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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 $200) portable DVD player with a built-in screen.
Many will also end up supporting Ogg Vorbis, since it's become a popular audio encoding format for DivX's. (Or so I hope.)
This thing costs ~600$ (CDN), and isn't even DivX certified because it doesn't play 3.xx content, which is probably more widely used than 4.xx or 5.xx. 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$!
When these things cost under 200$ (CDN), and are truely DivX certified, I'll buy one. Until then... I could put together a cheap PC with S-Video out for half this price.
When are we going to get some Ogg Vorbis-enabled DVD/CD Players? With Microsoft getting WMA integrated into DVD players and Xiph putting out Tremor not to mention all the MP3 integration being done, it seems these little companies like Apex would jump to add yet another feature to their players that would differentiate them in that cut-throat bargain basement market.
The world is neither black nor white nor good nor evil, only many shades of CowboyNeal.
Shouldn't the article point out that these DivX DVD players aren't the same as the DivX players once sold by Circuit City? Or are they?
In Soviet Russia, Jesus asks: "What Would You Do?"
I am glad to see that I can finally get a DVD player that supports DivX. Now I would love to find a PVR that supports the format (come on TiVo).
The dogcow says "Moof!"
I thought penny-arcade really put it best:
6 -18&res=l#
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=1999-0
"Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
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.
Finally, a DivX player that people will actually want to buy.
Read more Hereand also Here you have news from JVC and finally Something from Thompson and Zenith
Actually, the codec was originally developed internally by Microsoft, IIRC, then hacked to be used by any encoder [hence the ;-) in DivX ;-)3.11].
Yeah, these things dont even support SACDs or DVD-Audio.
now I can play the videos I get off kazaa on a dvd player, it's about time!
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
Does anyone know whose chip they're using for the video decoder?
KiSS DVD Player DP-450
and on a side note:
2002-10-27 05:10:41 The new Ultimate DVD player (articles,news) (rejected),
no really, i'm not bitter...
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
Get a modchip and install the XBox Media Player. It'll stream DiVX/AVI/MPEG/SVCD/VCD from a PC (or off the internal HD) and display on your TV.
Very nice.
if somebody would come out with a player that allowed you update the playable codecs by hooking it up to your computer or inserting a preloaded pcmcia card. Open up the plugin architecture and you would probably sell one to every /.er.
Then I wouldn't have to read about all the I wan't (insert favorite codec here) on it but its not available because *they* are out to get me.
-- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
This thing ought to be able to output 1080p. Can it? And is it any good at DVD bitrate?
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
...are these DivX DVD players or DIVX DVD players? :)
Can't wait for that particular bit of irony to hit the fan(s).
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.
We went DivX 3.11, 4.0, 5.0, and XVid, etc. This player can play DivX 4.0 and 5.0, but what about 5.03, the upcoming version? Or DivX 6? What about XVid, or old 3.11 movies you have kicking around?
But video is only a small part of the puzzle. Of the hundred or so DivX "backups" I have, only half have MP3 audio. A big chunk have ogg (and ogg is probably the most popular for new movies), and a few have AC3.
My point boils down to this: I spend alot of time watching movies encoded in DivX. I even do some encoding. With a PC that is almost infinately upgradable, with all the DivX sites out there offering support, I still have trouble playing some movies.
Some machine with hard-coded firmware is not going to make the grade.
If you want to watch DivX on your tv, then get one of these things. That's what I did - it's a stereo, DVD player, and it plays DivX in all it's formats. It sits under the TV, is plugged into the 100 megabit network, and makes life very simple. We don't even have cable any more.
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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...
I guess Valenti will be revising his anti-VCR speech from decades ago to attack this.
we've got VCD, DVD, DeCSS, MPEG4, Dvix, DVIX, DviX, DviX;-), DviX B-], DviX (_)(_)=D, god knows what else!!
I bought a DVD player the other day, it was plastered with acronyms. MP3/DVD/CD/VCD/CDR/CDRW.......
This alphabet soup is pretty damn confusing.
Look, let's cut to the chase. All I want to do is pirate DVDs and trade them with other people like I do MP3 files. Why do I have to learn all this? When will somebody give me Point&Click piracy tools, like Apple's iTunes?
