Cheap DivX Solution For Your Entertainment Center

joemite writes "I-O DATA recently announced the release of their LinkPlayer, which can decode DivX files from DVDs, CDs, USB thumb drives, and network file shares. At $249 suggested retail, I know what I'm wishing for this Christmas!" For simpler (no network shares, no thumb drives) and even cheaper set-ups, a few standalone DVD players -- the Philips DVP642 is one -- will play DivX files from recordable CDs andd DVDs.

Comments

But does it support Xvid?

[Anonymous Coward]

For those of us that prefer a better, open-source codec?

Re:But does it support Xvid?

[lakin]

From the iodata product page:
Supported Video MPEG-1/MPEG-2/DivX® VIDEO/XviD/WMV9

Re:But does it support Xvid?

[teko_teko]

Yea, I wish there's some kind of video/dvd player that has small harddrive where we can install the latest codecs/plugins to.

Re:But does it support Xvid?

[Cocodude]

Most DVD players that support DivX support MPEG-4 based codecs, of which XviD is one. My DK Digital DVD player supports DivX, but in reality plays most of my XviDs and no doubt other MPEG-4 codecs.

Re:But does it support Xvid?

[Chris Pimlott]

Yes, why keep saying DivX, most peple use XviD now.

Re:But does it support Xvid?

[tepples]

I wish there's some kind of video/dvd player that has small harddrive where we can install the latest codecs/plugins

There is. It's called an Xbox. And even if you live in an area with anti-modchip laws and strict enforcement thereof, there's always Mini-ITX boxes.

Re:But does it support Xvid?

[Naffer]

Does it do Xvid with Global Motion Compensation? Last I'd heard there weren't any Xvid standalone players that could handle it.

Re:But does it support Xvid?

[Anonymous Coward]

It does indeed. The real question is, does it support multi audio channel, switchable subtitle .ogm and .mkv container formats for us anime geeks?

Re:But does it support Xvid?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, why doesn't it support mp3/wma/ogg/flac?

Re:But does it support Xvid?

[deltaromeo]

Divx and Xvid offer very good results, but IMO it's almost never good enough - even spread out over 1400MB (2 CD's). Dark scenes come out poorly with a lot of obvious grey banding. Fast motion and camera pans turn out jerky and in my opinion it detracts from the overall viewing experience. If you watch the original source side by side with the compressed version the differences are blatant.

The $249 would be better spent on a DVD Writer (especially since they are so affordable these days), several hundred blank DVDs and a copy of DVD Shrink.

Re:But does it support Xvid?

[John Betonschaar]

There is. It's called an Xbox. And even if you live in an area with anti-modchip laws and strict enforcement thereof, there's always Mini-ITX boxes.

You don't even need a modchip. A simple XBOXUSB adapter cable (not illegal last time I checked) and for example the game MechAssault or 007:Agent under Fire also does the trick. You can even replace the standard HD with a bigger one if you'd like to.

The only downside is if you screw it up, for example by connecting to XBOX live or editing your EEPROM, you'd have to do everything again after that...

Your sig is mine

Re:But does it support Xvid?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Yamada DVX-6600 can play GMC and QPel XviD's.

It is an excellent player and only £59.99! I got one about a month ago and it has played everything I have given it. Very impressed. Better than my old KiSS players IMHO.

Re:But does it support Xvid?

[timts]

no divx solution is really cheaper than a modded xbox. well, there's divx compatible dvd player for around $60 from amazon (philips), but it's not as powerful.

since xbox even can handle RM media. :D

MythTV

[dorward]

Cute, but I still plan to build my own around MythTV. That will work both ways (allowing me to record TV and then view it over the network) as well as dealing with DVDs and MAME.

Re:MythTV

[Anonymous Coward]

Let us know when u r done

Re:MythTV

[homer_ca]

Now can you build an HTPC that's quiet, not 3 times the size and weight, and doesn't use 4 times the electricity of a DVP642? I have one now, and I'm retiring the HTPC. But to be fair, I never got it working as well as I wanted, and I could have spent more time on tweaking it.

Re:MythTV

[evilviper]

Now can you build an HTPC that's quiet, not 3 times the size and weight, and doesn't use 4 times the electricity of a DVP642?

Quiet? No problem.

Size? Size difference matters little.

Weight? My media cabinet isn't fragile, and there's no reason to carry the device around. (<Condecending_Tone>That's what ethernet is for...)

Electricity? Takes a bit of research, but not hard to manage.

Cheaper Divx

[Buster Chan]

For cheapter DIVX, you can buy a Sega Dreamcast, then download the DIVX playing boot-disc from http://www.dcemulation.com

Re:Cheaper Divx

[Joe Tie.]

As much as I love the dreamcast (and still write for it), I don't think it'll meet most peoples needs for movie playback. It's worked well for me simply because I do my own captures and so encoding to a size and bitrate which would go along well with the player. But the size and bitrate limitations come down pretty hard on a lot of what's out there right now, without re-encoding, if it's used with the DC player.

Re:Cheaper Divx

[gl4ss]

it doesn't handle high enough bitrates to be really useful though.

xbox does that better(modded, of course)..

Re:Cheaper Divx

[ImaLamer]

While I love the Dreamcast (practiacally downloaded every game for it!) I can't recommend this as a solution.

Ever tried the VCD player? VCD's have, by standard, constant bit rates and pretty easy to decode as they are uncompressed files - the Dreamcast doesn't do that task very well. You'll notice blocks and 'smears' where you never seen them before.

Re:Cheaper Divx

[AnyoneEB]

VCDs are compressed with MPEG1 at a resolution about a quarter of regular TV. More info on the VCD format. In my experience, VCDs look pretty bad no matter what device you're playing them on.

Re:Cheaper Divx

[ImaLamer]

In my experience, VCDs look pretty bad no matter what device you're playing them on.

Well, you've not had the right VCD's! I've encoded some beauties. Plus you need a good decoder, because as I mentioned some don't fully decode the entire stream (they do their best giving you artifacts).

The issue about resolution is *almost* pointless when you realize your TV (if not HD) isn't that great to begin with and it scales very well.

But then again it all goes back to good encoding.

Re:Cheaper Divx

[bani]

you can't play just any divx with it though. you need to encode divx files within tight restrictions that can play on the DC's limited cpu.

Re:Cheaper Divx

[Nyder]

gotta love it when people tell you a solution, yet they've never used it themselves.

Dreamcast divx player sucks. you have to reencode everything, lower the bit rate/ resolution.

Way too much work, mainly since this product is made so people who don't know much about computers, can watch the divx disks that they download or that they're friends give them.

Don't get me wrong, I have a Dreamcast and love it. But it barely plays VCD. Now maybe if someone with a professional SDK for the Dreamcast was to make a divx player, maybe it will be useable, but i'm not holding my breath.

Dreamcast is a great machine for learning to program on consoles, or playing with the homebrew community cheaply.

Re:Cheaper Divx

[emotionus]

what do you normally encode at?

Re:Cheaper Divx

[Anonymous Coward]

You loved the Dreamcast so much that you didn't pay for the games you play on it. That's really great, thanks!

- Sega

Re:Cheaper Divx

[AnyoneEB]

Hmm... I believe most of the VCDs I've seen have been encoded by TMPEGenc, although I don't know what settings. It is quite possible that that is why they didn't look very good. I don't remember seeing a difference between watching them on a computer and either of my DVD players that support CD-R VCDs. Mainly the problems were noticable in the subtitles of subbed anime, but the subtitles were still readable.

It doesn't really matter now. I use a DVD player made by lite-on (LVD-2001, I think, they don't sell that model anymore, but I guess the LVD-2010 replaces it.) that, like the one the article is about, plays divx and xvid off burned CDs and DVDs, which results in much smaller and better quality video files.

Yea but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it run linux?

Re:Yea but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats too bad, no bragging rights :/

Won't the MPIAA have a hissyfit?

[rei_slashdot]

Weren't they suing ESS or whoever made chips for a bunch of the lowcost/cheap DVD players?

Sounds a bit pricey

[neo5064]

At $249, that seems to be a bit pricey for a DivX decoder. Although I suppose the money you'd save by stealing the movies off of your favorite P2P network or torrent source would eventually overcome that.

But what about buying an S-Video cable to hook into the TV, and play it from your computer? Or even better, some cheap DVD encoding software to play it on anyone's system?

Re:Sounds a bit pricey

[Anonymous Coward]

I always get the feeling that people who suggest to just 'burn to DVD', have never had to actually sit around waiting for a DVD to burn. :( It sucks, even at 8x.

Re:Sounds a bit pricey

[NETHED]

Walmart has a great DIVX player for REALLY Cheap. Here's a Link

I bought one a few weeks back and it plays pretty well.

Re:Sounds a bit pricey

[jerkychew]

You're missing the convenience factor. No PC to boot up means no noise, no hassle with crashes and the like, etc. Plus, it's a small, familiar form factor. It fits nicely in your entertainment center with all your other equipment. Sure, you could buuild a small form-factor HTPC, but it would be arguably more expensive, and much more complicated to set up.

I think there's a decent niche market for a product like this. I know quite a few people that would buy something like this at the $250 price point instead of trying to build their own boxes.

Re:Sounds a bit pricey

[fireboy1919]

Yeah? What about if you have a bunch of cartoons you recorded from television and converted to DIVX and you want to make a DVD?

Do you have any idea how long rerendering to MPEGII takes? Not only that, but you have to create some kind of menu system to even read the files!

I'd much prefer the hour or two it takes to Burn to the eight hours of computation + hour of human labor of creating a DVD from scratch. I can even do that right before bed and have a brand new DVD waiting for me in the morning.

Re:Sounds a bit pricey

[Anonymous Coward]

Using S-video cable is something that I have wanted to do for a while now, but I need to make it a 30 foot cable run to get from the computer to the TV. I am sending audio over to that system now; what is the maximum cable run you can have with S-video?

Re:Sounds a bit pricey

[homer_ca]

Erm, that's the DVP642 in the article blurb on top, and $69 is the regular price that everybody sells it for. For a real bargain try Amazon.com at $63 w/ free shipping or if you can't wait most Best Buy and Fry's have it for $69.99 in store. And yes, it is a nice player. Plays just about every Divx/Xvid file I tried except for sound on a really old Divx3.11 file that had Divx ;-) audio (I think that was a hacked 64K WMA codec). It doesn't play files with QPEL either (a feature of Divx 5 Pro), but I haven't run into one of those yet.

Re:Sounds a bit pricey

[c0p0n]

Yeah, I own a Elta 8883 that costed me ~120 (like $150) that plays almost every file I've ever encoded.

Well, actually it does not play (although it was promised, such of vaporware) OGG media files (neither vorbis sound nor OGG media container files).

I'm in doubt some hardware player (not PC based) could ever play OGM or MKV (you know, their flashable memories are not specially big even on more expensive players).

I played movies from PC for at least 4 years... I got tired of tweaking visuals to be readable on TV, and of the cables. And noise: the price to silence the Duron 700 machine I had for this is higher than buy a Elta 8883 machine. Last year I was using GeeXboX, a linux liveCD as small as 6 MB with the kernel, alsa, mplayer, network drivers, samba client, ftp server and client and a cute interface. Cool software.

Re:Sounds a bit pricey

[NanoGator]

"At $249, that seems to be a bit pricey for a DivX decoder."

It comes with an ethernet and USB2.0 port. Both are pretty damn cool. Not bad for $250.

