Hi,
I have a friend with a OS X notebook (powerbook?) and want to copy a few movies for her. Which format should I chose, which ones are well supported? DivX 5.x/mp3? It should work, because it's mpeg4, but I'd like to hear your opinion. Thx.

It works if you have the right codec.

Which codec should I take? Where to get it from?

Erm... Go to http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/ . The free version should be fine for what you need, but the $20 version has more capabilites and better compression.

DivX sucks donkey balls. I'm tired of people distributing DivX format videos. They're huge and they rarely ever work 'cause there are like ninety trillion versions of codecs out there for it. Everytime you want to download a DivX movie, it turns out that you have to update the codec or download a new player blah blah blah. WTF?! ARRGH!!!!

Use QuickTime movie format or Sorenson 3. QuickTime compression is far more superior and it's way easier to use as well (especially since OS X has it automatically integrated). Sorenson compression works wonders without any noticeable loss in quality whatsoever. I'm not sure if you have to pay for it though. If you do, just stick with QuickTime.

DEATH TO DIVX!!!!

Ummm... What? I've watched over 125 fansubs encoded in DivX, and they've all played perfectly with the codec up on divx.com (I've only downloaded it once per computer)... The quality is great, too. 125 megs for half an hour, and there are minimal compression artifacts. I don't know where you're getting your files, but... :|

I like quicktime

/me hugs apple

Well, I can say that I'm not the only one with problems with DivX. Two of my roommates last year had the very same problems I did. They both had a Dell and I had the Mac. Either the version wasn't correct or the DivX players were acting up. Clearly there's some confusion or problems going around for both platforms here, when we speak of DivX issues. I've never had such problems with QuickTime.

Point is, DivX is not a very friendly compression format in terms of compatibility. The player or codec version you download today may work for a while, but don't expect that functionality to last for more than a month. If certain people have the time to dig up codecs and players online just to get a single DivX movie playing, by all means more power to 'em. I'd rather have whatever movie I download play without a hitch.

The topic in discussion also concerns Macs. Since QuickTime is automatically included in all Macs and since the built-in software updater automatically updates it periodically, the safe route to go would be QuickTime format. Of course if you want multi-platform compatibility (I know a few PC nuts who absolutely refuse to download QuickTime for some odd reason), MPEG would probably be the best choice.

I like the idea that it would (so to say) work out of the box without installing extra software on the mac, but then I'd need a quicktime encoder for my win-pc. Any hints where I can find that?

PS: I thought that quicktime was mpeg4, too, but I can be wrong.

Doublepost deleted

uh... yeah. you can find the apple quicktime SW for windows pcs on the apple homepage for free right here: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone/
and i'd like to add that divx does suck.i use an uberplayer called... uh... *rummages around in his computer* MPlayer OSX 2 beta 4. i got it via a friend, dunno where to obtain it (versiontracker?).
anyway. so far it didn't cough even once, regardless of the format. (wmp, mpeg, avi, mov...)

Yeah, mplayer is great, I use it under Linux where it should originate from. However, I'll probably not be able to encode movies with that. I'll have a look at quicktime then.

I find that VLC is the best multi-functional multimedia (try saying that three times fast) player for OS X. It plays just about any format, including DivX. It even plays ogg files, which is what Vendetta uses for sounds. Even has a neat icon. Check it out:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14738

actually, i already had VLC, i just forgot it on my HD... now i have the newest version! pfhantastic!

By the way, does anybody have experience with openoffice for macos? Is it advisable for a "normal" user who "just" want's to write a book or something, I mean, is it useable?

I've chosen to encode the movies with divx, because it should be mpeg4 alright, plus mp3 audio. I hope this will work. Besides, I downloaded mplayer and I'll try vlc, too, if I find it. The link didn't seem to work.

Versiontracker.com appears to be down now. The official download site can be found here:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

OpenOffice for mac has 1 programmer working on it. I don't think it's quite ready yet.