Download & Installer walk-through

When you download the DivX software bundle from DivX.com you will first see an installation (.exe) file. Depending on your Internet browser, you will receive one of the two following prompts:

Internet Explorer:



Firefox:



First, click ‘Run’ or ‘Save’ in Internet Explorer, or ‘Save File' in Firefox, then click the button to ‘Open’ or ‘Run’ the DivX installer. The set-up wizard will open, prompting you to select a language and some basic install preferences.

Registration

Registration (for purchase products)

If you have downloaded DivX Player as part of your DivX Pro for Windows purchase, or if you have added the DFX Audio Enhancer, you can register your products very easily from the Start menu. If you downloaded the free version of the software, you do not need to register anything because … well, it’s free!

To register your purchased product, go to your Start menu and select:

All Programs >

DivX >

DivX Codec >

Register Products

The Registration window will appear and you can enter your serial number in the space provided. Click the ‘Register’ button to complete registration.

When your products have been successfully registered, the serial number will disappear and the status displayed to the right of the product name in this window will change to “Registered.” If you get an error message that the serial number wasn’t accepted, it may have simply been mistyped. Try copying and pasting your serial number to make sure no characters were missed or accidentally changed, and be careful not to leave any extra spaces before or after the number.

1) Getting Started & Layout

Getting started

To start using DivX Player after installation, you can either double-click on the desktop shortcut (these are generally created automatically during installation -- if you haven’t removed them you can use these shortcuts as an easy reference) or find the application under the Start menu > Programs > DivX folder.

Layout

DivX Player opens displaying the central media pane by default and the controls panes on each side. You'll see the menus at the top, the Media Library on the left, the burning engine on the right and playback controls on the bottom.

At the top of the left pane are two view buttons. Clicking either of these buttons changes the central screen display between Media Library (on the left) and Media View (on the right). The central pane will open to the Media View first, where you will eventually see your video play. If you change this to display the Media Library, you will see a list of all the video files stored in DivX Player’s Media Library.

Below the two view buttons is the Media Library pane, giving you options to manage the videos you see in your Media Library view.

This includes an “All Videos” section for files that have been added to the library—both DivX Video-on-Demand downloads and files imported from your hard drive. There's also the Download Manager, showing downloaded files, their download progress and status.



At the bottom are the names of any Playlists you have created for your Media Library files.

The right-hand pane is the burning queue and engine. Get more information on how to burn files in the “How To” section of this guide.

The bottom-center pane shows (from left to right) the basic playback controls, including the Play, Stop, Fast-Forward and Rewind buttons. This section also contains a scrolling bar showing the playback progress of the video and can be dragged to skip backwards or forwards; buttons for entering Full Screen mode, selecting audio and subtitle tracks, menus and chapters, opening the DFX Audio Enhancer control window, the volume control bar, and the ‘Open file’ button. Also, you’ll see a small blue pane that shows the total length and time elapsed of the selected video.

2) Video Display Modes & Menus

A few words on your Video Display modes…

If you want to minimize your distractions and see only the central media pane, you can close the exterior panels by clicking on the arrow tabs extending from the left and right panes. Click the arrow again to open the pane back up. Or, to hide the entire GUI and show only the media pane you can choose the sleek, minimalistic ‘Compact Mode’ by either right-clicking on your media pane and choosing Video Display > Compact Mode or using the shortcut Alt + C. If you want to see your video in all its glory, check out the ‘Full Screen Mode’ using the right-click menu, the keyboard shortcut (Alt + Return) or the bottom button for Full Screen Mode. You can exit Full Screen Mode by repeating the same action again or by pressing the 'Esc' key.



Menus

Here is a basic breakdown of each option in the three drop-down menus at the top-left of DivX Player. Most of them are self-explanatory. More complex functions are covered in detail in the “How To” section, so this is simply a summary of the drop-down menu functions.

File:

• Open: Find and select a file on your computer for playback
• Open URL…: There’s no need to download it to your computer first; just paste the video file URL and download while you watch. (More on how to do this later…)
• Open Recent File: See a list or go back to the videos your watched last
• Import File(s) to Library: Add one or more videos to the Media Library (to select multiple, hold down the Ctrl key as you select each file)
• Import Folder to Library: Same as ‘Import File’, but for an entire folder of videos at once
• Create New Playlist: Make an empty playlist to which you can later add videos from the Media Library
• Exit: You guessed it. As in, “Close the window and shut down the program.”