Frankly, I'd like to have one so I could dump all my DVD collection onto my computer and be able to play them on-demand. I used to have a computer with an S-Video out to do that. To be honest, I wasn't all that happy with the picture quality. It worked, but I ached for better.

Re:Sounds a bit pricey

[evilviper]

Do you have any idea how long rerendering to MPEGII takes?

You can very easily get FAR-better-than-realtime evcoding, using a ffmpeg-based encoder on any modern processor.

That means mplayer or ffmpeg on Unix systems. Possibly ffdshow on Windows, but I can't vouch for it personally.

you have to create some kind of menu system to even read the files!

Fairly easy to script. I prefer to stick with SVCDs myself, and not bother with dammed menus.

Re:Sounds a bit pricey

[fireboy1919]

Yeah, but the software is buggy. Sometimes it crashes, and it won't start over from the same point.

It's getting better, though.

FAR better than realtime? Dang. You must have a fast machine. I use transcode, and it take 1.5x as long on my Athlon 1.2Ghz (before the numbers thing), and 3x as long on my PIII-500.

Of course, whenever the mplayer people decide to do mpeg encoding for DVDs, things could speed up considerably. Or if I figure out how to convert mplayer-encoded mpeg2 files into DVD friendly videos.

Re:Sounds a bit pricey

[evilviper]

Yeah, but the software is buggy.

That's not true at all. Both mplayer and ffmpeg are perfectly stable. I've been doing encoding with mplayer (actually mencoder) practically constantly for a couple years.

Sometimes it crashes,

Nope, never. There are bugs once in a while, but they always ammount to something minor.

and it won't start over from the same point.

No, of course not. How do you expect an encoder to start over from the middle of a file?

I use transcode, and it take 1.5x as long on my Athlon 1.2Ghz

You probably aren't using ffmpeg as your video codec then. transcode's default is very slow.

Try mplayer.

My fastest system is only an AMD XP2000+ (1.66GHz)

Or if I figure out how to convert mplayer-encoded mpeg2 files into DVD friendly videos.

That's awfully easy. Lots of people have been doing it for a long time, and you can find tons of examples on the mplayer-users mailing list.

You have several options. There is a patch available that updates the MPlayer mpeg muxer to be more standard, and should work in any player. It also adds support for AC3 audio (which mplayer can encode to) in an mpeg file.

But before that patch, lots of people were using mplayer, anyhow. All you have to do is take the file you've encoded, and dump the audio and video streams to seperate files, then mux them together with mplex.

Also, make sure you're using the "harddup" filter in your -vf options.

And if you don't want to go through that to use mplayer, use ffmpeg instead of transcode. I've used transcode, I know how lowsy it is.

What buy an Xbox.

[Anonymous Coward]

Xbox and Modchip costs less than that. Plus it can do alot more than just play divx files.

I WANT!

[shaneFalco]

Seems quite interesting. What would be really nice would be the option of connecting to a network wirelessly in order to access video files stored on other computers in the house. Maybe even a file browser akin to Konquorer for the computer illeterate in my house. I want one!

Re:I WANT!

[Performaman]

You could just use a 802.11 to ethernet bridge like the Linksys WET-11: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 066JQU/qid=1098050554/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl 23/103-7875819-7060625?v=glance&s=electronics&n=50 7846

Re:I WANT!

[reezle]

Yes. The D-Link MediaLounge is pretty much exactly that. It's got wireless, and can pick up files from watever machines in your network are running the server software. It's doing pretty much everything I ask of it except playing my divx files. (mp3, jpg, avi, mpeg, etc no problem but not divx). Luckily my divx have most all been encoded to mpeg long ago....

I'd rather wish for a chipped Xbox

[ttlgDaveh]

Because it plays DVDs (region free too), media in almost every format under the sun and games too.
On the downside the chipping process may be on the wrong side of "legal" depending on where you are, and the majority applications are, as they're compiled using MS's SDK. Other than that it is excellent, much better than any stand-alone appliance I have come across.

Re:I'd rather wish for a chipped Xbox

[Anonymous Coward]

And if you are lucky enough to get one that has a half decent DVD drive (i.e. a small minority of those manufactured) then it might even be able to read CD-Rs too!

Damn crappy ass Thomson piece of shit... *smacks Xbox*

Not that great of a value....

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not buy an Xbox($149 new), mod it ($50 shipped) and use XBMC? It does all of that plus music and weather.....and you get a kick ass console.

You save $50 and you have a lot more functionality.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Stevyn]

And you can play xbox games by just ripping them to the hard drive (which you can upgrade to hold a LOT of games. You can also play any NES, N64, Sega Genesis, and I'm sure several other console games. Few people know how amazing a modded xbox is. The only downside is you're taking revenue away from Microsoft.

Did I say downside?

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

What you mean is that you're stealing from MS and other companies that publish games for the XBox when you download and burn games. Contrary to what you may have heard, just because you don't like a particular company does not mean that you have the right to pirate their products or services.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Student_Tech]

But it doesn't do USB thumb drives (or anything via USB yet, unless that has been added in the last few months) on the Xbox nativly. Of course if you are doing network file shares, just plug the USB device into a network file server and go from there.
Plus if you go software exploit you don't even have to pay for the mod chip (or the TSOP flash method), of course if you get a really new Xbox those (software & tsop) aren't really working and you would need the chip.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[secolactico]

The only downside is you're taking revenue away from Microsoft.

But will you be able to connect to Xbox Live? I never realized how much I sucked until I got my ass handed over and over and over to me in almost any network capable game. But dang, was it fun.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[tepples]

Why not buy an Xbox($149 new), mod it ($50 shipped)

How much is going to jail worth? Some countries have begun to crack down on Xbox modchip vendors and installers.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Anonymous Coward]

You can connect to Xbox Live with a modded xbox. Do a google.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Kenshin]

Boy, don't they have you running scared?

They're not arresting people for having a mod chip installed.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Anonymous Coward]

Where could I buy a xbox that has all this ready to go with the xbox media menu? I dont want to mess with it.

--

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude.... you dont deserve one if you cant figure it out for yourself. its not that hard. besides, its illegal, but ill do it for you for $248 so you could save a dollar.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Anonymous Coward]

I own MSFT stock you insensitive clod!

Re:Not that great of a value....

[d34thm0nk3y]

we are talking about chipping an xbox to play movie files? lets stay on track here people, it is like we all have ADD or something. not every thread needs to turn into a debate on the morality of software piracy.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[dominyx]

Of course they can't. I hid my modchip inside the Xbox. They'll never look there!

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Tyrdium]

You mean copying games he already owns? I do the same thing on my computer, with Daemon Tools; it saves me the hassle of swapping disks.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Kirby-meister]

Actually you're providing them compensation for creating the Xbox you bought. I doubt they make a loss these days, but if they do, then buying an Xbox compensates them for that loss.

Just remember that it's better to make up for a loss on the hardware and not have a customer buy your games than it is to not make up for a loss on the hardware and not have a customer buy your games.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[cdrudge]

Turn your mod chip off and yes. Keep it on and be banned.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[lakeland]

That the sale of an xbox costs MSFT money is a popular myth among people who don't understand economics. Let me try and explain it simply:

Microsoft spent a lot of money developing the xbox. Microsoft also spent a lot on infrastructure, advertising, and other such 'fixed' costs. When you calculate the cost to MS of every xbox they sell, you amortise these fixed costs over all xboxes sold, along with the variable cost (the cost per unit). A naive conclusion from this is that when you buy an xbox, Microsoft loses money. If you instead compute the raw cost of producing an xbox to MS (i.e. just the variable cost), then you find it costs them less than you paid for it. Conclusion: Every time you buy an xbox, MSFT's coffers are increased.

How do you reconcile those two things? Pretty easily. MS makes money off the sale of their xbox hardware, but not enough to justify them developing the xbox. Some people buy xbox games, and these people make MSFT a lot of profit. Is this profit enough to justify the money they've blown bringing a product to market? Perhaps, or perhaps not, we'll see. But every time you buy an xbox, you know you're helping make Bill just that tiny bit richer.

In case you haven't got it yet, let me give you an analogy. Say you've got a business idea, your company: "Winc" is going to start selling bottled water for $50/bottle. You plan to spend $50M on advertising to convince people that they really want to buy your water - it is much more cool than the water evian sells, for instance. Now, anybody could tell you this is a stupid business plan, and it is going to lose money because hardly anybody will buy the water. But an accountant would describe it in terms of the profit (loss) per bottle sold. In this case, you might be loosing $10,000 for every bottle you sell. But if I walk into a shop and buy a bottle, you make almost $50 profit. Do you follow?

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Frogbert]

No but you can play on the free version

Re:Not that great of a value....

[KronicD]

The latest version of the Xenium OS for the xenium modchip supports USB Devices, as do many of the media players for the Xbox.

Of course an adapter is needed to connect a USB device to one of the controller ports, but these are widely and cheaply available, microsoft will even supply these! (offically to be used with PSO for keyboards, PSO is an MMORPG)

It is worth noting that the controllers include a "usb hub" of sorts, with the two memory slots in the top of each controller, as an unmodded xbox seems unable to tell the difference between an official memory card and a usb thumbdrive pluged into a controller port.

This support of USB devices is currently being widely used for TSOP softmod exploits.

The xbox is an excellent media center and has served me well, altho xbox modchips are currently legal where I am (Australia), altho that is set to change in early 2005 when the free trade agreement (and dmca like provisions) come into effect.

If its still legal where you are, I reccomend getting a modded xbox, its a great console, great media player and a great general purpose machine :)

Something lesser known is that the memory and CPU in the xbox can actually be upgraded (soldering required), or you can buy a pre-upgraded xbox from here.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Anonymous Coward]

Good points but I think you simplify too much. If I buy an xbox and do not buy any games I am preventing someone else (who presumably _would_ buy games) from attaining that xbox.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Skuld-Chan]

I'd like to second that - I bought a dvd player that is supposed to be divx certified (even has the divx.com logo on it). So far if its a perfect divx clip, with mp3 soundtrack it works great. If its anything but - forget it. Many times it seems to have poor audio.

Xbox on the other hand with xbmc plays it all, divx, wmp, xvid, quicktime, real media, you name it. I have seriously yet to see a media format it won't play with absolute perfection.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[gl4ss]

so.. your going to start dealing xbox modchips(with pirated/hacked bios) and get into the installing biz , when you're just buying it for yourself?

and really, how would just installing an empty modchip fundamentally difference from slapping on a flash cart on your gba?

Re:Not that great of a value....

[afidel]

Well I'm not sure about today, but when the XBox first came out the variable cost of the XBox was in fact greater than the MSRP. I will quote a Cnet article from 2001:
And production costs are expected to be an unusually high $375 per machine because of the console's advanced features, Blodget said in the report. Blodget estimates Microsoft will "lose $125 on every Xbox console--and that's before taking into account" sales, marketing and other administrative costs.
linky

I don't doubt that the cost of parts have come down enough that today MS is in fact no longer losing much if any money on the XBox, but they most certainly aren't making a whole lot of money on them either. The console industry is all about licensing costs from content creators. Why else do you think three titles cost as much as the console?

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Anonymous Coward]

...and Microsoft will manufacture another Xbox for that other person.

We are not dealing with supplies so gravely finite that there is a shortage of Xboxes. If you buy one, Microsoft makes money. The same story applies to the next person, and the next, and the next, etc. And for every person that buys Xbox games, that's really just icing on the cake (icing that MS has come to depend on to keep investors from cutting their throats over the losses that Xbox has caused, but still icing).

