New:

• Added several new options to the codec properties dialog that allow users to tweak settings for smoother playback and improved support for some video cards.
• Added a \"Smooth Playback\" option. Turning this off will allow B-frame encoded content to playback with lower CPU usage. However, enabling this option will introduce a 1 frame delay in the decoder (because of buffering), which may cause the last frame of the video to not be displayed.
• Added a \"YUV Extended\" mode option. When selected, the codec will attempt to use YV12 mode to decode the video. This is the fastest way to decode DivX content, but the drawback is that brightness/contrast/saturation controls cannot be used in this mode and are disabled.
• Added an \"Overlay Extended\" mode. Selecting this will cause the filter to try to display video using the hardware overlay instead of the software overlay. The hardware overlay is much faster, but may not be supported on some video cards. When this mode is enabled, DirectShow-based player applications will be unable to open more than one window at a time.
• Added a \"Double Buffering\" option. Enabling this will force the video card to allocate a second buffer for the video playback. This will increase the smoothness of the video playback, but may not be supported on low-end video cards with less than 8 MB of RAM.
• Added a \"Film Effect\" option. This is a warming filter that when enabled will add film noise to the decoded picture. This may increase the perceived visual quality of the picture, especially if you are used to watching film. It\'s a personal preference, however, so use it if you want.
• Added a hidden \"Force Color Mode\" control. You can manually set the registry key \"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\DivXNetworks\\Force Color Mode\" in the Windows Registry and assign it a number from 1 to 7. This will force the video card to use a particular color mode, depending upon the value. This is only necessary in rare circumstances to solve video card problems. Supported color modes:
  • 1: YV12.
  • 2: YUY2.
  • 3: YUYV.
  • 4: RGB32.
  • 5: RGB24.
  • 6: RGB555.
  • 7: RGB565.

Improved:

• The default psychovisual modeling settings are tweaked slightly. This should decrease blockiness in black regions and flat areas in the video content.
• Optimized the decoder so that it more consistently plays back video, particularly on lower-end CPUs. (A P-III 466 MHz machine can play real-time, 640x480 video with B-frames and GMC at 80% CPU load.).
• The paid version of DivX Pro now includes a separate registration and activation application called \"Register DivX Pro.exe\". This will give users that are having trouble activating the software a more straightforward way to register and enter their serial number. The existing registration scheme (where the codec prompts you to register the first time to encode vide) continues to work.
• The adware version of DivX Pro includes an updated integration with the GAIN ad-support software. This new version improves the uninstall process and prevents some circumstances where the GAIN software would remain installed even after DivX Pro was uninstalled.

Fixed:

• Fixed a bug where the activation of the paid version of DivX Pro was not possible on some hardware configurations. Some users have been unable to activate their paid DivX Pro versions since version 5.0. We identified the hardware configurations that were causing the problems and have integrated a new activation library into DivX Pro. If you haven\'t been able to activate DivX Pro previously, give it another try now.
• Fixed a lot of memory leaks in the encoder. This should prevent the codec from slowing down gradually during a long encode.
• Version 5.0.1 encoded 7% slower than 5.0. DOH! Not sure how that happened. This has been fixed and version 5.0.2 is as fast as version 5.0.
• Fixed a problem where the trace_b.txt log file would be written out during encodes which would take up significant disk space. The log file is no longer written.
• Fixed a problem where the MP4 Creator would not work on files that included B-frames. The MP4 Creator should now work with all DivX 5.x files.
• Fixed a bug where the right macroblock would not be displayed with the custom brightness/contrast settings. This would cause a dark or light \"band\" of video on the right side of the screen.
• Fixed a bug that would cause playback problems when the seek bar was moved back and forth quickly. This same bug some cause bad frames to be displayed at the beginning of some content when playing back video in Windows Media Player. This should no longer happen.
• Fixed a bug where the \"Decoder Configuration\" application would crash when run on Windows 98. The application should now run properly. (Yes, we know we said we fixed this in 5.0.1, but we really fixed it this time.).