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For what it's worth, I currently have all 14 episodes of Firefly on my iPod. It's as simple as:

1. Buying the DVDs.

2. Converting the DVD video to MP4.

While the option to purchase the episodes individulally would be nice, if you have an urge to listen to the "Hero of Canton" during your commute, this is a good solution.

Perhaps windows media center is sold to OEMs only because they are the ones that know how the machines have to be built to work properly?

After long years of being a Mac-only guy, I broke down and bought an Intel box this year. And guess what? It was a Media Center 2005 PC. And you know what else? It was painless to set up and it works exactly as advertised. This guy seems to be complaining about things like broken S-Video cables ... I can hardly see how that should be Microsoft's fault.

On the other hand, he does bring up some important points. With Media Center and the hardware that came in my box, picture quality is not all that great. (I hear the Hauppauge cards offer the best quality; I might try one of those out.) You also can't time-shift FM radio. But then, like many TV tuner cards, mine didn't come with FM radio support, so it's a non-issue anyway.

Also, for a "convergence" device, recording from a video source is exactly as painful as he describes. I could find NO software on my system that would let me record from VHS tape, except for one program that required me to insert DVD media. Unlike his case, it worked for me. But the point remains that this is totally stupid. What if I don't want to burn it to a DVD? What if I'd like to, um, you know ... check to see that I was getting a signal from my VCR first? Sorry, no way to do that. Your best option is to set it for a five-minute trial run and check to see if it worked after the program burns the results to a DVD.

Another semi-retarded thing about Windows Media Center is that it records TV in a proprietary Microsoft format, DVR-MS. I am told that this is MPEG internally, but you need to export it with a different piece of software (NeroVision Express works) if you want to get a usable file that you could convert to XviD, for example.

What's more, every video format you play in Windows Media Center is handled with a DirectShow filter. That's good, in the sense that when you install new codecs in XP they are automatically picked up by Media Center, so you can play your DivX, XviD, etc. There is one caveat, however, and that is that you can't stream these formats to another system via a Media Center Connector or whatever you call it, like your Xbox 360. I think only Windows Media and MPEG formats are supported.

And another glitch with the DirectShow involves timing, which inevitably means you get these stutters in your video every few minutes when you're watching them on a TV. The guy who invented ReClock explains it all in great length. The downside is that ReClock doesn't seem to work so well with Media Center yet.

So, yeah, this "review" is dumb, and you shouldn't expect to be able to bash together a Media Center PC in a weekend and expect it to work. In fact, you may just want to spend $1,400 and buy one, like I did. But even if it works, Media Center is pretty far of from being a "TiVo killer" just yet. If all you want is a DVR, you should buy one of those. I bought the Media Center PC primarily because I wanted an x86 PC, and in that dual capacity it works fine for me.

*COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH*

I know it's MS but have you guys even looked at the I-Mate Jam. It's a PDA, a phone, has a 1.3 Meg Pixel camera, runs Window's Media player, ie you can play MP3's, view divx video's, or even develop your own apps on the Compact .NET framework. It takes SD ram so whilst it only comes with 128 Meg out of the box it can be expanded to over a gig.

Are you guys (and Steve Jobs) on the same planet ? You're a little slow... this phone has been available for a long time.

But unless you're in a real rush just wait for the new Windows Mobile 5.0 phones they will be even better.

Now, I know that there were some "hacks" to give you surround sound with DivX before, but this release's best new feature is the MP3 surround sound support (in my book).

With MP3 surround sound, we'll no longer be wasting space with AC3 files (at 120MB per hour!)- meaning that the days of the 2CD rips could be over!

Well, I guess I can't say that - I don't know how small the new format can do surround sound, but I'll sure be looking for it. And... we'll have to wait for hardware support, I'm sure...

I'm willing to bet that the new method of encoding files is far more friendly and less time consuming as well. Just a guess...

Huzzah! Go progress!

I have to admit, at first I was quite pleased with VLC, but on further consideration I've grown to dislike it. Firstly, there's an annoying jagged diagonal line through the picture during large amounts of movement; I've noticed it on every windows system I've installed it on, and one person I gave it to wisely started using the copy of BSPlayer I had also given her instead. True, with VLC you don't have to mess around with codecs, it's all built in . . . but this is one of the downsides, in a way, since then when things do go wrong the user is both clueless and powerless.