It boggles the mind to understand why this is so difficult for people I'd expect to be intelligent in various other fields that are far more complex than this.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Anonymous Coward]

what the parent windbag is trying to say:

if you just look at the actual direct costs of making an xbox, msft is making a profit on each one.

windbag says the myth comes from people factoring development, marketing & a whole bunch of other shit into the total costs.

of course microsoft's own financial statements broken out by division show that only Office and Windows are balls-out-profitable.

xbox was a little over the break even point for the whole project.

i can guarantee you that microsoft is NOT HAPPY WITH THIS SITUATION, no matter what the blowhard parent windbag says about the xbox still be profitable per box if you factor just the immediate costs.

microsoft and other big companies have lots of so-so projects.

their hope is that they can "knock one out of the park"...again.

so parent is babbling about nothing.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[hohead]

Why does everyone think you *NEED* to buy a modchip for the Xbox?
Using the proven "UDE softmod" method, all you need is a rented game, a homemade USB2Xbox adapter and a USB thumbdrive to mod your Xbox.
Total cost: $5-10

And yes, this will 100% unlock your Xbox just the same as a $50 modchip would.

For more info, check out: http://how2xbox.com/ and/or http://www.xbox-scene.com/

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Erik Hollensbe]

Besides, every Xbox you buy is another console in another home where your friends will come over and see it.

And maybe you won't buy the games, but your friends will. And the games bring in big dinero.

It's the same reason that you can find Photoshop on every warez site and Adobe tells stock holders one thing and doesn't do a damn thing about it otherwise.

That kid that downloaded photoshop to work on his web page is going to look for jobs that require that as a skill - those businesses are going to buy Photoshop, because Adobe will actually go after them.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[evilviper]

I have seriously yet to see a media format it won't play with absolute perfection.

You haven't tried very hard. There are tons of formats Linux media players can't handle. Variations of WMV, QT, and mainly REAL. Watch a few dozen REAL videos, and odds are, you'll find at least one that doesn't work right.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[moonbender]

Keeping in with your bottle analogy: After an initial investment of $50M, you sell your bottled water at $50 per bottle. However, since your making bottles of solid crystal, each costs you $60 to manufacture. You're actually losing money on each, and not recouping investment costs. You're hoping will come back with the bottle for water refills you sell over price, though.

Your point is well taken, and the popular belief that Microsoft loses money on the consoles might well be wrong. But you didn't really give me a reason to think so - people don't think MS loses money on each box due to their initial investments, but simply because the hardware in that box - ie. not a "fixed cost" - comes in fairly expensive.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[XMage]

Although you have a grasp of micro economics, you need also to take a closer look at the underlying business strategy before you can understand the bigger picture. Microeconomics alone does not cut it. As all the other child posts point out, your thinking is flawed in certain respects.

So you say that it is a "popular myth" that MS does not profit from the sale of individual XBoxes?

I understand your economic reasoning. In substance you are saying that although the initial, fixed, sunk costs in the XBox project is large, the variable cost of producing an XBox is materially lower than the selling price. By your own admission, what you have is a gross profit, and a net loss after taking into account the fixed costs.

Taking your bottling analogy and simplifying:

Sale of one Bottle US$50.
Cost of bottle US$0.
Gross profit US$50.

Other costs US$50,000,000
Net loss US$49,999,950

No matter how you slice it, despite making a gross profit, you've made a loss selling bottles. You need to hit the "sweet spot" and sell AT LEAST 1 million bottles before you break even and start to make money. This is a little simplistic.

So no matter how you slice fixed costs & variable costs, this does not detract from the fact that the XBox division is not a profit generating business unit.

Also, you need to have a closer look at one of your biggest assumptions: that the marginal cost of producing the XBox is very small. It's not, because the last time I checked MSc ontracted out the production of the XBox to a 3rd party contractor. And MS does not control all the technology in the XBox: Intel and NVidia do. Contrast this to Sony, who operates at all levels in the manufacture of the PS2, and after 3-4 years can simplify the silicon andm anufacturing processes to produce a "slimmer" version. You only have to see the PSOne (The PS2 has a PS-on-a-chip, and the PSOne used this technology) and the upcoming PS2.

The marginal cost of producing an XBox to Microsoft is not very small.

Although I understand economics, rephrasing the question in terms of fixed & variable costs does not assist in our understanding of the underlying business. Let me try and explain it simply: You are either profitable or you're not. And if you're not profitable, then there should be a damn good reason for spending cash and losing money.

At the end of the day, the bottom line is the net loss of US$50m. And if I've contributed to
increasing MS's bottom line losses, then I would say that by buying an XBox I've "cost" Microsoft money.

So why should Microsoft go into a loss making business?

The way I see it, the XBox is a part of a wider MS strategy to break into the home entertainment market. Maybe MS saw that the Sony PS2 holds up Sony's profits worldwide and that they want to get into that game too.

You ever read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash? The way I see it, MS want to have a hand in designing the infrastructure for the Metaverse. Do you see all those fixed costs in developing the XBox and the XBox Live service? One of the big selling features of the XBox was it's network connectivity built into the machine.

Sony and the PS3 will have a lot to catch up on to match Microsoft's investment in XBox Live (the network infrastructure and software code) and to deliver an experience that is as compelling. To be honest, I suspect that Sony will miss the boat entirely and XBox 2 will stomp all over the PS3's online capability.

One day we may all get to experience something like the Metaverse. I won't be surprised if it's delivered via technology & infrastructure that was developed for the XBox.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[Anonymous Coward]

Watch a few dozen REAL videos, and you'll soon find at least one that Real don't handle. They have dropped support for their own DNET codec.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[tepples]

how would just installing an empty modchip fundamentally difference from slapping on a flash cart on your gba?

Flash carts are solderless.

But still, I can't buy a modchip in town. I can't buy a GBA flash card in town. At which shop does the $50 include the modchip, installation labor, and shipping?

Re:Not that great of a value....

[tepples]

That kid that downloaded photoshop to work on his web page is going to look for jobs that require that as a skill

In what way do GIMP skills not transfer to Photoshop?

Re:Not that great of a value....

[JFMulder]

Actually, you're not taking away revenue. If you didn't buy the console, Microsoft wouldn't get a single penny for that console and would lose more than 150US$. Now you bought one and they got part of it's investment back.

Re:Not that great of a value....

[ronhack]

I use Alcohol 120% myself for my LAN party system. Not only does it allow me to store the original disks as backups (and therefore keep them minty-fresh longer), I also don't have to remember my extensive library of multi-player games when a large hard drive will contain my library already. Heck, in several cases the disk images on my hard drive run far better than the original disks did. Go figure.

Quality

[fembots]

I haven't used DivX for 2 years now, how is the quality nowadays?

I would imagine for portable entertainment devices, DivX might come in handy because of the size.

However, if I am to watch something on my home entertainment center, I want the highest quality possible.

Re:Quality

[Anonymous Coward]

It's higher quality at the same bitrate, and you can choose to lower it only as much as you feel your super eyes and golden ears will allow. I'd gather you could probably lower it to 50% of the MPEG2 streams size and not be able to notice the difference, especially not in a blind test. Oh, and the quality of DivX has pretty much always exceeded that of DVD, even 2 years ago, just that most people push for a lower bitrate because they don't think the difference is worth the extra space.

Re:Quality

[tomstdenis]

flamebait...

You know you can

1. Do two pass encoding
2. Use a ***HIGHER BITRATE***

Those rips off kazaa you got 2 years ago were probably one-pass 384kbps files or something...

Two-pass 2Mbps should look perfect even at 720x480. If you're not so anal you can get by with as little as 800Kbps.

Tom

Re:Quality

[Anonymous Coward]

However, if I am to watch something on my home entertainment center, I want the highest quality possible

So, what's it like having your very own iMax cinema then? Is it hard to find film for?

Already have a cheap Divx solution.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called Mplayer.

My entertainment system, is also a computer.

I run mythtv for my telivision, and will often use mplayer to run stuff.

With my computer I avoid having to have:

a cd jutebox.
a mp3 player
a dvd player
a time-shifting box
a cable box

it's funny because I go to my dad's house and he has a stack of different electronic devices for all the different media and things that he can do with his entertainment center.

i have 3 things:
TV
Linux Box with DVD burner and remote keyboard/mouse/remote control
digital receiver

And hell I can burn CDs or DVD's, and he hasn't bought a device to do that.

Don't Jump the Gun

[Pugio]

I would wait to see how the reviews pan out with this thing. Besides the very bad english on their product page (here) players like these don't always work up to spec (obvious but still needs to be said at least once). A fact I found very interesting was the "(Testing)" entry next to their DivX support halfway down the page.

xvid divx

[Anonymous Coward]

xvid > divx

Commercial DivX DVDs?

[ShadowFlair]

I wonder if companies will produce DivX DVDs/CDs for retail sales... that would be pretty neat.

Come to think of it, this is kind of like buying an MP3 stereo/player. I still haven't seen any MP3 CD at my local CD retail yet, but I've seen people burning their own MP3 CDs. At least there aren't record companies going after these MP3 player makers yet, hopefully this will hold true for these divx players.

Re:Commercial DivX DVDs?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the fuck would I pay for a degraded video disc when I can buy a normal DVD?

Seriously, you do know DivX is a lossy format, right?

3

Re:Commercial DivX DVDs?

[Anonymous Coward]

At least there aren't record companies going after these MP3 player makers yet

Actually, the RIAA already went after the MP3 player market. In 1999, the RIAA tried to enjoin Diamond Multimedia from manufacturing and distributing the Rio MP3 player. The RIAA argued that the Rio lacked a serial copy management system as required by the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA). Ultimately, Diamond Multimedia won the suit because the Rio was not an audio recording device, and thus not governed by the AHRA.

Now, consider what might happen were this case to be brought against someone like Archos, whose multimedia jukeboxes are capable of recording. The serial copy limitation of the AHRA could easily be applied (IANAL, but I doubt it would stick on appeal). It's precisely this kind of legal history that is behind the continued fight for fair use rights, and opposition to legislation like the INDUCE Act.

Re:Commercial DivX DVDs?

[Anonymous Coward]

you know DVD (aka "MPEG2") is a lossy format, right?

Re:Commercial DivX DVDs?

[Anonymous Coward]

STFU, n00bz0r. bit for bit DivX and XviD are capable of more quality than DVD.

You do remember that DVDs are encoded in MPEG2, right?

Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[nyquil]

i have 2 of these, theyre really great. amazon has them usually for around $67, they work flawlessly, and will play almost everything you could put in there. i guess theres a couple divx encoders that it cant handle (yet), and i have come across a file or 2 that it wouldnt play, but if you're ripping your own stuff it should be fine. firmware upgradeable as well, just burn new firmware to cdr and follow the instructions. it will play divx/xvid/mpeg4 off cdr, cdrw, dvd+r/rw and dvd-r/rw, as well as being region free and progressive scan. best $67 i've ever spent.

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[Anonymous Coward]

That player fails to play new Xvid files encoded to HR HDTV standards. Example from recent file below:

Video Codec : XviD 1.0.2
Video Resolution : 960x528 (16/9)
Video Framerate : 23.976
Encoding Method : 2 pass
Video Bitrate : 2146228 bps Avg
Audio Codec : AC3 (Dolby Digital 6.1)
Encoding Method : UNTOUCHED
Audio Bitrate : 192000 bps (CBR)
Audio Sample Rate : 48000 Hz

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[Anonymous Coward]

try encoding the XviD at 720x480 or lower. Anything higher and it won't play. Also the video bitrate is too high.

