Understanding PS4 Video Codecs and Formats: A Deep Dive

When it comes to streaming from the PS4, understanding video codecs and formats is crucial for achieving the best performance. Using inefficient codecs can lead to larger file sizes and lower streaming quality, while the wrong format may not even be supported by your PS4 media player. In this guide, we’ll explore the most common video codecs and formats used in PS4 streaming and how they impact your media playback.

Video Codecs Explained 

H.264 (AVC) 

H.264 (AVC), also known as Advanced Video Coding, is the most widely used video codec, known for its strong balance between compression and quality. Its wide compatibility across devices and platforms makes it the go-to choice for PS4 streaming. However, H.264 requires higher bitrates to maintain high-quality video, which can result in larger file sizes. This can be a challenge when streaming from PS4, especially with limited bandwidth. Still, its extensive support across media players and streaming services makes it an ideal codec for most situations, especially for content intended for wide distribution. 

H.265 (HEVC) 

H.265 (HEVC), or High-Efficiency Video Coding, is an advanced codec designed to deliver better compression efficiency and superior quality at lower bitrates compared to H.264. This means you can achieve higher video quality without sacrificing performance or increasing file size. However, the downside of HEVC is its limited compatibility on older devices and software. While newer devices, including the PS4 Pro, support HEVC, many older systems or certain apps may not fully support it. For streaming on PS4, H.265 is a great option for those prioritizing video quality and streaming efficiency, but it requires up-to-date hardware and software support. 

 

Video Container Formats Explained 

MP4 is one of the most popular and widely supported video container formats, offering great compatibility across devices and platforms, including the PS4. Its main strength is its efficiency, allowing for decent video quality at relatively low file sizes. However, MP4 has limitations when handling high-resolution or high-bitrate streams, as it may not deliver the same level of quality at larger file sizes compared to more advanced formats. MP4 is ideal for streaming typical content, such as movies or TV shows, and is the most common format for online video sharing, making it a go-to for PS4 streaming.

MKV (Matroska Video) is a more versatile container that supports multiple audio tracks, subtitles, and chapters within a single file, making it perfect for more complex media, like movies with various subtitles or audio options. Its ability to handle larger files better than MP4 is another advantage. However, MKV is not as universally supported, and older hardware may struggle with playback, especially if it requires significant processing power. While some devices do not natively support MKV files, they work well on PS4 with the right media player for PS4, making them a good choice for those seeking more features and flexibility.

Other container formats like AVI and MOV can also be used, though they tend to be less efficient or require additional steps for optimal streaming on PS4. MP4 and MKV remain the most practical options for most users.

 

Choosing the Right Codec and Format for PS4 Streaming 

When setting up your PS4 streaming, finding the right balance between quality and compatibility is key. You want to ensure your media is displayed in the best possible quality without running into issues with playback. For most users, H.264 (MP4) is a safe bet, offering broad compatibility with the PS4 and solid quality. However, if you have a PS4 Pro and a stable, fast internet connection, H.265 (HEVC) could be a better choice, providing superior compression and quality without increasing file size. MKV can be a great option for users who need multiple audio tracks or subtitles but may not be as widely compatible.

Internet speed and bandwidth directly impact your streaming experience. If you have a high-speed internet connection (50 Mbps or higher), you can afford to stream with higher bitrates and use more efficient codecs like HEVC for optimal quality. For speeds below 20 Mbps, stick to H.264 (MP4) to avoid buffering and quality loss during streaming. Lower bitrates will be necessary for smooth playback on slower connections.

For users with older PS4 models, hardware limitations can affect codec compatibility. These systems may struggle with more demanding codecs like HEVC or higher bitrates. In such cases, stick to H.264 (MP4) to ensure smoother playback and avoid stuttering or lag.

 

Advanced Considerations and Troubleshooting 

Free DivX software can be a powerful tool for optimizing videos for PS4 streaming. By using DivX Converter, users can easily convert videos to PS4-compatible formats (like MP4) and adjust codecs to ensure smooth playback. 

When facing compatibility issues, first check that your video is in a PS4-supported format (MP4 or MKV) and uses a compatible codec (H.264 or H.265). If playback problems persist, try re-encoding the video using DivX software, ensuring the correct resolution, bitrate, and audio settings. Revisit firewall settings and network configurations if you’re streaming from a media server. 

