Once you have downloaded your new Movies and TV Shows from the internet you will still need to view them. To play xvid and divx files on your computer you will need the right codecs installed.
Many of the videos you download you want to watch on your tv so here are a few ways you can play xvid and divx files in your living room. Viewing the movie on your television is by far the best experience and there are many options that are open to you.
DVD Players
In the last year or so, many cheap stand-alone DVD players have been released that are able to play DivX and XviD movies. This is one of the reason that many of the movies are ripped at around 700mb as it fits on one cd.
if you want to play xvid files this is one of the cheapest ways to play downloaded movies on your normal television as compatable dvd players can cost as low as $39.
The one main disadvantage with this method is that you have to burn the tv shows and movies that you download to disc although you will be able to fit around 13 hour long television shows, or about 6 movies onto one disc.
Portable Media Players
Portable media players can play xvid and divx files on the small screen of this portable device or they can be hooked up to a tv to watch the video on any tv. As storage capacity and processing power increases the Portable Media Players (PMP’s) are becoming more popular.
PMP’s like the Archos range of players have a small screen on the unit to watch the video on the move but many also allow connections to a television for playback as well.
Network Media Players
Network media players connect to your television and to your network either through a wired connection or through a wireless connection. A network media player allow you to play xvid and divx video stored on the built in hard drives or somewhere else on your network like on your computer.
There are many different makes and types of network players. There are versions which are meant to be semi portable and can be moved between televisions and then there are larger versions the size of a typical dvd player which are meant to fit into your home theatre setup.
Brands include Media Gate, Zensonic and Tvico.
Game Consoles
The Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 have Divx certification which means they can both play xvid or divx video as well as many other codecs. The PS3 was released with Divx Certification in place but the xbox 360 received the ability to play Divx and Xvid video files after an upgrade so if you have an original xbox 360 make sure you upgrade it on Xbox Live.
The consoles act like media extenders playing back video files stored on your home computer.
Media Centre PC’s
A media centre PC is a computer that interacts with your audio visual equipment and is a dedicated component of your entertainment system. They can record television, music and can play back Movie and TV shows you download as long as the right codec is installed.
For windows users the easiest way to operate a media centre is to use Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate. There are a number of free Linux releases specifically designed to run as a media centre.
XBMC – Xbox Media Centre
One of the simpilest and cheapest ways to watch your downloaded video online is to convert an old original xbox console to an Xbox Media Centre by installing the Xbox Mediacentre software installed called XBMC.
This requires a modification to the xbox but is easy enough to get done in most major cities. This is very easy and relatively cheap to obtain. This allows you to install a larger harddrive to the console to store video and music plus its able to play any files located on your computer network and much much more.