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[Danny Rathjens]

I have a similar problem playing files on the dvp642 even without hdtv resolutions. I am going to try a lower bitrate, as someone else suggested. Here is the way I record from regular cable now:

mencoder -tv driver=v4l:width=640:height=480:norm=NTSC:chanlist =us-cable -vf crop=625:478:8:2,pp=de/lb -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=2000 -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=64 -o /home/dkr/vid/tv.avi tv://

With that method, the dvp642 just plays the sound. Too bad it doesn't have an error console to say exactly why it isn't playing something. :)

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[Anonymous Coward]

More precisely, most standalone DivX/XviD players have problems decoding XviD-files that were encoded with QPEL, GMC or BVOP turned on. If you rip yourself this is not a problem, but most downloadable xvid movies use BVOP and a smaller portion of them use QPEL and/or GMC. I'd guess that about 50% of the movies that I download would work in a standalone player like the dvp642 without any reencoding.

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[Anonymous Coward]

If you sign up for an Amazon Visa, you can save another $30 and get the Philips player for $37. That what I did. I love it!

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[evilviper]

There are a LOT of things you can try. First of all, I would add "vstrict=1" to your lavcopts, and a keyint much less than the lavc default (250).

You don't seem to be using any inverse telecine, even though you're recording NTSC video. Insert 'ivtc' or one of the other inverse telecine filters before you deinterlacer (pp=lb) and your picture will look far better.

I also bet the video you are getting look rather squished. You need to specify an aspect ratio. 1.333 (4/3) is correct for 720x480, but with 640x480, you need about 1.185 to get things to look right.

Finally, your crop parameters give you dimentions that aren't multiples of 16, so you are wasting lots and lots of bits for no reason... not to mention, triggering a bug in many mpeg4 decoders that will cause distortion around the edges of the video.

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[nutshell42]

There are a LOT of things you can try. First of all, I would add "vstrict=1" to your lavcopts, and a keyint much less than the lavc default (250).

vstrict could help but if his player supports more than strict mpeg4 avc it shouldn't be the real reason. I-frame interval neither. Lowering the bitrate could help some players don't like more than 1500 video.

You don't seem to be using any inverse telecine, even though you're recording NTSC video. Insert 'ivtc' or one of the other inverse telecine filters before you deinterlacer (pp=lb) and your picture will look far better.

But unless you have a really fast PC you get too many framedrops. Especially when you're encoding. linearblend is an excellent deinterlacing filter and the result's probably better than with ivtc

I also bet the video you are getting look rather squished. You need to specify an aspect ratio. 1.333 (4/3) is correct for 720x480, but with 640x480, you need about 1.185 to get things to look right.

The TV picture is 4:3. (Unless it's 16:9 or even higher with some DVDs of course =) If he crops the black parts he should encode the rest in 4:3 (but for TV playback leaving a bit of black around the picture can be better.)

Finally, your crop parameters give you dimentions that aren't multiples of 16, so you are wasting lots and lots of bits for no reason...

Erm, look at his settings. He is encoding in 640x480. The problem's more that the scaling isn't really necessary but I don't know how good mencoder scales the image and whether scaling or a black border is worse for encoding in this case. 64kbit audio for a 2000kbit video are a bit weak though =)

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[Basje]

I have the european version (DVP630 I believe):
open the tray
press 7-8-9-ok-0

It's now region free. Not bad, at 129 euro. (last friday)

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[Danny Rathjens]

Thanks for the advice. I shall put it into practice. I think I cut and pasted most of those settings from the mplayer docs and some other random posts/sites with samples and didn't really investigate very much since it seemed to work ok. :)

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[evilviper]

But unless you have a really fast PC you get too many framedrops.

This is totally ridiculous. ivtc adds practically NO overhead at all.

linearblend is an excellent deinterlacing filter and the result's probably better than with ivtc

Clearly, you have no idea what you are talking about. First of all, pp=lb without ivtc on telecine'd material will look like crap. Ghosting like crazy.

Also, ivtc doesn't do deinterlacing at all, only the inverse telecine. In other words, you will still be using pp=lb, just after ivtc has done it's work on the video.

The TV picture is 4:3

Yes, it's 4/3 when it's at a resolution of 720x480. Once you shrink the dimentions, you have to change the aspect to compensate.

If he crops the black parts he should encode the rest in 4:3

Absolutely wrong. The aspect is 4/3 when it's 720x480. Once you've cropped it, you need to adjust that to get the new aspect (which I did, for 640x480).

(but for TV playback leaving a bit of black around the picture can be better.)

Not true at all. It wastes a lot of bits for no reason. If you want black borders, add them at playback.

look at his settings. He is encoding in 640x480.

He captures at 640x480, then he CROPS it, therefore he is not encoding in 640x480. He is encoding at 625x478

The problem's more that the scaling isn't really necessary

What scaling? He isn't doing any scaling at all.

64kbit audio for a 2000kbit video are a bit weak though =)

Not really. Since he's not using mbd=2 or trell, his 2000k video will still look pretty lowsy.

You've shown over and over again that you have absolutely no knowledge of video encoding at all. Go find another subject you can bullshit your way through.

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[evilviper]

No problem. You would learn a lot if you subscribed to the mplayer-users list, or read the archives once in a while.

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[Danny Rathjens]

Actually, now that I think about, I recall that the reason I did fine tune the cropping was precisely because of bandwidth. I had read that I should crop to get rid of the sharp drop from image to black which wastes bits. I see what you mean about the aspect ratio being based on the post-cropped image, though.

I used to subscribe to the mplayer lists. I even submitted a patch to mplayer a long time ago which they didn't accept but implemented my feature anyway, so I was happy, :) But they were a bit too spammy and combative for my tastes(like your argument here with nutshell, :). Nowadays I just use the gmane nntp interface to the mailing lists. So I can just look at them when I need to once in a blue moon and easily search the headers too:

nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.mplayer.dev el
nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.mplayer.use r

Re:Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[evilviper]

too spammy and combative for my tastes(like your argument here with nutshell, :)

Well, that's a particularly strange case. I've never seen anyone like him on any of the mailing lists.

It's just a major annoyance of mine when someone tries to offer terrible advice, yet has no idea what they are talking about. Especially when directly contradicting someone else.

Nowadays I just use the gmane nntp interface to the mailing lists.

Well, all of these issues have been rehashed over and over on the mailing list, so I'd say you'd do well to read them more often (or check changes in the man page, or read the DOCS thoroughly, etc). Of course, it's up to you... If you don't care that much, that's up to you.

Standalones are cheap

[phozz bare]

They sell standalone DVD players capable of playing DivX, Mp4, Mp3, Jpg, Photo CD, etc etc for about $90 (incl. delivery) here in Israel. These are Chinese players pretending to be German, but they do the job. Please, find something better to do with your $249.

phozz

Re:Standalones are cheap

[Xenna]

Yeah, but they don't play over the network do they? Some of us at Slashdot are heavily into networking and don't like to shuffle around with plastic disks.

Still, I'd like it to include PVR functionality as well, so this player's not for me either.

I'd be more interested in something like this:

http://www.kiss-technology.com/?p=558&v=users

Unfortunately, this is even more expensive...

Xbox, cheaper, more effective

[Oz0ne]

a modded xbox

New Xbox $150
Mod Chip $30-60
40 Gig HD $40

Total: $220-250

Will play DVDs region free, divx, xvid, quicktime, wmv, mpeg, avi, dv, mp3, view photos/slideshow, stream mp3 from internet radio stations, get the weather... etc.

Only true geeks will want the hardware mentioned in the article... and true geeks can do much better, cheaper, and have more fun doing it themselves.

Re:Xbox, cheaper, more effective

[MightyPez]

Hell, you don't even need a mod chip. Just find someone with an Action Replay and a copy of Splinter Cell, 007 Nightfire, or Mechassault.

Re:Xbox, cheaper, more effective

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell, you don't even need the Action Replay.

Re:Xbox, cheaper, more effective

[Anonymous Coward]

The Philips will play R2 DVDs and output NTSC.
Does the Xbox do this? How does the conversion look? Is the aspect ratio correct?

Re:Xbox, cheaper, more effective

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, good, and yes.

Re:Xbox, cheaper, more effective

[Anonymous Coward]

Only true geeks will want the hardware mentioned in the article... and true geeks can do much better, cheaper, and have more fun doing it themselves.
:-)

Re:Xbox, cheaper, more effective

[natokills]

Seems everyone is forgetting that the DVD drive in the Xbox doesn't read CD-R's. If you already have a vcd/divx collection on CD's, you can buy a $90 DVD drive on ebay to replace the one that comes from the factory. or, you can use that $90 to buy a divx standalone player, and keep the xbox for games.

Maybe two years ago

[NMerriam]

I remember dying to get a commercial standalone player able to play DivX, XVid, etc a few years ago, but even the super-expensive ones had woefully underpowered Sigma decoder chips.

Now, there are dozens out there, and none of them have half the functionality, much less the low price, of a modded XBox.

The fact that the Xbox also plays games is essentially a bonus feature -- it's a $150 universal media player that sets up in minutes and plays very well with other high-end AV components.

Or...

[Tuffnut]

You could get a modded xbox for about $200 that will play DVD, CD, SVCD, VCD, DIVX, MPEG, XVID, all streaming over a network from your computer.

a cute blue alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

400-600MHz SGI O2 w/a/v card running debian & MPlayer. approx.$250

Re:a cute blue alternative

[MarkTina]

And how will you install Debian on the O2 ?

Re:a cute blue alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.debian.org/ports/mips/
setup a tftp server, the korn shell, and bootp. have it boot the debian kernel.
the R10K issue is moot if you choose the 600MHz R7K?
the R10K issue is fixable is you choose 400MHz R10K

Re:a cute blue alternative

[MarkTina]

so what about the all important video output ? The last time I looked at installing Linux on my O2 there was only console output and even that was broken ...

Re:a cute blue alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

well, I run Irix, but if debian doesn't have it, then you could run openbsd
http://www.openbsd.org/sgi.html#status
t hey've got the crime video support, and they've got PCI support. I guess they don't support the a/v module, so you may have to get a *nix supported card, but without the a/v module they're even cheaper.

Re:a cute blue alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

I have an O2. 180Mhz...

And let me tell you that I would *not* want to be in the same room as it with it and it's 2x10,000 RPM drives, and noisy ass PSU fan whilst concentrating on a movie. Even an Adam Sandler movie... I'd rather stick a Hoover on my lap.

Re:a cute blue alternative

[smharr4]

Why would you want to run Debian when MPlayer works just fine under IRIX?

My 360MHz R12K Octane2 is happy to play back most mpeg/divx/avi movies, and no Linux in sight.

And yes, it's blue, with the obligatory blue LED.

Re:a cute blue alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

because Irix costs somewhere in the area of $500-900... or some $50+ for a cd set on ebay

Mmm, Engrish.

[modifried]

From the product page:

"And DHCP server function help you to setup IP address automatically.We guarantee you, your familiy or your guest have an exciting time!"

"Oustside enjoy listening music or shooting photos, and then after going back home, you just insert your gadjet to this USB port. LinkPlayer can pickup inside any files for your relax time."

"LinkPlayer remote controller is not normal. Many buttons for your convinience."

