Any Blu-ray players handle DivX/XviD playback (besides ps3)?

[absinthecarolinas]

I'm looking to acquire a second Blu-ray player at Christmastime. Right now, all I have is a ps3, and I'm wanting a new player for the bedroom. But I do a LOT of DivX/XviD viewing on that TV using my Phillips DVD player and I don't want to lose that capability.

Are there any Blu-ray players available (besides the ps3) that can handle DivX/XviD playback? I did a search in the player database but didn't find much.

Thanks,

-abs

[dun4cheap]

I though Phillips actually offerred one.

[jagabo]

http://gizmodo.com/365313/panasonics-dmp+bd30k-blu+ray-player-goes-divx-certified

But it may not play HD Divx.

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMP-BD55K-1080p-Blu-Ray-Player/dp/B001GAOYCI/

Maybe Samsung shortly (if not already) too.

[CDan]

The upcoming Oppo BDP-83 will play them all. But it may not be available till Q-1 2009.

[absinthecarolinas]

Thanks for these responses!

Does anyone happen to know if the Panasonic DMP-BD55K plays hi-def DivX/Xvid files? I've checked Panasonic's website on this item but can't find information that specific.

Thanks again!

[Bigwhitebear]

Hi,
Panasonic DMP- BD55 playing DivX .This player can play region codes 1, All, 1,2,4.

[jagabo]

We know it plays Divx. The question is whether or not it can play high definition (resolutions over 720x576) Divx.

[jman98]

The odds are that the Panasonic player in question cannot play HD Divx. As far as I know no BluRay player that supports Divx supports it in anything but standard definition. Players of any kind that support HD Divx are still rare and mostly limited to media streaming devices.

[jagabo]

I suspect the absence of HD Divx support in BD players is a DB license requirement.

[beatmaker]

Anyone know of a link to said players with Divx support and/or price-quality comparisons?

I'm looking to pick up my first blu-ray?

[victoriabears]

blu-ray smoo ray

Isn't it going to be a dead format ?

[jagabo]

blu-ray smoo ray

Isn't it going to be a dead format ?

Maybe. But who's going to set a universal standard for playback of high definition video on consumer electronics?

[oldfart13]

blu-ray smoo ray

Isn't it going to be a dead format ?

Maybe. But who's going to set a universal standard for playback of high definition video on consumer electronics?

Don't look for Sony to do it. Just today they closed down a couple of plants and laid off 8,000 workers. More "consolidation" in the future methinks....

[bobotheclown]

Samsung BD-P1500 can handle divx up to 720x576

BOBO

P.S It only plays divx after upgrading firmware but this in turn disables the BD on DVD feature

[hobbes4444]

The Memorex 2510 plays SD avi files no problem, and 720p HD files from the USB port and discs. it will play .ts, but not .mkv. But you can easily convert .mkv to .ts with tsmuxer. As a BD player, it's not great (Fox discs are a major headache, but that's why I have a Panny and Sony). As a USB passthrough, so far so good!

[raffie]

Ppl who think theres gonna be a completely new HiDef disc are deluded. No company in its right mind is gonna make these kinds of investments with such an enormous chance of failure (since there is already a HiDef format in stores). Not anyday and certainly not with the economy in the state it is in now, and probably in the comming years. Forget it, dream on, get into reality, w/e. Blu-ray is what you'll all have in your livingrooms.

Personally I'm waiting for Blu-ray players that will not only play HiDef Divx/Xvid but also mkv/x264. Seeems far off now, but it took a couple of generations 4 DVD players to start supporting Divx compatibility, so I'm not too worried...

[jman98]

raffie - The Western Digital WD TV media player discussed here:
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic358929.html
can already play High Def Divx/Xvid and MkV/X.264. No BluRay support though. Some MKV files need tweaking according to the thread, but I have the player and it's worked fine on what I've played.

[raffie]

Yea I'm aware of the HD-drive based media players, but my ideal situation would be writing my mkv/x264 files to BD-R, and play them on a BD-player (just like divx/xvid on DVD-R today)

[fritzi93]

Personally I'm waiting for Blu-ray players that will not only play HiDef Divx/Xvid but also mkv/x264. Seems far off now, but it took a couple of generations 4 DVD players to start supporting Divx compatibility, so I'm not too worried...

I'm with ya. That's what I want, and I suspect you're right about BD being the only practicable choice for awhile yet.

