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Tom's Hardware Reviews First Player for DivX Video
Idimmu Xul writes "Tom's Hardware has a review of the DP-450: the first player for DivX video in Hi-Fi format! Until now, movies in space-saving DivX (MPEG-4) format could only be viewed on a PC. The KiSS DVD player is the first standalone device for TVs and projectors." Very cool, although it will render my stacks of VCDs obsolete.
Very cool, although it will render my stacks of VCDs obsolete.
;]
I hope that's your stack of legal VCDs
This is a step forward for DivX. I don't think most normal people know much about DivX though - perhaps this will help. Did any of you know there's even a DivX dev kit for the GameCube?
A average TV-Set has a dot matrix with 0.12 inches dot distance. That means that it has a very bad resolution. It's one of the reasons why you should watch TV only from a larger distance 2 meters or so (the other is of course gamma radiation). However this implies that you really can't see the very little details. But the point about DivX compression is in fact these details. All older compression schemes used to delete these due to lossy compression.
So, a DivX player with a normal TV set is useless. You should connect it either to your computer screen or get one of these new plasma or LCD TV-sets.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
This page has a huge database of players and tells you how well they play VCD, SVCD, XSVCD, DVD-R, etc. I used it recently to make sure my new Panasonic could player SVCD's.
something tells me that the bighead in the entertainment industry are not gonna like this. They alredy claim that divx piracy is killing them as it is, and now there is an option for those not into computers. I also have to wonder what they are gonna do about it. If they can make it illegal to post information that would allow one to crack ceratin securities, could they ban a set-top divx player?
YOU SUCK BALLS!
The codec in the article is related to the DVD format in name only. The codec guys chose the name as a bit of mockery.
-Dave
the fact that this thing is firmware-updateable makes it extra cool (and warrants it a lifespan of longer than 1y). It does all the common formats + divX , yay !! Now if only someone could tell me why they named this thing "Kiss" ...
Didnt find any information about xvid support in this review. I still down own a stationary dvd-player and i think ill wait until theres a product that will include support for xvid.
So what exactly are those three little pins mentioned in one of the pictures (sure to be /.'d by now i suppose) They didnt actually explain did they?
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
He's simply executing his fair use right of making backups of the movies he owns.
I thought at least one manufacturer (maybe Apex?) was already making a DVD player with divx support.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Divx and DivX are not the same format.
The DivX that you are talking about it's based on MPEG-2 like any DVD.
The DivX that we here are talking about it's a codec based on MPEG-4.
Yeah, I think when it first started, it was typed as DivX;) with a little wink.
It also supports ogg/vorbis files. Ogg Traffic
DivX (the compression algorithm) is not the same as Divx (the pay-for-play DVD scheme.) The DivX discussed in this article plays files compressed with the DivX compression scheme. A standard DivX file is roughly 120-200 MB per half hour of video.
Fansubbed anime releases are done nowadays through DivX instead of sending tapes out (like the old days...)
From what I hear, it doesn't work quite as well as one could hope. First of all, it doesn't support DivX3.11 so all those illegal DVD-rips won't play on it. Second: It doesn't support MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile, so if you encoded your video with Quarter Pixel Motion Estimation or Global Motion Compensation it won't play. And finally, I've heard reports that it doesn't work on MPEG-4 compliant videos encoded with XviD, so I'd say that it is pretty much a piece of crap. And don't forget that its MPEG-4 decoding chip was made by Sigma Designs. The very same company that stole code from XviD. I won't EVER buy anything made by those thieving bastards. And my last gripe: If it isn't region free, then it's worthless.
________
Entranced by anime since late summer 2001 and loving it ^_^
The DivX in question here does indeed
equal MPEG-4.. so.. DivX, the product
most people who have a little computer
know-how associate with the name, is
indeed == MPEG-4. So keep your facts
correct, please.
If you're thinking of the old divx-scheme
that was a fiasco.. well, as I said, anyone
with a little computer know-how associates
divx with the premier mpeg-4 compression format
for personal use.. not some long-forgotten
thingy that never took off.
While true in and of itself, this is not at all the same thing as the DivX video compression codec that enterprising people are using to store their videos now.
Some folks are kind enough to help us see that distinction by refering to it at DivX ;-) You can grab the codec over at http://www.divx-digest.com/software/divxcodec.htm l if you want to take it for a test drive.
