XviD guide

XviD is the latest MPEG-4 codec and the first true open source one. Once finished it will be released under the GPL license. In a recent codec comparison I found that XviD gives surprisingly good results despite the early alpha status. If being a beta tester doesn't scare you then XviD could be the codec for you.

To give you the fastest encoding method possible without too much hassle I chose to use Gordian Knot as frontend for most of the encoding action. For a detailed overview over every option in XviD please have a look at Koepi's XviD Options Explained document which is installed along with the codec.

You will need the following software for this guide:

GordianKnot Rippack
GordianKnot Codec pack

Step 0: First time setup

You will only have to perform this step once.

Install the GordianKnot Rippack, then install the GordianKnot system pack. Make sure that if you don't have the Div5 codec installed yet you activate that option when you install the system pack. Last but not least install Robot4Rip and make sure it is installed at the same place as GordianKnot (if you didn't change anything when installing GKnot you won't have to worry about Robot4Rip).

Then also install the XviD codec.

Step 1: Basic GKnot Setup

This step will teach you how to set up GKnot for a perfectly good looking rip.

Step 2: Avisynth script creation

In this step we're going to create an AviSynth frameserver AviSynth script to frameserve the video into VirtualDub.

Step 3: Video encoding

Configure the codec and encode the video in 2 pass mode using Virtualdub. If you prefer to use the development builds, here's the guide for XviD 1.1.

Step 4: Join Audio and Video

Nandub can handle both CBR and VBR (ABR is a kind of VBR) audio and is therefore best suited for the task.

Step 5: Splitting

If you created a movie for more than 1 CD you have to split it up now.

This document was last updated on August 9, 2005