Divx/Xvid player choices

[trooper11]

Ive been doing alot of shopping around for a dvd player that will play divx and xvids well while staying in the $50-$100 range. But most of the players I hear recommended arent available anywhere in the US to be bought.

Are there any quality players out there that can be bought here in the US?

Ill mostly be using it for anime subbed xvids but also for some of my dvd backups encoded to xvid, etc.

So far Ive only seen one, the PIONEER DV-383S, that someone said was good and can be bought in the US. Are there any cheaper or same priced players that are good quality? Thanks

[yoda313]

I thought the philips 640 was really good??? Or was that 642? Whatever number it is its a philips dvd player that plays divx. From what I've read its apparently really good. And it should be available relatively inexpensively these days I imagine.

[junkmalle]

Philips DVP-642 is an OK player. Runs around US$70. Try Target, Walmart, etc.

A word of warning about your subbed anime files: many of them are incorrectly subtitled, with the subs too low on the frame. These will have to be re-encoded with additional black borders to move the subtitles up to where they can be seen.

[trooper11]

well i thought about the philips, but then i hear all these complaints about the player dieing a few months after buying it. it just sounded like it wasnt very well built

also, are there any DVD recorders (with a HD) that can play divx/xvid? for those id be looking at the $150-$300 range

[junkmalle]

LG has several DVD recorders that can play Divx. I think Samsung has some too. I have no idea how well they work...

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdrecorders.php?divx=1

[wwjd]

trooper11 you hit the nail on the head, there are very few choices in the US for DivX players. The 642 is a good example, its a peice of junk but because it plays DivX and can be bought in the US it is popular.

In my opinion DivX is a waste of time, especially if you live in the US. The other issue is that there are very few choices for DivX hardware encoding. Hence, you spend lots of time encoding.

One suggestion on hardware and that is the IO-Data AVeL Linkplayer2 ( http://www.iodata.com/usa/products/products.php?cat=HNP&sc=AVEL&ts=2&tsc=&sc=AVEL&pId=AVLP2%2FDVDLA )
Its more than just a DVD/DivX player and it is not real cheap but if you want to play DivX from hard drive then this may be a way to go.

Sorry for the rant regarding DivX.

[trooper11]

well the reason i want a divx/xvid player is that i dont like having to wait a day just for encoding the xvids i have to mpeg2 in order to make dvds.

i just want to burn them as is and play them

[EatMoreChickens]

I have a philips 642 and a lite-on 2002. The video quality is better on my Lite-on, I think b/c it uses a different chip, but you can't buy a lite-on anymore. My point is, the Philips is a good player, but there's better. It doesn't handle heat too well and it tends to pixelate more than my lite-on. Yeah, here in the states options are limited. Despite the Pioneer 383 being available, it's not widely available (like at a BestBuy) and you need to mail order for it, which makes me worry about Pioneer's commitment to customer service on the product.

In regards to the Divx format, 90% of stuff I get plays on both machines, tho I don't have much anime.

personally, I'm considering a Pioneer myself (the tray in my lite-on jacked-up). but I'll wait a few months and maybe more options will be available. I were you, I'd try the Pioneer esp if you can find it locally (you just return if it doesn't work out). you already know the Philips doesn't handle subs in anime well.

one last thing, my Philips has lasted almost 2 years. guess I'm one of the lucky ones??

[oldfart13]

Save up your pennies and buy one of these:

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDnameid=5195&Search=Search&#comments

[thedog]

I just got a pioneer 383-s and I am not happy with it. When trying to play some PAL dvd's that I have it causes the TV to start rolling. The rolling will continue even after i have taken the dvd out. The only way I can get the rolling to stop is to put in another dvd it seems to be happy with. These same dvd's play perfect in my $38.00 Cyberhome player. If anyone knows what I can do to stop the rolling please let me know.

[jliles]

Hi.

For what it's worth, I recently picked up the JSI JS4127 for a little over $100 from Sears. While I'm not sure it fits your definition of "quality", it does offer an amazing value for the price.

It happens to be an upscaling player that uses HDMI and includes an HDMI cable if your tv can use it. You can also connect over component, svideo, etc. if you prefer. This thing has played almost everything I've tried (excluding MKV or OGM containers). It plays DivX 3.11-6 (including the new .divx container's multiple audio and subtitle capabilities, though no menus or chapters). GMC 1 warp point and QPEL are no problem. Interestingly, it also plays Nero Digital Standard profile .mp4 files with AAC audio (though it does NOT play cinema profile or higher). It does seem to have some problems with OpenDML files, but this can be easily remedied in VirtualDub without reencoding the video.

It reads a wide variety of subtitle files, including srt, smi, ssa, and sub (microdvd). I also watch fansubbed anime, and subs are not cut off on my tv (though YMMV).

