Tesco DPA 08

[IKnowNothing]

I've just bought a Tesco DPA08 DVD player (obviously from Tesco) mainly because it's so cheap.

Firstly does anyone know if there is a hack to make these multi region?

Secondly does anyone know what codecs it supports? Playing AVI files seems to be a bit hit and miss with only 3 or 4 playing from a random selection of my discs. It's not a huge problem just a pain if I have to recode files just so they'll play on the darn thing.

TIA

M

[yoda313]

Playing AVI files seems to be a bit hit and miss with only 3 or 4 playing from a random selection of my discs.

Since I'm in the US I obviously have no experience with your particular dvd player.

HOWEVER settop dvd players are notoriously picky on compressed video playback.

Try things like using files that are less than 2gb (i know it should support higher file sizes but I think really old divx type specs maxed out at 2gb). Also make sure it is a standard definition file and not a high definition file.

If you are using a usb drive make sure it is fat32 and not ntfs as no settop player can handle that format that I know of.

[IKnowNothing]

All the files I've tried are 700MB to 1GB and I'm playing from DVD since the player doesn't have a USB slot (the player is very basic to say the least).

As far as I can tell all the images (playable or not) are "normal" but no two files re the same and are all less than 720x416 (which is what I get off my DVD recorder). The also have bitrates in the range 500 to 1300 kbps with no correlation between which play and which don't.

[jman98]

We have a sticky here at the very top of this section of the forums where you posted this. It explains why AVI files sometimes won't play on DVD players.
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic352457.html

You'll have to use a tool like GSpot to see what's in the files that won't play, but it's probably something like GMC, packed bitstream, etc. from the list in the sticky.

[IKnowNothing]

I wish I'd thought of GSpot would have made life so much easier.

Based on the 12 files I've tested only XViD play! More accurately the 4 bytes from offset &H0070 must read "xvid".

Looks like all my DivX files need recoding

Anyone any ideas on a region hack?

M

[jman98]

I wish I'd thought of GSpot would have made life so much easier.

Based on the 12 files I've tested only XViD play! More accurately the 4 bytes from offset &H0070 must read "xvid".

Looks like all my DivX files need recoding

Anyone any ideas on a region hack?

M

If you are correct that the 4 bytes must say "xvid" to play, that is so broken that I don't have any comment to say except that if it was me, I would NEVER buy another DVD player from this manufacturer again.

I think this program can change the code from "Divx" to "Xvid" without you having to re-encode.
https://www.videohelp.com/tools/AVI_FourCC_Code_Changer

Can't help you with the region code, if one even exists. It's getting harder all the time to make DVD players region free. A code may not exist for your player.

[victoriabears]

What price did you pay?

Looking at the spec I would say this was an older model re badged for tesco.

I would always go with/:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-DVP5990-05-1080p-Player/dp/B001BL4OU4/ref=tag_dpp_lp_edpp_ttl_in

then you know you have up to date technology