samsung dvd-p171: bad sound with xvid?

[pengocha]

i have a samsung dvd-p171 player. when i try to play certain movies the picture quality is good but the sound is bad and sometimes not playing at all. i have looked at the codecs for the files with gspot and all the files that i have problems with are the same codec:

Codec: Xvid Name: XviD 1.2.-127
Audio: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
pic wx: 624 x 336

can someone help me out? thanks.

[guns1inger]

Define bad.

Does it break up, play at the wrong speed or pitch, hiss ?

I know my Pioneer recorder has problems with 5.1 AC3 audio in AVI files, with periodic drop out. My cheap LG player, on the other hand, has no problems at all.

[pengocha]

i think you can describe it as hiss. the sync is perfect, you can hear them speak but you just can't understand the words. it's almost like a low bass devil like voice if you catch my drift.

[guns1inger]

Only some movies ? What do they have in common ?

It sounds (no pun intended) like a faulty unit.

[jagabo]

What's the bitrate on the audio? It's probably just encoded with too low a bitrate. Does it sound better on your computer?

Or are you saying the pitch is too low? Women sound like men? Men sound like giants?

[pengocha]

on my computer the sound is perfect. the thing that they have in common (i think) is the xvid codec.
how can i see what bitrate the audio is? thanks btw.

[jagabo]

Gspot will give you information about the audio and video. Post a screenshot.

[pengocha]

movie 1:

http://www.derrickforeal.net/temps/1.png

movie 2:

http://www.derrickforeal.net/temps/2.png

[jagabo]

Both of those have problems?

[pengocha]

yes, the first one the picture is very dark and the sound "stutters", the 2th the same picture and the sound is "hissing". both work perfect on my pc. thanks.

[jagabo]

yes, the first one the picture is very dark and the sound "stutters"

The video is Xvid, 624x336, 23.976 fps, 1024 kbps, no b-frames. Those properties shouldn't be a problem. But it uses Duplicate Frames (the little DF in GSpot). Some players might have issues with that. GSpot doesn't report it, but the use of custom matrices confuses some players. That might explain the dark picture.

The audio is 167 kbps VBR with 48 KHz samples, joint stereo. Both VBR and the higher bitrate, or the combination, could lead to problems on some players. The A/V interleaving looks OK.

the 2th the same picture and the sound is "hissing".

The video uses 2 b-frame sequences. Some players have issues with that. But it doesn't have packed bitstream (the little PB in Gspot). It's usually a combination of 2 (or more) b-frames with packed bitstream that causes problems (jerky playback). In any case, I wouldn't expect a dark image. So again, a custom matrix might be the problem. The resolution, frame rate, and bitrate look fine.

The audio is VBR. Again, that could be a problem. It's also stereo instead of Joint Stereo. I wonder if that could be the source of the hiss. The bitrate shouldn't cause issues. The A/V interleaving looks OK.

There is a program called MediaInfo that I believe can show the use of custom matrices.

I would compare the results with some files that play properly. Look to see which of the above properties cause problems. You can also download the Divx test CD and run through the test files:

http://divxtest.surdvd.com/sommaire.php3?lang=en

The following web site is about the Philips DVP-642 but much of the information is applicable to many other players:

http://www.jarnot.com/twiki/bin/view/Public/DVP642LisaBsAVIGuide

[pengocha]

thanks for the feedback, i'll will take a look.