A better solution is something like Media Player Classic, which is very simlilar to good ol' Windows Media Player Pre-Evil (and still exists as mplayer2.exe), but with countless little extra features. The interesting bit is that it has quite a few built-in codecs, but these can be disabled, overridden, and indeed quite extensively customized in the background. And it runs from the exe, no installation even necessary. So in sum, it's a simple solution for inexperienced people (the kind that VLC is most useful for, what with requiring no knowledge or extra installation on their part) but also a powerful one for those that really know what they're doing. And of course, there are quite a few other good players with their own little quirks and benefits (Sasami2k for example--oh, if only it was still being developed! It showed serious promise).

And really, that diagonal line in VLC just bugs the crap out of me (and, as noted, this is not just a quirk on my end, one of my friends picked up the annoyance for it all by herself).

Why'd they choose xvid? Maybe because MPEGs would be twice as big (or far lower picture quality).

Since apparently spending 30 seconds searching is too much to ask of you, here's how to play xvids:
On Windows: go here, download and install ffdshow. Xvid files should now play in whatever video player you use.
Alternatively, this page has a list of other Xvid binaries you can try, and I believe Divx also will read xvid files if you have it installed.
On Mac OS: download and run VLC media player

I'd say this.

If you want a music library type application.. use iTunes. Stick to mp3. If you

If you need an online music store and iTms isn't satisfactory, well, use WMP I guess...

If you want to play video.. use Media Player Classic.

I highly recommend MPC if you don't already have it... why?

- No annoying gui, it's easy to find the shuttle controls.
- Doesn't "install".. it's just an executable.
- Let's you manipulate lots of settings that the othe rmedia players hide from you.. for instance, quick aspect ratio corrections, horiz/vertical zoom, etc.
- USes any codecs you already have.

Can anyone recommend a Windows based media player that plays most all formats (mp3, divx, avi, mpeg, whatever), that ISNT some overly feature laden, skinnable piece of Britney candy?

Media Player Classic at SourceForge, Afterdawn, or Divx Digest.

Here's the link

Why not try to google for it?

The 2nd result seems to answer your question...

DiVX ;-) was first "project mayo" (codename) - mayo because its difficult to make, and pretty much hit or miss - divx was first a hacked mpeg-4 codec (m$ .asp actually - really ment for streaming high quality video over broadband, hacked to work offline and "standalone"), and contained "hot" code. so divx 3.11, the version that really first took off, was illegal. the codec really exploded with the file sharing boom namely morpheus and kazaa. next release , they got rid of the stolen code, and all was good, the codec had even better quality and many of the audio syncing problems had been taken care of. by this point i had ~150 gb of video at ~300 hrs.

then, with the next release (5.x), and even more popularity, divx went commercial, and at first, i was upset, but they were pretty good about it, they had 3 versions, the one with no ads, but "play only", one with adware + encoding, and then the full $30USD one that let you do everything without ads. i thought, well these guys deserve some money for all the work that went into this great codec.

xvid was one of the spinoffs from projectmayo, and has become my favorite codec since i started using it. it seems to have the best "feel" to it, and is really really really good for animated films (to be fair, divx and the rest are really really good at animated films too, most codecs do, easy lines for the encoder to pick up and even out between frames). there are two main developers for xvid (its open so there are different builds) kopei, and nic. they both have their pros and cons, but you would be hard pressed to find them "in real life."

most of this info can be gathered from the mentioned sites, with a little digging. if im wrong about any of this, meh. its pretty right on, though. some great resources for these codecs are the forementioned www.doom9.org is really one of the best collections of encoding how-tos and other doodads. should be required reading for any video DIY noobs. another great resource is www.divx-digest.com you can get all kinds of codecs and players there, try em all, its the best way to learn (divx-digest is a sister site to www.digital-digest.com) like i said, i really dig xvid, and divx's commercial ventures are really starting to pan out (featured in a couple of computer games/video games (lord of the rings pc maybe?), hopefully soon will be built in to dvd players- think 2+ movies in hi-res on one dvd!). please please please dont use wmv. i cant play wmv, as many non M$ people cant, and they take more cpu to decode (looks pretty and is easy though).

before divx was known as divx, there was another company that released a project by the same name, where you would rent this cd/dvd disc thing and buy it to unlock it and watch it whenever you wanted, neat idea, poor execution, i only knew one persone that used it. they came in these little cardboard jewel cases. (before dvd players were all over, you had to get one that could play this divx )

batteries not included, bad grammar and spelling included. see side label for details

This is not true! Media Player Classic supports every format in existence: quicktime, real, divx, xvid, microsoft, etc... I am a Linux zealot in the sense that I only use Linux for my servers and desktops, but there once was a time when I ran Windows 98 and Windows 2000... back during those days I used Media Player Classic. Why? Because Media Player Classic is by far the best media player available on Windows. One player, every format. Fast, small, efficient, simple, easy to use, and free.