A lot of people seem to be concerned about if these divx enabled dvd players are codec-updateable when a new version of divx codec is released. Frankly as long as people follow standards there shouldn't be any problem.
The thing with mpeg-standards (divx is a subset of mpeg-4) is that they do not specify encoders, only decoders. That means that as long as a video stream is decodable by a standard decoder it is valid. Since mpeg compression relies hevily on the deficiencies in our visual systems it is really the tricks employed at encoder level that make the difference in quality (ie. discarding redundant information).
I've gotten the impression that divx has just gotten more standards compliant with every increment version and has picked up some useful tricks for greating a better bitrate/quality ratio. As long as they stick to mpeg-4 compliance and the decoder chips are also standards compliant there shouldn't be any problems with future versions of the divx codec.
That's correct -- the DivX 5.x codec was reverse engineered from the DivX 3.11 codec. But I've heard that you get better quality out of the 3.11 codec, but the content is therefore not legal.
So technically, yeah, DivXNetworks CAN be the "originators" of the supported codec (5.x) in the DVD players, but that's using Clinton-esque logic. The orginal codec was the 3.11 codec, which was a hack of the MS MPEG4 codec.
While that is true, there are now open source encoders and decoders for those older (3.11) DiVX formats. It is presumable that someone could create decoding hardware for the 3.x format files based upon these known algorithms.
~GoRK
But then if people dont follow whatever standards you're talking about, it doesnt matter. Anyone else unnable to play many recent movies encoded in 5.02 because the latest linux release is still 5.01?
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Yeh.. but like I said. Divx is a subset of mpeg-4 standard. For every increment version they seem to get more compliant. They might have upgraded their encoders and decoders together and implemented some mpeg-4 feature that was not in 5.01. That doesn't mean they're not standards compliant but that they might be even more so. The key here is that a decoder needs to be as compliant as possible.
but when can I get a dvd player off kazaa? I can't wait
As others have mentioned, DivX 5.x isn't the same as the first hacked version.
What worries me is that they're trying to patent it. Have there been any statements about whether they'll start to charge for licensing to open source projects?
That's the melodious wails of Jack Valenti screaming bloody murder. Oh wait a second, he did that the moment smart geeks discovered TMPGEnc and similar tools for making high quality VCDs out of DivXs to watch on their DVD players.....
I think XviD is aiming to be a standards-compliant MPEG-4 codec...if that's the case, the info on this player says it'll play MPEG-4 as well as DivX;-), so XviD ought to work as well.
(XviD is a Good Thing, especially in light of what DivXNetworks has done to hijack development (spyware-infested codecs, etc.). I've been archiving Good Eats with XviD for a little while now...the quality is good enough for reference usage, and fitting ~4 hours of video (12 episodes) and all of the accompanying recipes (in HTML) on one CD is cool.)
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
If they stuck with standards like ISMA MPEG-4 instead of hacks like DivX, devices wouldn't become obsolete as quickly.
.mp4 container, while DivX is MPEG-4 video and MP3 audio in an AVI container.)
(Before someone whines, DivX is not standard MPEG-4. The standard specifies MPEG-4 video and AAC audio in a
DIVX SOLD OUT TO MPAA.
DRM will be embedded within DiVX. It's pointless now.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/04/224621 9&mode=nested&tid=126
and
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-875988.html
k.
--even a broken watch is correct twice a day.
Sorry to break this to you, but regular DVD format (mpeg-2) also uses compression
YA BIG STUPID HEAD!
What the hell are you talking about? A random sampling of NFOs on iSONews shows quite a few releases using VBR MP3 soundtracks.
Why on earth would AVIs require a CBR audio stream? Where did you get this idea? I'm really, really curious, here.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
"DivX DVD Players Arrive"
I thought Slashdot had gone back in time a few years heh.
I wonder if that'll spark a trademark dispute...
On a side note, the MPAA just had a collective heart attack.
Not sure what you are talking about. I have seen PowerDVD and WinDVD on Kazaa!
...there is no sig...
I have MPlayer 0.90 pre 8 running on my iBook under OS X 10.2.1.
OK, I am a video encoding newb and that completely kills everything that I have read and reasoned about DivX. Would anyone care to elaborate?
