DivX 10 released – doubles video quality with H.265/HEVC

[DoMiN8ToR]

We've just posted the following news: DivX 10 released – doubles video quality with H.265/HEVC[newsimage]http://static.myce.com//images_posts/2013/09/myce-divx-10-countdown-95x75.gif[/newsimage]

During the IFA in Berlin DivX 10 was unveiled announcing support for H.265 or HEVC requiring half the storage space for the same level of video quality your're currently used to.

            Read the full article here: [http://www.myce.com/news/divx-10-released-doubles-video-quality-with-h-265hevc-68650/](http://www.myce.com/news/divx-10-released-doubles-video-quality-with-h-265hevc-68650/)

            Please note that the reactions from the complete site will be synched below.

[CDan]

“Doubles video quality”???
Says who? Compared to what?
From what I’ve read, actual benchmarks are revealing considerably longer encode times and only modest improvements in compression over the H264 codec with 1080p content. Care should be taken not to confuse results gained with 4K content and 1080p content. I suspect that some sources are deliberately doing just that.

[Steve33]

I would hope their version of h265 does better than what I have seen thus far, talking about sssloww…if they don’t find a way to speed that joker up, I’ll have to get along without it.
Still though evidently it suppose to playback as well, might be worth looking into, I suppose.

[professor_nova]

That is the theoretical objective of the specification: up to 50% better than H.264 at the expense of encode/decode complexity (read: you need more “power” to encode/decode). I will probably take some time until developers can use the specification to it’s full potencial.

We can’t forget, for example, that when x264 (an H.264 encoder) came out in ~2005, it was worse than XVID.

And the “successor” of x264, x265, just started being worked on since March, and the developers decided to start with the code of the reference encoder, HM10, which is slower than a snail. And right now they are working on putting the lookahead and ratecontrol from x264 on it, so it will take some until they have a fully functional and speedy encoder.

So, at least the DivX encoder should be quicker and better (for now…) than x265.

[TSJnachos117]

That’s been my feeling about ogg/opus since it’s inception. If it’s good now, wait until it gets even better. Odds are, h.265 will get much better as tthe technology improves. Heck, I’ll bet that when a stable version of x.265 gets here, it will rule with an iron fist!

[XStylus]

Tested out the new divx H.265 encoder on my Mac. Room for improvement.

The folk that could probably push this technology the most would be anime fansubbers and AMV makers. They’ll probably wait for x265 though. These tools don’t offer anything more than the most basic of controls over the encoding.

Disappointingly, the only way to encode H265 in this is by using the DivX Converter app. Although a divx encoder/decoder “plugin” is supposedly installed, it’s the OLD divx (v6.8), so no MPEGStreamClip for you. Where’s the H265 encoder “plugin” that the divx installer specifically asked me to install?

The DivX Converter app is also very simplistic. You drag your raw into the program, set either the desired bitrate or a file size limit, and that’s about all it lets you do.

Interestingly, divx has ditched their own “.divx” file format and is now using MKV which is a nice plus. Unfortunately, most MKV players and tools (VLC, MPlayerX, MPEGStreamClip, MKVtools) didn’t recognize the H265 video stream. Not totally surprising since H265 is so new, but I ask again, where’s the H265 decoder “plugin” that the divx installer specifically asked me to install?

Anyway, I made a test encode of a 720p 30fps video (using clips from “Downfall”). I made one H265 and one H264 file, both using the DivX Converter app. The H265 was 19% smaller than the H264, and quality appeared to be similar. Not a huge size savings, but respectable.

So that’s the Mac experience. Has anyone tested on PC?

[professor_nova]

The MKV made by the DivX HEVC encoder didn’t work in any other tools because there is no official HEVC in MKV spec. DivX decided to implement an hack instead of waiting for the MKV developers. The MKV developers are waiting for the official HEVC in MP4 to be published by the MPEG people. They are going to copy stuff from the MP4 spec, so developers of players and tools don’t have to program two independent ways of treating HEVC; if they program for MP4, they can easily use it for MKV.
So… the MKV from DivX will probably only be read by their own player when the official MKV spec comes out.

PS: It seems the MPEG people are taking “forever” to publish the HEVC in MP4. Until then, no official MKV support.

[Wombler]

Useful info there professor_nova, thanks for that.

So it looks like we’ll have to wait a bit longer yet but it’ll be interesting to see the results when all this comes about.

[B]Wombler[/B]

[macbass]

XStylus,
imac 10.6.8 Question: I have DivX pro 7. Does that include the MPEG-2/DVD plug-in? In System prefs under other, there is a tick box asking me if I want to decode all my MPEG-4 videos using 3ivx. Is that an advantage? Personally I use iskysoft video converter which does everything I want. Is one better than the other? I would appreciate your response.
macbass

[tmc8080]

We’re already seeing SD (480p) tv episodes under 100mb with decent quality for about 40 minutes of video (the average 1hr sitcom minus the commercial breaks cut out). What will be pretty amazing later on is getting 4k video onto blu ray single layer discs (2-4 hours of video) provided you can get a 4k source… hehehe, not too many of those just yet.

Also, what would be nice is 50gb video cut to 4.3gb with NO discernible quality or feature loss— which would mean h.265 would have to include features which have been patented on Blu-Ray standard… obviously not gonna happen but we can dream.