Philips dvp642 question

[tksm]

when you burn a DivX disc, is there a certain format , or can you just dump a bunch of avis on the disc and browse for the one you want?

[junkmalle]

Both. Some Divx/Xvid features and some audio codecs are not supported. In those cases you have to recompress the files to fix them.

Otherwise you just burn a bunch of AVI files onto an ISO data disk, finalize it, and you get a text menu of the files when you put it in the player.

[jmikeh]

when you burn a DivX disc, is there a certain format , or can you just dump a bunch of avis on the disc and browse for the one you want?

Most the usual extensions will work, AVI, MPG, VOB, even DIVX. I was suprised to see the last one, but it did work..

[embreeb]

I have a similar question: Can you play XVID AVI files on the dvp642 that have been burned to a DVD-R? I am talking about dropping the files on the DVD-R like you do with a CD-R. I tried it, but the player would just show "PLAY", but no picture, and would be locked up. I have to shut off the player to get the disc out. Any suggestions would be helpful. I am pretty new to this - I bought this player becuase I record a lot of TV shows (just started using my TV tuner card to record them). I wanted to dump 5-10 AVIs on a DVD-R (after editing out commercials and converting to XVID) and watch them at a later time.

[junkmalle]

Can you play XVID AVI files on the dvp642 that have been burned to a DVD-R? I am talking about dropping the files on the DVD-R like you do with a CD-R. I tried it, but the player would just show "PLAY", but no picture, and would be locked up.

Don't use multisession and finalize your DVD-R..

[FulciLives]

I've had a Philips DVP-642 for a only a few weeks. Been having luck with all the XviD and DivX files I have tried.

However I thought the machine could play a MPEG file just burned on a DVD-R same as it can play a DivX AVI that is burned on a DVD-R.

I made a DVD-R with one 2GB MPEG file and one 1400MB XviD AVI and the MPEG played but without the 2.0 AC-3 audio. It was just silient. The XviD had 51. AC-3 and played fine with audio.

The MPEG worked with sound when I "authored" it with TMPGEnc DVD Author.

It ain't no big deal to me but I thought I had read that the Philips does "RAW" MPEG files.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[embreeb]

I talked to Philips today (bunch of morons-they didn't even know what XVID was), and they "told" me that it won't play raw MPEGs (I want to play MPEG2), nor does it support AVIs on a DVD as a raw file. I tried burning several files on DVD w/o Multisession, but I haven't tried Finalizing. What does Finalizing do in this case? I want to be able to watch several shows I have edited and converted to XVID AVIs on a DVD without having to use something like WinAVI to convert them to a DVD format. Are you telling me I can do this? I just want to make sure I am explaining it clearly. Thanks.

[junkmalle]

I want to be able to watch several shows I have edited and converted to XVID AVIs on a DVD without having to use something like WinAVI to convert them to a DVD format. Are you telling me I can do this?

Yes, you can do that. I use the Nero DVD-ROM (ISO) template (or CD-ROM (ISO)) with No Multisession selected. That automatically finalizes after burning.

Finalizing is essentially writing the root directory. Without it the DVD player can't see any files on the disk.

http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq02.html#S2-19

[embreeb]

I tried creating a DVD-ISO with about 6 XVID AVIs on it (No Multisession, automatically finalized), but it still wouldn't play on the DVP642. It would read it, but it would never show it was "Reading Index" message; it would go directly to "PLAY", but the screen would be black and the player would lock up. I couldn't do anything except shut off the player. I ran into an issue with this player not playing 24fps files correctly (distorted video) from a CDR, but this is different. The files were a mix of 24fps and 30fps, but I don't see why that would make a difference. Is there anything I may be doing wrong when creating the ISO disc? Thanks for all the help. P.S. What about playing MPEG2 files on the player?