.Is there any relation at all between DivX and the Circuit City DIVX?
As I understood it, DivX uses the *avi file format* which was developed my Microsoft and is simply a method of packaging the video and audio streams.
As it was explained to me, any audio any video stream (whether it be mp3, ogg or mpeg1 or mpeg2, etc) can be packaged into the avi file format and the fact that it is an avi does not imply a specific audio or video encoding (like choosing paper or plastic at the grocery store -- neither imply what is in the bags).
In this case, I thought the actual video and audio codecs they developed by the DivX people where as only the avi file format was Microsoft's and that DivX 5 was mpeg4.
Since we're on the topic and how I thought it all worked has been thrown to the wind, I might as well ask the question (which I may now have the wrong impression to also). .
Anyone care to elaborate for this now confused soul?
Divx3,4,5 for various reasons including lower quality and copyright issues, most serious mpeg4 encoding is migrating to xvid. Once some Ogg issues get worked out most mpeg4 encoding will be done in Ogg/Xvid. Will this player support those codecs or just be a hundred dollar piece of obsolete junk?
;)
These were my thoughts exactly. I recently switched from the hacked Microsoft (DivX 3.11) codec to XviD. I have no desire to support DivxNetworks and their closed source codec. Let's face it, the name DivX really belongs to Circuit City and the fame belongs to the original hacked Microsoft codec. DivxNetworks started out as Project Mayo but closed the source on their codec once they realized they were stealing enough of the "DivX" thunder, err, marketshare.
XviD is what DivXNetwork's codec would have been if Project Mayo continued. It is largely based on the original open source code and will continue to be improved. Last I checked, the latest version of DivxNetworks's codec includes SPYWARE.
If I download a DivX 5.x movie that XviD can't play, it gets deleted. I don't do a lot of movie downloading anyway - a lot of the movies on P2P networks are poorly encoded and take forever to download. I do however have access to a great professionally mastered library of recent and older movies for a modest per-movie fee of around $4.00. Due to the DMCA, I can't reveal this source, but I'm sure if you live in an urban or suburban area you'll have no trouble locating a similar source.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
I know most people think of DiVX/XVid/MPEG4 as a tool to pass video around on the net at (relatively) low-bandwidth rates. But what I want to see is a standalone player that will support HDTV-level resolution. I have an HDTV capture card (or two) that I use to record broadcast HDTV as well as PPV, HBO and Showtime shows in high-def. I want to make DiVX DVDs of this high-def material - I want at least an hour of 1280x720 or 1920x1080i (really 1080p @ 24fps, which is just about the same as 1080i) on one DVD-R that I can play without having to use my computer.
If you haven't seen LoTR in high-def, you are missing out. Word is the new director's cut is going to be PPV once the DVDs are out. For a $5 PPV, that's way better picture quality than anything commercially available on DVD.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
What's the difference? Aren't they just filesystem layouts? Why would one be more suited to streaming playback than the other? Isn't the difference like FAT vs ext2---the actual file data stored is exactly the same?
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
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.
"Rent a couple of DVDs. .
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
IT kind of depends on how it does the decoding. If it just has a general purpose CPU that is fast enough to handle all the decoing, like a Power PC 750 or something, then it is possable that this could be done since all teh decoding would be software based.
However I think it is far more likely that this device uses hardware dedicated to the sole purpose of decoing video/audio. Basically the MPEG 2/4 decoding is probably done by a DSP dedicated to that purpose. Well that means that the chip can't do anything but MPEG 2/4 decoding, and cannot be changed.
It's kinda like a 3d graphics card in your PC. Any modern 3d card is much, much, much faster than any processor you can find. The GeForce 4 can pull around 1 trillon opertaions per second when it really gets cranked up. However, it is a specific DSP, all it does it push pixels, and it can't be reprogrammed to do anything else. Your CPU, while much slower, is general purpose and can be programmed to do theoritically anything.
Now I don't know for sure what this thing uses, I was unable to access the information on their site, but I suspect it is a couple of dedicated chips to do decoding, not a CPU. In that case, it woul not be updatable. I could be wrong though, CPUs are cheap enough these days in theory they could have a moderatly powerful one (probably on the order of an 900mhz P3 or so) and then just do the decoding in software.
