Xvid
Xvid is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 standard, in particular, MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile. It uses ASP features such as global and quarter pixel motion compensation, b-frames, lumi masking trellis quantization, custom quantization matrices, and MPEG.
Xvid is a rival of the DivX Pro Codec. In comparison with the DivX codec , which could be proprietary software programmed by DivX, Inc., Xvid is a free program distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
This also means that in contrast to the DivX codec, which is purely available for a limited number of platforms, Xvid can be used on all platforms along with the OS for which the origin code can be compiled.
Xvid is a video codec used to compress and decompress digital video content. A codec, short for coder-decoder, is a technology that compresses video files for storage or transmission and then decompresses them for playback. Xvid is a popular and widely used video codec known for its ability to provide good video quality at relatively smaller file sizes.
How does XviD codec work?
It is just a program codec for compressing and decompressing to the MPEG-4 ASP format. Since Xvid utilizes MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile (ASP) compression, any kind of video that is encoded with it is termed "MPEG-4 ASP video" - not "Xvid video” and can therefore always be decoded with all MPEG-4 ASP certified decoders.
This includes a large number of media players as well as decoders, in scrupulous all the ones dependent on the free/open source libavcodec library from FFmpeg.
Playing Xvid Files
As I said earlier, Xvid is not a video format; it is a program to compress and decompress the MPEG-4 ASP format. As it uses MPEG-4 ASP compression, it can be played on any media player that can decode for media players like MPlayer, VLC, ffdshow.
Xvid encoded files can be written on a CD or DVD and can be played on DivX compatible DVD players and media players.
XVid issues
Due to considerations over patents, the official Xvid web page does not offer binary versions of the Xvid codec. Nevertheless, it does link to assisting websites that provide Video clips for Windows codecs (as well as DirectShow decoding filters) with regard to Microsoft Windows.
Most of the time Xvid file becomes non-responsive or gets corrupted due to virus infection, software conflicts, and due to improper system shutdown when the Xvid file is in use, etc. In such cases, just make use of the Xvid repair tool that can efficiently repair corrupt/damaged Xvid files in a few mouse clicks.