"We will keep to make much effort for your satisfaction. Now the following certifications have already been passed. Also we'll update more after finish. Don't miss anymore."

Re:Mmm, Engrish.

[EnronHaliburton2004]

"And DHCP server function help you to setup IP address automatically.We guarantee you, your familiy or your guest have an exciting time!"

"Hey Dude! Whatcha doin!?"

"It's Saturday night! I'm playing with DHCP! The 169.254.x.x subnet rocks my world!"

"WooooooooHOOOOOOOOO! Exciting!"

(Sadly, I *was* fixing DHCP last night... but I have a baby boy, and can't go out anyways...)

Re:Mmm, Engrish.

[zakezuke]

(Sadly, I *was* fixing DHCP last night... but I have a baby boy, and can't go out anyways...)

Your baby boy handles DHCP? I try to assign children IP address but they can't be bothered to remember even the most simple of subnets. They all drop packets too, and where the hell do you put the RJ-45 jack?

Re:Mmm, Engrish.

[moonbender]

They all drop packets too, and where the hell do you put the RJ-45 jack?

Get with the times. They're wireless...

You know, I just don't understand this.

[Anonymous Coward]

EVERY DivX / Xvid video I have EVER seen looks like total shit. Is it that nobody encodes at a decent bitrate, or is it that DivX just isn't up to the task? I've encoded my own videos, and at the lowest bitrate that I considered decent it took up enough space that the time it took to encode it just worth it.

DVP642 is really nice

[mbourgon]

I think I paid $70 for it at Target. Plays DivX, MPEG 1/2, Xvid, MP3s... just toss files on a CD or DVD and away you go. The Philips web site has an ISO with an upgrade, so it plays files better.

Only problem I've run into is playing PAL files on a NTSC TV - tried changing its output format, but no luck. Anyone have that working? It could be an old DivX file (it does have some problems with 3.11), I'm not sure. But, overall, this thing's amazing.

Re:DVP642 is really nice

[Anonymous Coward]

No problems playing PAL files (of PAL DVDS for the matter) on an NTSC set. I would check the integrity of the file you are trying to play, because I have had nothing but success with my machine. I highly recommend the DVP642.

Just get a modded xbox

[martel69]

For $250 you can have somebody mod it for you, and it'll do way more than this device will. or you can save money and mod it yourself....and with xbox media center you can watch pretty much any video codec out there, and play games even. i was looking at these devices myself, but for the money you can't beat the xbox

philips dvp642

[tie_guy_matt]

I love my philips dvd/divx player. It is a pretty good stand alone dvd player but it plays a million other formats too. The only problem is that mine has trouble playing divx4 movies. In mencoder instead of using vcodec=mpeg4 I have to use vcodec=msmpeg4 (divx 3.) Divx3 is nice (alot better than mpeg2) but when I play with divx 4 I see that it has higher quality at lower bitrates. If anyone has gotten their philips player to play divx4 movies I would be interested to know.

Re:philips dvp642

[AtariKee]

The DVP642 won't read IDX + SUB subtitles either. Nor does it fast-forward or reverse to quickly (8x max). Other than these minor problems, I love my DVP642.

Have you tried a firmware update? I've been meaning to do this with my dvp642, but haven't gotten around to it yet (playing around with my "special" Xbox :) ). Maybe that will help with your divx4 problem. I think it would also fix the IDX + SUB problem.

Softmodded Xbox

[Anonymous Coward]

Do what I did and softmod an XBox. Softmodding requires no soldering, is easy and most importantly, is free. Sure, you won't be able to deactive the mod so that you can play on Live, but I'm not interested in that anyway.
For the rare occasions when I wish to play some networking games with friends, we just use one of the free services available.

Divx player prices:

[ImaLamer]

From Divx.com, "official" players.

DVD Player Compatibility List at VideoHelp.com

Sound cool but...

[buttfuckinpimpnugget]

That's the same price as a soft modded Xbox with a 250 gig harddrive.

Goodmans DivX Decoder

[amembleton]

Goddmans make a DivX Player model: DVD161DIVX 5.1 DVD Player.

If you are in the UK you can pick one up for £60 from Argos. I have one, and find that it works very well whilst also looking good. All my videos play fine except for Real Player ones.

GeeXboX

[amembleton]

You could use the GeeXboX Linux distribution. I haven't used it for a year but from what I remember it is a LiveCD. You boot up and can then access any network shares (including Windows) from your network. It will then play pretty much anything.

Re:GeeXboX

[kinzillah]

does it require chipping?

Re:GeeXboX

[JimmehAH]

It has a somewhat misleading title. It's a Linux Live CD for a normal computers. It's not for the Xbox.

DVP642 FFmpeg problems, and PC tv-out issues

[tachyonflow]

I bought a Phillips DVP642 DVD player a while back, and was rather disappointed. I've recorded a great deal of content with FFmpeg (with VBR mp3), and very little of it would play well on this box. I ended up getting rid of the box. (And I did upgrade the box to the latest firmware.)

My main annoyance with PC tv-out's (i.e. the one on my MythTV box) is that they don't provide 1:1 scanline mapping output of the video. In other words, the video card provides you with a framebuffer of arbitrary size (640x480, 800x600, etc.) and maps that into about 400 or so lines of NTSC output. In other words, it destructively scales the image and breaks the ability to show true interlaced content. It's possible to "overscan" the output, but this in no way guarantees a 1:1 scanline mapping. I do have a PVR350, which does have a proper 1:1 scanline mapping, but the last time I tried using it for general video output (i.e. playing MPEG4 files with mplayer), it was not fast enough to keep up. It's incredible for playing back MPEG2 content with the decoder, though.

If the LinkPlayer works well and has a proper, well-designed TV out, it may be worth looking into.

Re:DVP642 FFmpeg problems, and PC tv-out issues

[phozz bare]

My main annoyance with PC tv-out's (i.e. the one on my MythTV box) is that they don't provide 1:1 scanline mapping output of the video.

1. Get an nVidia GeForce card for your PC, not necessarily the flashiest.

2. Set it to output NTSC/M.

3. Set resolution to 720x480x32bit. (if you use windows it'll be under "list all modes", you can double click to set it.)

4. Set flicker filter to 'none', overscan to maximum, refresh at 60hz.

5. ????

6. etc.

If you're not using Windows, may the mighty Tux help you my friend.

phozz

Re:DVP642 FFmpeg problems, and PC tv-out issues

[trauma]

The "PDF catalog" on their web page (in reality, a user's manual) states that mp3 playback is limited to a maximum bitrate of 192 kbps. This renders this product worthless to me, as I would never consider purchasing a box that purports to be something of a "play anything" appliance yet cannot handle all my high-quality mp3s. And it calls into question how it would handle various mpeg-4 videos which more and more often feature mp3 audio encoding.

It's a shame, I've been looking for the right networked DVD player for a while now and they all fail miserably in some critical area, while sporting features and format capabilities that I couldn't give a rat's ass about. Mp3 all the way up to 320, particularly in vbr encodings (--alt-preset standard anyone?) seems to me like such an absolute minimum requirement that its absence is stunning. It might as well not play DVDs.

Re:DVP642 FFmpeg problems, and PC tv-out issues

[tachyonflow]

3. Set resolution to 720x480x32bit. (if you use windows it'll be under "list all modes", you can double click to set it.)

4. Set flicker filter to 'none', overscan to maximum, refresh at 60hz.

Will this generate a 1:1 scanline mapping? I do have a Geforce card, although my experience has been that cranking up the overscan (with the linux nvtv utility) does not guarantee that every framebuffer line will correspond to an NTSC signal line on the tv-out output.

Re:DVP642 FFmpeg problems, and PC tv-out issues

[glesga_kiss]

Use the XBox solution described elsewhere in this thread. It's designed for TV output, in fact running other OS'es such as Linux can be a pain because of the overscan.

Scaling is handled very well, and you can change the aspect ration if the source is set up wrong.

Finally, I've always been pained with underpowered decompressors, using laptops with TV-outs up til now. The XBox has coped with everything I've thrown at it.

Nobody mentioned the best bit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless I am mis-reading the article the LinkPlayer supports playback of HD-DIVX. I assume the output is also HD (whats a D4 connector?). If so, that is indeed a big deal. None of the other players I am aware of can playback HD content.

Re:Nobody mentioned the best bit.

[Anonymous Coward]

YES!
This is the whole point of this player costing $250!!!

It is the first 1080i player besids the multi thousand dollar dvhs players!!!

I am sitting here reading all these comments about featurs that have been in dvd players for years (divx)

THIS THING IS HD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE FIRST HD DISK PLAYER!!!!!!!!!

THE D4 connector is a supports digital 1080i output!!!!!!

the divx supports 1080i decoding!!!!

no rescaling internal!!!!

THIS IS HD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is HD!!!!!!

High def!!!!!

Why is noone talking about this fact?

Re:Nobody mentioned the best bit.

[flud]

The "D" style connectors (D1, D4, etc.) are are what most Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) television sets are equipped with these days. These D-shell connectors are used instead of using individual RCA component connections on Japanese TV sets. Cables that convertt from D-shell to RCA type component connections are available at most Japanese electronic retail stores, and I'm sure there are online establishments that sell the cables as well.

Re:Nobody mentioned the best bit.

[Scarabaeus]

> (whats a D4 connector?)

D4 is a japanese connector that combines the three coax cables of a component connection. 1 D4 == 3 RCA

What's wrong with laptops?

[prostoalex]

What's wrong with attaching a laptop with S-Video output to the TV? I also plug my 5.1 audio-system into the audio jack of the laptop and get the full surround sound. Plays DivX, WMV, RealVideo, MPEG and whatever they come up with.

Re:What's wrong with laptops?

[tomstdenis]

Because buying a 1500$ [what they cost new around Ottawa] laptop to play DivX files is stupid?

A cheaper 400$ mini-ITX setup will do the job too and the extra 1100$ can be used to say rent a lot of videos to rip ;-)

Tom

Re:What's wrong with laptops?

[Johnny Doughnuts]

shoddy quality.

Re:What's wrong with laptops?

[mrsev]

price!

Re:What's wrong with laptops?

[prostoalex]

Why? Can you elaborate on that? A DivX is a DivX whether played from the dedicated player or laptop. What am I losing on S-Video?

Re:What's wrong with laptops?

[xjerky]

How would you control playback with a remote control using a laptop?

Re:What's wrong with laptops?

[Anonymous Coward]

My laptop has an ir sensor for remote control.

Re:What's wrong with laptops?

[vaginitis]

the price tag?

Re:What's wrong with laptops?

[Johnny Doughnuts]

If the resolution on the video is greater than 480p, you lose quality on the s-vid. Your only other options are to get a tv with dvi or vga inputs, or use the ati -> component video (Y Gr Br, i believe). Mind you, it requries an ati card.

ATI Video Cards with TV Out

[frank249]

I had been looking for a way to play Divx files on my TV for awhile. I had considered a Divx capable DVD player but you cannot just go to Best Buy or Future Shop to get one. I thought about a wireless solution but they are still very pricy. I found the easiest and cheapest solution was to buy an ATI video card with TV out.
The 9200SE supports the latest games and dual monitors with DIV and has TV out/s video all for about $80cdn Yes my computer has to be close to the TV but I also have it conected to my stereo for home theatre and mp3s. Playing movies from the hard drive also saves having to burn DVDs/CDs. For me, it was the cheapest way to have my home multimedia centre.