If you have a widescreen TV, this player will automatically recognize the aspect ratio of the file you are watching and display it correctly on the screen. A widescreen dvd will fill your screen, and a 4:3 file will be correctly pillarboxed.

All in all an excellent player for DivX/XVid/MP4 files. Give it a try. I did a more extensive review of this player over in the DVD Player review section of this site, and also posted a hack to make this player region free.

Julie

[pchan]

LG has several DVD recorders that can play Divx. I think Samsung has some too. I have no idea how well they work...

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdrecorders.php?divx=1

I have a LG DVD recorder and play Divx with external sub. Be warned... CANNOT forward. The movie plays from start to end.

[junkmalle]

I recently picked up the JSI JS4127...

Julie, thanks for that report. That's the most flexible player I've heard of to date. Could clear up a few details?

Can you fast forward or rewind AVI/MKV/OGM/MP4 files? That's one problem I have with my old Liteon 2002. It can't really FF or RR, it just jumps by 1 minute. Are there different FF/RR speeds? Can you jump to a fixed location -- say, 37 minutes into a file?

Is it possible to fine tune the aspect ratio when playing AVI/MKV/OGM/MP4 files? My Liteon is able to adjust the width and height independently in ~5% increments. If it picks the wrong aspect ratio for a video you can fix it manually. Or you can shrink both the width and height to get those pesky fan-subs out of the overscan area!

Thanks in advance for any response...

[celtic_druid]

LG recorders I believe use a Cirrus Logic chipset, their players tend to be MTK based.

If you play a lot of fansubbed anime I would suggest buying a player that can zoom out so the subs don't get cut off by your TV's overscan. I have no idea what is available in the US though, from the sound of it; not much.

[MJ]

I have a LG DVD recorder and play Divx with external sub. Be warned... CANNOT forward. The movie plays from start to end. sad.gif

The LG DVD players can.

[MJA]

get the Pioneer.its 100 times better than that crap made by philips
just be sure to buy the One-Year Replacement Plan.The philips one comes with 3 months only that tells alot about the quality


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00069PWBM/102-5990039-1184142?v=glance&n=172282&%5Fe...=UTF8&v=glance

[garrisonkw]

I spent quite a bit of time testing out different players and trying various encoding schemes. I finally just got a video card with a TV-Out. It works great. Get that and a wireless keyboard/mouse and you'll have no problems. This assumes your computer is close enough to the TV, of course.

[jliles]

Hi, junkmalle ...

To answer a few of your questions, yes, you can fast forward and rewind video files at variable speed up to 48x. It's not a smooth scan - you see a rapid series of still scenes, but it does work fine. There is a GOTO button that will allow to to jump to a specified time in a video file. If you stop playback of a video file the player will resume playback as long as you don't shut the power off or begin playback of another file. This is in contrast to DVD playback, where it remembers where you left off for the last 5 or so DVDs you have played, even if you have shut the power off or removed the disc from the player.

Unfortunately, there is no nifty variable zoom as in the way you describe on the LiteOn. You can only zoom in, not out, in 3 increments. As I mentioned, I have not had problems with subs on anime fansubs getting cut off, so this is not a big deal for me. The zoom is nifty in the sense that it smoothly zooms in with each push of the zoom button as opposed to a instant change in the image (imagine a video camera zooming in on a subject), but to me this is more of a novelty than a real feature.

Just to be absolutely clear, you CANNOT play ogm or mkv files directly on this player (I hope I did not give you that impression). However, you do have other options, if you don't mind extracting the video from the mkv or ogm containers. This player happily plays multiple audio files and multiple subtitle files that are named in a particular way. (I think it has to be something like "myfile.en.srt" and "myfile.sp.srt" for a file called "myfile.avi. I can double check this if you want.) If the player detects multiple subtitle files, before playback it will prompt you to select a subtitle. You can also change subtitles on the fly during playback if you wish using the subtitle button. The audio button will let you change audio tracks during playback as well. You also always have the option of using the .divx container if you want, which will allow you to have "pretty" subs as opposed to regular text subs. IDX type subs are not supported. Text subs are white in color and displayed on a transparent dark grey background, making them very readable.

Also to be clear, the only .mp4 files I have been able to play so far are Nero Digital standard profile files. It does however support Nero digital chapters. You can use the GOTO button to access the chapter you want.

If you do happen to have an HDTV with an HDMI or DVI connection, video files can be upscaled to either 1080i or 720P.

Pressing the INFO button twice during playback displays an overlay that tells details about the file you are playing such as duration, bitrate and audio and video codec used.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Julie

[junkmalle]

Julie, Oops, you said the player played just about everything excluding MKV and OGM -- I misread it as "including..." Thanks for setting me straight! Guess I'll have to continue remuxing to AVI.