DivX 3.11 wan't legit. They didn't program anything to make it, all they did was hack the Microsoft MPEG-4 v3 codec to make it work with AVI files. So there would be a mess of liscencing issues since it's MS's stuff, not the DivX's team's stuff. Also, the MS MPEG4v3 codec really isn't MPEG-4 compliant (it's proprietary, huge suprise there) so an MPEG-4 deocder can't deal with it.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...unless you're interested in films that simply aren't available for purchase or rent where you live. To me, the nice thing about ripped and compressed movies is that they can make their way overseas even when the distributors have decided that there's no overseas market for them.
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?
Daisy Cutters... silly!
We've got TiVo type boxes with Hard Drives, and DVD type boxes with DivX...really what we need is a more generalized component-sized PC that works to augment out television viewing experience. I know it's been done before, but the public hadn't caught up with the idea of computational ubiquity. Now's the time for:
* Component-sized set top box format
* 20G HD (minimum) for recording shows and user apps
* Low heat processor (e.g. Transmeta or XScale)
* A embedded operating system of one kind or another
* CD-RW/DVD combo drive
* Video in/out, RJ-45 for connectivity
* Front port for wired/wireless keyboard/mouse/joystick
Something like this ought to be doable for less than $500. Advantage: DivX 3.11, Ogg, MAME. whatever you want would be just a download away. Of course, a hacked XBox is already pretty close to this already.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
Agreed, and even better, play .ogg's as well as mp3's, and handle Ogg Theora files
With the freeing of the "Tremor" fixed-point vorbis decoder, there are rumblings of makers of mp3 players looking into adding Ogg Vorbis support as well. With Ogg Theora Alpha 2 being due out December 1, if the pace of development gets less glacial as time goes on (there's not really that much to do as far as I can tell, other than solidify the specification and do some optimization - the interface in Ogg Theora Alpha 1 is pretty crude, but seems to work just fine for the encoding and playback.)
There may not be a lot of initial interest from big commercial outfits, but not having to pay a pile of license fees could make Ogg Theora popular with independent/amateur film-makers and distributers of public-domain works (yes, a few still exist that haven't been locked up again by Congress yet - Retrofilm has a whole mess of 'em.)
Anyway, to get more directly back on-topic - having DivX-capable players hitting the consumer market as well as impending Ogg Vorbis players makes me feel a little more optimistic about seeing Ogg Theora being added to the capabilities as well in a not-too-unreasonably-distant future time...
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
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!
From what little I can gather, that portable seems to be a shinco OEM. My guess is it's probably the Dvd-960 model which has been sold by RCA for around 400 dollars in the states for some time (I think it can be had for as little as 300 now though). I own one of these units and I must say it's quite impressive for the price, ESPECIALLY if you're into downloading anime (fansubbed and unlicensed of course, nothing illegal) and you'd like to watch it away from your computer. I actually bought mine JUST for vcds/svcds and consider the DVD capabillity to be a bonus. Just don't buy it for the mp3 playback, it bites (all songs start about 4-5 seconds into it, no idea why it skips first few seconds, and the on-screen display only shows 8.3 filenames).
Of course, if you design a special pared-down motherboard for it, the costs would go down further. It could be tiny, because it wouldn't have to really do much--so it could fit into a simple DVD-player-sized case. My question is: why aren't computer distributors falling over themselves to make these? A chip that can do DVD/DivX/Xvid/Ogg/APE decoding in software can be had for about $20. Special hardware decoding solutions will just seem moot at this price, given the usability limitations they impose.
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall when divx first came out and people said there would NEVER be a commercially available stand-alone divx player becuase divx 3 was cobbled together from bits of microsoft code and thus violated their copyrights. Since then it became an open source project and has been rewritten from scracth. Hence, although versions 4 and 5 would be legal, a divx 3 decoding player would not be.
Dedicated hardware is great... but sometimes you can do things yourself aswell.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on a broken Compaq Evo N160 with a broken screen (read: destroyed). Otherwise it was fine.
The bottom line: now I have a DVD/DivX/MP3/Anything player. And it's compact too. A laptop is even surprisingly cool looking without a screen.
PS. If you have a crappy TV like I do and it doesn't understand S-Video (you get a black and white picture), take a look here.