Tools:

• User Account: Create or log in to your account to watch DivX VOD content on your PC
• Device Manager: Register a DivX Certified device (e.g. DVD player) to play DivX VOD content on a compatible DVD player, mobile phone, etc
• Audio Enhancer:  Opens the DFX Audio Enhancer, which enriches the playback quality of your videos’ soundtracks
• Preferences: From the general to the specific; more info on this in “Right-click options” below

Help:

• DivX Player Help: Links to the DivX Support site to ask a question or search FAQs
• Keyboard Shortcuts: In case you don’t want to look them up in this guide later ;-)
• DivX Player Version History:  Links to a webpage logging the changes to eac  of the past versions
• Forgotten Password...: In case you can’t remember your password to log in to your account
• DivX Author--Create DivX Movies:  Online info about our video authoring program
• About the DivX Player: Get details about your DivX Player version and currently selected video file

Right-click options

You can access important settings for the application by right- clicking your mouse over the media pane. A menu will appear with options leading to other menus for tuning and tweaking settings and defaults to your heart’s content. Some of these are accessible from other locations or shortcuts, so if the name causes you a little déjà vu, you’ll know why.

Video Display:

• Normal: Watch the video in the default DivX Player window
• Compact: Watch the video with a simplified window 
• Full Screen: Fill your monitor with video playback; no skin, no controls, nada
• Set Aspect Ratio: Choose 4:3, 16:9, set a “Custom” ratio or “Free” ratio to best suit your video’s resolution or your monitor, or just because you can
• Change Video Size: Zoom your video in or out without changing your Video Display mode

Preferences

Here you will see the subcategories to access, enable and disable basic available playback functions, file and application settings in DivX Player. If you already have a video chosen for playback in DivX Player, only the Preferences that are applicable to that file will be available; all others will be grayed-out. If you do not have any video clip selected for playback in DivX Player, all options will be available.

• General: Manage the global settings for the DivX Player application 
• Default Media Folder: The folder where your downloaded video files will be saved 
• General Preferences: Enable or disable banner ads, and change application window settings 
• Startup and File Opening: Select what you prefer to see first when you open the program 
• Media Library: Manage the library settings for DivX Player 
• Media Library Settings: Default settings for downloading and importing files 
• Default View: Choose your preferred view for the media pane on startup 
• When Importing Files: Designate whether to play the files from their stored location or make a copy to the DivX Player Media Library
• Playback:• Manage your playback settings 
• Playback Options: Loop your video, turn off screen savers or disable the DivX interactive menus (more on this later)
• Default Playback View: Normal, Full screen or Compact 
• Language:• Manage audio and subtitle track settings 
• Audio Settings: Set default language for your soundtracks 
• Subtitle Settings: Set default language for your subtitles 
• External Subtitles: Enable file detection and choose more subtitle display preferences 
• Video: Manage image and decoder settings 
• Playback Quality: Adjust post-processing, sharpening and deblocking settings for a smoother picture 
• Image Settings: Set brightness, contrast, saturation and intensity to personalize your playback 
• Advanced: Manage advanced settings for the DivX Player application 
• Restore Player Defaults: Restore all the settings you just changed back to their default values
• Video Output: Use the default ‘Best Available’ renderer to decode your video, or switch to Direct 3D, Direct Draw, GDI or OpenGL; select a Deinterlacing Method for video files that are interlaced.

3) File Info & Keyboard Shortcuts

File information

Selecting ‘File Information’ lets you look up some basic information about your video file such as its location on your hard drive or metadata. Choosing this option opens a small window displaying the file name, location, video tracks with codec, resolution and frame rate, and audio or subtitle tracks and their respective details. This can be useful if you want to check program compatibility or change any playback preferences to best suit the video file.