 

Perfecting Your PS4 Streaming Experience 

Understanding codecs and formats is crucial for optimizing PS4 streaming. Choose the right codec—H.264 for compatibility or HEVC for efficiency—based on your internet speed and PS4 model. Experiment with settings and use tools like DivX Software to refine your streaming experience. Continue exploring and adjusting based on your unique setup, and you’ll be able to enjoy all your favorite media with ease.

The DivX Open Video System: A Forerunner of the Streaming Revolution

Video streaming services have never been more popular than they are now. With dozens of different streaming providers, it feels like virtually every movie or television show ever created is available for anyone to watch, anytime on any device. But the streaming video nirvana that we now take for granted seemed like a distant dream back in 2001 when a brash San Diego start-up company created one of the first Internet-based video-on-demand platforms. 

streaming platforms
Some of the many, many streaming options we enjoy today.

The DivX® Open Video System — first introduced nearly twenty years ago — pioneered many of the technology innovations and product features that would become key components of the services we now use every day, helping lay the foundation for a massive change in media distribution and consumption.

It all started with a codec. In 1999, Jerome “Gej” Rota, a young French animator, created a version of an MPEG-4 video codec  (a portmanteau of “coder/decoder” that encodes a data stream for transmission and then decodes it for playback) that enabled DVD-quality video at small file sizes.  Jerome started a company with a few other budding technology entrepreneurs, and in August 2001 DivX 4.0, the first official DivX codec, was released to the public. The Internet video community responded with great enthusiasm, and DivX soon became the standard for full-length, high-quality video transferred over peer-to-peer networks. 

DivXNetworks, the company behind DivX, had been working in parallel to create an Internet-based video-on-demand system that built upon the quality and performance of the DivX codec. The goal was to create an end-to-end system for the secure sale and rental of feature films over the Internet. Due to the inferior quality of incumbent technologies, industry concerns about the effectiveness of existing digital rights management solutions, and the lack of universal broadband access, Hollywood studios and content creators had been slow to embrace an Internet based video-on-demand strategy.

The DivX Open Video System sought to address these concerns by implementing a few key innovations: 

  • A flexible, key-based digital rights management system that tied purchased content to a user rather than a device, making the videos more secure while improving the viewer experience.
  • A core codec that offered industry-best compression and performance enabling full-screen, DVD-like quality that was vastly superior to the pixelated, postage-stamp size viewing experience associated with Internet video at the time.
  •  A “progressive download” feature that allowed the viewer to begin watching a purchased or rented video after only a few minutes while the file continued to download in the background. Downloading a full-length feature film over early broadband connections could take 45 minutes or more, and at the time users were accustomed to waiting until the download was complete to begin viewing.

The development of the DivX Open Video System (OVS) was led by Director of Engineering Eric Grab and a team of dedicated programmers, codec engineers and video technologists. Eric and DivX co-founders consulted with the MPAA and Hollywood studios before beginning development to better understand the needs and concerns of the film industry and created a digital rights management system tailored to address those needs. “We worked hard to understand the very real concerns that Hollywood had about security, and we took those concerns seriously. The digital rights management solution we created tried to balance the concerns of rights holders with the needs of the viewer, and I think we got that balance right,” said Grab.

A small start-up where each employee wore many hats, the entire company participated in the development and testing of the OVS. Employees volunteered to stay after hours conducting QA, testing playback quality and logging bugs. “It was a true team effort,” recalls Tom Huntington, an early DivX marketing employee. “Everyone did their part to help the product get over the finish line, and we all believed deeply in what we were doing.”

Meanwhile, the small DivX sales team met with every film studio and content distributor they could find. The big studios were intrigued by the technology but still hesitant to dip their toes in the waters of online distribution, in part out of fear of cannibalizing the then booming DVD business that was bringing in record revenues. Smaller production companies and distributors proved more open to the idea, and several signed up as launch partners.

On September 6, 2001, the DivX OVS officially launched with partner Strand Releasing, an independent film distribution company. The first feature film available on the platform was called “World and Time Enough,” offered as a five-day rental for $4.95 on the Strand Releasing web site. Several more companies followed suit, and over the next few years thousands of independent titles were sold and rented by DivX OVS partners. 

