Philips DVP5960 doesn't play Xvid files my old dvp642 did

[grahams1]

I just bought a Philips dvp5960 and I'm sad to find it can not correctly play Xvid files that my old dvp642 could (without even having to use the press menu, menu twice hack).

The file is nothing special, Xvid, 720x352, 29fps, ac3 audio codec and I just confirmed it plays fine in the dvp642. The problem I see on the 5960 with this file is 'checker boarding of the picture' every few seconds.

Is there a similar hack to the menu twice for the 5960 or is there a config setting I can try?

btw. I'm using component video. I've order an hdmi cable so I can use the upscaling.

I'm hoping there is a solution for this problem.

[Krispy Kritter]

Regardless of the menu "trick" on the 642, the file is incorrectly encoded. Even using the "trick" on the 642, the files don't play back properly. The "solution" is to fix the bad avi files.

[grahams1]

I managed to narrow this down a little.

The files that don't play are all ones I encoded from dvd using mencoder with default xvid codec. Files encoded via transcoder with ffmpeg play correctly. I re-encoded the files and they all play correctly now. I have to say it is surprising to fine these regressions from the 642, but I guess all players have their querks.

Note. My 2nd week with the 5960 has been happier, it plays some files in much higher quality than my old 642.

[jman98]

Some Xvid/Divx encoders have bad default settings. For example, it seems that quite a few of them default to VBR MP3 which is a terrible idea. For very little space savings you have a huge chance of playback sync problems over just using CBR video. I've noticed that it seems that some Xvid encoders default to using Qpel and GMC with warp points of 3. You should generally avoid Qpel and GMC altogether, although the DVP-642's chip can actually handle GMC if the warp point is only 1. It may be that mencoder's default settings have these features. You'll have to check as I don't use that program and rarely bother with Divx. To be fair, Qpel and GMC do improve quality, but some of the older chips that decode Divx don't like them.

[handyguy]

Did you try new firmware?