Re:ATI Video Cards with TV Out

[Keebler71]

You didn't look very hard. I bought this one at target today for $69. Early verdict... neat but I can hear the disc spinning which is annoying... stay tuned.

Re:ATI Video Cards with TV Out

[frank249]

$69US is about $85cdn and unfortunately there are no Target stores in Canada yet. The word is that they are about to buy The Hudson Bay chain of department stores. If they do, they will be in every major Canadian market but I could not wait that long.

I was also a little leary of buying a Divx/DVD player as you never know how long the format is good for. Now that I have integrated my computer with my TV and stereo I am kicking myself for not doing it sooner. Whenever I want to watch something on my TV I just have to hit alt F5 and the display switches to the TV. With my wireless keyboard and mouse I can relax on my chesterfield(sofa)while surfing. My wife did not like watching a downloaded movie on the computer monitor so now we watch more movies together.

Re:ATI Video Cards with TV Out

[Keebler71]

I'm actually in the process of doing the same thing... probably will go with a MythTV rig. However, I doubt that I will wire my bedroom with a MythTV rig as well,... so $69US sounds like a good compromise... if there is something I really want to watch in our bedroom (*wink*) I can just burn it and watch it on the Philips DVD player.

Re:ATI Video Cards with TV Out

[Anonymous Coward]

No Target stores in Canada? I call bullpucky on thee. There used to be one in Goosebay, Labrador, 'till it went bust. 'course, ain't no Hudson's Bay store there no more, just a Northmart (Formerly Northern, formerly The Bay).

Re:ATI Video Cards with TV Out

[frank249]

If there are Target stores in Canada I have not seen one and there are none listed on the web. Was it in Goose Bay or Happy Valley?

Re:ATI Video Cards with TV Out

[Anonymous Coward]

Acutually, the DVP 642 is available at Best Buy.
Also at Radio Shack, Zellers, Walmart,...

$60 player...

[Trillan]

I picked up a $60 multi-region DVD & VCD player the other day. I'm not sure about DivX in particular yet, because I don't have any DivX discs...

Re:$60 player...

[matticus]

If you don't know if it has DivX, it probably doesn't. It's still a niche feature. Players are getting more common, but still only a very small proportion of the market.

And upgrading codecs?

[myowntrueself]

So when the next version of the DivX codec comes out and you wind up with a CD with an avi using that codec and the earlier version of the codec won't play it, can this newfangled widget install the newer version?

Re:And upgrading codecs?

[gl4ss]

only if the new encoder produces stuff the old decoder can't decode.

besides, it wouldn't be that far fetched for there to be firmware updgrades, other similar devices get them.

Re:And upgrading codecs?

[TPoise]

With XBMC (XBOX Media Center) the new XViD/DiVX codecs are usually included in the latest CVS releases, so you just upgrade that. Sometimes these standalone players offer firmware upgrades that you download ISOs and burn to update, but usually are very slow to release. Personally I prefer the XBox so I can just download from my network instead of having to burn a bunch of CDs. It still amazes me why there aren't any "official" Media Players out for XBox from Microsoft. I'm sure porting WMP shouldn't be that bad. Even if they offered an xbox version for $20, they would still be able to sell millions off the sell of the copies, and then not to mention the millions from ad placements they do inside WMP.

Re:And upgrading codecs?

[Koutarou]

Yes it can, press the setup button on the remote, right-arrow button 3 times, press enter twice, wait 2-3 minutes while it downloads new firmware, reflashes itself and reboots.

GeeXboX Roolz

[Anonymous Coward]

It is a LiveCD, but can be installen on HD.

You can access any network shares, Hard Disks, DVD, etc.

And you can upload files using the FTP Server of GeexBox to the HD.

Support for external USB SmartMedia and CompactFlash cards readers

MPlayer to 1.0pre5

WiFi support and drivers

TV-Out

Better solution...

[Brandon One]

My modded XBox is a but better solution. And assuming you already own an XBox. Cheaper too.

Go directly to jail

[tepples]

OK, so a modded Xbox with a bigger hard drive will run you about the same price. However, how much will the get out of jail free card cost in case the feds (or local equivalent) show up at the door of every modchip installer in town?

Re:Go directly to jail

[TheUnknownOne]

From what I understand, using a ModChip is not illegal, neither is installing one. Making or buying a modchip may be another story. Using the modchip to do illegal things is obvciosly illegal, but it would not be illegal to use said modchip to play a DVD without the remote control kit, or to check your email while your XBOX is running Linux. By installing Linux without a modchip (MechAssault etc. ) you avoid the issue of even purchasing a modchip.

Re:Go directly to jail

[Anonymous Coward]

That's only true for the copyright law side of things but the DMCA is in question here. (I've never really understood it, copying is illegal already, but I guess corporations always want more control over peoples lives)

The modchip is a copyprotection circumvention device even if you don't use it to circumvent copy protection on game dvds.

Re:Go directly to jail

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod chips don't bypass the copyprotection, they just allow the install of another bios to use the hardware.
All shipped modchip bioses do nothing but allow you to boot to linux, and talk to hardware you own. You can't play copied games, etc as it doesn't break the copyprotection. For that you need an illegal bios (i.e software) and you can install them without an modchip (TSOP hack).
Modchips just allow you to pick which bios you use. It you want to use it do something illegal so be it.

Liteon DVD players

[Anonymous Coward]

I have an LVD-2001, but the LVD-2010 is it's replacement model. There was some bitching and moaning about end-user formats and stuff, so the 2010 doesn't do as much as my 2001. But it plays Xvid absolutely perfect, and there's really no reason to ever use MPEG2 for it. Divx plays ok, as long as you keep to the "standards" for it's encoding.

I also have a LVW-5001.
It's wonderful, too, even though it doesn't play mpeg4. I swapped out the original Liteon 401M optical drive, for a newer 812S drive. I also added some vent holes; it had none from the factory, since the 401M is a class-1 laser device, and put a heatsink on the main encoding/decoding chip. I also managed to get some metal shavings somewhere in the 401M, which is why I had to swap it out for a 812S. It's encoder probably isn't the best in the world, but the 1 and 2 hour formats are absolutely wonderful.

Liteon makes absolutely wonderful Xvid/Divx solutions. They aren't made for playing mp3's (they can, thought the play options are limited).

Why is this news?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is this news? There have been similar players out for nearly a year. e.g.:

Pinnacle Showscenter
Actiontec MediaPlayer
D-Link DSM-320
Neuston

Open Show Center (OSC on Sourceforge) is an open source software for running them too.

I personally have 1.2 TB of movies ripped to Xvid on an old pentium running Apache that feeds my Actiontec MP.

Re:Why is this news?

[TheBeck]

Because it's the first god damn 1080i HD disk player, that's why.

ALMOST FORGOT!

[Anonymous Coward]

The players (not the recorders) will also play Ogg Vorbis. They just added the functionality in the last firmware update.

hauppauge mediamvp

[enrico_suave]

Hauppauge MediaMVP is less than 100 bucks at PCAlchemy

There's pleny of mediamvp hacking (including work on a mythtv client) and 3rd party client replacements out there like gbpvr (how to article on my site )

*Shrug*

e.

XBMC + Chipped XBOX

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm, a chipped xbox with xbmc would be cheaper and maybe more versatile... I know over here their only £100 + say £30 for the chip (you can get an adaptor if you need to use usb stuff)... Sure its a big ugly black box, but you get a lovely open source interface, and the power of mplayer for playing all kinds of media + there is dvd player software, you can play games if you want, emulate all the old stuff, read your network shares... really for the price it is unbeatable.

HD is the key feature

[Anonymous Coward]

The I-O Data player is the first to be certified for DivX HD. Its NOT just a "regular" DivX player like all the rest mentioned by others.

From Divx.com site in hardware section:

Product Overview

New from I-O Data, this HD-capable AVeL LinkPlayer 2 with its network capability lets you play your digital videos directly from your computer in addition to standard DVDs and DivX files from a CD. Having recently achieved DivX HD Certification, this player supports DivX HD at 1280x720 and has USB 2.0 for USB storage reading. Not yet available for sale. Coming soon to Japan and the United States, just in time for the holiday season!
Key Features

* DivX Certified to play HD
* 10/100 Base Network Communication Function (WiFi is not included, needs an ethernet converter)
* Multi Video/Audio Out (Video:D4/Audio:5.1ch) via a home network
* High Grade DVD/CD Playback (High Definition DVD supported)
* USB 2.0 High Speed Storage Reading for iPod, HDDs, and thumb memories
* Supported OS: Windows XP/Me/2000/98SE, MacOS X 10.3
* Supported Video Files: MPEG-1/MPEG-2/DivX video/XviD/WMV9
* Supported Picture Files: JPEG/BMP/GIF/PNG
* Supported Audio Files: MP3/AAC/WMA/PCM/Ogg Vorbis
* Video Output: D Connector (Component) 1080i/720p/480p/480i, Composite, & S-Video
* Audio Output: Analog Audio Out (L/R) x2, Digital Surround Out (Coaxial) x1 & Optical Digital Out x1
* Display max resolution up to 2048 x 1532
* Main Processer: Sigma Designs EM8620L

Re:how bout an xbox?

[CatDogLordOfTheRoot]

Softmodding does not work on the new 'off the shelf' xboxes, The kernel and the dashboard versions are too new and render the softmod useless.

xbox?

[Saeger]

"At $249 suggested retail, I know what I'm wishing for this Christmas!"

A $150 soft-modded XBox pre-installed with the more capable XBox Media Center, and a $100 gift certificate with the money left over? :)

--

Not bad.

[John Pfeiffer]

Last year I bought a LiteON LVD-2002 DVD player, it plays DVDs, SVCDs, VCDs, as well as AVI's (XviD/DivX), MP3s, mpeg1 files, and even jpeg slideshows off either CDs or DVDs. It even has progressive scan and component video outputs... Only set me back $120.

It'd be nice to have some of the features of this machine though, like WMV9 playback, and network access... But I'm already planning to build a MythTV box to serve a DLP projector-based Home Theater system, so it's all good. ^_^

Wierd video outs...

[Anonymous Coward]

this thing has almost no component video out support. the momitsu 880 is a much better player for about the same money. it has a DVI-I out, so you can also connect it to your projector.

Re:Wierd video outs...

[Koutarou]

It has a D4 jack (which is a STANDARD connector supporting 480i/480p/1080i/720p resolution) and they include a D4 to component cable.

I suspect the people complaining about the lack of component out have never seen a D-jack.

(This thing is actually manufactured by the same company that produces the Momitsu players)

This is retarded!

[jesse.k]

My xbox cost about $140 new and with about 20 minutes of hacking using a software hack, I had a fully networkable media player that could play just goddamn near ANY type of file. Not only that, it could play xbox games and run just about any emulator i'd want.

This "divx player" is an overpriced turd in comparison.

Re:This is retarded!

[TheBeck]

Can your xbox decode and output 1080i HD?

Re:This is retarded!

[jesse.k]

are your shitty divx files you downloaded off suprnova anywhere close to that? No, since they're all ripped from DVDs.

Re:This is retarded!

[Hast]

Actually the XBox is capable of 1080i out, but AFAIK the media players can't do it. I imagine a large reason for that is that they concentrate on making a good working media player before working on add-ons like that.

Using only the CPU I don't think you'll get an 1080i signal though, perhaps with some clever optimizations and use of the GPU though.

OTOH I think it's best to see reviews of this chips (in the article) performance in 1080i before buying it. Just because it supports it doesn't mean it supports it well. ;-)

Re:This is retarded!

