DVD player with way to update DivX codec or usb to watch vids from? Exists?

[spycam]

Hello,
i'm sick of my Philips DVP720SA player, it does not show modern divx movies properly, many artifacts or missing frames kind of stuff that makes watching of movies unpleasant...

Are there some new dvd/divx players that would have a way to upgrade divx codecs (philips does not do that with firmwares, as they got just one firmware to fix some minor things) to new versions, once they are out, or maybe a dvd/divx player with usb port to watch movies from usb storage devices including usb keys or usb HDs?

I liked the idea that Philips DVP720SA is capable to read any disk (that it's supporting of course), it can be scratched disk that no other device could read it. But on the other hand, divx encoding technology is changing fast, and in half a year a dvd player cannot correctly understand new divx movies encoded with new divx codecs

[mats.hogberg]

Only way AFAICS is to build a HTPC. Don't think any standalone player will ever be future proof.
If a player has codec problems (or rather - the AVI has standalone compatibility problems), it wont matter if the AVI is on a CD-R/DVD-R disk or on a USB device.

/Mats

[Baldrick]

Or a media center may be enough, http://www.popcornhour.com/ for $179 seems to support almost everything.

[jman98]

But on the other hand, divx encoding technology is changing fast, and in half a year a dvd player cannot correctly understand new divx movies encoded with new divx codecs

This is not correct. The problems you have are in no way related to "new divx codecs". The real problem is that the playback chip in the DVD player does not support Divx/Xvid encoding options that you didn't see in the past but are seeing now. The codecs themselves have barely been updated in the past year and backwards compatibility is excellent with older devices. What you need to do is download and install Gspot and open a Divx file with it that is giving you playback problems. The following encoding options may be problems on some DVD players that can play Divx/Xvid files.
1) GMC (Global Motion Compensation)
2) QPel (Quarter Pixel)
3) Packed bit stream
4) Resolutions greater than 720x576
5) Video bit rates greater than 2000 Kbps. In fact, with some older decoding chips, you may have playback problems with any audio except MP3 unless video bit rates as low as 1400 Kbps are used.

Packed bit stream in particular is being used a lot more in encodes these days. My best guess is that you are seeing one or more of these things I mentioned above in use and that is the real problem for your player.

[RabidDog]

Yup as OP said its gotta be the options used in encoding the file that causes the problems.. otherwise any commercial divx file could not be gtd to play back on a divx certified machine. The newer philips divx machines are excellent divx players (5982) but they still havent sorted out, fully, the problems of playing back files from the usb slot. officially it is not even mentioned so its just a bonus really, that all us beta testers are sorting for them!
Photos only from usb ... maybe wait for usb2 or the newer usb3 ports on even newer machines.