[junkmalle]

I gave the DVP642 away a while back but I played Divx/Xvid AVI and MPEG1/2 files with quite a variety of frame sizes and frame rates when I had it. If I remember correctly you can press Menu on the remote to bring up a menu rather than having it automatically start playing the first file. It remembers this setting so if you have a disc that will play you can use that to get back into menu mode.

There are some Xvid and Divx features that the player does not support: Global Motion Compensation (GMC) and Quarter Pixel (QPel). You can use MPEG4Modifier to check for those features.

Oh, it also doesn't like frame sizes over 720x576 or thereabouts.

[oldfart13]

To select different audio codecs when playing back mpeg video files, press the "audio" button until you find one that works. This works for me for DVD-Mpeg files with AC-3 sound...

[embreeb]

How do I know if Q-Pel or GMC is being used on this file? AVICodec doesn't show anything but the basics.

[junkmalle]

You can use MPEG4Modifier to check for those features.

[embreeb]

Finally - I got it to work. Even though AutoGK converted the NTSC MPEGs to 24fps, I knew you were right about the dvd player being able to play them. I didn't think it was due to the DVD-Rs I was using, so I tried burning an episode of Family Guy at 4x, No Multisession, Finalized with Nero. It played, but as I expected the video was distorted (weird colors-psychodelic). I went into the menu like you said, and decided to change the TV System setting to Multi. As I did that, I could see the picture behind the menu change instantly, and after that, it played fine. I guess I didn't understand what that setting was for. Anyway, thanks for all the help.

[junkmalle]

It played, but as I expected the video was distorted (weird colors-psychodelic).

There's a simple fix for that: press the System/Menu button twice while playing. I think the problem stems from the difference between the way PAL and NTSC encode colors. PAL uses YUV and NTSC uses YIQ. The DVP642 sometimes interprets them wrong.

[DereX888]

The point of buying such player as this one (dvd/divx player) is to be able to play files without any reencoding, modifying or any other job, RIGHT?
So cut the crap guys with the 'tips' about reencoding etc. If someone needs tips on AVI->DVD then he wouldnt choose standalone divx player, *obviously*

This player does play almost everything (with exception of QPEL and GMC options in XVID/DIVX files).
To check it out it is best to use GSPOT CODEC INFORMATION APPLIANCE (freebie). It will tell you all the details about the file.
It plays multiple AVIs on DVDR, it does play multiple MPEG files on DVDRs as well, or any mixture of MPEG/JPEG/AVI files. It supports external subtitles for AVI files, as well as 'built-in' selectable subtitles within AVIs. It perfectly plays SVCD-format MPEGs burnt on DVDRs. And many more, I could go for long.

But it has its weaknesses. Just to name few I can think of ATM:
It cant play external subtitles with MPEG files.
It doesnt have proper audio separation for i.e. chinese VCD/SVCD discs (where each channel is in different language).


Always *finalize* your discs. This player does not recognise unfinalized or multisession discs. RTFM! (Read The F...g Manual!) It states clearly that it wants only ISO standard discs. If you dont know what it means - google it, dont be so lame.
And on the other hand - dont build your disc collection around your player! Even if this player would support multisession unfinalized crap, what about your next player in a year or two? Are you going to re-burn all the discs then? Stick to the standards and you'll always win in the long run.

[FulciLives]

I've been using the NERO ISO/UDF "template" when burning my XviD and DivX AVI files to a DVD-R and that has been working.

For some reason NERO EXPRESS crashes on me (but works with audio files ... go figure. It only crashes with the video files).

So I open up NERO BURNING ROM and select the DVD ISO/UDF option and select NO MULTISESSION and I think that is the only option I "mess" with.

Works for me *shrug*

I've never liked NERO for DVD VIDEO burning but for DVD DATA burning I guess I don't have many other options. For DVD VIDEO burning I use DVD DECRYPTER which can't do DVD DATA burning.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
It would not play my MPEG-2 file with audio but I did burn as above. Should I be burning with the ISO only option instead of the ISO/UDF option? However I must say I have no real "need" for RAW MPEG playback ... that was just a test as in "Oh yeah it can do that" but of course it didn't work LOL

[junkmalle]

It would not play my MPEG-2 file with audio but I did burn as above. Should I be burning with the ISO only option instead of the ISO/UDF option?