.: Max Romantschuk
Have a look at the DSP Village over on the Texas Instruments web site. There are whole families of DSP chips that are reprogrammable and accellerate media functionality in all sorts of ways. Even your example of the GF4 - it is specialized towards 3D accelleration, it is customizable with the Cg language extensions. I won't even get into crazier ideas like shipping a FPGA and putting the algorithms on it (the general purpose CPU is probably cheaper). This is the case today, but maybe not tomorrow. This device probably does use some crummy chipset, you're right.
What people should be asking is why the hell the folks at ATI - who already make exactly what you want, by the way, with their all in wonder cards - can't get their act together and write some decent, bulletproof software for windows 2k or linux (I don't really care at this point, if it's solid software). A general purpose PC with more power than you could ever need for this is about $500 away. Just add the card (maybe with some goodies like support for HDTV) and you're off to the races. Or just get a projector.
The problem with that right now is stability. That ATI software is not very stable or good, doesn't integrate DiVX and scheduling functionality, doesn't want to work with my satellite reciever, etc. Get some good software in there and you have something.
My $0.02.
..don't panic
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}}
1) mp4 format
2) ogm format
3) pray MS never fixes the AVI bug that causes VBR mp3s to accidentally work in the first place.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Thus far, MS has left DivX 3.1 stuff and the like alone, probably because it's all been not-for-profit things and because they have more advanced codecs (WM8 and now WM9). Doesn't mean it's legal to use DivX 3.11, just that they aren't enforcing it.
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
The OGM container allows the use of one video stream, multiple sound tracks in whatever format (.ogg, .mp3, .mpc, .ac3-wav) as long as you have the correct libraries.
It allows multiple subtitle files (.str) and chapters.
All of this in ONE file.
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.
There is a chip available. Check out Cyclone
:-)
It costs in the region of $15 to $40 in quantity depending on type and is completely reprogrammable. I've just been to see a demo of this chip (+ others) and it looks ideal for codec implementations. You can program it to be a processor if you want with complete control over the instruction set. These means you can build in such things as hardware complex multiplications, vector processors etc. if you want.
Watch out for this chip, it (and its big brother Stratix) will be many products in the future (certainly the ones I will be developing anyway
wot no sig
a video store
He who defends everything, defends nothing. -- Fredrick The Great
It seems that more than a few people are concerned about the lack of a physical backing for currency, and are choosing to do something about it. It actually sounds like a good idea to me. Even if some of the people who are backing the idea seem a bit shady.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
If Microsoft ever decides to fix their AVI decoding, all VBR audio tracks will lose synchronization. And any system that actually uses a standards compliant decoder (My guess would be Macs, Linux, stand-alone players) does not and will never have synch either, unless they choose to implement the same bug just to keep compatibility.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
It's using Sigma's EM8500 chip (same as in their add-on card). It will work with:
Current Xvid
DivX 4.x
CBR mp3 tracks
It will not work with:
DivX 3.11 (not mpeg4-compliant)
DivX 5.x with GMC or QPEL enabled (no support in chip)
VBR mp3 tracks (unless they've duplicated the windows BUG which allows it in the first place)
Ogg audio tracks (no support at all)
And for the future:
Won't work with future Xvid releases (no GMC/QPEL support)
But hey, if you need an expensive paperweight, please do.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Can you do recharge in and take it on the airplane for less than $200?
The truth shall set you free!
Considering some current DVD players have flashable firmware, whats the chance of us just changing that, to give DivX support for even less $$?
Or chipping a used PS2 or somethin?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
DivX on CDs is a great way to record and distribute home video. My parents want to see their grandkid. I have a camcorder. Trouble is, they live halfway around the planet. It's easy to duplicate and mail DivX video on CDs, and it would be great if my not-all-computer-savvy relatives owned DVD players that happened to play DivX.
The user's guide says the battery lasts up to two hours with the screen on (four hours with it off)
How could you watch a DVD movie with the screen off??
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
The EPIA Eden is a small form factor low power consumption x86 based motherboard that has built in CPU, audio, video, ethernet, and tv-out. Just add RAM and a HD. The Eden is cheap at $80. Add in RAM, a small HD, and a DVD drive, and you are looking at around $200. Then all you need is a chasis and powersupply. It is best to use a small chasis and fanless powerfupply.