Tracks, Menus, Chapters:

• Audio Tracks: Turn off audio, see and select available audio track(s), or access the audio settings
• Subtitle Tracks: Turn off subtitles, see and select available subtitle track(s), or access subtitle settings
• Menus: Access menus for root, title, chapters, audio or subtitles, where available. Or go straight to the main feature (i.e. your video)
• Chapters: If your file has chapter points, you can see and select them here.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcuts are displayed in the right-click menu next to the respective action (when available) or they can be accessed through the Help menu. Here is a cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts available in DivX Player:

• Play/Pause: [SPACE BAR]
• Compact Mode: [Alt] > [C]
• Rewind: [Ctrl] > [<-]
• Full screen Mode: [Alt] > [Enter]
• Fast Forward: [Ctrl] > [->]
• Normal Size: [Alt] > [1]
• Stop: [Ctrl] > [SPACE BAR]
• Half Size: [Alt] > [2]
• Open a File: [Ctrl] > [O]
• Double Size: [Alt] > [3]
• Preferences: [Ctrl] > [P]
• Exit: [Alt] > [F4]
• Main Menu: [M]

1) Playback Controls

Playback controls & features

The basic playback controls for opening and watching your videos in DivX Player allow you to pause, fast-forward, and rewind or stop playing your video at any time.

In the Normal Mode Video Display, the playback controls are located below the media view where your video plays. In Full Screen Mode, you can show the playback controls in a small pop-up window by clicking anywhere on the playback screen. In Compact Mode the playback controls do not display but you can use Keyboard Shortcuts to control playback.

You can choose to play your video in DivX Player two ways. The first is to locate the file on your computer and choose to open it with DivX Player. If DivX Player is your default program for your DivX files, double-clicking the file name will automatically open DivX Player and begin playing the video. If not, you can right-click the file name; select "Open with…" and choose DivX Player from the list. If DivX Player is already open, you can simply drag and drop the file from its location to the DivX Player GUI.

The second way to play your video in DivX Player is to open the program first, either through the desktop shortcut or your Start menu. Then go to the File menu and select Open, or click the ‘open’ icon in the playback controls bar (to the right of the volume control slider). An Open box will open for you to find your file on your computer. Select the file, click 'OK', and then select Play to watch the video.

New and improved: Trickplay

New to DivX Player 7 is a feature called Trickplay that gives you a faster, more frame-accurate ability to seek during playback of your videos.

Previously, after fast-forwarding or rewinding with the seek bar during playback, your video may have stalled or choppily transitioned to the nearest key frame in the video rather than the exact point where you stopped seeking. This sluggish interruption of your viewing experience has become nearly undetectable in DivX Player 7.

High Definition H.264 and AAC (.mkv) playback

With DivX 7 comes new technology that enables playback of DivX Plus HD videos. DivX Plus HD is a new DivX video profile for MKV files containing high definition H.264 video and surround sound AAC audio. This means even better HD video playback in DivX Player and other DirectShow-based media players (for example, Windows Media Player and Real Player).

For more information on H.264 and why it has been added to DivX 7, take a look at our “What is H.264?” FAQ. Or, for some history and more technical details on how DivX has tested and developed our implementation of H.264, check out the Project Rémoulade page on DivX Labs.

MKV files

DivX Player will be able to play back H.264 video and AAC audio within the MKV file container (no audio-only files). The DivX Plus video profile in DivX 7 software also includes the DivX H.264 Decoder filter and the DivX MKV Demux filter. These DirectShow filters extend playback support for .mkv files with H.264 video streams to all DirectShow-based media players in addition to your DivX Player 7. (Note: The DivX MKV Demux filter does not override any other MKV file splitters installed.)

MKV is a file container that may contain a variety of formats, but most .mkv files contain H.264 video with AAC or MP3 audio. H.264 video in an AVI container can also be played back in DivX Player 7 as it can play back .mkv or .avi files with H.264 and AAC, but .mkv files containing other video or audio formats are not supported.

What’s new about DivX Plus HD Playback?

In addition to the ability to watch awesome high definition video, some of the exciting new technical improvements supporting H.264 in DivX 7 for Windows include:

• High-performance H.264 video decoding with support for Baseline, Main, High, High 10, and High 4:2:2 profiles, full interlace support, real-time handling of interlaced H.264 video, multithreaded decoding on up to 8 CPU cores and optimizations for MMX, SSE and SSE2 instruction sets.
• Multichannel AAC (LC/HE) decoding
• Support for .mkv files including:
• Multiple audio tracks for multilingual audio, directors commentary or isolated musical scores
• Multiple subtitle tracks for multilingual subtitles
• Ordered chapters for chaining .mkv files together during playback
• Support for .mkv file splitting with DMF Demux at a low merit
• Initial support for SSA and ASS subtitles which can either be stored within the .mkv file or externally
• Fast frame-accurate seeking

Make Default


Making DivX Player the default media player

The easiest way to make DivX Player your default media player is to select a video to watch with the DivX Player. Right-click on the file, roll over “Open With” and select “Choose Program…” Now select DivX Player from the list and be sure to mark the box labeled “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file.” The DivX Player is now the default player for this type of file.