Hey!!! the parentheses are good for something
While it sounds a bit cool to be able to play divx movies on your tv or projector, it's both more aforable and easier to just buy a s-video or d-sub cable. Most new graphics cards come with tv-out and projector usually has a d-sub input. And what about other mpeg 4 formats, like Xvid? Does anybody know if they work on this?
Keep it Simple, Stupid. A reminder to yourself that what you're building, designing, etc. should be simple and not unnecessarily complex.
It's probably as old as FUBAR.
Just think, when our grandkids are psychic-text messenging each other with "OMG STFU FAG", we'll get to explain it to them.
This is pretty confusing. Even for someone like myself who has downloaded the DivX codec and have watched downloaded movies using the codec. I always thought that old rental format was just re-incarnated for another use via file sharing.
But why would it not support 3.X codec? Much of peoples "collections" would still be in that format.
Looks like a good solution for those who don't want to put that evil mod chip in ther Xbox.
And if someone is doubting that people
who know a little about computers associate
divx with the compression format.. remember
that most of the videostuff on p2p is compressed
with divx (although a lot is done with an older version of divx that does not equal mpeg-4). Download.com shows divx _5.02_ has been
downloaded 26 million times, and over at
divx.com (official site), they're claiming total
figures of 75 million.
Also, a little while ago, divx 5.03 was released.
Divx 5 is an mpeg-4 encoder, advanced simple profile.
But its called QCAST
And it does much more than Divx
DVD, DVD/RW, SVCD, MPEG 4, PictureCD, MP3, and CD RW.
I begin to get the feeling we'll see hardware decoders supporting AMCF-42* before we get hardware ogg playback...
* Aunt Marge's Compression Format v. 42
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
It looks a bit better than an xbox, but other than that it does nothing that an xbox with xbmp can't do cheaper.
My modded xbox with an 120gb hard drive and xbmp has played everything that I've thrown at it (movie wise), including old divx formats that this thing can't handle. Cheaper (Getting MS to subsidize your hardware helps, thanks Bill!).
TC - My Photos..
Until now, movies in space-saving DivX (MPEG-4) format could only be viewed on a PC
That's not true. The archos multimedia player can play divx's. Also there are projects for the dreamcast and possibly others that can play divx's
this isnt the first player that could play divx movies on the tv
its the first player that supports full resolution the sega dreamcast played divx just fine at 320x240 resolution
even played 3.xx and xvid
http://www.dcdivx.com
Finally I can watch all my favourite pr0n on my TV!!!
If it acttually works... Most people I know (that know WHAT divx is) Don't care if they can play the movies on their PS2, Xbox, or DVD player... They play them on their computers... I have a buddy who /koff backs ups /koff his DVD collection - he rips, compresses with Divx, then puts them onto a VCD, or back onto a DVD - what use does this do him?
For that matter, if I can buy a DVD burner for ~$400 USD (from Circuit City, no less) that will brn all formats.... Why do I care if I can play DivX discs - I can 'backup' a DVD just like I would a CD...
I think it's too little too late...
The only great thing I see this being used for is to fit longer movies on a standard 4.7GB disk, and keep the reselution fairly clean... ;beer;
Divx != DivX;-)
And yesterday i bought a mini-itx board to build my own Freevo box. But in the end i guess i will end up with a better mediahub i guess since my box can play mame games and I can record to HD. I would love to see the player in a small formfactor version since they really don't use much of the case...
cu,
Lispy
wasnt there a divx that was sort of a licensed cd format? watch the cd x times and its destroyed or locked or something? My vauge memory is that one of the big electronics companies was heavy on it but it required special players and everyone thought it was sucky so it Failed. I get the impression this is different but the name seems the same. Is this a new product or just new packaging for a similar thing?
slashdot is slippen. wtf. old news, news that does not matter.
This is not the first stand alone divx 4 player.
XBox with a mod chip has been playing these videos for 8 months now.
that is all!
no, I thought it was the same means of video format/compression, not the same means of time expiration. hah ha ha im a clown, ha ha ha, look at my big red nose and big red feet
Are the floaters in my eyes getting too big, or did the whole write-up completely fail to give any sort of suggested price for this thing?
www.eFax.com are spammers
Circuit city created "a" divx format to go head to head with DVD. However it failed. The name DivX;) was a jab at that failed venture by a group of people that made a video compression scheme. Hence the ";)" that used to adorn the end of the name.
