Set-top DVD w/Divx player-> What encoding settings?

[Capt.Video]

I know this info may be burried in the search results somewhere, but I couldnt find anything DEFENITIVE. Either by Google or forum search. A lot of reference to settings and speculation. So Ill have to ask it here. Sorry for being a noob.

Let me start off with saying, a few months ago (5?) I created some Divx files and burnt them to CD. I took a few disk to the local Best Buy and easily convineced a rep there to hook one of (one of the 2 brands) the DVD set-top players to a TV which supported Divx playback. The video was atrocious! My VCDs came out looking twice as good. On the good note, the audio played back just fine.

Now Im looking to buy a Divx player, and several reviews say that they have great success, and the picture is great. Im baffled how this was acheived!

Previously, I encoded at 720X480 at about 2mbs with MP3. This should have yielded in my opinion a video that would be comparable to a DVD.

Then Im reading about QPL or something, which I have no knowledge of.

Is there a specific method, or rather CODEC setting that I must use to encode a Divx (5.???, the last version before 6 I think) video that will properly play in a set-top unit?

I am now encoding D1 with 1 pass at 1300 kbs with MP3 audio. This should yield an extreamly good quality video. When viwed on the computer the quality is very good.

Thanks for any help or suggestions,
Andrew

[jimmalenko]

Certain players don't seem to like QPEL, GMC and/or B-VOPs. All three are just tickboxes in the codec config (for XviD they are, anyway).

[manono]

Hi-

Previously, I encoded at 720X480 at about 2mbs with MP3. This should have yielded in my opinion a video that would be comparable to a DVD.

Comparable to a DVD? I don't think so. Decent quality? Maybe and maybe not. Depends on the compressibility of the movie. If it looked bad, there's a good chance you didn't allow enough bitrate. And 720x480 is going to play with bad Aspect Ratio on a DVD/MPEG-4 player anyway. You'll have to crop and resize for AVI. Use AutoGK. In the Advanced Settings, you can set the Horizontal resolution to 720, if you like. A 1-pass Target Quality encoding set for 75% (default) will give you very good quality, but it may be quite a bit larger than the one you made before.

[Capt.Video]

Certain players don't seem to like QPEL, GMC and/or B-VOPs. All three are just tickboxes in the codec config (for XviD they are, anyway).

I dont know what those are, so Im off to research that. Ill check on the Divx config and see if there is anything in there I can try. Thanks for your contribution.


Manono, the argument about the quality is a matter of opinion, so Ill ignore that. You state that D1 doesnt play well in a DVD player, but that is DVD standard resolution. You didnt submit any codec specific settings that I could try. You also said to resize the video to horizontal of 720, but thats the current horizontal resolution. I am confused by your reply, but thank you for your time in replying.

Andrew

[manono]

Manono, the argument about the quality is a matter of opinion, so Ill ignore that.

Well, you shouldn't. You said that a bitrate of 2000 should be high enough to provide good quality, and I beg to differ. It might and it might not, and it depends on how well the movie compresses. There are no hard and fast rules about what bitrate is good for what resolutions. You didn't say if that AVI that didn't play well in the standalone played OK on the computer. If it does, then Jim may be on the right track with his suggestion that the encoder settings are at fault. If you encode using the Home Theater Profile for DivX, then that should solve that kind of problem.

You state that D1 doesnt play well in a DVD player, but that is DVD standard resolution.

Yes it is, and your DivX file isn't a DVD. DVDs get resized depending on the DAR (either 4:3 or 16:9). AVIs are 1:1 and just get scaled. A 720x480 DivX file in a standalone will play with bad Aspect Ratio. That's why I suggested using AutoGK for the job. It will crop away any black bars and resize it to 720x400 or so (depending on the amount of black bars). Also, a lot of AVIs at high resolutions will begin to stutter or freeze more during complex scenes as you get towards the upper limit of the resolutions the standalone can handle. I might also suggest lowering the resolution, but that's up to you.

[mats.hogberg]

Just use AutoGK with the ESS setting (or avi.net) when doing your DivX encodes, and you should be fine.

/Mats

[guns1inger]

You state that D1 doesnt play well in a DVD player, but that is DVD standard resolution

You are not making a DVD though, are you. You would do well to learn from more experienced people this time around.

[Capt.Video]

If you encode using the Home Theater Profile for DivX, then that should solve that kind of problem.

That is exactly what I have found, and thank you for your help. Using Gspot, I find that using HTP with Divx yields a file that should play fine in a set top.

Guess now all I have to do is get a set top player and start... playing!

Thanks for everyone's help!
Andrew

[thedivxkid]

the new Dr. DivX 2.0 is out (www.drdivx.com)

and it will create files that are coptatible with all DivX Certified devices

just choose your desired output, and it should work

note, that the new Dr is in beta and has some bugs right now, but its pretty good, and getting better

thekid...

