DVD players - why no big MPEG4 support?

[ArthurDaley]

OK MPEG2 was 90s.

Why does'nt the industry make a new certification sticker thing so that people can buy knowing their player does MPEG4?

I'm sick of having to encode to MPEG2 for DVD players.

And do all new DVD players support MPEG4 (DivX at least)?

[mats.hogberg]

I'm sick of having to encode to MPEG2 for DVD players.

Then why did you get a DVD player? mpeg2 is what Video DVDs are made of.
The next standard(s) are BluRay and HD-DVD
And no, not all new DVD players do DivX/AVI.

/Mats

[ArthurDaley]

Damn so i will need to wait for the format war to be over (or combined drives to be norm) then we have the sharing problem all over again - everyone else will need one and you will need a PC with suitable drive and software to share. Oh and you will have the high media price, even DL is too much right now.

What CODECs where standardised for blueray and HD-DVD?

TKS

[mats.hogberg]

the sharing problem

I'm not sure I follow (or don't want to...)

What CODECs where standardised for blueray and HD-DVD?

See WHAT IS BD & HD-DVD top left

/Mats

[yumagah]

Just checking the box of front cover of new DVD players tells whether they support Divx/MPEG4. At all the big chains like Walmart or Target there is at least one or two models that supports it for sale.

[greymalkin]

you could always go outside and stare at a tree. I hear the resolution is immeasurable and the bitrate/color depth they use is off the charts.

[lacywest]

you could always go outside and stare at a tree. I hear the resolution is immeasurable and the bitrate/color depth they use is off the charts.

Especially during the fall ... when all the leaves change colors

Bit Rate ?? ... You mean Bite Rate ... dont you. We are talking about Termites ... right ?

[jman98]

There IS Divx certification for DVD players and the Xvid group is either working on this or already has it available. Go to the Divx site at http://www.divx.com for more info on certified players.

MPEG-4 can mean a lot of things because it's a container. A few DVD players supposedly support Nero's version of MPEG-4. More players support Divx than that.

If you just want to "share" stuff (and we know what that really means) then beggars can't be choosers. I've seen some good and bad encodes available, but I have yet to see anything that was as good as the original DVD. I've seen a couple that were done properly that came close. People will just use whatever they want to encode stuff and many people don't understand the technology they use at all. I've seen some very bad encoded videos that used Divx and had all kinds of crazy settings, like weird frame rates, strange resolutions and (the worst) VBR MP3 audio and all I can say about the output is that it was (barely) better than nothing. In other words, don't expect "sharers" to standardize on anything.

[ArthurDaley]

don't expect "sharers" to standardize on anything.

I thought seeing a .ISO at 4.7GIG was fairly standard. Seems to work 95% of the time for me

[Noahtuck]

don't expect "sharers" to standardize on anything.

I thought seeing a .ISO at 4.7GIG was fairly standard. Seems to work 95% of the time for me

An ISO is nothing more than a container, basically like a zip file or a rar file.
It can contain ANYTHING. Just because it's an ISO does not mean it's a correctly authored or in spec dvd video structure, it can be music, programs, avi's, ect ect ect. so i don't know how an ISO could be fairly standard ?

[jmkeuning]

Why does'nt the industry make a new certification sticker thing so that people can buy knowing their player does MPEG4?

I thought "they" made a "sticker." My DVD player does not play AVI but I am looking for one. Just look at the front of the player. It will tell you!

[PuzZLeR]

Actually the new codec H.264, or x264, or AVC or whatever it's called now will be a "standard" on the next generation disc formats, such as blu-ray and HD-DVD. This will easily replace what's now DivX or Xvid, which won't die, they will just have to update their codecs, that's all.

This is all very exciting in theory that you will be able to share stuff with your friends, who can play them on their own stand-alones at home. You can even put hundreds of hours of high quailty, seemingly flawless, video on one disc this way. A dream it seems.

However until machines are able to encode this new codec faster than the snail's pace today and at common template settings, until the disc format war settles, and until the prices for all this stuff become slightly reasonable, well, we're still years away from seeing this dream to realization my friends.

And when it all happens one day, well, guess what? A new thing is coming "around the corner" to make us bitch and complain all over again, this time about our small capacity blu-ray/HD-DVD discs, our crappy AVC codec, the incompatibility with the new exciting SuperAVC 269 codec, etc. etc. etc., the expensive new Violet-Blaster Disc player, yadda yadda blah blah blah.

