Software / PC Players

There are many players on the market, mostly free. Here are some of our favorites:

QuickTime (you will need CODECs, see here)

Windows Media Player

VLC (Video Lan Client)

MPlayer, and MPlayerOSX

CODECs

CODECs (Encoders & Decoders) handle the job of encoding and decoding (for playback) the various compressed data (video and audio).

For QuickTime users, we have found the following very useful:

DIVX (free divx5 decoder, nice Windows tools)

XVID Delegate (delegates xvid format decoding to another codec - mac only)

3IVX (another very nice codec)

File / Data Formats

DVDs - Commercial DVDs have a magic folder named VIDEO_TS that contains .vob files that make up the DVD. They use MPEG-2 for the video tracks (titles & chapters), and usually AC3 and/or DTS for the sound track.

On Macs, we often use DVD Player to play them, and on Windows, Windows Media Player or many other alternatives.

MPEG-4 is a compression format and standard, but there are several CODECs (Encoders & Decoders) that implement this compression differently with varying levels of quality.

.avi is the most popular and common file format used by most people. QuickTime can play most .avi files using the right codec(s). Most hardware players that can play mpeg-4 work with .avi files. .avi files these days usually contain 1 video track in mpeg-4 (using a codec such as divx, 3ivx, or xvid), and an audio track (usually mp3, occasionally ac3).

.mov is the standard QuickTime file format, and a movie can contain many different tracks (usually 1 video, 1 audio) using different codecs. Popular for mac users, but as far as we are aware, no hardware players can use this file format.

.mp4 is a file format written by QuickTime, and perhaps some others. One popular hardware player we know of will not play this format.

.mpg is a standard for mpeg format files, but as far as we know, most .mpg files are usually mpeg-1 or mpeg-2. MPEG-2 is what most personal video recorders (PVRs) and digital video recorders (DVRs) like TIVO use.

Hardware To View Your Flix

Obviously, everyone knows about DVD Players, but what's really exciting to us is hardware / players / devices that will play Flix that is compressed using MPEG-4 codecs such as DIVX, XVID, etc.

MPEG-4 has been called the "MP3 revolution for movies", and here's why. A typical commercial 2 hour DVD (or a hi quality movie recorded on a TIVO or many PVRs) is about 4 GIGABYTES (about 2 GB/hour).

MPEG-4 allows that 4 GB movie to be compressed to 1 GB or less (15-25%), with near DVD-quality video and sound. Typical 50 minute TV shows compressed with XVID MPEG-4 are about 350MB. That's about 20 percent or so of the size of "DVD format" at near DVD quality.

That means a DVD-R can hold 5+ 2 hour movies, a CD-R can hold a 700 MB near DVD-quality movie, and you can also store 5 times the Flix on your computer(s).

Over the next 5 years, we expect to see even more compression, and to see hard drive prices to come down even further, allowing the average household to keep not just a mere⁽¹⁾ 40 hours of movies like the early TIVOs, but 200 hours of movies using the same amount of storage!

All these technologies are making it possible to store your collection of hundreds or even thousands of movies / flix on your computer(s) / local area network, just like many of us store our entire music collection this way!

We are most excited about a new product just out for Mac users called EyeHome from Elgato. This device allows you to play your movies, music, and more from your Mac(s) using a local area network, and connecting to your home theater!

We just got our EyeHome installed, and now have access to about 250 GB of movies. This is about 350 2 hour movies, all at near DVD quality!

Earlier last year, we also got ourselves a LiteOn LVD-2002 DVD/CD/DIVX/XVID player.

Up until the EyeHome device, which is brand new, this was the only way to play DIVX/XVID content on your home theater without dedicating a Mac (with the right video output) to the task.

Stay tuned for more information on hardware players and recorders.

⁽¹⁾ Compared to 2 hour VHS tapes, 40 hours is a lot, but still little compared to 5 times that amount using MPEG-4 compression.