Which DivX-Player can be recommanded ?

[Erich99]

I am looking for a DivX-Player which can playback DivX-files (mainly version 5) without any problems. I have heard so many negative things about players - like problems with the DivX-Professional-features (GMC, Quarter pixels, bidirectional encoding), or with restrictions in the resolution, or in the sound format, or other things.
Who can recommand a real good DivX-Player which does not present all the problems mentioned above ?

[Robert Simandl]

Funny you should ask....

Here's my review of this player I e-mailed to several friends who are about to buy DVD players. A few of them have never heard of MPEG-4, DivX, etc., so bear with me on the stuff for newbies I was too lazy to remove before reposting here

The last few weeks on DVDRhelp.com, I've been reading about a new DVD player from an outfit called LiteON, model number LVD-2002. It's claimed to play not only DVD's, VCD's, DVD-R's and DVD-RW's, and DVD+R's and +RW's... but also raw MPEG 1 and 2 files just plain copied to discs without any sort of reencoding or authoring.... and even raw standard MPEG-4 avi files (DivX and XviD) copied to discs!

Now by DivX I do NOT mean the pay-per-view DVD's that Jerkit City tried to shove down our throats about five years ago. A new company took the name (probably because they enjoyed kicking Jerkit City while it was down ) and used it for their version of the MPEG-4 codec.

The words "MPEG" and "codec" refer to compression schemes that are used to fit ever-increasing amounts of video into ever-decreasing file sizes. Standard Video CD's (VCD's for short) use MPEG-1, which puts about 70 minutes of VHS-quality video on a standard 700mb CD-R disc and can be played in most standard DVD players. Downside is, it's VHS quality (hack, phooey ).

Standard DVD's, DVD-R's and -RW's, and DVD+R's and +RW's use MPEG-2, which can cram hours of excellent quality video into a 4.7gb disc. Again, discs can be played in almost any DVD player. Downside for recording is, DVD burners can still be pretty pricey.

Which brings us to the new MPEG-4 codecs. MPEG-4 gives you the best of both worlds by vastly increasing the compression used. In theory anyway, you can take a two-hour movie in DVD quality, and fit it onto a 700mb CD with an ordinary CD burner! There are certain generic MPEG-4 standards. DivX is a company that sells its commercial version of MPEG-4 for a fee. XviD (DivX spelled backwards) is an open-source, free MPEG-4 codec. Microsoft has its own free MPEG-4 codec too. Downside here is, CD and DVD discs with MPEG-4 files on them will play only in a computer with the codec installed. I tried one in my $1300 Sony DVP-NS999ES, and the Sony just puked. MPEG-4 will NOT play in a standard DVD player.

Until now.

LiteOn is primarily a computer-parts company, which is probably why they're one of the first to make a home DVD player (not part of a PC) that can play MPEG-4 discs. You just take the avi file from your PC's hard drive, and use your CD burning program to copy it as-is to a blank CD, stick it in this LiteOn player, and watch the movie on your big screen instead of your PC monitor!

An outfit called pcclub.com in California has the player for $129.99 (a tenth of what my Sony cost) with a $30 rebate if you buy before 12/13. I ordered one the day after Thanksgiving and received it yesterday (one week via FedEx ground).

Being used to my humongous $1300 Sony 999ES, and my even more humongous 5 year-old $1000 Sony 7000 before that, I was amazed at how LIGHT this thing is. I almost thought they shipped me an empty box, but the player was indeed inside. It looks pretty cheesy. In fact, it looks a lot like the Daewoo player we sell at Costco, but a little cheesier. All silver, with a fake glass plate across the front. Two of these players could fit inside my Sony. Comes with a remote, standard AV cables, and manuals.

I hooked it up to my TV and turned it on. Blank screen. Nothing. Until I hit the "P-scan" button on the remote a few times. This cycles through the video output choices until you reach the one that works with your TV hookup, in my case NTSC S-Video since my Sony and my HD tuner occupy the TV's two component inputs. Now that the "LiteOn... for the digital life" screen was visible on my TV, I went to the player's setup menu. Picked 16x9 widescreen mode for my TV, and analog outputs since my Dolby Digital decoder is full at the moment. Unfortunately, the player doesn't output through the digital and analog outputs at the same time. A real boo-hiss for me since I like to watch blockbusters with the Dolby Digital cranked up, and oldies like Casablanca through the TV speakers.

I put an MPEG-4 disc in the player. An highly compressed XviD that I've had sitting on my hard drive for a while. I simply used Windows XP's CD burning wizard to copy the file to a disc. No reencoding, no authoring. Just a plain CD disc with the file "filename.avi" on it. Lo and behold, the thing started right up! Considering the age and state of the original source, the picture was beautiful. And played with no skips or stutters. I didn't bother using the chapter skip buttons on the remote because this is a raw avi file and doesn't have any chapter data on it. I did try the manual FF and rewind buttons. Unlike with regular DVD's, hitting this button just causes the player to skip one minute forward or backward, and you don't see it forwarding or rewinding. Hitting these buttons repeatedly does cause the player to lock up until you hit the stop button. When you hit play again, the disc starts over. It does NOT remember where you stopped it before. So do this sparingly. But overall, I'm impressed. This player really does a good job with XviD's.