I planned on inserting something witty here but never got around to it.
"Very cool, although it will render my stacks of VCDs obsolete."
/me sees his 3DO and PSX add-ons to play them
Um, haven't those been obsolete for a few years now?
Nevermind...
Banaaaana!
This is one of those things that enthusiasts seem to flock to, but will have precious little demand. This may be a great leap forward for everything the RIAA/MPAA hate, but it will make a pretty small difference to Jow Sixpack. I have yet to see a DivX disc for sale at retail.
It seems that the only real (legal) use for this is being able to write out home videos to CD-R rather than DVD-R. Of course, at the rate DVD-R prices are dropping this won't be an issue by next year. While it's wonderful that all the file-sharers don't have to watch their DivX rips on PC, its going to need a little more market penetration before being considered mainstream.
Oh, one last beef...Tom's seems to be touting its use on projectors and the unit shows the "progressive" moniker implying it outputs 480p signals. However, it has no component video outputs.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
A great majority of the DivX currently available, nearly all of the hundreds I own, are encoded in DivX 3. Very sad news indeed. Guess I'll keep my multimedia PC hooked to my TV afterall.
Course, that does have the added advantage of keeping well over 150 full length DVD quality movies online and ready to play at anytime thanks to a large hard drive.
What is the DIE cable that connects the drive?
Use your PS2, or use the QCast Tuner
Products like this continue to discourage the creation of and adherance to standards. If it is possible to just slap a .avi file on the disc and have it (hopefully) (somehow) played on the standalone, and other manufacturers stard implementing this (and they will), everything will lead to a horrendous chaos of incompatibilites.
.avi files somehow slapped on a disc" is a BAD THING. They didn't even bother to create some sort of standard. This could have been implemented with glorified SVCDs.
It will be the same as with mp3 discs: Does player X support mp3s in subdirectories? Yes, but only without id3 tags, while player Y understands Joliet but no subdirectories and no filename may be longer than 12 characters, etc.
The implementation of "playing
First of all, this DVD/DivX player runs Linux kernel 2.4.17.
If you did not believe me, download the ISO containing the firmware upgrade on the Kiss site
http://www.kiss-technology.com/support/DRIVERS/45
Unzip it, mount the ISO, retrieve the romfs.bin file, mount it and check it's content
zcat linux.bin.gz | strings | grep Linux
Linux version 2.4.17-uc0 (kiss@localhost.localdomain) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #1 Wed Jan 22 15:30:35 CET 2003
This player works perfectly with any MPEG-4 file. Mencoder (part of MPlayer) with libavcodec creates files compatible with the DP-450.
The image quality when playing a DivX (on a Sony 32" 16/9 TV) is FAR superior to the quality of the same file played on a PC hooked to the TV. (I made some comparisons with my Linux PC + NVidia GF4200, S-Video + MPlayer and a friends PC running Windoz + WMP + ATI Radeon card + S-Video link)
I know there is the 3.11 issue but it's really simple to convert films to MPEG4 to make them compatible with the Kiss player.
I believe that it can do component output through the SCART out on it's backside. (Second page of the review, picture of the info sticker.)
"I think that when you become a Republican, you don't get to score any more." -- Butt-head
With this review, hard to take them seriously. First they say that it is restricted to PAL or NTSC, and that PAL is 720x576 *dpi*. dpi means dots per inch, drop it because it is wrong, unless you have a 1-cubic-inch pal screen, and the i means 'cubic inch'.....
Then, correctly notes that 1280x720 and 1920x1080 are supported, but the phrasing seems to suggest that it is being scaled to PAL or NTSC, which is wrong. This is a progressive-scan device, and those are HDTV resolutions. They have already on the second page made a *huge* mistake about a fundamental function of the player.
And of course I love that the DVD-ROM is connected via a DIE cable... he he... I know, a simple typo, but one with amusing connotations.
On the subject of the player itself... I'm not so sure it will hit it off with the target audience. Most home users don't care that much about DivX, because making them is very difficult and downloading is hard because it requires too much bandwidth, servers don't give away enough hosting space for movies, and the places where DivX movies can be downloaded are rather intimidating to common users (i.e. IRC). People who do work with such formats frequently are aware of the nature of the media that makes them think twice about dedicated hardware purchases. The formats themselves sometimes change in incompatible ways, and also a format's dominance in tenuous at best. Most are also technical enough to realize that for not much more money they can piece together a decent PC with TV out for not much more that will have faster, general purpose processors that can adapt easy to new formats and new delivery mechanisms. This thing only takes Discs, but many people would prefer to use SMB or NFS... If anything changes, a computer is easy to reconfigure, a set-top box... no....