What else could you want? Well, it would be nice if Media Player Classic ran on Linux, but Linux has something almost as good as Media Player Classic... mplayer. However, even on a 400mhz Pentium II, Media Player Classic would start playing a movie immediately after double-clicking the file. Super fast! Mplayer isn't quite so fast.

Oh my god, you actually like Windows Media Player? A much better media player for Windows, that can play every media format (windows, quicktime, real, divx, xvid, etc) is Media Player Classic. Also, Media Player Classic is both free and opensource. It also is also faster than Windows Media Player. In fact, there is really no reason to not use Media Player Classic.

If you need a test station may I suggest O'Franken Factor

If you like WMP 6.4, then consider using Media Player Classic instead, as it is similar to WMP 6.4 with regards to fast performance and minimalist graphical interface. However, Media Player Classic goes beyond that and also supports every media codec out there: Quicktime, Real, Windows, Divx, Xvid, etc...

MPC is the one player for all. It is also free and open source. It is simply the best media player for Windows... and in fact, it is the best media player for any OS!

they should have used huffyuffit is a lossless but compressed format. apart from that, anything should be read by their test apps, as long as the corresponding codecs are installed.

Try Real Alternative (realalt121.exe somewhere down the list). It's just the Real codecs plus Media Player Classic, a GPL clone of the old Windows Media Player 6.4. You might also be interested in Quicktime Alternative on the same page. And from MS, you can get the WMV9 codecs for Media Player 6.4 by selecting "Codecs Installation Packages" on this page. Finally, for DIVX/XVID/3VID, you'll want ffdshow-alpha, ac3filter, and DIVX audio (link 6 on the page).

WMP 6 was awesome.

Try Media Player Classic. Completely open source, looks just like WMP6. Plays Real formats too.

When I was still using Windows, I tried BS Player, but had many problems with it. I always dreamed of a simple media player like that old Windows Media Player 6.x. It turns out that many others agree with taste in media players, and someone went as far as to develop a Windows Media Player 6.x clone that had modern improvements and support for every video format.

This little gem is called Media Player Classic, and it ranks up there with other great Windows apps such as Putty and WinSCP. It is fast, small, easy to use, feature filled (ok, it just plays every video/audio format but thats all the features I want, even Quicktime and Real formats)... oh and it is free, open source, easy to install, and can co-exist with your other media players!!!

I use mediaplayer classic. It plays almost anything if you have the correct codecs installed. In order to view some of the codecs from Real and MS, you have to have those players installed (or get the codecs directly without the player like WM9 here) but you don't need to run them to play the media.

... and then go to the GalgoNET, download ACE Mega Codec Pack and install only codecs/filters that you absolutely need. Link to the page with few more details.

it's nimo actually

click here to download it or for you people that dont' like hyperlinks:

http://www.divx-digest.com/software/nimo_pack.ht ml

Multiple audio tracks AND multiple subtitle tracks can be muxed into AVI and play very well.

You'll need only these 2 tools to achieve this:
VobSub and MMSwitch

VobSub package contains the SubMux utility for muxing an AVI video, multiple audio tracks and subtitle files (in SRT, SUB, SSA and other formats) into AVI. MMSwitch will allow separate playback and easy selection of multiple audio tracks in any media player based upon DirectShow graphs, WMP for example.

In WMP, audio tracks and subtitle tracks can be then easily selected via context menu.

Or mediaplayer classic.

A bias note: I use %100 Linux now, but I used to use mostly Windows.

If you run Windows, and you are still using MS Media Player, then you are living under a rock! The absolute hands down best media player that I have ever used... yes it is even better than a tweaked mplayer setup, is "Media Player Classic".

