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DivX DVD Players Arrive
division21 writes "Geeks rejoice -- DivX Enabled DVD Players finally surface! (With all the goodies: MP3, SVCD, etc.) I remember when MP3 compatability appeared back in the day -- And it looks as though DivX Compatibility could be a real possibility for the mainstream ..." And if you can live without the compression, cherrypi points out this surprisingly favorable review of perhaps the cheapest (under $200) portable DVD player with a built-in screen.
Will the firmware be flashable to update to the latest codecs? I'm sure many have spent time wondering why their movies didn't work before learning that a new DivX codec was released and the newer videos are being encoded with it.
it was originally a hack of microsoft's mpeg4... but the new versions of divx are all new (legal) code. That is most likely why the dvd players won't support old versions of divx as they were based off stolen technology.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
Does anyone know what the expected disc layout is?
Does it pick up any AVI files in the root directory and play them or is there a well defined structure/index file? How are multiple languages, subtitles and menus handled? This info is necessary for standardisation on a uniform DiVX disc format.
Krishna
--- I'd love to go out with you, but I have to study for a Turing test.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Seems to me, that at the prices people are willing to pay for these things, some pretty good new computer-screens could be bought. That's my way of watching DVDs and DivX movies - I simply use my good old trusty computer.
;-)
I know there are a lot of tech-geeks who are sooo excited about this, but I simply cannot se the charm OR the advantages over:
1. A cheap, LOW NOISE computer with video-out, that can easily fit behind or besides your tv.
2. A VERY big flat-screen for you computer so that you can simply use that as a substitute.
Well... I guess I am biased in a way since I have my computer near my couch, and linked to both my 5.1 sound system and my stereo... Uhh... and... by the way (I think no one beat me to it): Imagine a Beo... naahh... nevermind
- Tha LamerBunny...
As many people have pointed out, the codec is frequently updated. Therefore, many of the to-be-released videos will not play on DVD players that you buy today.
So why not create a new standard, analogous to the VideoCD format, that incorporates the codec algorithm into the disc headers? Thus all that we need is a universal decoder that will look for the codec in the first sectors of the disc.
+=o [b]RoboNerd[/b] o=+
-- We live in a world where lemonade is artificial and soap has real lemon.
Go to www.doom9.org and have a look. You need the Ogg Vorbis DirectShow filters to play them and OggMUX to make them. Take DivX video in an AVI files, Vorbis audio in an OGG file and mux them together to produce an OGM container with both. You can even put subtitles in it if you want. Plays great on any Windows system with the OggDS
filters installed.
Oh, and VBR audio work just fine in it. The video is VBR, why not the audio?
I think it's really cool what they're doing with "set-top boxes" (is that he right term). I mean, a stereo unit that plays mp3s from a hard drive, or CD, or even from the network (I own an AudioTron). And these things are going to be REALLY cool ... but exactly who would own them? The people that have DivX files to play on them aren't going to be paying money for hardware to play them. They already have a computer that plays them, and probably an easy way of connecting it to their television set. Mp3 players for stereo units have a bigger market because there simply are more people who can use them.
In addition to that, there are so many non-standards that are changing so fast that I prefer to just build a good computer to sit in the stereo cabinate and use a wireless keyboard and mouse at the couch. With S-Video and optical audio outputs, I don't really need to worry about secondary hardware because my computer does everything I need. With a network connection to a file server, the geek world needs nothing more.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
Only if content producers choose to encode their products with DRM technologies. I don't think many people ripping DVDs for the net would do that, do you?
N.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
That device is just a DivX _player_ .
In fact, there's even no standalone DivX recorder on the market yet. Neither can you buy DivX movies on CD's anywhere.
So, a DivX player is only useful for people who have a computer, a CD burner, and a collection of movies stolen through P2P networks.
