Advice before buying new DVD player

[hakamtzan]

Hi all

I am considering buying a new DVD player which will play DIVX and XVID.
The cheapest (I love cheap - don't you?) I can see at the moment is the Sumvision N820. I searched the forum and saw that it got an overall 8.0 mark and only one problem posted.

My question before shelling out money I do not have, is:
what happens when the DIVX version goes up a notch? From 5 lets say to 6. Will there be anyway to upgrade my player with new firmware? I tried looking on the Sumvision site but could not find any clues there. Also I understand that there might be some problems playing some XVID files.

I know the following question realy should be in 'converting' but I am already here and I do not like multy posting....

Anyway, if a XVID movie is not upto scratch, If I save it as DIVX file via VirtualDub, will that make it DIVX thus solving the problem?

Confused? Not half as me, I can assure you.....

Thanks for your help, Hakamtzan

[Donny661]

If DivX Networks releases a new version of DivX, it will likely not play in that player without at least a firmware update. The new version probably won't require any additional hardware requirements if it sticks with the MPEG-4 standard, but the player might need a simple update to read the files. Then again, it might not need an update. Personally, I would go with a KISS player. They, for sure, get constant firmware updates and additional features.

To answer your other question, recompressing an XviD as DivX should fix it if the player only plays DivX, but that would create a large loss of quality in the conversion process, which is something you want to avoid by getting an MPEG-4 capable player. If you have to recompress everything, you might as well just convert everything to DVD/SVCD.

[hakamtzan]

Cool! 8)

Thanks Donny, for the detailed reply.
I realy would like to hear from Sumvision but they have not replied to my email. I wonder if it is a sign not to rely on them for support.....

I saw the kiss and it was a bit dearer (£15). However if it means being able to keep up with progress then I think it is worth it.

Thanx for clraering the DIVX XVID bit as well.

Anyone else has anything to contribute I will surely appriciate it...

Hakamtzan