2) Multiple audio tracks

If your video has more than one audio track (e.g. for other languages) you can switch between these easily while playing your video or set one language as your default.

To switch between audio tracks, right click on the media pane then select ‘Audio Tracks.’ In the next menu, choose the track you want to play. Click ‘OFF’ to disable audio, or go to “Audio Settings…” to manage the language preferences. The DivX Player Preferences window will open. Under ‘Audio Settings,’ check the box to use default audio settings when available and select your preferred language from the drop-down menu. Click ‘Apply’ then ‘OK’ to return to playback.

If your video did not come with a secondary audio track but you have acquired one that you would like to add to your video, you can join the audio file to the video file using a muxing tool such as DivXMuxGUI. Once the audio has been “muxed” (i.e. joined) to the video, the additional audio track will be available for playback in DivX Player.

3) Subtitles

If your video has subtitles, you can choose which set of subtitles (for multiples) to use and set defaults in the same way you access your audio tracks.

Right-click on the central media pane in DivX Player and select ‘Subtitle Tracks’ from the list. ‘OFF’ will disable subtitles and a checkmark shows which track is chosen for playback. To choose a different track, just click on its name.

For subtitle preferences, select “Subtitle Settings…” The DivX Player Preferences window will open. Under ‘Subtitle Settings,’ check the box to use default subtitle settings. Pick your language from the drop-down menu. Click ‘Apply’ then ‘OK.’

If your subtitles are in an external file (e.g., an srt file) then you can select these when you open the video file by following these steps:

Go to File and select ‘Open’  Navigate to your video file  Highlight the file name to select it  Check the ‘Use a specific subtitle file’ box  Click the button […] to the bottom-right.  Browse to the location of the subtitle file  Highlight the file name to select it  Click ‘Open’ then ‘OK’

To join the external subtitle file permanently to your video, use the DivXMuxGUI tool in the same way you would join your audio files.

4) Media Library and playlists

Media library and playlists

To create a new playlist, click on the create playlist button located in the bottom left-hand corner of DivX Player. (It looks like a little folder with a “+” on it.)  A new window will appear where you can name the list. Write the playlist name and click ‘OK.’ Your newly created playlist will appear in the Media Library. You can now select your videos for the playlist from the Media Library’s All Videos view by clicking and dragging the file over to the playlist name, or by right-clicking and selecting ‘Add to Playlist…’

To play movies in your playlist simply select the first movie you wish to play and double-click or click the play icon.

You also have the following options when you right-click on your playlist: Play Playlist  Rename Playlist  Add to Burn Queue Remove Playlist

5) Download Manager

The Download Manager is a tool that manages all the DivX videos you download from websites selling DivX Video-on-Demand (VOD) content. DivX VOD downloads require you to log in to your DivX Player account for authentication purposes.

Once user authorization is complete, DivX Player begins downloading the video file and gives real-time feedback on completion percentage. The time required to download a video is dependent upon the size and length of the video being downloaded and your Internet connection speed. At any point during the download process, you can stop your video download. When you want to resume your download, all you need to do is re-open the Download Manager, choose your video and click the “Resume Download” link. The Download Manager figures out where you left off and continues downloading from that point.

An additional feature of DivX Player is progressive playback. DivX Player estimates your average bandwidth throughput and allows you to start playing your video while it's downloading. It allows you to do this by determining that your download speed is faster than your playback speed and/or you have downloaded enough of the video that your playback won’t catch up with your download. This means if you have a DSL or cable connection, you may only have to wait a few minutes to start playing back a 90-minute video.

Since DivX VOD files are not streaming, you only have to download the file once. After you complete the download, you don’t have to wait for the video to be pushed to your computer again or be interrupted with variable bandwidth speed and the annoyance of buffering, because you will be playing your video from your hard drive.

After downloading a video in DivX Player, you will see a pop-up window asking if you would like to “Burn Video to Disc?” To start burning your video file to a CD or DVD, click “Burn”. To close the box and go straight to your video playback, select “Cancel”. If you never want to be prompted to burn after a download, check the box “Do not show this dialog in the future.” For more info on burning your media to disc, read below.

