Is Xvid Still Relevant in 2026? The Codec That Refuses to Die

Xvid turned 25 in 2026 - a codec born in the dial-up days of 2001 that people are still downloading, playing and arguing about.

A scratched CD-R hand-labelled XVID in warm light beside a sleek screen glowing with a sharp 2026 city scene, the old codec facing the new

So is it still relevant - yes for playing the files you already have, and no for making anything new.

A lot has changed since our last look: AV1 has gone mainstream and AI upscaling is everywhere, yet Xvid files keep turning up in readers' questions.

Here is where Xvid stands, how it compares with today's codecs, and what to do with your old AVI files.

Where Xvid Stands in 2026

The latest Xvid codec is version 1.3.7, released in December 2019, and nothing new has come since. It still works, but it is frozen in the MPEG-4 Part 2 era.

No updates does not mean no users, though. Xvid hangs on for three reasons:

The files are still everywhere. Whole film and TV libraries from the 2000s sit on hard drives, home servers and old burned discs - and they do not vanish because better codecs exist.
Some older hardware still records it. A number of older DVRs and security cameras save their footage as Xvid AVI files, and nobody replaces a working recorder just to change codecs.
It is light to play. Xvid needs very little processing power, which keeps it useful on old PCs and low-powered devices.

Xvid vs Modern Codecs: The 2026 Reality Check

	Xvid	H.264	H.265 / HEVC	AV1
File size at the same quality	Largest	Much smaller	Smaller still	Smallest
4K and HDR	No	4K yes, HDR rarely	Yes	Yes
Plays in web browsers	No	Everywhere	Some browsers	Most modern browsers
Hardware decoding in new devices	Rare	Universal	Common	Common in recent devices
Encoding speed	Very fast	Fast	Slower	Slowest, though SVT-AV1 has closed much of the gap
Licensing	Free software (GPL)	Royalties apply	Royalties apply	Royalty-free

As a rough rule, H.264 needs about half the bitrate of Xvid for the same picture, and HEVC and AV1 go further again. For a new video there is simply no reason to choose Xvid.

How to Play Xvid Files in 2026

Old Xvid files play fine with the right software - pick whichever fits how you watch:

On a PC, the easy way. VLC plays Xvid out of the box, with nothing else to install.
In every player on Windows. The K-Lite Codec Pack adds Xvid decoding to Windows Media Player and other programs at once.
On a TV box. Kodi plays Xvid AVI files directly on Android TV boxes and media PCs.

Black screen, no sound or a codec error instead? Our Xvid playback fixes go through every common problem.

Should You Convert Your Xvid Collection?

It depends on where you watch, more than on the codec itself.

Convert if you want to play the files on phones, tablets, smart TVs or in a browser, or your drive is running out of space.
Leave them alone if they already play where you watch and space is not a problem - re-encoding a whole library takes hours.

Our guide to converting Xvid to MP4 for free covers four tools. Still deciding? Keep or convert old AVI files weighs it up codec by codec.

If you are comfortable with a command line, one FFmpeg command turns an Xvid AVI into an H.264 MP4:

ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libx264 -crf 22 -c:a aac -b:a 192k output.mp4

Prefer buttons? HandBrake does the same with ready-made presets.

The Twist: AI Upscaling

AI upscalers such as Topaz Video AI, a paid tool, can take a soft 480p Xvid file and rebuild it at 1080p or even 4K.

The added detail is the AI's best guess rather than anything recovered from the original, so results vary. Still, the irony is hard to miss: video once squeezed onto a single CD-R is now being blown up to fill whole drives.

What Xvid Gave Us

Xvid showed that a free, open-source encoder could hold its own against commercial rivals such as DivX.

It also made it practical to fit a whole film on a CD and share it over early broadband. For better or worse, that habit of small, shareable video files fed straight into the streaming era we have now.

The 2026 verdict

For new videos: no. Use H.264 when it has to play everywhere, H.265 for smaller files, or AV1 for the smallest.

For files you already have: yes. There is no need to panic-convert - VLC or the K-Lite Codec Pack plays them fine.

For video history: essential. Xvid marks the moment video became small enough to carry and share.

Quick questions

Is Xvid still being developed?

Not actively. The latest release is version 1.3.7 from December 2019, and nothing has followed. It still works on Windows 10 and 11.

Is Xvid better than H.264?

No. H.264 gives the same picture at roughly half the file size and plays on far more devices. Xvid's only edge is that it is very light to decode.

Why won't my Xvid files play on my phone or TV?

Most phones, TVs and browsers do not decode Xvid video. Play them in VLC, or convert them to MP4 with H.264 video.

Does converting Xvid to MP4 lose quality?

A little, as any re-encode does, but at sensible settings the difference is hard to see. Keep your originals until you have checked the new files.

The bottom line

Xvid is a fine codec for the files you already have and the wrong one for anything new. Still got a stack of old AVIs, or a 2005 holiday video that looks like it was filmed through a potato? Tell us in the comments.