Because people bought a computer, they think that they can get everything for free. Free software is one thing, but movies are another thing. Making a movie costs a lot of money. I don't understand why just because someone wastes $500 in a computer and $30/mo in connectivity, he must be granted the right to freely copy an unlimited number of movies. He's not. The right to see movies is the same for everybody. Computer owners are not a special privileged class of people. Devices like DivX players just make people think that sharing DivX has nothing to do with piracy. That's bad.
Also [paranoid mode on] as buyers are likely to have an illegal collection of movies, if you ever buy those standalone DivX players, don't pay by check nor CC.
{{.sig}}
I have about 20 3.11 movies that would be useless.
Of course, you can always re-rip these movies since you DO own the DVDs. So its no big deal. Then again, why would you rip your DVDs to DivX to play on your DVD player?
I apologize if your movies are made legally from home video/backed up VHS/etc.. but I doubt thats the case.
You are correct that newer 3d accelerators like the GeForce 4 and Radeon 9700 are programmable to a degree, but it is a very limited amount of programmability. Basically you can write simple programs that morph the vertexes in a scene and that describe textures ina mathematical sense. That's about it. Still purely graphcs and not general purpose.
Also note that it is only receantly, within the last year or two, that consumer level graphics cards have gained even this level of programmability. They are finally starting to get a little less specialised and more general purpose, but still are highly, highly specalised devices.
I predict that we will someday see a crossover, when general purpose CPUs become so powerful and cheap that DSPs will be bsolete. A cheap CPU will be capable of doing anything out could want, and hence there is no reason for a specalised circut.
However, for now, DSPs are still very common in many devices, and I'd bet this is no exception. While you are correct that a $500 PC could to what they are talking about, that is WAAAY too expensive. I'm betting they are shooting for $300 or less.
The Kiss DP-450 at least, is using the same chip as the Sigma plug-in card (EM 8500). It supports "Simple Profile", but only partially supports "Advanced Simple Profile" (hey, I didn't make those names). B-frames are among the supported features, QPEL and GMC (as featured in DivX 5.x) is NOT, unless they've managed to do some miracle partial software emulation. Despite their claims of full Divx4/5 support, I don't believe it till I see it, as it's either CPU or chip, not both.
Eother way, don't expect DivX3.11 to work. It's not MPEG4 compliant (neither is DivX4 I think, but so close that it's no problem supporting it). Xvid will work in its *current* state. When they add QPEL/GMC, it wlll no longer work.
The chip has *some* mpeg-4 complience. But I'll wait for a full-featured one that won't be obsolete so quickly.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
VCDs and SVCDs are a tightly made standard with
specific multiplexing, bitrate, resolution,
framerate etc.
What is "divx" compatibility? Are we talking
about
bitrate, codec (audio/video), VBR/CBR etc?
A computer is flexible enough to handle any
weird format you try, but a set-top device needs
standards. I would really prefer an "MPEG-4"
standard that would specify (similarly to VCDs)
a file format, an audio encoding algorithm
(I believe AAC was formally proposed...) a
resolution etc. That way you know what you
are getting and you know that it WILL work
on another player and give the same results.
As a matter of fact. An MPEG-4 standard wouldn't
even have to be tied to DIVX and should be able
to reproduce all MPEG-4 video streams (XVID etc)
from compatible encoders.
That is the way to go. Using ad-hoc standards will
not help adoption and will certainly not ensure
future compatibility.
P.
I can go to Radio Shack and buy a DVD player for 100$ (CDN), and I know for certain that an MPEG-4 decoder chip does NOT cost 500$!
You're absolutely right, it doesn't -- but when you are the only company in the market offering a certain type of product, you can charge whatever the hell you think you can get for it.
Isn't that right, Bill?
Bill?
No set-top box will EVER play DivX 3.11 - it's a hacked Microsoft codec. If anyone ever built and marketed a player that used it, MS would sue their asses to oblivion, and they'd win. DivX 4 and 5 (which are better codecs anyway) were independently written, rather than just hacked MS code.