Then add a highly tweaked and stripped down version of Linux, with DivX, MP3, and DVD functionality.
More detailed specs and pictures can be found here: http://southernwholesale.zoovy.com/product/DVD9510
Surprisingly versatile for the money...
(curiously, Shinsonic does not have this player on their own website, but they do have a portable DVD player with built in Megadrive/Genesis game system, but I digress)
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
...this player won't be breaking any price records (except upwardly maybe). Call me when Apex sells one.
The point is, now you can put five or six movies onto a single DVD! This is perfect for:
Getting your geek friends together for that day-long viewing of the entire (Star Wars/Star Trek/LotR) series, of course.
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
AFAIK not without an add-in card.
How do you do it? All my attempts end with poor a/v sync. I would love to contribute to the disposal of the horrid container format known as .avi... Whether it be .mp4 or .divx or .ogg, I want a better container format to push .avi out, .avi is so dated and limited, to see it this entrenched as to appear in set top players is really disheartening. DVDs were a step forward, but locking into .avi is a huge step backward, considering the features offered by the other container formats...
.ogm. I'll take this time to point out that the video you are putting into it is likely DivX (am I wrong?) and therefore would look the same as an equivalent .avi, unless you mean you used the space savings of a lower bitrate Vorbis to help the video, but 64 kbps or so won't make too much of a differnce in video quality....
My pipe dream is to have files which have selectable audio tracks and subtitle tracks, but I don't suppose there is enough market pressure to make that a reality (despite the technology *being* in the specifications).... oh well...
BTW, when you say 'the quality is really incredible', you seem to be implying the video looks better as
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
i think this kind of thing could really fly;
...this would up the required hdd total capacity significantly.
a linux distro made mostly for a specific setup but flexible enough to work for any computer.
not neccessarily embedded, either; we all have old machines lying around waiting for tasks...
though ideally, a $500 machine w/ tv in/out could easily handle this out of the box (maybe needing hdd and ram upgrades).
h/w would be as described above (with option for mpg2 card for tivo compatibility)
distro would be minimal (no need for gnome or kde, or most gui things; something simple like wmaker or openbox is fine to run xine, gstreamer, or whatever).
i like the idea of the box ripping as needed (like tivo) and then crunching it down to more managable divx (or tarkin, vp3, theora, sorenson, etc) during pre-determined idle time.
minimal distros seem to be a dying breed.
anybody know of a up-to-date distro really good for older machines (90-300mhz)?
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
Crap, I already have a GF4, and I'm not prepared to buy another one, if you know what I mean. It sounds like your setup is pretty sweet though. I bet you don't have any tips if it just worked straight out of the box...
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
Guess I'll try the windows approach, dvdrip alpha's seem to have support for ogm, but the sync was bad....... Hate to reboot, but oh well...
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Diamonds are great for industry. Incredibly hard due to their bonding properties, they make great heatsinks (look up the thermal conductivity of a diamond, there is nothing better). However, karat for karat (am I spelling that right?!?), rubies are rarer then diamonds. De Beers is the ONLY reason why diamonds are worth what they are, otherwise, they're only useful for a bunch of researchers trying to do oddball stuff with a rather cool looking rock.
So, when's lunch?
When it doesnt play, that's a hint it's a higher version than what you have ;) :) I guess it doesnt get more specific than that.
I dont think that a specific version is given in the file information, Xine output says that a file is using DivX 5.0 and then err, fails to load
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
But is Krakow a real person, or is he actually a marketing person at Microsoft and a royalty-free stock photograph?
I really hate signatures, but go to my website.
Was it the same unit reviewed?
There are three ways to make a cheaper product:
Use low quality
Use better design
Built parts yourself (Cost savings in parts optomised for the job and/or not paying somebodys inflated prices on parts).
The price indicates they did something to cut costs so you must be careful.
When bargon shopping the thing to remember is to do your homework becouse a lower price isn't automaticly a bargon.
Buyer beware. But not be paranoid.
I don't actually exist.
Maybe they swapped out the display on her demo unit.
Replaced the crappy LCD with a high quality LCD.
I don't actually exist.