I'll share another piece of bloat-free software I re-discovered today thanks to Fletch: The XviD codec. I tried it today in Windows 7 instead of what I usually install (DivX) and I must say that it's a LOT smoother than DivX when you are editing video, and it reads DivX-encoded content without any problem. With DivX, fast-forwarding and jumping to a specific point while cutting videos together or while synchronizing subtitles was a pain in the neck, but XviD runs smooth as a hot knife in butter. (And I recently wasted $ in upgrading my DivX license... 😡 )
Here's the link to download XviD for Windows: (Sorry, OSX, there's no XviD build for you)
http://www.xvid.org/Downloads.15.0.html
Tip: if you plan to save your sequences for further edit in Windows Live Movie Maker or any other editor, it's best to set an i-frame (or keyframe) every 30 frames. This will make seeking to a point and rewinding even smoother. To do this, Click the "more" button next to the General Purpose quality preset,
01.PNG
Say yes in the next dialog, and enter a maximum i-frame interval of 30.
02.PNG
As I said, do this if you plan to further edit your video, as this way it will be faster when seeking.