What resolution shall I choose if I have 1080i TV

[artisticcheese]

Hello,

I have MKV file with 1080p x264 encoded movie. I plan to reencode it in Xvid, which resolution shall I choose to maximize quality on my TV?

Thanks,
G

[Baldrick]

Are you planning to play it on a standalone divx player? Or why convert to xvid?

[KBeee]

What will you be using to play this movie onto your TV?

[artisticcheese]

Yes, I'll see it on my DivX capable Dlink DSM-520 (http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=438) media player which is connected to TV

[KBeee]

Well, working on the premise that the less converting you do the better for maintaining quality, I'd try it with XviD + mp3 (which your link says the D-Link can handle - it doesn't mention DivX, so it probably hasn't licensed that) at it's original resolution, and let the TV sort out any rescaling that's needed.

[jagabo]

The spec says it plays MPEG-4 format. It's not clear if that means it will play the MP4 container. So you might try remultiplexing the MKV into an MP4. Audio might be a problem too.

Otherwise try a short clip with Xvid/MP3 at the full 1920x1080 resolution. If that doesn't play smoothly you may have to step the resolution down.

[ronnylov]

The specifications looks very similar to my DVICO TviX M-4000P which use a Sigma Design EM8621 chipset. This chipset supports XviD and DivX (MPEG4 ASP) but not h.264 format (and then of course not x.264).

According to the specifications for Sigma Design EM8621 it can play XviD up to 1280x720 resolution and this is what I have experienced too. At 25 fps 1280x720 is on the border what it can play without freezing frames and sometimes it have problems even at this resolution. To find out more how I have made 720P in a working format for my player you can check my doom9 thread regarding this subject:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=124673

You may be able to use higher resolution in wmv9 format or MPEG-2 format because these formats may be less CPU power hungry than XviD (at least MPEG-2 is easier at the same resolution).

But your question is regarding the resolution. First is it a HDTV or a SDTV? If SDTV then PAL or NTSC? If HDTV, how have you connected the TV to your player (DVI/HDMI, component or S-Video)? What is your player output resolution? What is the native resolution of your TV?

If for example you have a standard TV then there is no reason to use anything higher than DVD-resolution. If you have a 1920x1080 TV then use best possible resolution that your player can handle.

[jman98]

The spec says it plays MPEG-4 format. It's not clear if that means it will play the MP4 container. So you might try remultiplexing the MKV into an MP4. Audio might be a problem too.

jagabo is correct about the idea that the MP4 container might be a problem. The MKV container almost certainly will fail to work too (yes, I do understand that jagabo was NOT advocating the use of MKV but just mentioning it). I'd advise using the good old AVI container for the best chance of success. And based on ronnylov's helpful post, it looks like the original poster is going to need to convert to 1280x720 for playback. If that's correct, do note that if you try to create progressive frames AND resize that you need to do so very carefully with Avisynth or you'll see problems with motion. I've even seen problems with just resizing and leaving everything in interlaced format. Others here can provide more help than me if you need to resize correctly without motion artifacts as I don't need to resize enough to be very familiar with the process.