6) Burning

Burning your videos to a CD or DVD in DivX Player is very easy. There are two ways to burn videos to disc. The first method is through DivX Player’s Media Manager and the second method uses a file manager such as Windows Explorer or a My Computer window.

From the Media Manager in DivX Player, right-click on the file(s) you want to burn and select “Add to Burn Queue.” If selecting more than one file, hold down the Ctrl key while you select the filenames with your cursor.

You can also add the file to the burn queue by simply dragging and dropping the file on the burn motor (the big round button on the right side). Just click on your video file to select it, drag it onto the big round button and release to drop the file.

From the Windows file manager, just drag and drop the video file from the Explorer window onto the big round button in the burning pane of DivX Player. Click on the ‘Burn’ button to begin burning your disc.

To delete a file from your burn queue, just click to select the movie and press the delete or backspace key or use the ‘Clear’ button. You can select several files from the list to delete at once. When deleting a file from your file manager, you won’t delete the original file unless you select to do so.

The files are sorted in alphabetical order when burned to a piece of media. Also, you can change the name of your disc in the Volume Name text field.

You can view the total file size or the space remaining on your disc (DVD or CD) below the orange burning image. If the files exceed the total size limit of your media, DivX Player will not let you burn the files.

Click on the ‘Burn’ button to start burning your video file(s) to your disc.

Once the burning starts, the disc will show you the burning steps and the percentage of files burned. It will take only a few minutes to burn files. Once this process is finished, a status window will appear with the message “Burn successful, you have successfully written X of X files to disc.” This window will also give you the option to clear the burn queue.

7) Creating a DivX VOD account

Creating the DivX VOD account

If you are purchasing DivX Video-on-Demand (VOD) content, you will need to create an account in DivX Player that will be used to authenticate your purchases. This should be created with the same email address that is used to buy the content online.

If you do not currently use DivX VOD services, you do not need to create an account. Regular, non-VOD DivX files do not require authentication.

You can create an account in DivX Player to watch content bought from DivX VOD services. Use this to validate your viewing rights or register your DivX Certified devices. To create an account open DivX Player, go to the Tools menu and select ‘User Account.’ In the account log in window, click the ‘Create Account’ button in the bottom left corner.

In the create account window, you will be asked for basic information such as your name, email address and password. Fill out all the fields then click the ‘Create Account’ button. We’ll send you a confirmation email with a link to complete the creation of your account. If you don’t see the email initially, double check in your email junk folders as the account needs to be verified before you can watch your DivX VOD content.

Changing your account info

To change the details of your account, log in as usual through the Tools menu. Once logged in you can change your name, security question and answer, or password by deleting the existing details and writing the new information in its place. Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update Account’ button to save your changes.

If you forgot your password, go to the Help menu and select “Forgotten Password…” Answer your security question and an email will be sent to you with a link to change your password.

8) DFX Audio Enhancer Plug-In

Register

The DFX Audio Enhancer Plug-In trial comes automatically installed with DivX Player. You can try the DFX Audio Enhancer for free during the first 30 days after the software is installed.

The DFX Audio Enhancer can be purchased at any time during or after the free trial. To purchase, open the DivX Player and go to Tools > Audio Enhancer… or just click the DFX button in the playback control pane.

In the DFX window, select the ‘Help’ button, then select “Register DFX…” to begin the purchase process. You’ll see a button to purchase a DFX serial number that will take you to a check-out cart. The purchased serial number can be entered here or via the Start menu.

Using DFX during playback

You may be wondering what exactly DFX is, or how it can better your video experience.

Most of the digital audio in videos transferred via the Internet is compressed to save space. This is great for sending files, but the quality of the soundtrack is consequently compromised. This is what is meant by “lossy compression.”

The DFX plug-in in your DivX Player restores the audio back to nearly its original quality, delivering a richer, fuller and more dynamic experience.

When you access the DFX Audio Enhancer window, five main components affecting sound can be adjusted to your personal preference for speech or for two music processing modes. Simply click the square radio buttons to the left of the five components to unlock access to the controls.  When the mode’s button is green, you can use the slider bars to adjust the levels of each audio enhancing feature.

NOTE: This will only be accessible when you have selected a video for playback that has audio.

About DivX VOD Registration

This section is for those of you who have purchased a DivX Certified device (DVD Player, TV, portable media player, mobile phone, etc.) and have also purchased DivX VOD content online from one of our partners. If you do not have a DivX Certified device and VOD content, you can skip this section … although you’re still more than welcome to read on, we just don’t want to waste your time.