[carlo1973]

I have been using Dr. Divx Beta and I must say I am impressed for the most part. I always get a really really good quality video back, even if I'm re-compressing from an existing divx, the quality is still great even on my set top. However I do have a little problem...

I have some fansubbed anime (subtitles were unfortunatly HARD encoded into the video file) and I get a problem with overscan on my 32" flatscreen tv. I have tried using Dr. Divx to re-size for settop boxes... Dr. Divx seems to like to encode to a size of 512 x 384. Original file size is 640 x 480. When Dr. Divx re-sizes I still seem to have a problem with overscan. Quality is still great, but the sides and bottom are cut.

I've been attempting to compensate by running an AVI Synth filter through virtual dub (Full Processing mode, fast compression for divx, bitrate of 900fps, in home theater profile, full audio processing mp3). The filter settings I've been trying is something like so:

AviSource("1.avi").Lanczos4Resize(580, 420)
Addborders(30, 30, 30, 30, $000000)

And this does work quite nicely. It basically resizes the image to 580 x 420, then adds a 30 pixel bored all around to compensate for the overscan. I'm trying to fine tune the setting so that I have as little border as possible, but still able to view the full image. I'll post my findings when I'm done.

And just so you know, I haven't found any real quality downgrade in doing this. The picture quality is still awesome. Yes, there are a few artifacts cause your recompressing, but its not horrible and not distracting of any sort.

I just wish I knew how to do this in Dr. Divx and not have to use a secondary program like Virtual Dub or AVI Synth, as I find the picture quality produced by Dr. Divx is vastly superior. To bad there is no option to compensate for overscan. Actually I'm not sure why this isn't something that is selectable in the home theater profile. A compensation matrix for set tops.

Oh just so you know... I'm not using a fancy Set top player for my Divx. Infact i'm using one that is really expensive but yields great quality and has great reviews. The Phillips DVP 642. Great quality. Super quiet (I cant even hear it eject or retract the tray) and super features. Doesn't play Divx 6 menus.. but its a base DIVX Certified player not one of the Ultra Certified players. For $80 CDN at Walmart, I cant complain :P

[FulciLives]

I would just like to add since no one came right out and say it that a DivX at 1:1 is considered full screen when using a resolution of 640x480

For a full screen DVD you would technically chop it down from 720x480 to 704x480 then resize to 640x480

The DivX at 640x480 will have the same aspect ratio as the original DVD did at 720x480

This is due to DVD using "rectangle" shaped pixels whereas DivX uses "square" shaped pixels.

Anyways with DivX it is really easy to make a set top playable file as long as you use the DivX Home Theatre Profile. As for a tool the aforementioned autoGK is very nice.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[RabidDog]

ALso burn your files to DVD's not CD's as sometimes the player cant spin the CD fast enough to keep up the required datarate especially in the High bitrate /complex scenes.. try fast forwarding on your divx files, most players seem to simply double the speed of the drive which, because of the nature of compressed mpeg4 files, results in fast forward of 5x 8x

[handyguy]

Avi_Recomp can also check your files & make them compatible & add the subs, I guess, I need to try it.

[whitejremiah]

2000k/s is a bit towards the...iffy side if you ask me, and no divx compatable dvd players do NOT properly handle 720x480 resolution video (even fullscreen!) at least the dvp-642 which is probably THE most common divx compatable dvd player...in the united states anyhow.............as far as your encoding goes, i can suggest something even EASIER than autogk...that is fair use wizard......if you look at the page that's set up for it, there's even a link to a free (legal) version of it, since the program itself is open source.....as for the output video quality, i've noticed at least on that particular dvd player, it's a bit unforgiving as far as blockiness goes...i see blockiness even on a lot of retail dvd's....i've been told though, that as long as you go with say s-video or component video to connect it to the tv, that problem decreases rather significantly

[FulciLives]

I had a Philips DVP-642 and overall I was not pleased with the image quality but I was connecting it to a SONY TV that only had composite video inputs.

It was really nice to be able to burn DivX and XviD to CD-R or DVD-R and play it on a TV but the image quality with MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 DVD's was "odd" with a loss of gradient color (i.e., blockiness) plus the internal settings for contrast and brightness either made the picture much too dark or much too bright.

On top of that it brought within 3 months ... might even have been 2 months.

Of course there are more options now. The Pioneer DV-588A is a good player and can be bought pre-modified to be region free. The OPPO OPDV971H is another excellent choice for DivX/XviD and it is region free out-of-the-box. If you are on a budget the Pioneer DV-383 can be bought region free and it does DivX/XviD and can be found on-line for around $100 - $110

Take a look at 220-Electronics for the two Pioneer models I mentioned.

The OPPO website is ---> http://www.oppodigital.com/

- John "FulciLives" Coleman