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Music
Video/Movies
Pictures
- JPEG
- PNG
Yes, it runs on Linux. Check it out. =)Divx is a variant of MPEG 4 from what I understand, just like Xvid is. They are both based on a standard. They talk about it in the FAQ's on their site.
s s/
(from their site)
Q: What video codecs are supported by KiSS DP-450 ?
A: All video codecs that comply with the specifications of ISO-MPEG4 - Advanced, Simple Profile, are supported by the DP-450. DivX 4.x and 5.x comply with this standard, exept DivX 5.02 features- GMC (Global Motion Compensation) and QP (Quarter Pexel) which are Advanced, Advanced Profile features.
What seems nice is that if someone comes out with a newer version of xvid and or divx all you need to do is update your fireware and they claim they will stay on top of that.
There is even a region free firmware someone wrote for this thing here.
http://www.firmware-flash.com/~hijacker/ki
I went hog wild over this when I first heard about it but the price is a little too steep, $400. Just wait about 6 months to a year and every set top box will be shipping with an mpeg 4 decoder, just like MP3.
It's not the OS it's the user that sucks. If it's user friendly, you get stupider people. - clinko
You gotta wonder, because even for their next-gen, HDTV-capable chips, it still says:
MPEG-1, MPEG-2 MP@HL and MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile Level 5* video decoding. * without support global motion compensation (GMC)
Sounds really silly to me to not fully supporting the standard... they're like _this_ close, and you know that many users will have problems with the rips they have *cough* obtained *cough*, because it has the wrong encoding settings. Fair enough that there are other formats on the horizon (mpeg4 AVC, wm10+, realcrap) but GMC is here today, and the mpeg4 ASP profile isn't exactly brand new. Is it that hard to support? Or is there some other reason?
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
how does this compare to those? Is it not the same compression? A friend had one, and i kind of remember the angle being that you bought a movie for, say $3, and could watch it a lot for maybe 2 weeks, then the player locked it out unless you got an access code to "buy" the movie. The player hooked to a phone line and would charge your account i guess. I remember rental stores having the media, but i guess it never did too well. I remember the concept and business model (sort of) but not the technology inside it. anyone?
Just a quick note about the review of the standalone DIVX player... I hope
he realized when he wrote that article that there exists a DIVX player for
the Playstation2? This is a real player... no mods, no hacks to perform.
Just buy the software and play.
It takes advantage of the Sony network adapter for the PS2. I know a lot of
people got these for christmas, so there is no additional cost above the
cost of the software. The system uses a very little cpu consuming program on
the PC to stream the data to the PS2. The PS2 does the decoding in many
different formats, and is kept up to date automatically by the PC.
The best part is that you do not have to burn CD/DVD to get them to play.
You just stream them right off the PC.
Check it out... http://www.broadq.com
As it says on the lastest news on the front page: ...) - That's right. It's only for really cool people who can compile stuff. And you know, that is actually very few people on Windows...
You may have noticed it, XVID has moved its downloads (which are source codes only, you won't find binaries on our pages, or DLLs, or installers, or
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
Most divx movies aren't good quality. As cool as it would be to have a divx player, I prefer vcd since it generally looks better. Overall picture quality with a vcd might be comparible to vhs instead of dvd, but divx movies tend to have horrible artifacting which makes them annoying to watch. The nature of divx compression makes it so that artifacting is a way of life, and that is just unacceptible for me.
I'd rather not get into flipping disks to watch movies now that I'm on TiVo and Audiotron for other entertainment, so their DP-500 model with ethernet jack is more interesting:
. as p
http://www.kiss-technology.com/projects/dvd_500
I wonder how DivX quality compares to progressive scan DVDs.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
MPEG-4 is a highly patented 'standard'. As soon as the MPEG-LA finalises the license terms for these patents, they're going to start charging people. DivX is a codec which infringes (almost certainly) these patents, as is XviD. Unlike DivX ;-), the newer versions of DivX are not ripped-off microsoft code, so are actually legal from a copyright standpoint, if not a patent. What's going to happen to DivX Networks when they get hit with a $2 free for every copy of an MPEG-4 encoder they've distributed? What about the company making this hardware player? Do they have a license to make such a decoder?