 

With the launch of the DivX Certification program for consumer electronics devices in 2003, support for DivX DRM was built into every DivX Certified device, ensuring customers could play back DivX OVS titles on their televisions. Hundreds of millions of devices spanning virtually every major CE manufacturer were released supporting DivX OVS playback over the following decade and beyond. Today, there are over 1.5 billion DivX Certified® devices shipped worldwide. 

The DivX OVS was one of the first commercially available Internet-based video-on-demand platforms, enabling viewers to experience high-quality feature films in an entirely new way. Far ahead of its time, the DivX OVS launched a time where broadband Internet access was not yet ubiquitous, in a business environment where Hollywood studios were not yet ready to embrace digital distribution for a variety of reasons.

In 2007, a full six years after the launch of the DivX OVS, Netflix introduced streaming to their platform, eventually proving successful in breaking the loggerhead that kept Hollywood from embracing digital distribution. Many of the features that we take for granted in our everyday video consumption were pioneered by the DivX OVS, from DVD-quality picture over IP networks to flexible, transparent DRM and the ability to watch a purchased or rented title on multiple devices. “When I look back on it now, it’s clear that we were ahead of our time in a number of ways,” Grab said. “I’m proud of the work our team accomplished, and it’s gratifying to see the vision we had for the future of video come to fruition.”

The moment before everyone argues about which streaming service to watch.

Chromecast and Blu-rays and Dolby… Oh My!

Today we released DivX 10.3, the latest update to DivX Software that includes three major new features to help you do even more with your audio and video.

Chromecast – your most requested feature – is here

You’ve been asking for it. We’ve been telling you it’s coming (thanks for being patient!). Finally, DivX Media Server is Google Cast Ready so you can enjoy streaming videos from your PC or Mac on to the largest screen in your home using Chromecast.
Chromecast streaming from DivX Media Server means that you can enjoy local videos on your TV. Your DivX, MKV and other videos* stored on your computer can stream up to 1080p. To access this feature, open your video in DivX Player and select the “Cast To” option; choose your Chromecast from the list of devices to begin streaming.

You can also access this feature from DivX Player’s Library view. From the list of videos, right-click on the title you want to cast and select “Stream To” then choose your Chromecast device.
DivX Player Library Cast To
This will open your Chrome browser where you will see a DivX window with the name of your file. The Chrome browser and the Google Cast extension for Chrome are required.

*If FFMPEG is installed on your computer, additional formats like HEVC may be transcoded when streaming.

Video Pack—say good-bye to Blu-rays

We’ve combined our previous MPEG-2/DVD Plug-in for DivX Converter with the addition of VC-1 support for a new Video Pack.
DivX Converter already lets backup Blu-rays made with the AVC codec for free. Now, VC-1 files can be converted in DivX Converter to any of the high-quality presets, like DivX, DivX Plus (h.264/mkv) or DivX HEVC (h.265/mkv).

Video Pack comes as a 15-day free trial in the free download of DivX Software, so you can try before you buy. After the trial is over you can buy the Video Pack to get both DVD and Blu-ray backup in DivX Converter; just enter your serial number in the free installation to unlock it.

If you haven’t already, go download the latest version of DivX Software and enjoy the new features!

DivX Media Server 101 Part 3: Stream to Sony PS3

If you’re following our DivX Media Server 101 video series, you already know from Part 1 how to set up your media server for sharing files from your computer to devices like your TV, tablet and gaming consoles.
This video is for Sony Playstation® 3 users who want to stream DivX, AVI, MP4 and MKV videos from a PC. Check out Part 3 in the series now:

Watch other videos in this series:
Part 1: Setting up DivX Media Server
Part 2: Stream to Xbox 360
Watch this video on YouTube

DivX Media Server 101: Part 2

If you’re following our DivX Media Server 101 video series, you already know from Part 1 how to set up your media server for sharing files from your computer to devices like your TV, tablet and gaming consoles.
For Xbox 360 users, this one’s all for you. Part 2 of the video series below shows you how to stream DivX, AVI, MP4 and MKVs from a PC to a Xbox 360.

Watch other videos in this series:
Part 1: Setting up DivX Media Server
Watch this video on YouTube

Stream to Your Biggest Home Screen with DivX Player

Want to stream video to the biggest screen in your home? Of course you do. And you can! Just download DivX Software and use its DivX Media Server, included free in DivX Player, with a DLNA compatible device.

Watch the video on YouTube

Easy! Got questions about DLNA streaming with DivX Media Server? Check out our support forums.

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