Best resolution for standalone Divx Player? (Philips 642)

[BlueWeasel]

I've posted this in the DVD to AVI forum, but didn't get much feedback.

LINK

Basically, I'm new to Divx/Xvid encoding, and want to be able to get high quality backups of my DVDs so they can be played on my new Philips 642 player.

So far, I've encoded a few Band of Brothers episodes to Xvid (1 hour long, 700mb file size). I used AutoGK to do it, and the resolutions varied from 544x304, 576x320, to 608x336.

Initally playback on the 642 wasn't what I was expecting. While it wasn't bad, the image looked stretched or pixelated.

Since then, I've backup LOTR1 (3 hours long, 1500mb file size) to a DVD-R using a resolution of 640x464. It looks better than BOB, yet the bitrate is smaller. The resolution is higher, though.

I really only care about playback with the standalone player. Is it better to always go with the higher resolutions like 640x480, or even 720x480, even with a lower bitrate?

Also, the LOTR backup was fullscreen (4:3 AR), while BOB was 16:9 (anamorphic). Is there a problem with anamorphic resolutions on the standalone Divx players?

Thanks!

[Vanderlow]

Why don't you try Dr Divx and see what you get and use default settings. I got similar playback on the 642 (although not quite as good) as my G3Ti200 output from my PC to my TV.

[RabidDog]

While it wasn't bad, the image looked stretched or pixelated.

Well these are two diff problems
stretched... caused by aspect ratio differences between PC and TV
pixellated.. generally lack of bitrate / other.
Try Fairuse and use hyper-quality & TV aspect ratio ..this might solve one or both of your problems

BOB is v.v.v. hard to compress, so I am led to believe, because its got Tom Hanks in it.

[wulf109]

AutoGK does not allow you to set the vertical height and in my expierence it always selects a height that stretches the image. Try Vidomi which let's you set both height and width. I just did some Farscape episodes with it. season four is 16:9 like B.O.B. Use a resolution of 640x352,works on my DVP642.

[BlueWeasel]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

So far, I'm impressed with both the quality and output of the LOTR1 backup using the 640x480 and 512x384 resolution.

My bitrate is well above 1000, so I don't figure that's a problem.

I'll give Dr Divx a try and see how that goes.

Using Dr. Divx, I see it recommends a resolution of 720x400 when I start to backup BOB. It seems as though I read somewhere that standalone players like the 642 don't work with resolutions over 640? Is that true?

[RabidDog]

no.. I dont know what the maximum res is but 720x (avi) works fine.. must test 800x 900x.. no source tho

[Baldrick]

please don't cross post.