Media Player Classic is a movie player for Linux that resembles the old MS Windows Media Player 6.x players. Yeah the great ones you remember that autodownloaded codecs and had a nice simple yet fuctional GUI.
Media Player Classic can play _every_ video format. You have to have the codecs installed of course, but you can play Quicktime and Real Media videos without firing up their respective crappy players.
Media Player Classic. Tell your friends, download it, use it yourself. WHy are you waiting. Seriously! You will NOT regret switching.

Mplayer is the second best movie player, and it should look to Media Player Classic for ideas. Anyway I use Linux, so I use Mplayer, but if I used windows, it would be Media Player Classic all the way!

Finally, note that the official Media Player Classic site is down or moved or something. I liked to a trustable source to download the application... but I think that the link is a version or two behind the latest release. Shouldn't make much of a difference.

To install just download and unzip into a new Program Files subdirectory, run the program and then go into the options or whatever its called. There is a setting that associates it with every video format. Then you can just double-click AVI, MOV, MPG, RM, etc files to play them. Its an option in there, just hunt for it.

Media Player Classic is really fast. Damn I miss it.

A bias note: I use %100 Linux now, but I used to use mostly Windows.

If you run Windows, and you are still using MS Media Player, then you are living under a rock! The absolute hands down best media player that I have ever used... yes it is even better than a tweaked mplayer setup, is "Media Player Classic".

Media Player Classic is a movie player for Linux that resembles the old MS Windows Media Player 6.x players. Yeah the great ones you remember that autodownloaded codecs and had a nice simple yet fuctional GUI.
Media Player Classic can play _every_ video format. You have to have the codecs installed of course, but you can play Quicktime and Real Media videos without firing up their respective crappy players.
Media Player Classic. Tell your friends, download it, use it yourself. WHy are you waiting. Seriously! You will NOT regret switching.

Mplayer is the second best movie player, and it should look to Media Player Classic for ideas. Anyway I use Linux, so I use Mplayer, but if I used windows, it would be Media Player Classic all the way!

Finally, note that the official Media Player Classic site is down or moved or something. I liked to a trustable source to download the application... but I think that the link is a version or two behind the latest release. Shouldn't make much of a difference.

To install just download and unzip into a new Program Files subdirectory, run the program and then go into the options or whatever its called. There is a setting that associates it with every video format. Then you can just double-click AVI, MOV, MPG, RM, etc files to play them. Its an option in there, just hunt for it.

Media Player Classic is really fast. Damn I miss it.

A bias note: I use %100 Linux now, but I used to use mostly Windows.

If you run Windows, and you are still using MS Media Player, then you are living under a rock! The absolute hands down best media player that I have ever used... yes it is even better than a tweaked mplayer setup, is "Media Player Classic".

Media Player Classic is a movie player for Linux that resembles the old MS Windows Media Player 6.x players. Yeah the great ones you remember that autodownloaded codecs and had a nice simple yet fuctional GUI.
Media Player Classic can play _every_ video format. You have to have the codecs installed of course, but you can play Quicktime and Real Media videos without firing up their respective crappy players.
Media Player Classic. Tell your friends, download it, use it yourself. WHy are you waiting. Seriously! You will NOT regret switching.

Mplayer is the second best movie player, and it should look to Media Player Classic for ideas. Anyway I use Linux, so I use Mplayer, but if I used windows, it would be Media Player Classic all the way!

Finally, note that the official Media Player Classic site is down or moved or something. I liked to a trustable source to download the application... but I think that the link is a version or two behind the latest release. Shouldn't make much of a difference.

To install just download and unzip into a new Program Files subdirectory, run the program and then go into the options or whatever its called. There is a setting that associates it with every video format. Then you can just double-click AVI, MOV, MPG, RM, etc files to play them. Its an option in there, just hunt for it.

Media Player Classic is really fast. Damn I miss it.

Yeah, of course old non-adware versions of the divX codec will still be available for a while, but the point is that there won't be any new non-adware versions except the ones you have to buy.

XviD is a great alternative, which looks just as good as DivX (About 5mb per minute gets you very good quality if encoded properly. 10mb per minute is near DVD quality.)

It's completely free and GPL'd, and it's also already very popular, by my estimates its the second most popular codec, behind DivX, for the (ilegal) online distribution of movies and TV shows, unlike Ogg Theora which is completely unheard of fringe experimental codec that no serious group has ever used for a release.

