Encoding for DVP-642

[Junpei]

I've like to know what settings are most likely to work for encoding video for playback on my DVP-642. I have some XVID files that don't play, so I need to re-encode them. "MPEG-4 [.AVI] (mencoder)" isn't right, that's what I tried first (I think it's the default?) but of the other available options, what would work best? DivX 3 (avi; mencoder or ffmpeg), etc.?

[major]

It is difficult to say unless there is an owner of the same DVP-642 in the forum. You could make a test with a small clip with both mpeg-4 ffmpeg and DivX 3 mencoder.

[mrhawkinson]

I have been using a DVP-642 for about 6 months. Here are a few things I have learned:

The XviD codec works better for me than the MPEG-4 or DivX codecs included with ffmpegX. Either enginer is ok.

MP3 audio is a must; the machine won't play AC3 tracks from AVI files. I always use CBR 128kbps 48kHz but haven't systematically tested other options.

The DVP seems to do poorly with high bitrate AVIs. If you compress a typical feature to a 2-disc size (1400mb) it won't play (at least I have never succeeded in this). This is true even if you play the file from DVD-R.

One neat thing I just recently discovered is that to get subtitles to work you don't actually have to use an ISO-9660 filesystem, you just have to respect the funky version numbers from that system. So if you have 'foo.avi' and 'foo.srt' on your disc you need to name them 'foo.avi;1' and 'foo.srt;1'. This means you can put movies with selectable subtitles on DVD-Rs burned in UDF format. Once I learned this and got ahold of the hacked 'yellow subtitles' firmware, I was free to stop hard-subbing!

[Junpei]

Thanks. Perhaps the Xvid codec (do you mean the one that comes with ffmpegX, or the one for QT?) will work, whereas whatever Xvid encoder was used to encode the problem files I have doesn't... I'll have to see though.

I do know, however, that the machine WILL play AVI's with AC3, as I have done it before (at least with DivX encoded files). That's the primary reason I want to get some files to play on the player, because I have my digital surround speakers attached to it (my PowerBook only does analog stereo out).

[mrhawkinson]

Yes, I mean the XviD options in ffmpegX, they both work great.

You remind me of another trick I have discovered. If you are playing some other flavor of XviD and the video looks terrible (colors off and lots of blockiing around edges) you can fix it! Press the SYSTEM/MENU button on the remote (to bring up the settings menu), then press SYSTEM/MENU again (to dismiss the menu) and the video will play back correctly. I have no idea why this is!

My comment on AC3 was based on having it fail once or twice and not bothering to try again... I guess I don't know what channels, bitrates, etc. do or don't work on the DVP.

[adamantius]

It is difficult to say unless there is an owner of the same DVP-642 in the forum. You could make a test with a small clip with both mpeg-4 ffmpeg and DivX 3 mencoder.

In addition to what's already been said, you might look at D-Vision 3; it has a feature for repairing the index of an .avi specifically for use with hardware DVD and DivX players. So far, for me and my 642, all the XviD movies I've done have worked well after repairing the index while the little "hardware DVD or DivX player" box is checked. I assume it is analagous to DivX Pro's "Home Theater Certified" encoding parameters.

Now, if ffmpegX had such a feature, maybe even a preset, that'd be even better...

Phil

[absinthecarolinas]

The DVP-642 will absolutely and definitely play back AC3. In fact, I suspect it will also pass along a DTS soundtrack to a decoder if you have one. I just bought a second DVP-642 and this one is now hooked up to a DTS-enabled receiver, but I haven't muxed any XviD/Divx with DTS yet to see if it works, though truly I see no reason why it wouldn't.

A note about the AC3. I did come across one file one time with AC3 that just wouldn't play. I really struggled trying to figure it out, and then I noticed that there was no sound for several seconds at the beginning (behind the movie studio logo). In other words, there was a HUGE audio delay before the AC3 track kicked in. Basically, I stripped out the audio and used AC3 Delay Corrector to add silence at the beginning under the aforementioned logo. Then I muxed it back in, and it played fine.

I guess the player doesn't handle huge audio delays well. If you use software that automatically creates your files from source (like AutoGK or some such), perhaps it does little things like this (I mean like leaving a silence under the opening logo to save space). I don't know as I always make my own files by feeding scripts to VirtualDub.

I mux everything with VirtualDubMod, and I've never had any problem with either CBR or VBR MP3 audio.

I use the XviD codec exclusively, and so should you. It's the best. Just don't encode with GMC or QPEL and you should be fine.

Also, I haven't experienced any stuttering or artifacts, etc. at bitrates around 1400. 2-CD encodes of a movie generally play fine. I think I have seen this happen, however, around 1800 to 2000 kbps.

-abs