[TheBeck]

WMV 9 needs ~3GHZ to decode 1080i without dropping frames.

Similar devices:

[slashdot.org]

Was just checking these out yesterday:

Go Video

KISS (runs Linux)

Supposedly Gateway has one too, but perhaps they discontinued it. Could only find this Google cache link.

D-Link

And I'm sure I've missed quite a few. All have slightly different configurations; my goal was to find a box that would play media from the network.

Furthermore, I want the device to play DVD images (I rip ISO images using DVDDecrypter so I don't loose all the extra DVD stuff). I am not sure any of them actually support that. I would even be happy with a device that can play the VOBs directly, I can 'mount' the ISO on the server...

Re:Similar devices:

[wooger]

I have one of the Kiss players ( the one with wireless ethernet, DP 1500) and can confirm it plays vobs directly over the network. I have had no problems getting it to work with 75% of the divx files I have downloaded.

Re:Similar devices:

[slashdot.org]

Excellent, thanks!

Standalone players

[Phatmanotoo]

a few standalone DVD players -- the Philips DVP642 is one -- will play DivX files from recordable CDs andd DVDs.

Well at least here in Europe we've been having cheap (under $100) DivX-capable players since the beginning of the year. Last time I went to our local supermarket I could spot FIVE different ones, all under $100 except for the Philips one. And guess what, the cheap ones tend to accept a much wider range of disks and formats.

I've got an "El-cheapo" one, based on a MEDIATEK 1389-DE chip, and it plays *all* DivX and Xvid files I have tried so far. Only $60, bought it two months ago.

Philips does support xvid

[mowler2]

I have the philipsplayer they talk about in the article. - and it plays xvid just fine! :)

Well, it does also upsample to 1080i

[SuperKendall]

They list 1080i and 720p output - upsampling players are generally about the same price right now.

DIVX + Ethernet Compatibility List

[meehawl]

Cool. According to the DVD Player Compatibility List, there are just 5 players currently available with DIVX and ethernet. There are now, however, about 223 standalone DIVX players, around 13% of the total, which is much more than this time last year. Even the most modern ones, however, still sometimes have trouble with advanced or unsupported DIVX/XVid profiles.

Whatever happened to LinkSys?

[Guspaz]

LinkSys announced that they would release a DVD player that played DivX, and would include an 802.11g wireless connector for playing said DivX content over the network.

Press release: http://www.linksys.com/press/press.asp?prid=142&cy ear=2004

The product was announced in Q1 CY 2004. It was slated to be released in Q1 CY 2004. it's now Q4 CY 2004.

It was announced as if it was almost on the market, they said 2-3 months you could purchase it. Here we are 10 months later, not a peep.

any player that plays them all (qpel, gmc) ?

[Festering Leper]

it seems that all of the divx players won't play files with these enhancements. some types of content need these options during encoding in order to have accepable quality during playback.

This is news?

[Excelsior]

I've had a GoVideo Networked DVD player, allowing me to play DivX and Xvid from network shares for about a year now. As for cheap, I purchased my GoVideo for $130 from buy.com. I love it Yes, it is nice that the LinkPlayer will also play encoded media from a CD or DVD, but this is hardly news-worthy. Not even all that interesting, because I wouldn't pay double for the extra features.

642 works like a charm

[cardoso]

Last month I spent a few days in Vegas, went to Frys, and the 642 was there, waiting for me. At a RIDICULOUS price of US$67. Come on, some of my bar tabs costs more than 67 bucks.

I grabbed the little baby. When I arrive home, the only unresolved issue was the region-lock, but a few google clicks and presto. Works great with Region 4 discs, plays 99% of all divx movies I try and saved me hundred of hours of encoding SVCDs.

I dont need a $249 device to do everything I do with a $67.

Why pay more than $50 for a DVD player?

[St. Arbirix]

Seriously people, I got my Magnavox DVD player at Big Lots for $50 and it played anything mpeg1 or mpeg2, that includes avi files and whatnot. Check videohelp.com for lists upon lists of more impressive DivX capable players that are under $50. Two summers ago TechTV reviewed an Apex player for $100 that played DivX and all its breeds as well as DVD-Audio and SACD. If it's firmware upgradeable it almost always can be given newer codec support if it already plays Divx.

Some of these DVD players use generic DVD drives and have firmware upgrades that let you switch out for a harddrive, or they support it natively. We did that in my dorm last year with a Sony.

Instead

[Lord_Dweomer]

I am wondering if instead of using a player that can read divx, if anybody here knows of a cheap solution to wirelessly display your computer screen on your tv and just play the files from your computer, that way you don't have to worry about format at all.

Re:Instead

[CJ Hooknose]

Lord_Dweomer wrote: I am wondering if instead of using a player that can read divx, if anybody here knows of a cheap solution to wirelessly display your computer screen on your tv

Um. You understand that current consumer-level wireless gear has some pretty strict bandwidth limitations, right? You also understand that TV sets are pretty brain-dead and require RCA, S-video, or (whatever that 75-ohm connector was called) input, right? So, to do all this crap wirelessly, you'd need a way to transfer 30 640x480 frames/second over an 802.11g channel and convert it from (RFB-equivalent) to a form the TV can decode. The available bandwidth in 802.11g isn't really enough, and the RFB->S-video conversion would take specialized chips. A completely wireless magic box is neither practical nor cheap at the moment.

OTOH, you can get video cards with TV-out for about $70. Put one of these in an older machine (900MHz PIII would work just fine), slap a large hard drive or an RTL8139 or an 802.11b card in there, fire up MythTV/mplayer, and you're set. You can get by with 802.11b here because you're transferring encoded video data from network to set-top box, not decoded video data, and a high-quality DiVX is roughly 700M for 60 minutes. That works out to ~210K/second, well within 802.11b's capabilities.

There's a wire running from the box to the TV. Who cares? Normal DVD players/VCRs/cable boxes have assloads of wires. The older machine you use might have a fan in it. Turn the freakin' volume up on the TV or go buy one of those VIA machines that don't need fans. HTH,

The obvious answer is a Xbox

[Phelan]

I was thinking about doing the entire mythtv thing, mostly so that I can play region 2 DVD's here in the US and play xvid etc on my TV.
Instead of doing that I just got an Xecuter3 Modchip for my Xbox... soldered the baby in, and installed Xbox Media Center, and well it doesn't just play any DVD I throw its way but also DIVX, XVID etc, best $60 I have spend in a long time...and its kinda neat to FTP into your xbox.

Re:The obvious answer is a Xbox

[Anonymous Coward]

Or you can do all that for the $6 it costs you to rent Mechassault at your local video store. Best $6 I ever spent.

Is this really news? There's tons of these.

[bigtallmofo]

I'm surprised that someone submitted a story about a device that can play video files of all sorts from your computer on your TV. There's got to be a dozen of these things, some of them have been around for a few years now. Linksys has one, Gateway has one, PRISMIQ has one, Hauppage has one, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Skippy Peanut Butter brand media center that could do this at this point. The fact it can play DivX and XVid is old news too. My PRISMIQ unit could do that for the last 18 months, and to top it off it's an open source box running on Linux that I can even telnet to. Oh, and the price isn't $249 like it used to be - I think they're having closeout prices currently for $149. A wireless keyboard for it is an additional $29. And the recording (think PVR) version of it comes out 4Q. That's the good news on these things. The bad news is that they hardly ever work as advertised. I've tried several of them and they all have their good points and bad points.

Re:how bout an xbox?

[Frogbert]

So buy a chip, they are dirt cheap and you can get great solderless ones.

I don't think so....

[Anonymous Coward]

> Because it's the first god damn 1080i HD
> disk player, that's why.

I don't think so.... I have several .TS streams I captured of 1080i HD ETV (Nova) broadcasts using FireBus over firewire that I converted to Xvid and they are stunning played back at full res over the Actiontec.

My solution- playing DVD's & DivX from the net

[Beatlebum]

I have hundreds of DVD discs lying around. For a while I've been pondering what it would take to build a
networked video server, recently I finally got it working. The objective
was to be able to play DVD's seamlessly from a server share, by seamlessly I
mean complete with menus, extras etc., with high quality video and digital
sound. In theory a 100Mbit LAN should have enough bandwidth since DVD's
video stream is at most 9Mbit, the most difficult part was putting together
a quiet client machine capable of generating a good quality analog video
signal. I ended up buying a cheap ($400) Dell Poweredge machine on ebay,
it's practically silent, this is important since it sits beside the TV. For
DVD decoding I'm using something called the XCard
(http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/xcard .htm), it decodes video and
outputs digital audio. On the software side I am using TVedia
(http://www.8dim.com/default.asp?linkid=vc dhelp), it generates menus on the
TV to access media on the LAN. It also works quite well with the XCard,
which comes with a serial port IR remote sensor. To make a DVD playable from
the network I use DVDDecrypter to create an iso image and daemon tools to
mount the image on a virtual drive, TVedia can then play the "disc" as if it
was in the local machine's drive. The system is pretty neat if I do say so
myself. I picked up a couple of Maxtor 250G drives from Frys, that's about
50-100 DVDs online. In theory I could stick another cheap PC in the bedroom
and have access to the movie collection there also.

Cheapo DVD players rock my world.....

[Morden]

I bought a Digitrex off Ebay for about AU$160.

Plays DivX, MOV, etc. Pretty much anything you can throw at it, except WMV and Real (but who cares about them anyway...).

About the only thing I'd want it to do that it doesn't currently would be handle multisession data disks so I can add files to compilations as new ... er ... "episodes" become "available".

It's also got a monitor output, so if my housemate's using the TV I can plug it into my computer's monitor and deprive /. of posts like this one :)

Oh, and it even plays DVDs...

How about...?

[miscellaneous_havoc]

How about the Xbox and a Mod chip? Even pre-installed they still run about $250! And those are Network, Pen Drive, DVD, and CD compatible... Plus they play Xbox games! :-O

Have had this for a few months now

[Koutarou]

In Japan this model has been out for about 6 months. Played 99.9% of all video files I threw at it, DivX and Xvid of just about every origin.

IO-DATA also sells a nice embedded linux NAS (120, 160, 250, 300gb versions available plus you can add 2 external usb2 drives) that has the server-side support to stream video to the linkplayer so you don't have to leave a PC on.

Firmware updates are distributed directly from the net too.

I'm really happy with it - makes me glad I bothered to wire ethernet to my living room wallplate.

Re:Have had this for a few months now

[cpaluc]

Koutarou, are you able to tell us whether it will play ripped DVDs (on a hard drive) perfectly? By "perfectly", I mean with all the menus and subtitles/audio tracks etc.

The only device I've found that does is the TViX (www.tvix.co.kr). With the TViX, you simply dump a DVD onto its hard drive, and then play the video_ts.ifo file and it's indistinguishable from playing the disc on regular player (eg. you get the menus). It even has optical audio out and component video out. Unfortunately the TViX doesn't have network capability.

I know XBox media center and other 'media center'-type devices can play ripped DVDs but I'm yet to find one that does it as well as the TViX does. It seems that they generally just allow playback of the main feature from the disc. Correct me if I'm wrong, but MythTV, XBMC and Freevo use Mplayer as the default video playback software. Mplayer doesn't support menus.

Re:Have had this for a few months now

[Koutarou]

It will not play anything directly from vob files.