XviD source code

Nic's XviD binary (best)

A divX digest page with links to several other, older XviD binaries

Sorry, I don't have any software for doing it, I simply presented that as an option.

Looking around, I found a few options quickly though: Several for Linux are listed here. This page lists a ton for DivX movies: here

As for obtaining scripts and stuff, I am not sure where you would go about finding scripts in Spanish. If you or someone else is good at English->Spanish translation, you may be able to find a script at Script Club but you'll need to register for access, and many of the scripts there are either for older and lesser known titles or for the most popular recent shows, very little in the middle.

I would suggest asking on a forum like at AnimeSuki where an actual subtitler might see you.

Yeah thats awesome linux guys, but I really have to put my .02 in this. I have one player for everything in windows. Media Player Classic does everything I ever wanted in a media player. Combine it with the codec pack and the quicktime/realmedia alternative codec packs you can get from here . It can play everything you throw at it because all it does is use all the codecs on your system. You can set priority if you want things specific and dolby ex quality dvds play perfectly.

With software programs like:

DVD Decrypter - DVD Decrypter is a CSS decryption tool that has most, if not all, of the features of current ripper/ripper GUIs like CladDVD, Smart-Ripper or VOBDec GUI, including CSS authentication/detection, multi-angle processing, Macrovision and Region removal. Also includes option to use either VOBDec or DeCSS Plus to decrypt the DVD.
NanDUB DiVX 3.11 ;-) encoder.
VirtualDubMod - VirtualDubMod is based on the famous video editing software VirtualDub by Avery Lee. Used for DiVX 5.x and XViD encoding
DVD2AVI - Takes a DVD and turns it into an AVI or AVI FrameServer for other programs like NanDub and VirtualDuB to encode with.
BeSweet - an audio transcoding tool. it lets you convert audio files from one format to another. supported formats : MP3,AC3,WAV,MP2,AVI,Aiff,VOB,Ogg Vorbis.
TMpegEnc - video encoding software. mainly used for the creation of MPEG's encoded for either VCD or SVCD
DVD2SVCD - Software Suite for converting a DVD into an SVCD (MPEG-2 encoded Video CD).
Gordian Knot - Gordian Knot started out as a simple bitrate calculator for DivX encoding but has evolved to become an integrated package or tool for the entire process of DivX encoding. It now has the ability to calculate the bitrates for XViD

And sites like

Doom9 - The definitive resource for DVD backup
DVDR Help - This site will help you to make your own VideoCDs, SVCDs or DVDs that can be played on your standalone DVD Player from video sources like DVD, Video, TV, Cam or downloaded movie clips like DivX, MOV, RM, WMV and ASF
DiVX Digest - a DiVX news and reviews site.

And many more like the ones above make it easy for encryption and DRM schemes to be broken or bypassed, but the process is far from trivial. These programs aren't exactly user friendly. The formats that come out of these programs while not very noticable do make a degredated (?sp) copy that is compressed more than the original. The files may look rather nice, but they are definantelly not as perfect as a standard DVD player.

People want to be able to plug their DVD's into their DVD players. I don't really know how many people rely on their computer solely for DVD playback, but I'm assuming not many.

Here's the kicker I know that I use my computer to watch videos that I own, but if I'm going to be traveling I will rip that DVD into a one disc XViD. So if I break it, who cares I'll just burn another one. And well someone isn't as apt to steal a blank CD-Rom as they would be for say, a DVD with a case and title on the disc.

It's plain to see just from visiting the links I posted above though that you are correct in saying that there will always be a time that someone comes around and completely bypasses or disables DRM. I know for a fact that my APEX DVD player has MacroVision and other BS taken off of it and it is also RCE (regionless) which means I can put any DVD I like into the player and it will play.

