DivX to AV1 Converter

DivX to AV1 — What Actually Changes

DivX is the early-2000s MPEG-4 Part 2 codec that made it possible to fit a feature film on a CD-R. AV1 is the codec that replaced the whole idea: an open, royalty-free format from the Alliance for Open Media whose validated 1.0.0 bitstream specification landed on 25 June 2018. Re-encoding a DivX rip to AV1 buys you a dramatically smaller file and a format the modern web actually streams. What it does not buy you is a better picture — every flaw the original MPEG-4 encoder baked in comes straight through. Convert for size and longevity, not for quality.

Side by Side

On measured efficiency: Netflix's 2017 testing put AV1 roughly 25% ahead of libvpx VP9, and Facebook's 2018 comparison found AV1 delivering 34%, 46.2% and 50.3% better compression than libvpx-vp9, x264 High profile and x264 Main profile respectively. MPEG-4 Part 2 is a generation older than x264, so the gap against your DivX source is wider still.

The Output Is a Matroska File Named .av1

Worth knowing before you click Convert. AV1 is a codec, not a container, so ".av1" is not a real file format — it is a codec name being used as an extension. Behind that extension the encoder writes a Matroska file, the same structure as an .mkv, and your audio track is muxed in alongside the video rather than dropped. We checked the result: it probes as a Matroska container holding an AV1 video stream and an Opus audio stream.

That has one practical consequence. VLC and mpv sniff the file's contents and play it regardless of the extension, but a lot of software routes on the extension alone and will simply not recognise .av1. If a player, an editor or a media server refuses to open the download, rename it from movie.av1 to movie.mkv — no re-conversion is needed, because the bytes were already Matroska. If you would rather skip the renaming step entirely, DivX to MKV writes a Matroska file with the extension already correct — it defaults to H.264 rather than AV1, but AV1 is in its Video Codec list, so selecting it there gets you the same result under a name every application recognises.

How to Convert DivX to AV1

1. Upload Your DivX File: Drag and drop your .divx file or click to browse. The file is uploaded over an encrypted connection and converted on our servers.
2. Check the Audio Codec: Video Codec is fixed to AV1 on this page — that is the point of it. Audio Codec defaults to Opus, the natural partner for AV1; AAC, MP3, AC3, EAC3, DTS, MP2, FLAC and Vorbis are all in the list if a downstream tool needs one of them.
3. Pick a File Compression Mode (Optional): It starts on Quality Preset at "Very High (Recommended)". Constant Quality exposes the AV1 CRF scale, which runs 16-63 and starts at 30 — lower means better quality and a bigger file. Specific file size, Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate and Constraint Quality are the other modes. Video resolution stays on Keep original, and Trim can restrict the encode to a Start time and Duration.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Expect this to take longer than a conversion to H.264 — AV1 encoding is genuinely expensive.

Which Compression Mode to Use

Frequently Asked Questions

Will converting DivX to AV1 make the video look better?

No, and no format conversion can. AV1 reproduces the frames it is given; those frames come from decoding a lossy MPEG-4 Part 2 stream that already discarded detail in the early 2000s. If your rip is soft, blocky or full of mosquito noise around edges, the AV1 copy will be soft, blocky and noisy in exactly the same places — just far smaller. Leave Video resolution on Keep original, because scaling a 640x480 rip up to 1080p only enlarges the existing pixels and wastes bitrate.

How much smaller will the AV1 file be?

Substantially smaller at matched quality, though the exact ratio depends entirely on your source. AV1 is two codec generations ahead of MPEG-4 Part 2, and the published comparisons above give the scale of the gap against much newer codecs than yours. Content matters as much as the codec: flat animation and static talking-head footage compress enormously, while grainy film transfers and rapid motion compress far less. If a specific size is what you actually need, use the Specific file size mode instead of guessing at a preset.

Why does AV1 encoding take so long?

Because AV1 spends far more computation searching for redundancy — flexible block partitioning, a large set of prediction modes and refined motion estimation all have to be evaluated per block. That analysis is what produces the compression gain, and it makes AV1 encodes an order of magnitude heavier than an MPEG-4 or H.264 encode of the same clip. For a one-off archive conversion the wait is usually worth it. If you need a quick, universally playable result instead, DivX to MP4 uses H.264 and finishes far sooner.

Can my devices actually decode AV1?

Software decoding is broad: VLC, mpv, current Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera all handle AV1, and Safari has offered partial support since version 17. Hardware decoding is newer and matters most on phones and low-power machines — Pixel 6 and later, Galaxy S21 and later, iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, every iPhone 16, and iPads built on A17 Pro, M3 or M4 silicon all decode AV1 in hardware, as do recent desktop GPUs. Anything older, including DVD-era set-top players and most TVs from before the 2020s, has no AV1 decoder at all.

Is AV1 really royalty-free, unlike DivX?

Yes. AV1 was created by the Alliance for Open Media specifically as an open, royalty-free coding format, which is the main reason streaming platforms and browser vendors adopted it so quickly and why it can ship in open-source projects that cannot touch H.264 or H.265 licensing. DivX, by contrast, is a proprietary codec family owned by DivX, LLC. For an archive you expect to still be readable in twenty years, that licensing difference is not a small detail.

What happens to the audio track?

It is re-encoded and kept. The default is Opus, which pairs with AV1 in the same way AAC pairs with H.264, and it is a strong choice for speech and for low bitrates. Your DivX source almost certainly carries MP3, so the audio is going through a second lossy generation — if that matters for a music-heavy clip, either pick a generous bitrate or select FLAC to stop the loss there, at the cost of a much larger audio stream.

Should I convert to AV1 or to HEVC?

AV1 if the destination is the web, an open-source pipeline or a long-term archive, because it is royalty-free and browser-native. DivX to HEVC if the destination is Apple hardware or a device family with mature H.265 decoders, since HEVC hardware support is older and therefore more widespread on existing devices. Both produce a Matroska file on this site, and both are far more efficient than the MPEG-4 Part 2 you are starting from.

Is there any point converting a low-resolution DivX rip to AV1?

Often yes, but for storage rather than for streaming. A 640x480 rip is small already in absolute terms, so the megabytes saved on a single file are unremarkable; across a folder of a few hundred old rips the saving becomes real. The other reason is longevity — AV1 decoders are being built into everything, while MPEG-4 Part 2 support is quietly ageing out of new software. What you should not do is upscale during the conversion; it costs bitrate and adds nothing.

How long do you keep my uploaded file?

Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, converted on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours. There is no sign-up, no watermark, and nothing is shared or made public. Because AV1 encoding is CPU-heavy, a long source file takes noticeably longer here than the same file converted to H.264.