To be honest, I use this box for one thing - I live overseas (Japan, 7 years) and need my american TV fix.

used the older model

[Anonymous Coward]

.. and happy about it. Although it won't play wmv9 and divx/xvid encoded with q-pixels enabled. And no USB connection.
old model page: http://www.iodata.jp/prod/multimedia/video/2003/av lp1dvd/index.htm
and other than the included software, you can use Uzuhttp://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Cupert ino/2647/ as a lighter drop-in replacement, with a lot of customization options.

4 Words

[hypergreatthing]

Modded Xbox and XBMC.

Hands down blows away all other alternatives.

What about a PS2?

[Anonymous Coward]

For those of us with PS2s then I would suggest http://www.qcast.com/ Qcast if youve got a network adaptor.

Your PS2 doesnt even have to be modded! Does the jobs.

Its also worth mentioning the Yamada DivX player - a beauty and its dirt cheap.

Subtitles?

[Grahhh]

Can it handle subtitle files as well? I've heard some of these divx players won't handle all different kinds of subtitles.

DVD players

[alexo]

It seems that in the race to support more formats and features, quality is forgotten. A lot of my friends that bought players that play DivX, XviD and other permutations complain that their playback quality of regular MPEG-2 DVDs is lower than their older players.

Let's hope that the upcoming players based on the Sigma Designs' new EM8620L chip will be better than the current bunch.

That's not the only option.

[pavon]

First, unless his TV can display 480p, 720p or 1080i, he isn't missing anything, using svideo instead of a standalone player. If his TV can display 720p or 1080i, it almost certainly has DVI inputs, and there are many converters from vga->composite, or vga->dvi, that work with any video card. They can be expensive, but if he can afford an HDTV, than he can afford those convertors, and they will come in handy for more than playing divx.

Circuit City, right?

[eples]

I heard Circuit City has DiVX players: right?

I heard these are way better than DVDs.

I'm not buying one of these...

[zaqattack911]

until they design one that allows some way to update the codec software inside the player.

It wouldn't be that hard to implement in cmos.
And the newbie non-tech people can just ignore that feature, or have it "serviced" by a local geek.

Re:I'm not buying one of these...

[Koutarou]

The linkplayer has upgradable firmware.

You just hit the setup button on the remote, navigate to the firmware update tab and the player grabs the latest firmware over the net, downloads and reflashes itself.

Hacked XBox + XBox Media Center ($130)

[Jagasian]

You can get a new XBox for $130, and do a software based mod for free (yes mod chip not required). Then you can install the opensource XBox Media Center, and you have all of the same functionality as this device. Even better, once Microsoft drops the price of their XBox to $99, to compete with the new PSTwo from Sony, you can have, again, the same functionality for $99!

Not only that, but XBox Media Center is opensource, actively developed, and there are constantly free updates. There are even plugins that suport a frontend for a backend MythTV server. So you can add TiVo like functionality on your fileserver, and make use of it on your TV.

Re:Hacked XBox + XBox Media Center ($130)

[andytypes]

that is what i have. you can store your movies on your standard xbox hd or replace it. you can replace your xbox dvd-rom to a dvdrw. but think about it!! if you don't play any xbox games, would you spend 130 bucks for a PIII 750?!

Re:Hacked XBox + XBox Media Center ($130)

[Jagasian]

Who cares what type of CPU it uses. The point is that it does the job. Hell, if it happened to use a 486, it wouldn't make any difference to me, if it accomplished the task. If you really think that you can put together a PC for $130 that accomplishes the same thing as XBMC, then be my guest.

Re:Software Mod Xbox

[vfs]

You don't need a hardware chip at all.

I have a 1.6 NTSC Xbox and I used the "Ultimate Dashboard Exploit", and now I use mine as a MythTV frontend. And, I can still play games, too (just no Xbox live). All that, and I never once opened up the case...

You just need to borrow/buy an Action Replay memcard, one of the vulnerable games, and hook it up to a Windows PC to get the "ltools" save game from the usual places.

Another advertisement post ?

[elpapacito]

Excuse my candor, but isn't this a link to a press release ? Personally I've got nothing against press releases as useful tools to let customers know a new product exists, but in what does this particular press release "matter" more or less then another thousand necessarily different press releases ?

Other then literal/graphic differences, press releases are no different as they serve the same purpose. Why is this one particularly significant ?

MORON!

[Deliveranc3]

Get an XBOX Mod it problem sovled!

I have the Philips DVP-642

[NeuroManson]

And it rocks for the $69 average price. It shows a simple menu for DVD-R archives as a file system (so, hypothetically, you could put up to 12 hours of DiVX encoded movies on 1 disc).

Pros:

Upgradable firmware
Provides DiVX/XViD (DiVX 3.*,4.*,5.* compatible)and generic MPEG-4 playback (anyone who's been collecting the DAP MST3K episodes can imagine the ability to watch every show on the big screen again).
Intuitive interface for the most part.
Sexy and slim case design.

Cons:
Slow disc menu loading time.
Clumsy remote control design, buttons are very easy to confuse due to placement.
No disc eject button on the remote.
DiVX/XViD titles aren't displayed in the menu, if the video file's FOURCC code isn't configured properly.

So it isn't perfect, but considering its as cheap as some basic DVD players, you get slightly more than you pay for.

Re:I have the Philips DVP-642

[bloo9298]

Hold down the STOP button on the remote for a few seconds to eject the disk.

Re:I have the Philips DVP-642

[NeuroManson]

Thanks for pointing that out, I found that same answer on a DVD player code site a few hours ago.

How could it suck more?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Let's hope that the upcoming players based on the Sigma Designs' new EM8620L chip will be better than the current bunch."

It would be difficult for them to be worse. I learned my lesson, which is don't EVER buy anything using a Sigma chip.

Re:Liteon DVD players suck

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a Lite-On LVD-2002, and it sucks. It's slow, navigation is clumsy, and it locks up often.

Perhaps the other models are wonderful, as you claim. But at least one is the worst purchase I've made over the last several years. It annoyed me enough that I went back to the non-Divx player I was using before.

with a wireless mouse

[cyrax777]

thats what i use for my desktop with tv out.

No MPEG-4 Global Motion Compensation

[linuxguy]

Sigma 8620L that is used in this player does not support GMC.

Xbox cannot play High Def video and ...

[linuxguy]

Xbox cannot play High Def MPEG-2 video like this box can and also Xbox is not quiet like this box is.

MythTV really needs decent frontend hardware

[linuxguy]

My MythTV backend server sits in the garage. I need a small quiet frontend like this DVD player that can play high def. video.

We are not there yet.

Re:MythTV really needs decent frontend hardware

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes we are, look at www.linpvr.org a network boot mythtv frontend for mini-itx. The loudest noise on mine is the network card. (OK, the DVD drive when it is in use.)

Laptops are clunky consumer electronics devices

[linuxguy]

So everytime you or any member of your family wishes to watch a DVD or a high definition video clip of CSI recorded over the air, you're going to going to run out there and bring in your laptop and start plugging cables?

Also most laptops cannot play pre-recorded high definition ATSC streams like this box can and most laptops cannot put out digital audio like this box and most laptops do not have connections for HDTVs like this box does. And all laptops have hard drives and most have fans that generate noise, unlike this box.

This DVD player had a lot more to offer than a laptop for a living room.

Wrong look at Philips DVP642 player mentioned

[Anonymous Coward]

~70bucks

less then the xbox

no mod chip + install time

region free

Philips does NOT support XviD

[Anonymous Coward]

I too have the Philips DVP642 (Canada) and it does NOT play most of the XviDs I download; I have to re-encode them first using OpenDivX with MEncoder under Linux.

Roku comparison

[steve_bryan]

The price of this item is about the same as Roku. How do the units compare? I saw a friend's Roku which he had connected to an HD display and playing HD transport streams that were stored on a server's hard drive. Does this device even have the ability to display an HD transport stream (the format used for HDTV broadcasts in the USA)?

Divx illegal?

[Crasp]

Isn't divx itself in someway illegal too considering it was actually a hack of the ms mpeg4 format or something?

Re:Divx illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

No
All divx after version 2 (I think) has been a 100% legal codec. But since you were too lazy to search google to find that out, I don't see why I should do that either.

No SMB-Protocol = no Linux servers

[dusty123]

Seems that this is another player with a proprietary network protocol. (This team called IO Systems LANDISK)

Well, this means: no Linux servers, only windows/apple.

I still want to see a standalone player that supports either the SMB/CIFS (=Samba) or NFS as a protocol....

Re:No SMB-Protocol = no Linux servers

[Koutarou]

Open source server-side software is available.

Kiss?

[Anonymous Coward]

Should be cheaper - except usb it does it all.

Re:Anything else for us lot in UK ?

[Insipid Trunculance]

MAPLINS as well have a DVD player capable of playing DivX.

But anybody know of any other options ?

Ogg Vorbis

[GiMP]

This thing also supports Ogg Vorbis... finally, just what I've been looking for.

All that's missing

[Stavr0]

is a firmware upgrade that installs a bittorrent client and you don't even need a PC anymore.

Re:Anything else for us lot in UK ?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?Web ProductID=80132

Version 1.6?

[tepples]

Don't the newer version 1.6 Xbox consoles have an updated BIOS that doesn't support the font buffer overflow exploit that MechInstaller uses to install itself? If so, count extra $$$ for MechAssault, a USB memory card, and the adapter cable.

Re:Version 1.6?

[John Betonschaar]

Not sure about the 1.6 xbox, but I think it is still possible. And even then, you can pick up a second-hand xbox (almost certain not to be a 1.6) for around $100. The adapter cable cost me $9.00, a USB memory stick (which most people already have) can be borrowed, and you could rent MechAssault for a single day just to do the mod. All in all it would not have to take more than about $115.00.

That doesn't mean I'd recommend anyone to seriously mod an xbox just to play videos, because it took me about 3 days to have everything setup. The difference between me and most other people is, however, that I actually enjoy tinkering with it, soldering in a modchip, repartitioning the drive by hand, installing gentoox on it etc.. ;-)

Your sig is yours

Re:Version 1.6?

[tepples]

And even then, you can pick up a second-hand xbox (almost certain not to be a 1.6) for around $100.

Some pre-1.6 units have the 1.6 BIOS on them. How can I politely get the seller to verify what BIOS version a particular unit has?

The adapter cable cost me $9.00

Wal-Mart didn't seem to have them today. Add shipping.

a USB memory stick (which most people already have) can be borrowed

If I did happen to end up with a unit with a 1.6 BIOS, I'd need to own a copy of the game in question and dedicate a USB memory stick in order to boot into the game each time I wanted to switch from Xbox games to Linux.

and you could rent MechAssault for a single day just to do the mod

Even if the Xbox turned out to be <= 1.4, how much would it cost to start an account with the one video game rental store in town that still has a copy of that game?

Version 1.6

[tepples]

but it would not be illegal to use said modchip to play a DVD without the remote control kit

Yes it would. For one thing, Dolby holds patents on the AC-3 audio codec.

By installing Linux without a modchip (MechAssault etc. )

Last time I checked MechInstaller overwrites a font file to exploit a buffer underflow on older Xbox BIOS, but the BIOS shipped in 1.6 and later consoles has fixed this bug. Have the new version 1.6 Xbox consoles been cracked yet? If not, how do I buy a pre-version 1.6 Xbox console?

Q: Why pay more than $50 for a DVD player?

[mypalmike]

A: DVD players don't have a network connection.

Your linpvr box cannot decode high def video

[linuxguy]

Let me know when it can decode 1080i MPEG-2 video.