Pioneer dv-400v XVID playback problems

[ironzenmountain]

My Pioneer DV-400V will not play back XVID encoded files. I have tried everything, from updating the firmware (including hakan's custom) to using MPEG4Modifier to upack the bitstream (my files are not packed anyhow).

I have no problem playing back Divx files, from either DVD-Rs or from the USB, but the XVID files on the same DVD-Rs or USB will hang up after a few seconds, locking up the entire player.

The xvids are all well under 1500 kbps, most are 900 or so.

I can't seem to find anyone else with this problem on the boards. Everyone else seems to play back Xvid fine.

Any ideas?

[Ai Haibara]

Everyone else seems to play back Xvid fine.

On the same player?

Run one of the 'problem' Xvid AVIs through a utility like GSpot or MediaInfo and post the information here (in the case of GSpot, you can post a screenshot.), so we can see if there are other factors which your player might not like. Blank out the file/path names, if you prefer.

[ironzenmountain]

I can't find anyone else who has problems playing back not bitstream packed Xvids on the DV-400v.

here is what I get out of Media Info on the XVID:

General #0
Complete name : D:\Sky High.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Format/Family : RIFF
File size : 701 MiB
PlayTime : 1h 39mn
Bit rate : 977 Kbps
StreamSize : 12.0 MiB
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2540/release

Video #0
Codec : XviD
Codec/Family : MPEG-4
Codec/Info : XviD project
Codec profile : Streaming Video Profile/Level 1
Codec settings/Packe : No
Codec settings/BVOP : Yes
Codec settings/QPel : No
Codec settings/GMC : 0
Codec settings/Matri : Default
PlayTime : 1h 39mn
Bit rate : 816 Kbps
Width : 656 pixels
Height : 272 pixels
Display Aspect ratio : 2.412
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 8 bits
Chroma : 4:2:0
Interlacement : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.189
StreamSize : 581 MiB
Writing library : build=2005.09.25

Audio #0
Codec : MPEG-1 Audio layer 3
Codec profile : Joint stereo
PlayTime : 1h 39mn
Bit rate : 152 Kbps
Bit rate mode : VBR
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
StreamSize : 108 MiB
Writing library : LAME3.97b
Encoding settings : VBR (mtrh)

[ironzenmountain]

After much searching, I think the problem might be the BVOPs of the xvid files. Even though MediaInfo states that the xvid only has 1 consecutive BVOP, the other Divx files that play back fine have no BVOPs.

I read somewhere that the Mediatek chip can't handle more than 1 consecutive BVOPs, but it should be able to play back my test file if it only has 1.

[Krispy Kritter]

Could also be the VBR audio. Some players have trouble with VBR audio.

[jman98]

Your video doesn't have the usual problems for Divx/Xvid playback on DVD players (GMC, QPel, packed bit stream, resolution, high bit rates). Perhaps it is VBR audio. Some players do choke on this. You can use something like VirtualDubMod to demux the audio, convert it to WAV (and then re-encode to CBR MP3 if you wish) and remux the new audio file with the video and see if that is better.

[ironzenmountain]

I re-encoded the audio as a CBR MP3, and still no joy on playback. The video freezes less than a minute into the file. I also re-encoded the video as a DVIX rather than an XVID, and the video plays back but now the audio is out of synch....

[Krispy Kritter]

Try a different tool for re-encoding. You may also need to demux the audio, re-encode the video, and then remux the audio.

[RabidDog]

Do Xvids play back at all, or do they play back badly? Maybe it is the start of some new trend whereby players will only play back divx files and not Xvid. Best to make some of your own test clips, as if you did not author those other clips they may have custom matrices or something. Play the test clips back on PC to make sure they are good and keep them short, use autogk with standalone support enabled.

[Andart]

you're not alone
I have the same problem with xvid on pioneer DV600
What is most interest that sometimes player forgets that he can't play xvid and it's possible to watch whole movie to the end. But if one moment it hangs (no matter at the beggining or end of the movie) - you can restart it thousand times but hanging begin to appear almost immidiately.

[Andart]

just found out that problem occurs only with xvid files encoded using custom matrix of quantization type

[somebodeez]

I've got a Pioneer DV400-V (first generation, original firmware) and it'll play both XviDs and DivX for me and VBR audio isn't a problem for mine.

[jman98]

just found out that problem occurs only with xvid files encoded using custom matrix of quantization type

I forgot that sometimes people do this (it's not very common) and it is often a problem for DVD players that play Divx/Xvid. Thanks for posting about this.

[ironzenmountain]

I too just figure out the XVID custom matrix problem with the DV-400. Sigh. Time to re-encode.

Another thing: I just hooked up my new Maxtor 500 gig USB2 external drive, formatted to FAT32... It works great! Except that the file names are displayed in no apparent order: not alphabetically, not by creation date, not by modified date, not by size... how annoying, especially when searching through hundreds of movies!

[Krispy Kritter]

Try using AutoGK for your re-encoding. It has a setting for "standalone compatibility".

As to your HDD, most players support folders. So you could separate your files into folders to make browsing easier.

[tallmanken]

I have a maxtor 350 gig usb drive connected up to mine and noticed the same thing with the file orders on the dvdplayer. I figured out how it was listing them after some observations. I noticed that the files were being listed in the order that they were put onto the drive or in the folder. The solution that I use to reorder them properly is to arrange them by name while the drive is connected to your computer, then move them into a new folder. Windows will move them based on their file name starting with the one at the top, hopefully the first through the last. I have done this to all the files that were not displaying in the proper order.