Users with Apex 5131, can do me a favor?

[silab]

Im really out of luck looking for Apex 700 now looking for 5131 and seems like jamdr.com ships to Canada.

However, Ive got 2 video clips

One is CVCD

The second one is SVCD (Super Video-CD PAL (MPEG-2 352x576 25fps VBR 1020kbps, Layer-2 44100Hz 128kbps))

I had 2 players before, Shinsonic and Apex 600A. Both of them had audio problems playing CVCD and Apex would not load SVCD on that resolution at all.

Now, if u wouldnt mind, iw ould like to have these two (trimmed) videos tested and see if it wont have problems with 5131? Seems a good price for a 3 disc changer

[silab]

I really need help guys please.

So there I have prepared the two movies to test

1) CVCD clip (13.8MB)

Link

ftp://apex:5131@24.79.147.97:2601/cvcd.zip

2) CVCD clip (22.5MB)

Link

ftp://apex:5131@24.79.147.97:2601/svcd.zip


As I mentioned above, the Apex 660 and Shinsonic I had, for CVCD clip, the video is fine but the audio is not. There's crackles on the audio or sounds will be lost then come back on.

For SVCD one, I used the template thats used in China the 352x576 one and my Apex would not load it at all. But my Apex 700 loaded them both with no problems and I just want to know if Apex 5131 will as well before I purchase and regret.

THANKS FOR THE HELP!

BTW, I use NERO to burn VCD and SVCD to CDRW (Memorex)

[silab]

MMM

[magicmycote]

I'll see what I can do for ya.

[magicmycote]

Well I tried them both, and they both played fine. Here is how I saw them:

Both clips, SVCD & CVCD played perfectly. They loaded in about 3 secs, and played as smoothly as I expected. Both could be fast forwarded, in 1x,2x,3x, and 4x. The playback was smooth, but there were 2 things which were hard to judge:

1. Claymation is inherently 'jerky', so it was hard to tell how motion would do with live actors...although the smoke was very fluid.
2. There was no audio-to-lip synch! Those were not the best clips to use to judge The narrator seemed to be speaking about the action that was taking place though, so I suspect audio was synched.

Other than those two things, everything went as perfect as a retail DVD. You can expect that your settings will work just fine on a 5131. Below are my burning methods\ system:

1. Imaged with VCDImager v0.7.12 (VCDEasy)
2. Type: VCD 2.2 for CVCD, SVCD for SVCD.
3. Burned with CDRDAO v.1.1.5 onto Memorex 800MB CD-RW @ 4x


This player seems to be blind as to specifications, it has literally played everything I've thrown at it. As far as playing, it's a great box..there are only two peeves about it, neither are enough to NOT buy it though:

1. Discs do not 'auto-advance'..when disc 1 is over, you have to switch to disc 2 with the remote or manually.
2. Remote has to be positioned in a narrow angle range in order to work faithfully. I highly recommend this player if you can stand the above two peeves.

Good luck.

[silab]

Oh thanks :)

Seems like a player to buy although there were a couple of reports in nerd-out.com that a couple are having problems with SVCD :( I am uncertain if I will get a good unit

[vhelp]

silab,

i thought i'd try out your cVCD sample clip - hope ya didn't mind
And, I hope you don't mind that I tested it out on my AD-1500 and
AD-500 players. I dont have the 1531.

Qaulity was fine for this cVCD.

Anyways, I have a few questions for ya, (u can answer or not)

Did you:
* capture it? (source, and resolution?)
* rip it?

* video:
I noticed that once in a while I could see a line streak in it.
It was not really noticable, but I cought it none the less.
Also, this is one of those clay animation type. So, whtaever studder
being talked about prob. is meaningless unless you saw something
different on your "origonal" setup before encoding to cVCD.
However, if you captured it, then perhaps you capped to high a res.
and hence the cause of the slite studder.
And, "saturation" was deffinately on the high side, for my AD-1500
which is already on the HIGH side, it was a bit much.

* sound:
the sound was fine.

I would hypostersize that the 1531 would yield the same, but would
definately play fine!!

But, clip of fine otherwise though.

Is this, "James the Train" ??
I did a clip for a friends childred video a while ago. Looks like the one I just did.

-vhelp

[silab]

Hello vhelp

Thats ok :)

I captured it from VHS using VirtualDub at 352x240 resolution since i am only on P3 @ 500 and i dont intend to capture higher than that anyhow. It is Thomas the train though ;)

I am surprised your 1500 and 500 played it fine. My returned 600A did not even load the SVCD one and the CVCD one would load but audio crackles, would go off and back again and it was really annoying. I thought i should look for another one and i spotted 5131 on the net because i am looking for the one that has karaoke feature too.

[vhelp]

silab,

ok, couple of more questions for ya.


* what VCR make/model do you have.
I have a JVC.
>>i ask because my audio sounds like it coming from a chipmonk or
something like that. it's really weird.

* which of the filters did you use in your encode, if any. I asked
this because i noticed theres doesn't seem to be any snow assocoated with this VHS captured clip
...and I thought I'd try the same filters you used in yours to see
just how much it affects the video.

Ok, in my prev. burn, i used Nero,
to burn it, at NTSC. Forgot you
were 25fps and pal, bla, bla.
So, i reburned it again in PAL mode. Same as before. video plays and sounds fine.

But, I think the reason why you video is jerky is because of you cpu's limits.
In short, it sounds like it's chookng on the frames. You COULD
change all this if you just up your
cpu chip with soemthing a little
faster, though.

-vhelp

[silab]

I did not use any filters at all. My VCR is a cheap one, it is Samsung

I know my cpu is slow :( I wish i could upgrade but not yet :(