I don't think that makes any difference.

However I must say I have no real "need" for RAW MPEG playback ... that was just a test as in "Oh yeah it can do that" but of course it didn't work LOL

Earlier you mentioned a 2 GB MPEG file. I don't think the DVP-642 can play files over 2 GB.

[whitejremiah]

yea, to my awareness (i may be mistaking on this though) there isnt a standalone player in existance that can take an avi over 2gb....its somewhat of a restriction in nero as well...you cant burn ANY file over 2gb in a standard .iso specification disc....im assuming this is also why vob files generally are 0.99gb because of a similar restriction.........i forget exactly why it is that way, but there is some reasoning behind it........and that dvd player kills a lot of em out on the market...and those with the karoke vcd's...i know this is a pain in the neck, but you can always reencode them and use some audio editing programs to make them outright separate audio tracks, and author to dvd...its probably better compatability wise that way anyhow.

[FulciLives]

I know about the 2GB limit for AVI but this was a MPEG file and I just double checked it (it is still on my HDD) and it is only 1.86GB in size.

It's not a big deal ... normally I would never do that ... but I wanted to try for the "hell of it" because it supposedly can be done with the Philips DVP-642 but it didn't work.

The file does end in "mpg" maybe I should have changed it to "mpeg" but the odd thing was is that it did play back ... just with no sound.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[junkmalle]

MPEG file... 1.86GB... it did play back... just with no sound

I don't remember if the DVP642 has this problem, but with some player configurations AC3/MP2 audio (from an AVI or MPG file) may be sent only to the digital outputs, or conversely, only to the analog outputs. Could that be the problem?

[embreeb]

I should revise my previous post about finally being able to play XVID AVIs. It worked, but if I stop playing a file and restart it again, I usually have to go into the System menu again to change the TV Standard option (Multi/NTSC). Also, the player won't resume playing the file at the previous point - it will play the file from the beginning. Is there any way to do the "resume" feature with file playback? Also, sometimes, the player will shut off if in Pause mode. I burned 8 files to a DVD-R, and all but one played. The only difference was that file was at 30fps, which is weird - previously, it was only 30fps that would play. Anyway, it "seems to work", but I will have to experiment further. Also, the files that I recorded from Analog cable to my TV tuner card and converted to XVID look terrible compared to the downloaded episodes (HDTV to XVID). Anyone know how to make the video quality better?

[junkmalle]

the files that I recorded from Analog cable to my TV tuner card and converted to XVID look terrible compared to the downloaded episodes (HDTV to XVID). Anyone know how to make the video quality better?

If you look closely at your analog cable captures you'll see lots of noise. That makes the video much less compressible. You probably also have interlaced or telecined video which is less compressible than progressive video.

You can use temporal and spacial filters to reduce the noise. Sometimes I'll use VirtualDub's Blur filter followed by a Sharpen. Blur reduces the noise, and Sharpen resharpens the edges without adding noise.

If your video is telecined you can run it through an inverse telecine to convert it from 29.97 interlaced to 23.976 progressive.

If your video is fully interlaced (live sporting events, some made-for-tv shows, camcorder video) you can try a Smart Deinterlace filter.

[DereX888]

I know about the 2GB limit for AVI but this was a MPEG file and I just double checked it (it is still on my HDD) and it is only 1.86GB in size.

It's not a big deal ... normally I would never do that ... but I wanted to try for the "hell of it" because it supposedly can be done with the Philips DVP-642 but it didn't work.