As far as I know, the only currently legal MPEG-4 codec is Apple Quicktime 6.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
A link to the company's website?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I think that the Xboxmediaplayer (www.xboxmediaplayer.de) project for the Xbox is a much smarter implementation.
DivX is releasing new versions of their codecs that have new features. Unless a hardware player has some very easy way to update it's software (i.e. a network port and a TCP/IP stack, etc), it can easily become outdated.
While mod'ing an X-box may currently be too scary for most people (BTW -- it can now be done w/o having to make a single solder connection), for geeks at least (and lets face it -- who else wants a DivX DVD player), an Xbox (or for the very enterprising a home built computer in a small case) is probably the best bet.
My Xbox BTW will play almost all formats and stream them over the network from my SMB file shares.
Evolution: love it or leave it
this guy has no idea what the hell he's talking about, or he's just trying to rile people up.
Look at his post list. Fairly illuminating, yes?
PLEASE MOD DOWN ACCORDINGLY K THX BYE!
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Dolby DTS is not a codec or a standard. Dolby Digital and Digital Theatre Sound are completely different surround formats!
FOR SHAME!
1. Component video Out.
2. Some ability to access networked content, perhaps by supporting a few low-priced USB wired & wireless ethernet adapters. It seems that the main market for this is geeks and this geek doesn't want to burn a bunch of disks just to watch stuff on TV.
If I did, I'd be watching stuff on my 27" TV rather than my 19" monitor.
I stopped reading this "review" as soon as I read this right at the top of the first page:
"Audio CDs and DVDs with Dolby DTS coding can be played back in just the same way with the KiSS Player, as long as an appropriate decoder is connected to the digital output."
There are so many things wrong with that one sentence I don't even know where to begin. For one thing, there is no such thing as "Dolby DTS" - in fact, it says "Dolby Digital" right in the screenshot above this caption. Dolby Digital and DTS are two separate, competing encoding formats. For another, the way this is written seems like he's talking about both DVD's and Audio CD's with "Dolby DTS", which seems too dumb to even contemplate but given the previous mistake you never know. He could be talking about DVD Audio, which doesn't use either standard DTS or Dolby Digital, but which is full surround.
Tom's has been going downhill for a while now, and it's obvious from this one sentence that whoever wrote this review has absolutely no idea what he's talking about and probably very little idea how to write either. It's pointless reading a review of a piece of electronics gear when the reviewer is not even familiar with the underlying technology.
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#2.10
Having flashable firmware means it'll be a week before some geek fixes it.
No?
Please stop stalking me, bro.
Look at the pictures of the latest Kiss DP-500, similar to DP-450 but with 10/100 Ethernet
http://dtouton.free.fr/DP500/DP500arriere1.jpg
h
As has been pointed out, this thing does run Linux.. It also has a REALmagic EM8500 onboard.
:P
And that the DVD-ROM is connected via the IDE port?
I would put my money that the set of pins on the side of the board are for a standard PC/104 riser card (i.e. ethernet) -- not to mention the serial port that is internal to the box.
*THIS* is a perfect starting point for the "Linux Media Center." Why not add ethernet.. and another HD?
Unless it does this already (I didn't read the review, I hate Tom. I just look at pretty pictures.) - This thing is just waiting for transcode and some other software to be scripted together--stick a normal DVD in the drive, press a button on your remote control--bingo. DVD -> DIVX, stored on the internal HD, accessible via the network.
I would love a box like this with a HD added, connected to a P2P network. Search, download, right to the box. Oh, and replace DVD-ROM with DVD-RW; all of my friends will want copies of the movies I've stolen--or purchased if the MPAA gets their shit together.
However, there will be many models coming soon this upcoming years. Just to take note, Texas Instruments, Philips, and Equator Technologies have DivX certification, which means they will hopefully release soon their own players.
When Philips has his own DivX player in the shops, dont wait until Sony, Samsung, Jvc, etc etc etc have their own! Its the mp3 player story repeated. The following model will be better than the precedeeing, as is usual in this market. We are witnessing an important act here.
