked about the same. Your mileage may vary.

When the conversion is complete, a Play button will appear in the Job Status window. Press the Play button to start the DivX Video Player and see your new video. If you are happy with the result, don't forget to delete the original input file which is probably just wasting precious space on your computer's hard drive.

What is it?

Dr. DivX is a cosmetic surgeon for your video collection. The doctor takes almost any frumpy old video file you have laying around and converts it into a sharp, lean mass of multimedia joy.

Audio/Video files are compressed using a codec. There are countless codecs to choose from although you usually don't make a conscious choice. You probably already have a bunch of video files encoded with a variety of codecs. The doctor will convert that mess into a library of tightly encoded DivX video files.

There are lots of reasons why everyone clamors for a library of DivX video files.

1. Due to all the poorly crafted codecs and players out there, lots of videos don't play very well. Dr. DivX can usually convert those to high quality versions that play back very smoothly and reliably.
2. Watch your videos on any computer! DivX compatible players are available on a wide variety of platforms including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Palm OS, and Pocket PC.
3. Watch your videos on the go! With the right software, lots of mobile devices can play DivX video files including many cell phones and PDAs.
4. Watch your videos on your TV! There are many, surprisingly affordable DVD players on the market that easily connect to your television and playback DivX videos superbly. Just copy your DivX videos to a CD, DVD, memory card, or USB drive.
5. DivX files support features like multiple audio tracks, subtitles, chaptering, and interactive menus just like you find on a snazzy DVD.