The file does end in "mpg" maybe I should have changed it to "mpeg" but the odd thing was is that it did play back ... just with no sound.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

John, you should keep pressing AUDIO button on your remote until you find the sound. I had some weird MPEG-2 file with this problem too, on a computer it showed only 1 default audio MPEG-1 Layer II and played normally (but my comps play anything 'normally' hehe) while on this player it was like 20th audio track or so, with some weird name too (dont remember now exactly, but i do remember it had weird 'name' of the audio track). I believe it has something to do with some non-standard mpeg multiplexing, like Ligos crap etc.

There is no 2GB filesize limit for MPEG files, at least not for MPEG-2.
I dumped 4.1GB DVB stream to hdd and burnt it in UDF on DVD-R, and the player had no problem with it, however it really took AGES to load the disc, no kidding, maybe more than a minute. My LG player sees UDF or ISO or ISO/UDF or whatever in a very same time, philips doesn't. Its probably firmware problem.


Someone else complaining about XviD codec 'problem' - well, my friend, look at the front face of your player: does it have "XviD Video" logo, or is it "DivX Video" logo? So there is your answer... if pressing system button to force 'generic mpeg-4' codec everytime xvid file starts is too much trouble for you, then obviously its not a player for ya

[junkmalle]

ISO format has a 2 GB Limit. UDF is 4 GB -- or is it the size of the disk (4.3 GB)?

[FulciLives]

Well so far my DivX and XviD files all play fine ... at least those that I have tested. This includes some downloaded TV episode stuff and some DVD back-ups I've made myself.

So I am happy

It beats having to convert all those downloaded TV episodes to MPEG-2 DVD format.

However I got some really nice fan subbed anime but of course the losers (they always always seem to do this) made the subs too big so they sometimes reach almost from left to right and of course they are too low. Which means I have to re-encode it all and add black all around. Sigh.

Too bad the Philips doesn't have a reverse ZOOM to account for overscan. The only DVD player that ever did have a step-by-step reverse ZOOM was MALATA but although other DVD players use that same chipset (JVC for instance) no one but MALATA ever implimented the chip's step-by-step ZOOM function and now even MALATA doesn't make such a DVD player anymore.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[junkmalle]

My Liteon 2002 has independent adjustments for the width and height of the picture in about 5 percent increments. So you zoom in or out and adjust the picture aspect ratio.

[DereX888]

Assuming your subtitles are in some text format, you can easily adjust them Subtitle Workshop (best tool out there, free, and I've tried them all in past few years - nothing comes even close). Abundance of options may scare you at first, but start using it only what you understand

You can pre-set some defaults and have most of stuff automatically adjusted (I have i.e. minimum subtitle display time = 2sec if less than 20 characters, and 4sec if more, maximum characters in a line = 40, which will auto-split too long lines, remove any colors and tags, etc etc... it is really great tool, and every subtitles I download for foreign movies I do run through Subtitle Workshop first; in a second I get adjusted and more 'round' version than original usually is, not mentioning that SW automatically converts them for me to the SRT format which is probably best suited for most standalone divx players since practically all of them support).

[FulciLives]

Assuming your subtitles are in some text format, you can easily adjust them Subtitle Workshop (best tool out there, free, and I've tried them all in past few years - nothing comes even close). Abundance of options may scare you at first, but start using it only what you understand

You can pre-set some defaults and have most of stuff automatically adjusted (I have i.e. minimum subtitle display time = 2sec if less than 20 characters, and 4sec if more, maximum characters in a line = 40, which will auto-split too long lines, remove any colors and tags, etc etc... it is really great tool, and every subtitles I download for foreign movies I do run through Subtitle Workshop first; in a second I get adjusted and more 'round' version than original usually is, not mentioning that SW automatically converts them for me to the SRT format which is probably best suited for most standalone divx players since practically all of them support).

I've used Subtitle Workshop before but the subs I mentioned are burned into the image.

This does bring up something though ... what subtitles does the Philips DVP-642 support?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[junkmalle]

This does bring up something though ... what subtitles does the Philips DVP-642 support?

Only SRT as far as I know.