The lack of independent width/height zoom in/out isn't critical. I usually only use the feature to make minor corrections in aspect ratio. And most of my foreign videos have SRT subtitles.

The FF/RR and GOTO ability is very good news.

Thanks for taking the time to answer all my questions!

[azuberi80]

Hi.

For what it's worth, I recently picked up the JSI JS4127 for a little over $100 from Sears. While I'm not sure it fits your definition of "quality", it does offer an amazing value for the price.

It happens to be an upscaling player that uses HDMI and includes an HDMI cable if your tv can use it. You can also connect over component, svideo, etc. if you prefer. This thing has played almost everything I've tried (excluding MKV or OGM containers). It plays DivX 3.11-6 (including the new .divx container's multiple audio and subtitle capabilities, though no menus or chapters). GMC 1 warp point and QPEL are no problem. Interestingly, it also plays Nero Digital Standard profile .mp4 files with AAC audio (though it does NOT play cinema profile or higher). It does seem to have some problems with OpenDML files, but this can be easily remedied in VirtualDub without reencoding the video.

It reads a wide variety of subtitle files, including srt, smi, ssa, and sub (microdvd). I also watch fansubbed anime, and subs are not cut off on my tv (though YMMV).

If you have a widescreen TV, this player will automatically recognize the aspect ratio of the file you are watching and display it correctly on the screen. A widescreen dvd will fill your screen, and a 4:3 file will be correctly pillarboxed.

All in all an excellent player for DivX/XVid/MP4 files. Give it a try. I did a more extensive review of this player over in the DVD Player review section of this site, and also posted a hack to make this player region free.

Julie

Thanks!

I think im gonna give this one a shot over the philips

[handyguy]

There is another one, RJ-800 that has a vga out & scart out. About $65 at newegg I think. Plays any format sub. Not too reliable according to some people, but neither is the 642.

[whitejremiah]

as far as having a divx compatable dvd player, ive got the DVP-642, so far the only complaint i have about it (and i understand that its probably got a LOT to do with the equipment i have it set up to....tv is probably a good 20 years old now, and has ONLY RCA, no s-video, component, ect....) is the picture is sorta blocky, even on retail dvd's....but from what i hear, if you connect it with s-video or better, that problem goes away for the most part.....and yes, i'd much rather have a divx compatable dvd player than one thats not.....just on this basis alone...there's some dvd boxsets that i have, that i'd like to drop down from say 3 or 4 discs to maybe 2 dvdr's or one dual layer dvdr.....divx happens to be a VERY good way to do this while retaining pretty much everything (original audio tracks and subtitles, at least.....) and lose very little picture quality.....

[Kairo]

Save your money and buy an Oppo OPDV-971H, I have yet to find one thats better for the same price.

[yumagah]

RJTech makes a couple of portable players without screens that play Divx and Xvid. The 250pdvx and the 350pdvx. They can be bought from various online dealers like newegg etc. I am using the 250pdvx and it plays a wide variety of Divx including Nero's Mpeg4. But I had two players die on me before getting one that lasted. RjTech's quality control seems to be iffy. But the players are great when they work.

I also have an Initial 750dx portable with 7" screen. It also plays most Divx & Xvid files.

[azuberi80]

well i picked up the jsi on sale at sears today for 75 bucks. I'm going to burn some xvid files to dvd and see how they play.

so far ive played some retail dvds and some xvids converted to dvd files by nero (s-video connection) and both have been good quality so far (playing on a 27" sony wega non-hd tv)

[ROF]

I have the Philips DVP-642. I haven't had any problems with it so far. It replaced a Sony that died about 1 1/2 years ago. It's a great player that plays virtually anything I throw into it. Great for xVid encodings. Perfect for Anime.

[azuberi80]

well i threw a few xvid files on a dvd-r and burned it as a dvd data file using nero. I was happy when the file began to play in the jsi dvd player, however that excitement turned to disappointment when I noticed that all of the audio was now out of sync.

Did I do something wrong, or is this a case of incompatibility between the file and the dvd player?

[azuberi80]

Edit: I upgraded my Nero 6 to Nero 7 and reburned the same files only to have out of sync errors again.

I then played the files on my pc and found out that one of the movies was out of sync to begin with!

I have reburned the unaffected files and they play beautifully in the JSI player.

[Severity]

Another option is the Pioneer 383. Plays everything the 642 does put with better video quality. Plus it has a much better system menu and video/audio options. About $100.

[kenmo]

Maybe not what you are lookig for but ....

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10058...1&catid=10561#

There is more info at Sarotech actual manufacture....

http://www.sarotech.com/english/cgi/pd.cgi?cmd=view&rno=1#top4