Consumer electronics devices that are DivX Certified let you watch your DivX videos away from your computer. From home theater systems to portable media players and in-car players to new mobile phones – you can watch your DivX videos wherever you want. Any DivX Certified device can play your own DivX videos.

However, in order to watch your DivX VOD rentals and purchases on your certified device, you will need to complete a one-time registration of your device in your DivX Player account. For more information on the DivX Certification Program, see:
http://www.divx.com/en/partner/certified-programs

Device registration is quick and easy. To start, you will need to get your device’s VOD registration code. Generally speaking, you should be able to find your DVD player’s activation code for the DivX VOD system pretty easily by searching through the device’s on-screen menus with the remote control. Some manufacturers also include the DivX VOD registration code in the manual for the device.

Using DivX Player's Device Manager to register your device

Once you have found your VOD code, you can start the activation process by logging into your account though DivX Player’s Device Manager.

To log in, select the Device Manager from the Tools menu. When the Device Manager window opens, you may be prompted to either login or create a DivX VOD account (which is separate from your DivX Support account). If you’ve already registered a device, you will see a list of any devices already registered.

Click on the ‘Register Device’ button below to begin the process. The “Activate Device” window will open where you can select the brand of the device you want to activate. Scroll down the alphabetical list of names, click on your device’s name to highlight it and click ‘Next’.

Enter your VOD code under the “Activation ID” section, and in the “Name” section give your device a label or nickname. For example, the name can reflect the brand or model of your device or describe its location such as “Living Room”. Once you have entered this information, click ’Next’ again. The activation should begin, which will be indicated by the green in the progress bar and the percentage posted next to it.

When the activation progress bar shows it’s complete, you are almost done. Now click ’Next’ to continue to the next window. You will be given the option for a method of transfer for the Activation Video. You can choose either to burn the file to a disc (CD or DVD) or you can save it to your computer if you have a network-connected device. You MUST play the activation video on your device to complete the activation process. Select your storage location and click “Finish Activation”.

Select the "Burn to Disc" option if you have an optical disc based player (i.e., set-top DVD player, portable DVD player) and burn the "DivX Activation Video.divx" file to a CD or DVD. If you have a hard disc drive or flash memory based player (i.e., portable media player), please add the "DivX Activation Video.divx" file to the storage device of your player. (Please refer to the player's instruction manual on how to add media files to the device.)

If you have a network based player (i.e., network media player), please add the "DivX Activation Video.divx" file to the media library directory of the hosting/server software. (Refer to the player's instruction manual on how to add media files to the hosting/server software.) Next, follow the manufacturer's instruction and play the “DivX Activation Video” file on your DivX Certified player.

You should see the “Activation Successful” video on your TV or screen when this last step is completed. Congratulations! Your DivX Certified player is now activated for DivX Video-on-Demand.

1) Playback performance

Playback Performance

There are several steps you can take to improve DivX playback performance. First, make sure you have the most up-to-date drivers for your graphics card and the latest version of DirectX. You will also want your hardware and DirectDraw accelerations to be fully enabled. To check your hardware acceleration settings, open the “Display Properties” control panel and click the “Settings” tab followed by the ‘Advanced’ button. Finally, click on the “Troubleshoot” tab to ensure that your Hardware Acceleration is set to “Full.” Also make sure your Color Quality is set to “24-bit or higher.”

To check the DirectDraw settings, go to Start > Run and enter “DXDIAG”, then click ‘OK.’ From DXDiag, click the “Display 1” tab and make sure DirectDraw Acceleration is enabled. Repeat this process for the “Display 2” tab if it is visible.

Finally, do not use any other applications to play video at the same time as DivX. Other media players, web cameras and/or video editing applications may all try to access a resource called the hardware overlay, which is generally required for high-performance playback. If any other application is using the hardware overlay your DivX playback will be sub-optimal.

2) Rendering

Rendering

In DivX Player version 6.8.1 and later, you have the option to choose which renderer is used for playing back your files. In previous versions, DivX Player used the DirectDraw renderer by default; however you can now use Direct3D or OpenGL.

The Direct3D option was put into place as an option that would be more compatible with the new Aero environment of the Windows Vista platform.

