Norcent DP220 DIVX

[wulf109]

I ordered one of these from Buy.Com based on reviews here. Does anyone know what chipset it uses?

[steve2713]

I got one of these about a week ago. I'm pretty impressed with it so far - it seems similar in performance to the Philips 642 from what I've read about the Philips (I don't actually have a 642). Is there some way to narrow down to what chipset it's using without opening it up? Like creating several different test clips to see what it plays and what it doesn't?

[wulf109]

I'm guessing either a Media-tek or ESS chipset. Unfortunately they have very similar menus. One possible way to tell is that Media-tek chipsets usually have an adjustment for brightness and contrast in the menu and ESS usually does not.

[steve2713]

The Norcent has no brightness or contrast adjustments. Isn't the Philips ESS? I get the sense that they're very similar in their abilities. One thing that's annoying about the Norcent is that it has no dedicated Audio or Subtitle buttons on the remote, so you have to change them in setup, although it can at least be done in the middle of playback. The remote just sucks in general, although I'm getting used to it.

I'm guessing that this is practically the same unit as the Philips playback-wise. A bad remote and no LCD display are the two downsides that come to mind vs. the Philips, but the price is right.

[wulf109]

The Philips DVP642 uses an ESS Vibrato chipset which does have a picture adjustment in the Video menu submenu called "Smart Picture". I own a 642 and have never been happy about it's DIVX playback. Specifally it has bitrate spike that showup as glitches in playback. Note that when you install AutoGK it offers an option to optimize for ESS chipsets. The ESS chipset clearly has problems with DIVX. I note that recent versions of AutoGK now include a bitrate cropper in it the ESS setup.
Frankly I'm hoping the Norcent does not use an ESS chipset.
In the final analysis you need to open the Norcent to see what chipset it uses. I opened my 642 to check the chipset.

[steve2713]

I've used AutoGK for a few conversions, I believe I've done them all with the two options to encode for ESS chipsets ENABLED. I did have a couple of files that I tested on the unit that I did not make that skipped/stuttered on a few spots when burned on a CD-RW, but the skipping went away if burned on a DVD+RW.

Another note on this player: Do NOT burn your DVD+RWs bitset as DVD-ROM, it sends the discs into a 'spin of death' and the player makes some horrible noises as it tries to read the disc. This included two different kinds of DVD+RW media (RICOH and INFODISC), burned on two different burners (NEC and Benq). The same discs burned as standard DVD+RW bitset discs were read with ease from either burner.

[wulf109]

Have you tried playing a Nero Digital file on the Norcent? I read somewhere that some Mediatek chipsets support Nero Digital. It's a long shot but you never know.

[steve2713]

I tried one, it didn't work. If there's certain settings to make with Nero, let me know. I'm not too familiar with MPG4 encoding at the moment.

[wulf109]

You can demux Nero files with MP4UI. Then remux with AVI_MUX using the original ac3 file. This usually plays on my 642. Turn off OpenDML support in AVI_MUX or the resulting file won't play. The aac audio seems to be the main obsticle.

[steve2713]

Thanks for the response. I know that the audio is at least one issue. The Norcent doesn't support WMA either. But I did try a Divx file with WMA for the audio track, and it plays fine with the exception of no sound. With the Nero Digital file it doesn't play at all.

I'll try another conversion and see if I can get it to play.

[steve2713]

P.S. - when I asked which settings to use with Nero (Recode), I meant within the video encoding settings - there's a bunch of settings that can be changed just before you go to encode if you select 'expert' mode. I'm not very familiar with MPEG4 nor the settings to use/avoid to create files that are most likely to create playable video on standalones. I'm doing a short test and I turned off most options in Recode this time around, we'll see if this next file plays.

Edit: I was able to get a Nero MP4 file to play after I deselected several of the advanced encoding options (of course no audio).

[wulf109]

Recieved my 220 today,took the cover off and it uses an ESS chipset like the 642. It suffers from the same high bitrate stumbling on DIVX that plagues th 642. Steve is correct if you burn the same file to DVD,the DIVX file plays normally. That indicates that it's the players firmware that is choking on high bitrates off a CDR and not off a DVD disk.
I see why people criticize the remote. It's as well made as any remote but is un-usually small with tiny buttons.
The 220 plays miniDVD as a DVD,unlike the 642 which sees them as raw mpeg files. Seems to handle SVCD and VCD well.