By the way... what will sony do? Their hardware department WILL NEED to sell DivX players to stay in market, however their content department (Movies, music and so) will clearly see the proliferation of DivX players as a threat. Interresting.
for further information on the different Divx Certifications take a look here: DivX certification
__
Sig: Marine Stock Photos
I think that the comment could lead to some misunderstanding. There is truly a Divx SDK for gamecube however, the use of it is not for gamecube users to burn and watch their own dowloaded divx files in your gamecube (as the Kiss player does). Several people have told me this would be possible to do with the gamecube, but as can be read in the official announcement this is not the real fact. It is known that Gamecube uses miniDVDs which have less capacity that normal dvds, still enough for actual games. By compressing games video files with divx, the game developers will save large amounts of space and still be able to deliver high quality video.
__
Sig: Marine Stock Photos
and they've got like 400 DVD players made by APEX on sale for $100 (that's a C Note for you musical policemen). Will they play this new format?
This device is great! It's not excesively expensive and the most important thing, it is the first and by the moment the _ONLY_ divx home player available. However, there will be many models coming soon this upcoming years. Just to take note, Texas Instruments, Philips, and Equator Technologies have DivX certification, which means they will hopefully release soon their own players. When Philips has his own DivX player in the shops, dont wait until Sony, Samsung, Jvc, etc etc etc have their own! Its the mp3 player story repeated. The following model will be better than the precedeeing, as is usual in this market. We are witnessing an important act here. By the way... what will sony do? Their hardware department WILL NEED to sell DivX players to stay in market, however their content department (Movies, music and so) will clearly see the proliferation of DivX players as a threat. Interresting. for further information on the different Divx Certifications take a look here: DivX certification [divxnetworks.com]
__
Sig: Marine Stock Photos
So, basically, the new format just blurs the sharp edges around the pixel.
Wunnerful. Maybe the folks with an old 19" TV will not notice, but the trendsetters who sprung for a 1080 progressive aren't going to like this amymore than if they had to go back to vinyl for their music.
Note that this player is powered by the Sigma Designs EM8500 chip.
Apart from the issue some people may have with SD (They were the ones who stole some Open Source code from the XVid project), this is the same chip that powers this company's XCard DVD/DivX PC-card.
I own one of these XCards and have basically given up on using it for DivX playback. It's works great for DVD, and the image quality is much better than their older Hollywood Plus, but DivX playback is just terrible.
Among other issues, the the XCard does not support DivX 3.11 and some advanced features from DivX 5. More seriously, even a theoretically compatible DivX movie is often unwatchable because of Jerky playback. This is partly due to poor support for VBR audio, but there also seems to be an issue with the frame-rate: It seems to use 30 fps, instead of 29.970. Small difference, but enough to be clearly noticable. Oh, and did I mention their software is quite buggy and unstable (Yes, this includes the driver)?
In short, this is potentially a nice product, but definitely something I want to have reviewed THOROUGHLY, using a lot of different movies and encodings, before I trust it.
He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
Some folks are kind enough to help us see that distinction by refering to it at DivX ;-)
;-) only refers to DivX 3.11, which this box won't play. So that doesn't help at all...
DivX
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
--Aristotle
On the remote press
CLEAR 2 7 6
it'll bring you into a menu where you can turn off region coding
If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
Yet another victim of this protection. I wonder when are people going to write firmware upgrades which will take care of this problem?
Please respond!
Slashdot community, please notice: I am looking for a girlfriend.
Nave H. Weiss
Does anybody remember when DivX was the "alternative format" for DVDs? The players were supposed to only allow people to play the movies if they paid to have the keys?
That form of DivX was, I think, the first real attempt the industry made towards DRM, though it's horrible failure caused it to die a welcomed death. If this current day DivX is based on the same format, I find it a sweet irony that it's now the format of choice for those who trade video (notice I didn't say people who pirate, even though they love this format, too).
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
Well, in November 2002 I wanted to buy one of these things for my parents. Thus I spent a lot of time finding data on this KISS player.
After a lot of back and forth, I decided not to buy it for the following reasons:
* Price. In Germany, this thing costs about $400. That's harsh, especially compared to the bone-standard DVD player I bought in the end for $88.
* It doesn't play Advanced DivX (Quarter Pixel, GMC). While I can do without GMC (it looks weird in places), I use QP all the time.
* The FAQ clearly stated that you will never, ever, be able to disable the region code and the Macrovision 'protection'. I can live with the region code limitation (while grinding my teeth), but my parents TV cannot handle this Macrovision nonsense (and no, we won't buy a new TV just for DVDs).