By default, DivX Player is set to detect the best available renderer for your particular environment. If you would like to change this however, you can do so from within the Tools > Preferences window of DivX Player. Under the Advanced section, use the drop-down menu for Video Output to select a different renderer. Remember to click the ‘Apply’ button to save your changes and always reboot the application before trying to play a video with the new renderer.

If you are on Windows 2000 or XP, you should be using DirectX version 9. A graphics card that fully supports this and PixelShader 2.0 or better is highly recommended.

3) The Decoder Configuration Utility

The Decoder Configuration Utility

If you play DivX video using third-party media players, use the Decoder Configuration Utility to adjust settings affecting playback performance. To access this, go to your Start menu and under All Programs select DivX > DivX Codec > Decoder Configuration Utility.

From the “Decoder” tab, checking the box to “Reduce CPU spikes using one frame delay” will help if you are experiencing stuttering during playback, especially on older computers when playing high definition. Selecting to “Output YUV 4:@:0 when supported” can improve playback performance as well, but this feature is not available for all graphics cards.

The “Playback” tab also has various adjustments affecting playback performance. Because of the way DivX compresses images at very low bitrates, phenomena known as “blocking” and “ringing” can sometimes be seen in the picture during playback. Where blocking becomes visible you may begin to recognize that the picture is actually composed of a lot of small squares that move around as the video plays. Ringing is typically most visible around highly contrasting edges in the picture. Where ringing occurs it is possible to see subtle bands of color around the contours of these edges. You’ll see the following choices when customizing your playback configuration:

• Automatic Deblocking is a post-processing technique applied by the decoder on the fly to reduce the blocking effect, helping to blend adjacent blocks together smoothly.
• Custom Deblocking lets you set, from minimum to maximum, the amount of deblocking you wish to apply..
• Full Deblocking with Sharpening automatically adjusts the post-processing level so that your system always applies the maximum possible post-processing during playback. When “Full Deblocking with Sharpening” is enabled it may be a strain on your CPU power.

Setting the post-processing level to “OFF” is recommended for very old computers. On more recent computers, this should normally be set to “Automatic Deblocking” to instruct the decoder to deblock as much as the CPU can support without compromising playback quality.

Disabling some of the setting in “Picture Properties” or “FilmEffect” can also improve playback performance. Most graphics cards also allow you to adjust video color using overlay controls. To do this, go to the Display Properties > Advanced Settings of your Control Panel.

Decoder configuration suggestions for H.264

Similar to the Decoder Configuration Utility for standard DivX codec properties, the H.264 Decoder Config allows you to adjust the properties of the decoder on your system once the DivX software has been installed. To access, open your Start menu and go to All Programs > DivX > DivX H.264 Codec and select the H.264 Decoder Config option.

A new window will appear for Decoder Properties that can be adjusted manually. Here’s a brief run-down on what option can be set:

• Deblocking: Deblocking should normally be on for H.264 video because the encoder assumes that the decoder will perform in-loop deblocking in accordance with the format specification and codes the video accordingly. Turning off deblocking will therefore introduce artifacts during playback, but because deblocking is computationally expensive, this option can be desirable for low-powered systems that could not normally decode H.264 or where battery life is at a premium. Disabling deblocking does not look too bad with most content. Deblocking is enabled by default.
• Multithreading: When enabled, this option allows the decoder to subdivide the decoding process across multiple CPUs or cores to accelerate decoding and provide a smoother playback experience. Multithreading is enabled by default.
• Low latency: This is an experimental feature that may increase the frame rate for more basic bitstreams at lower resolutions, or on systems with larger CPU cache. Low latency is enabled by default.
• Disable logo: Turns off the small DivX logo that appears in the lower-right of the picture for a few seconds at the start of playback. Disable logo is disabled by default.
• Use default encoding settings in this application When this decoder filter property page is accessed from within a host application, this setting instructs the decoder to turn off features such as color correction and the logo overlay and turn on features such as deblocking to ensure that DivX video sources are processed in their original form without any adjustments applied. This is important when transcoding for example. This option is disabled by default and is set on a per-application basis.
• Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation: These sliders enable image adjustments that may improve the appearance of H.264 video on your computer. Each slider is centered by default.

4) More Info

If after all of this we still haven’t answered your question, take a look at our online knowledge base for more FAQ’s, guides and troubleshooting tips at www.divx.com/support. To discuss topics with other DivX users, you can also visit the DivX Forums (www.divx.com/community) or take a look at our DivX Labs site.

And that’s all, folks. Enjoy DivX Player!