DivX and Xvid are competing MPEG4 compression formats. While DivX is arguably the more popular of the two, many gurus claim that Xvid offers quality improvements when compared to DivX. Curious, I decided to convert a movie using FairUseWizard and see for myself what the difference was. I chose six different scenes and attempted to take a screenshot at exactly the same point for comparision. Below are the results.
DivX 
Xvid
DivX
Xvid
DivX
Xvid
DivX
Xvid
DivX
Xvid
As you can see, neither comes out way ahead. I notice the biggest difference on the shot where the light is shining on his chest armor, and even then, I have to pay close attention to the detail to notice anything. Whether I would notice that at 30 frames per second might be another story.
I would say it all boils down to compatiblity. If DivX is actually more widely supported, then that’s the one I’d recommend. If all players that played DivX also played Xvid, I’d go with whatever one produced the smaller files given the extremely minor differences in quality.
GanjaManja said,
July 15, 2007 at 6:51 pm
It looks like Xvid is slightly more grainy, but appears to more faithfully reproduce the original image, while DivX avoids the pixellation by washing out large areas if they’re of similar colors (see the background pillars in pic #3). Thus DivX looks smoother, but Xvid keeps more of the original image.
Also, the compression parameters would be useful to know.
Much larger screenshots (like 1080 px) would also be helpful.
Thanks for posting, it’s very useful.
Roberta said,
September 12, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Thanks! this was very useful! I think the Xvid looks better because it produces more sharpen images than the divX.
I wished there were more dvd players that plays Xvid.
Chris said,
March 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
I know this is an old article but I thought I’d mention that many if not most DivX certified players will play Xvid as well, since they are both forks of the same codebase.
Shonof said,
April 14, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Doesn’t matter xvid is open source. Thats the way i like.
oaasd said,
May 17, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Yay! Open Source FTFW!
k4mpret said,
July 1, 2008 at 1:58 am
Encoding with xvid takes much longer than with divx (15fps vs 30fps) on my Pentium-D 2.66 Ghz. When i concern about speed, i choose divx.
airjrdn said,
July 1, 2008 at 2:11 am
That’s definitely a concern. Lately, I’ve been doing xvid conversions with Mencoder on my quad core, and to be honest, they aren’t bad.
Neil said,
July 16, 2008 at 5:26 pm
I had an idea of converting flv you tube video to a format that win dvd maker would recognize, so i could burn a dvd and play it on the dvd that is connected to my tv. Initially i converted to wmv and burned from there with surprisingly good results at full screen on my tv. From there i thought maybe i could do even better so i did a comparison of my best video converted with both xvid and wmv. xvid at 1024k bit rate, and wmv at its max which is 768. The xvid was clearly better, it reproduced reflected light exactly as it appeared in the original, unlike wmv….so xvid is my best choice at this point…havent tried divx yet, and prolly wont. i have a yamaha dvd player on the way that is divx compatible, and im gonna burn a bunch of xvid encoded avi files onto a dvd and pop it in and see what happens. It takes like 2 hours to burn a standard dvd, and thats usually only around 65 videos….screw that. Another cool thing is that my new dvd will have a 6 step zoom, so if i want i can view 1/4, 1/3, or 1/2 original size which i believe will greatly improve quality, or course its smaller, but i prefer quality over quantity. Hope things will work out the way i plan. -Cheers
airjrdn said,
July 17, 2008 at 1:36 am
Good luck. I’ve been playing with a script that uses mencoder to convert nearly any format to a 320×240 video the Creative Zen will play. So far, xvid has proved to look very good on the Zen.
Neil said,
July 20, 2008 at 3:54 pm
The xvid encoded avi files worked great on my new player, only problem is, the 6 step zoom doesnt work with them, only dvd. I did notice though that i can use the pillar box feature in the dvd player setup, and then 16:9 the video using a function on my tv(my tv is 4:3 high def crt)….this results in a smaller video with a close to perfect aspect ratio, like maybe a 3/4 zoom, but its not really enough, guess im gonna have to stick with converting the avi files to dvd to get the functionality i want. Almost all these videos are 320X240, and although some look ok at full screen, its cool to be able to zoom out and view these videos closer to their native resolution with clarity and detail, than to blow them up to full screen….alot are too blocky at full screen. Its not so bad i guess…only downside to creating dvds is the amount of time it takes to encode them….about two hours. -Cheers
Omar said,
August 13, 2008 at 7:34 am
I see the Xvid has slightly more detail, especially in the second set of pictures. If they support each other, that’s the one I’d go with.
tombert said,
August 25, 2008 at 1:36 am
Overall, I think that it might be a better idea to stick with open source if you want compatibility. My cheapy DVD player seems to support both DivX and XviD, and I think that in the future, Xvid will catch on even more (if for no other reason video players don’t want to pay a charge to the DivX corportation).