While I can buy a hardware scrubber for the Macrovision, it would have put be back another $60.
* The button design on the box itself is simply lousy. All buttons are in a neat row and look quite identical. Good luck using it in the half-dark.
I'm now fiddling with putting together a Linux PC in a tiny case, which will play whatever I put into the DVD drive. I'm still looking for a *quiet* case, though...
Ciao,
Klaus
Free PC version of ChipWits at http://www.breueronline.de/klaus/chipwits/
First, I'd like you to take a stab at the real standard that's being supported: MPEG4. Please note: This encompasses DivX (4.x+.. ie, all the legal versions), XviD, .mp4 files, and theoretically Quicktime 6. MPEG4 is bigger than DivX, and I'd say that this is not a fully compaitble DivX player anyway, since it doesn't play the hacked 3.11 version.
So how the hell is this bad for standards?
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
You mean, the first DivX player other than the Archos MP3 player. The new version has a color LCD screen and video out, and can play DivX to a TV. The Archos is in major retailers now; a guy at work has one though I haven't played with it yet.
I think most of us were hoping for and counting on this being the case at some point anyway. As convenient as VCDs have been, it has been obvious that they are only a short-term solution while better technologies are being developed.... as... is... everything else.
Just get a video card with TV ($30).
If closeness is an issue, get a wireless keyboard mouse ($100 Logitec) and/or an infrared receiver ($30 @ www.irman.com).
Buying a separate standalone player is stupid. All standalone players break. I have owned 6 VCRs, 4 cd players, and 3 stereos in the past 15 years. Everything breaks. And the more stuff you have, the more often something is in repair.
But we're slashdot readers right? We're all guaranteed to always have a suitable computer for the rest of our lives, right? Then why spend additional money for more redundant hardware? Computers are easier to repair too.
There is no point in owning a cd player or VCR. Hell, my computer can record a tv show while simultaneously pumping music to every room in the house without a glitch. (While also compressing video in the background and downloading from newsgroups.) And it's only 900mHz with 256M ram. Imagine what people with a real comuter can do.
Give it up. The standalone player days are over. [/rant]
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
No, Circuit City's Divx was encrypted MPEG-2 (standard DVD video format) with proprietary players that restricted use. This DivX is a codec for a certain profile of MPEG-4 (offering significantly better compression).
...They want to play what they downloaded .-
So users are bad for standards, thats right. And Divx is bad for standard.
Or does it only play DivX, i.e. MPEG-4 encoding in a non-standard AVI file?
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
"What are you talking about? DivX, XviD and ffmpeg are all creating MPEG-4 spec-compliant video streams. As far as the decoder can see, streams created by any of them were created by the same encoder."
So, honestly wondering, why can't it play DivX 3.x format? Many of my discs are in 3.x, and if there's a way to make them playable on this player, that would be fantastic. Are there any tools that cleanly seperate the MPEG-4 stream from an AVI, which ostensibly should work for all DivXs, including 3.x? Of course, one can convert an AVI to mpeg-4, but that involves dirty decomp-recomp, and that's the LAST ditch option. Anybody?
Hello AC.
As I wrote before, in order to circumvent that problem, the drive's firmware has to use the following logic:
if (cd is printed) and (cd is audio_cd) then read_only_the_first_session
This will take care of the problem of the additional confusing sessions which get naturally ignored by normal CD players. One minor problem is that you won't be able to view the data in mixed audio+data CDs (like in the 2nd installation disc of the game Nobody Lives Forever), so it's best to apply this theoretical firmware upgrade only when you have more than one CD drive.
Slashdot community, please notice: I am looking for a girlfriend.
Nave H. Weiss
The DivX 3.11 "format" is just a hack of Microsoft's old MSMPEG4V3 codec - it is similar to MPEG-4, but the bitstream format is different (more limited, missing many features, different huffman codes).
I am working on a tool that can losslessly convert a DivX 3.11 AVI into an MPEG-4 stream. The resulting MPEG-4 stream will be larger than the original, since the codebooks aren't optimal anymore, but the conversion will be quick and visually identical. This is possible due to the fact that motion vector resolution, block sizes, quantizers, etc. are identical between the formats, they're just written differently.
- HOORAY!
I'm pretty sure you have been able to play DivX movies on the Dreamcast for a year now.
Well, if you need beta testers or purchasers, let me know :)
Never.
jews like you aren't capable of making rational decisions.