Sigh, now my head is spinning...

[ArthurDaley]

And when it all happens one day, well, guess what? A new thing is coming "around the corner" to make us bitch and complain all over again, this time about our small capacity blu-ray/HD-DVD discs, our crappy AVC codec, the incompatibility with the new exciting SuperAVC 269 codec, etc. etc. etc., the expensive new Violet-Blaster Disc player, yadda yadda blah blah blah.

LOL

Seems that way. But I really think the jump to high definition is a fairly unique occasion - if only the TV standards were standardised (I mean say 1080i in everyone's home), if HD camcorders to 1080i where a mass, if PCs had software and processing to edit/share it, if HD/Blue-Ray disks were cheap, if HD DVDs players were around... I'm getting the impression all this is 3 years off.

Maybe all TVs should be computer LCDs and DVD players should die to network enabled h/disk streaming boxes. Seems bottleneck is keeping the land of "computers" and "TVs" separate.

[mats.hogberg]

If I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair...

/Mats

[greymalkin]

And when it all happens one day, well, guess what? A new thing is coming "around the corner" to make us bitch and complain all over again, this time about our small capacity blu-ray/HD-DVD discs, our crappy AVC codec, the incompatibility with the new exciting SuperAVC 269 codec, etc. etc. etc., the expensive new Violet-Blaster Disc player, yadda yadda blah blah blah.

LOL

Seems that way. But I really think the jump to high definition is a fairly unique occasion - if only the TV standards were standardised (I mean say 1080i in everyone's home), if HD camcorders to 1080i where a mass, if PCs had software and processing to edit/share it, if HD/Blue-Ray disks were cheap, if HD DVDs players were around... I'm getting the impression all this is 3 years off.

Maybe all TVs should be computer LCDs and DVD players should die to network enabled h/disk streaming boxes. Seems bottleneck is keeping the land of "computers" and "TVs" separate.

1080i? Thats so last year. We need 1080p now. That $2500 tv you just bought a few years ago? throw it in the trash. all the 1080i'ers will be forced to upgrade or die. The dream of some sort of standard is a myth, especially with companies like sony around who ALWAYS have to come up with some proprietary junk that does the same thing as everyone else, just in a different shape. minidiscs and chewing gum memory sticks should come to mind.

[PuzZLeR]

"1080i? Thats so last year. We need 1080p now. That $2500 tv you just bought a few years ago? throw it in the trash. all the 1080i'ers will be forced to upgrade or die."

Sigh, see what I mean folks? It never ends...

Do you know what I feel like doing? I feel like pushing myself gently away from my PC's desk, putting on my nice comfortable shoes and my jacket, and going out for a nice crisp walk, getting some air, and realizing that there is life outside of this madness...

[ArthurDaley]

Do you know what I feel like doing? I feel like pushing myself gently away from my PC's desk, putting on my nice comfortable shoes and my jacket, and going out for a nice crisp walk, getting some air, and realizing that there is life outside of this madness...

Reminds me of an anti-TV book I saw on Amazon claiming that people now can recall 300 brand names but virtually no species of plants and trees.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688082742/ref=wl_it_dp/002-9402895-6641610?ie=UTF8&c...=38K2H97FBIF5A

[PuzZLeR]

We are consumers Arthur. Like sheep we are herded by the corporations that drive the market.

And I agree with greymalkin on an earlier post that companies like Sony are adding to our woes with their proprietary crap.

Gee, I remember Xerox reversing the fax paper rolls inside out to only sell their paper for their machines in the 80s.

Man, this will NEVER end.

[JohnnyMalaria]

OK MPEG2 was 90s.

I'm sick of having to encode to MPEG2 for DVD players.

WTF???? Just how young are you?

And what's the difference between "having to encode to MPEG2" and having to encode to MPEG4?

Standards are meant to last more than a decade. CDs use the same standard as when they first came out in the early 80s.

MPEG4 is a 90s standard, too.

Anyway - as to why? Surely someone using ArthurDaley should know! Money.

The DVD Consortium makes a lot of money from licensing products that adhere to the DVD format.

MPEG2 is the de facto compression standard for video used for DVD and digital broadcast (satellite, cable and terrestrial). MPEG2 supports a wide variety of formats.

A switch to MPEG4 would require all the broadcasters, studios etc to invest in new hardware to permit realtime processing of MPEG4 streams.

Not in this decade.