Quality-wise, i found that the Xvid seems to be a little less jumpy, and more smoothly flowing. I found the the Divx would lag slightly sometimes, making the image jump. THis is probably because my Archos 605 doesn’t have a great processor, and Divx takes slightly more system specifications.
The colors in xvid seem a little more vibrant, while divx seems to be that they are all “grayed” down.
Joe said,
September 7, 2008 at 6:35 am
Saying one player supports the other format is silly. That’s like saying the ipod plays FHG encoded mp3s but not LAME mp3s.
Both are MPEG-4 Part 2 ASP codecs. If one is Divx certified it might play their proprietary container. But otherwise compatibility comes down to supporting b frames, qpel, gmc, etc, and not xvid vs. divx
Neil said,
October 15, 2008 at 11:27 pm
i dont think its silly, although divx and xvid seem the same compatibility wise, just because a video uses the .avi container, there are lots of parameters within that container that effect compatibility….i have occasional problems like this with avi files, as a quick solution i just re-encode the avi using my own parameters that i know are compatible.
Tropi said,
November 9, 2008 at 12:46 am
The choice of codec is very, very personal and is largely a matter of what one personally likes ‘the look’ of. If visual quality is important, then the speed to re-encode is not going to matter much, if at all. I have never experienced any compatibility problems between the two, though I can’t say categorically that they don’t exist.
All other things being equal, I find that DivX gives slightly smoother textures (less detail) and XVid slightly grainier textures (more detail). Which you prefer is entirely personal and you might even change your mind as to which you prefer from time to time, depending very much on the original source material. You do not have to stick rigidly to one codec.
For instance, a coarse, grainy original might persuade you towards smoothing it out with DivX, despite slight detail loss. Also, animé/cartoons etc are likely to give rather different impressions than will be seen in normal movies.
killerener99 said,
November 13, 2008 at 5:39 am
XviD and DivX are completely backward compatible with each other.
William Frantz said,
December 9, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Joe gave the best analogy. DivX and Xvid are two different encoders that both produce MPEG4 ASP video in an AVI file container. Technically, you can’t tell the difference between a DivX video and an Xvid video except that the encoders leave tell-tale indicators embedded in the file along with the video data. Having said that, DivX Inc and Xvid.org have defined slightly different “profiles” for encoding. For example, the DivX Home Theater profile does not use multiple warp points, Global Motion Compensation or Quarter Pixel Estimation even though these features are allowed under the MPEG4 ASP standard. Some Xvid profiles might use these features and the resulting video probably won’t play on a DivX Certified DVD player even though the resulting video might look better when compared to a DivX Home Theater version of the same video.
For most people, the best advice is to only buy DivX Home Theater certified products and only use DivX Home Theater certified software. That way, compatibility is guaranteed. However, if you careful with how you configure Xvid, you can create videos that play on most DivX devices. Xvid does have a similar certification program but there are very few Xvid certified devices despite numerous claims of “Xvid” compatibility.
Otis said,
December 15, 2008 at 4:10 am
why not try wd tv…
ya can connect a usb drive to it and play divx and xvid (along with other formats)… i get tired of converting, burning, and storing dvd’s.
FJ said,
January 9, 2009 at 4:06 pm
I should say that the real difference is light. Divx looks smoother but light intensifies in xvid making it look more grainy and filmlike.
Ultimatehuman said,
February 13, 2009 at 5:31 pm
If you want to use Windows Media Center extenders, to watch your Avi files on your tv or home theatre, you must use XviD. The PS2, Xbox, and Linksys MCE’s (what I use), don’t have a DivX license, and therefore, their firmware does not support the codec. Xvid is open source and therefore is supported. Also, since it’s open source, certification of hardware is not required to support the codec. I think if you want a universal format that will play on anything, Xvid is the way to go.
Randy said,
April 1, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Thanks for many previous comments. My Divx Philips Certified player won’t play some Divx file. There is only audio and no video. I believe that it comes during the encode setting. Once tested and not playable on my Divx player, I re-encode them either to DEFAULT Divx or Xvid setting and it played fine on the player.
Godmy said,
August 29, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Autor should pick same frames from the video. Right on the first frame I’ve noticed the frames are different, so there is lesser opportunity of comparation.
gongo said,
September 23, 2009 at 4:55 am
What should be the resolution of a divx or an xvid that should be downloaded to look good on a 32-40 inch bravia or any format for that matter
airjrdn said,
September 23, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Quality is a tough one. What looks good to me might not to you or vice versa. Most downloaded movies will be in one of three flavors – 700M, 1.4G, or around 4G for full DVD or HD rips. Obviously the bigger size means better quality.
I think it would also matter whether or not it was upscaled by the TV (or whatever you’re using to play it), and if so, to what resolution. Meaning, a 464 pixel wide movie upscaled to 720p might not be too blocky, but upscaled to 1080p would probably look pretty bad. Again, that might just me my opinion, you might think it looks fine.
Sorry if these answers are somewhat vague, but it’s just tough to recommend quality to someone.