It's these sorts of things that make me wonder why all the effort for DRM is made, someone will truly crack it eventually. I still remember when DVD's were said to be uncrackable, and had some s

With software programs like:

DVD Decrypter - DVD Decrypter is a CSS decryption tool that has most, if not all, of the features of current ripper/ripper GUIs like CladDVD, Smart-Ripper or VOBDec GUI, including CSS authentication/detection, multi-angle processing, Macrovision and Region removal. Also includes option to use either VOBDec or DeCSS Plus to decrypt the DVD.
NanDUB DiVX 3.11 ;-) encoder.
VirtualDubMod - VirtualDubMod is based on the famous video editing software VirtualDub by Avery Lee. Used for DiVX 5.x and XViD encoding
DVD2AVI - Takes a DVD and turns it into an AVI or AVI FrameServer for other programs like NanDub and VirtualDuB to encode with.
BeSweet - an audio transcoding tool. it lets you convert audio files from one format to another. supported formats : MP3,AC3,WAV,MP2,AVI,Aiff,VOB,Ogg Vorbis.
TMpegEnc - video encoding software. mainly used for the creation of MPEG's encoded for either VCD or SVCD
DVD2SVCD - Software Suite for converting a DVD into an SVCD (MPEG-2 encoded Video CD).
Gordian Knot - Gordian Knot started out as a simple bitrate calculator for DivX encoding but has evolved to become an integrated package or tool for the entire process of DivX encoding. It now has the ability to calculate the bitrates for XViD

And sites like

Doom9 - The definitive resource for DVD backup
DVDR Help - This site will help you to make your own VideoCDs, SVCDs or DVDs that can be played on your standalone DVD Player from video sources like DVD, Video, TV, Cam or downloaded movie clips like DivX, MOV, RM, WMV and ASF
DiVX Digest - a DiVX news and reviews site.

And many more like the ones above make it easy for encryption and DRM schemes to be broken or bypassed, but the process is far from trivial. These programs aren't exactly user friendly. The formats that come out of these programs while not very noticable do make a degredated (?sp) copy that is compressed more than the original. The files may look rather nice, but they are definantelly not as perfect as a standard DVD player.

People want to be able to plug their DVD's into their DVD players. I don't really know how many people rely on their computer solely for DVD playback, but I'm assuming not many.

Here's the kicker I know that I use my computer to watch videos that I own, but if I'm going to be traveling I will rip that DVD into a one disc XViD. So if I break it, who cares I'll just burn another one. And well someone isn't as apt to steal a blank CD-Rom as they would be for say, a DVD with a case and title on the disc.

It's plain to see just from visiting the links I posted above though that you are correct in saying that there will always be a time that someone comes around and completely bypasses or disables DRM. I know for a fact that my APEX DVD player has MacroVision and other BS taken off of it and it is also RCE (regionless) which means I can put any DVD I like into the player and it will play.

It's these sorts of things that make me wonder why all the effort for DRM is made, someone will truly crack it eventually. I still remember when DVD's were said to be uncrackable, and had some s

You say quality is not critical. I would recommend using an mpeg4 codec (proberbly divx or xvid), if you capture at full vhs resolution (352x240) then you can store image quality that far surprises vcd (and your slightly degraded vhs) quality at about 300meg per hour. 650 hours of tape will bring you upto 195gig. How you store your data is really up to you, but I would recommend getting a couple of 200gig hard drives and keeping two copies for safety reasons.

You might want to read this article on capturing from vhs.

Why didn't they use something like Huffyuv for DV?

Just wondering, because I find it often gives me a 3:1 compression ratio without any data loss at all.

The difference certainly would have been worth it for a perfect video stream.

here.
DirectShow on Win32 has quietly evolved into a multimedia scene graph similar to Quicktime, and GStreamer is the rather smarter effort on Linux.
(see here for an example of the clever tricks you can do in DirectShow just by accessing the scene graph with GraphEdit)

Unfortunately, most people seem more interested in demanding obscure playback modules in MPlayer, rather then looking at the problem from an abstracted view.

(OGRE takes the same approach for 3D engines, but people would still rather look at Crystal Space. le sigh.)

(Line stolen from Tinra)

if you can get the RM file (not streaming), you can use a prog called TINRA. I used it before and it works wonders. There were some syncing issues but overall a wonderful program. (RM->AVI)

Tinra from divx-digest

with this. I know it's a pain to have to use a program (a bit difficult to use sometimes) so that your file can be read by another program (all those extra clicks shorten the life of my fingers you know), but it's a lot less of a pain than having to deal with realplayer.

so quit bitching and take a few moments to convert it, Bink and Smacker's Rad Vidoe Tools does *.mov to DivX'd *.avi in minutes

If you're playing Divx files (with Codec 5.02), you can go File, Properties, Advanced tab, select "Divx Decoder Filter" from the list, open the Quality Setings tab, and there it is, brightness control. Under Codec 4.x it was one less step (no need to click Quality Settings)

It's a bit hard to get to, but if you install Nimo Codec Pack you get a nifty tray icon with which you can open that "Divx Decoder Filter" window directly.