Next up, another overcompressed clip from my hard drive. This one encoded with Microsoft's MPEG-4 codec. Would not play. In fact, the LiteOn flashed a message saying "unsupported file format." Seems Microsoft took the MPEG-4 specs and ignored a few of them to make its own, proprietary MPEG-4 codec. Gee, Microsoft making a standard format proprietary? Who would have thought???? (Okay, I'll stop ranting now.) I cursed a few times, fired up the "Dr. DivX" encoding program on my PC, and reencoded the episode to the DivX 5.1.1 codec. This took about 3 hours on my old 1.2gHz Athlon, but a newer PC can do it in about a third of that time. I burned my new DivX file to a CD and put it into the player. Ah, much better. The disc popped right up and started playing. Forwarding and rewinding caused the same errors that the XviD disc did above. But again, just about no other standalone player could play this disc at all. Again, note this is the DivX 5.1.1 codec that several folks say this machine can't play properly.

I then decided to see how it would perform with a program that was top-notch quality in the first place. I still had the "Maxim Top 100" cleavage fest show on my hard drive from last summer when it was on TV. I had captured it with my ReplayTV at high quality. File size was about 2gb. I ran Dr. DivX on it and finished with a DivX MPEG-4 file that was 329mb. Burned it to a CD and stuck it into the LiteOn. Success! All that cleavage played wonderfully! Picture quality is indistinguishable from the DVD-R I made of the same show last summer. Not bad for a 20-cent CD!

Now the real test. I have a few PAL-format SVCD's. Not only are these SVCD (short for "Super Video CD"), but they're in PAL format for European TV. Most American DVD players just plain puke on these discs. My Sony 999ES can play them, but it's one of the few. And even it skips once in a while. The LiteOn plays them flawlessly and converts to the American NTSC format on the fly. Now THAT'S impressive!

Just for grins, I put in a few studio DVD's. As I suspected, my Sony 999 has better picture quality -- it damn well BETTER for ten times the price. But the LiteOn's PQ is as good as any *reasonably priced* player I've ever seen.

It also plays wma and mp3 music CD's, and JPEG photo CD's, but I didn't test that stuff.

Another bonus: LiteOn will occasionally provide firmware updates. Download an update from their web site, burn it to a CD, stick the CD into the LiteOn, and you have all-new firmware inside!

Get one of these things NOW!

BTW, I don't work for either PC Club or LiteOn. I just think this is a really cool machine.

[Gritz]

I'm also pretty awed by the DivX codec and suspect that most future DVD Players will support it. Just a few days ago I saw the program on DVDRhelp Tool Section called "Fair Use" which allows you to make a backup of your DVD. Probably hokey I thought, but I installed it and just for kicks stuck in a DVD of one of the recent war movies where one of our planes was shot down. Too my surprise it put the whole thing on one 5 cent CDR. Hmmm ...... let's see what it looks like! Wouldn't play until I install the DivX 5.1 Codec (free) and when I played it on my computers 19" Sony the quality was excellet! You can't tell the difference from the original DVD. Now this movie was about 1:45 minutes long and if you backup a longer movie the bit rate would go down and you might see some deterioration. But I'm impressed with just the one movie I've done!

[zhnujm]

The only players that i would recommend are players with the new MediTek chipset like the elta 8883. It can play all DivX features including qpel.
I tried both Sigma and ESS Players and in comparison they are only crap.
If you have time just wait until they are available in your region.

[rilles]

After playing with my new 2002 for a night, my experience was bitter-sweet.

The good:
-plays all old Divx3 CDs I had laying about, but lots of freezes and skips.
-plays all Divx5 files without flaw, also plays Xvid but I tried only 1 file.
-very slimline case
-turn it on and it greets with a "Hello", turn it off it says "Bye"
-fastfwd and rewind sorta work on Divx, you push the ffwd/rwd button and the Tv screen freezes while the box displays says "00000", let go of the button and you've fast fwd/rwd a certain amount
-plays DVD/DVD-+RW/DVD-RAM
-includes two batteries for the remote
-software can be upgraded, so there is hope for current bugs

The ugly:
-like the 2001 there is an irritating power switch light and only goes on when the power is OFF, very irritating if you're trying to watch TV and the player is in your line of sight
-playing DVD's is NOISY, CD's are not as loud, but in quiet parts you can hear it
-can only read ISO CD/DVD's... ISO has a file size limit of 2G which sucks if you have a 4G Divx you want to put on it
-fwd/rwd has a few bugs
-other then the Divx/DVD-+RW abilties, my 2 year old Daweo is a much better unit

[Bob W]

I have the Bravo D1 player on order which plays Divx and also outputs to DVI. When I get it I will test it out for Divx however I bought it mostly for the HDTV output.
http://www.vinc.com/product.asp?id=31&PID=21

[jgandara]

I got a neston maestro and it had played any file I have tried. It also support subtitles.

The only problems I have found are on high action scenes. they realease a new firmware update almost every month with updates/fixes.