This feature isn't there for MPEG files though, but the benefits of mplayer2's (almost) zero startup time outweighs the costs.

Your "friend" simply needs to download the Nimo Codec Pack . This pack includes just about every video/audio codec you'd ever need, and could never be supplied "legitimately" because of the legal jungle that stop such a useful package in its tracks.

In the end, it means you download a DiVX .avi file and half the time it doesn't seem to play, at least until you have done all the web searching to get all the codecs. I barely have time to watch clips much less hunt for codecs.

There are some really good codec packs from DivX Digest. I have had a lot of success with these packs, I think right now I am running the BgBop Codec Pack and almost everything I run into has opened without any problems.

In the end, it means you download a DiVX .avi file and half the time it doesn't seem to play, at least until you have done all the web searching to get all the codecs. I barely have time to watch clips much less hunt for codecs.

There are some really good codec packs from DivX Digest. I have had a lot of success with these packs, I think right now I am running the BgBop Codec Pack and almost everything I run into has opened without any problems.

I'd rather download something than stream it. Streams are often much lower quality and it prevents you from time-shifting it, which you should be able to do. For this reason I use Streambox VCR, which you can download here, for downloading .RM files and ASFRecorder, downloadable here, which lets you download streaming Windows Media files, so that you can time shift those as well.

Dear Mr Trolling For Free Software -- you might want to check the licences on OpenDivX.

Not that licencing problems would hurt the popularity of a video codec or affect distribution in the real IP-is-optional world..

*cough* you're a moron *cough* Commodore made other machines than C64 *cough*

--
Evan

Not only that check out Divxplus. It's a divx player that outputs through the TV-out on your Hollywood+ card. It still does software decoding, but it saves you from needing an extra TV-out for Divx.

It's really pretty easy. So is capture from television.

I have a WinTV card and cap in VirtualDub then compress it. Shiit, 330 megs? I, quite regularly in fact, archive 45 minute shows to a 700 meg CD. That's much better quality.

Now that CD's are cheap, why not? I mean, until we have DVD burners, might as well make do, right?

In any event, a few people I know have been archiving Mystery Science Theater 3000 shows on CD's. It's nice to have an episode on a 700 meg CD, but if it were up to me, I'd be tossing all these old episodes on DVD-R.

The quality of DivX movies (though DivX is crap, it's a hack of a beta Microsoft MPEG4v3 codec, back when it was a buggy piece of shit; MSMPEG4v2 is MUCH better and gives better quality) is nice right now, but it would be much better if we got some nice high density storage!

If you want to rip directly to DivX, go to http://www.divx-digest.com. They have a bunch of tutorials about how to add subtitles to a DivX, burn it to a VCD, and a whole bunch of other DivX info.

DeCSS makes it easy to rip a movie quickly, but other programs exist that are just as simple. I've heard rumours of one that brute-forces the key to the DVD--anybody know about this one?

The program you want is "VOBDec" It uses a cryptographic attack on the DVD rather than any reverse engineering and will work in a number of situations that DeCSS cannot cope with...

• If all you have are the VOB files, but not the DVD they originally came on.
• If the VOB files on your DVD have different keys from each other. [Note: This is a relatively recent "trick" used to fox DeCSS.]

On the minus side the program is Windows only, and runs in a DOS box from an option loaded command line. There are a number of GUI front ends to help you cope with this.

As an aside I eschewed the use of FlaskMPEG as I found it VERY slow and rather buggy. However switching to the MPEG2AVI method of doing this produced a 3fold increase in speed along with quality reliable encoding. I now have all my favourite movies sitting on my HD

A great resource for all of you wannabe DVD backup merchants is Digital Digest. All the software you need is sitting there along with articles, tips and troubleshooting advice.

This is somewhat old news... I'm surprised it's taken so long to be mentioned on Slashdot. In fact, it was mentioned months ago in the Wall Street Journal!

Here's some sites:
http://divx.ctw.cc/
http://divx.vcdguide.com/
http://www.divx-digest.com/

A Google search on DivX ;-) will also prove fruitful. Don't forget the smiley, lest it be confused with Circuit City's failed format!

;-)