Now, if I could find legit HD downloads to buy (not just rent), that would be okay for my HTPC. It would have to be at least 720p at more than 12Mbps, not bogus HD that's bitrate starved. AFAIK, it doesn't exist yet, or am I wrong? :P

[Aino]

The Memorex 2510 plays SD avi files no problem, and 720p HD files from the USB port and discs. it will play .ts, but not .mkv. But you can easily convert .mkv to .ts with tsmuxer. As a BD player, it's not great (Fox discs are a major headache, but that's why I have a Panny and Sony). As a USB passthrough, so far so good!

yep, the memorex can handle a variety of hd files not only from usb, in disks too (only dvd's tested yet), it can play avi, mov, wmv, ts, mp4, all in many resolutions up 1080p, the codecs that i've tested includes divx, xvid, h264 and x264. i hope they include mkv in some firmware update.

[smaster]

How about Dune BD Prime player from Israel company HDI. Plays anything you will stick into it. BR disks, mkv .264 - seems to be no problem. They already sell it from $600 and up depending on the player configuration. They sell it to USA as well. My favorite is BD prime with 2 e-sata input connections. I so want to get it but it's pricey...
Here are the player specifications:
* Sources:
o Internal DVD drive.
o USB mass storage devices (USB HDD, USB flash memory).
o USB DVD drives.
o NFS network folders.
o SMB network folders.
o HTTP URLs (limited support).
* Containers:
o MPEG (MPEG-TS, MPEG-PS, VOB, M2TS) (typical file extensions: .MPG, .TS, .M2TS, .TP, .VOB).
o AVI (typical file extensions: .AVI).
o MOV, MP4 (typical file extensions: .MOV, .MP4, .QT).
o MKV (typical file extensions: .MKV).
o ASF (typical file extensions: .ASF, .WMV).
o DVD-ISO, VIDEO_TS (DVD-Video playback, including DVD menu support).
o Raw video.
o Raw audio (typical file extensions: .WAV, .MP3).
* Video codecs:
o MPEG2.
o MPEG4.
o DivX.
o XVID.
o WMV9.
o VC1.
o H.264.
* Audio codecs:
o AC3 (DD).
o EAC3 (DD+).
o DTS.
o MPEG (layers 1/2/3).
o AAC.
o LPCM.
o WMA.
o WMAPro.
* Embedded subtitle formats:
o In MKV: plain text, SSA/ASS.
o In MP4: VOB.
* External subtitle formats:
o SRT.
* External audio streams:
o AC3.
o DTS.
I think this player will be much better choice than Oppo bdp-83 in terms of video format compatibility (that's all what's matter for me)

[absinthecarolinas]

Well, it has been 7 months since I originally posted this, and I did purchase the Panasonic DMP-BD55 at Christmas and have been using it since that time. Sadly, I must report that I have been less than thrilled with it. Here's why:

The unit absolutely will NOT play DivX files burned to rewritable DVD media. It will play them from rewritable CD media or from permanently burned DVDs. This is a strange limitation that, had I known about, would have prevented me from purchasing the unit. I almost feel like I've gone back in time. I've been playing DivX files on DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs flawlessly from relatively inexpensive Philips brand players since about 2005 or 2006, yet this $300 player won't do it. I've written to Panasonic questioning this and asking about the possibility of a firmware upgrade, but I've gotten no response and I've seen no firmware upgrades for this unit.

It is also *extremely* slow -- it's slow turning on and off, slow to open the drawer, and slow to load any kind of media.

Sometimes movies, even when playing perfectly, will just stop halfway or more through and the unit will return to the menu. This seems to happen if the disc is very close to full. Therefore, it happens constantly on movies burnt to CD since those movies are usually sized to fall right at 698-700 MB. It's very annoying, and this practically limits my ability to "burn and watch" to using permanently burned DVDs which aren't quite full. Obviously, cheap though they are nowadays, this costs more money than reusing rewritable media.

The unit doesn't seem to have any way to quickly access a specific point in a DivX or XviD file. Perhaps a lot of players are missing this nowadays. I still think the best unit I ever had was the first one I ever bought, a Philips unit for about $70. You were able to manually punch in a time code on the remote and go directly to that point in the film. No other unit I've tried since has that feature.

That's about it. Blu-ray and DVD playback is otherwise fine for me, and I don't really use any other features (memory card slot, etc.).

So, over the past few months, have there been any new players at reasonable price points that I might try? Truly, the best all-around media player I have now is the PS3 (w/firmware updates it will play just about anything), but I don't much fancy buying another one of those just for movie playback.

Thanks for any input.

-abs

[jman98]

absinthecarolinas - Your post on June 21 is one of the rare times here when a post months after the last previous post was appropriate. Good for you.

As far as the problem with playing Divx on DVD+-RW goes, I doubt that firmware will fix that. However, it might be the brand of media you are using. Verbatim makes top notch RW media, so try them. It could just be that your Panasonic is fussy about brands. I guess it's possible that they wrote the firmware to refuse to play Divx on RW media, but that's really unusual to do that.

Finally, it sounds to me like you would be a perfect candidate for the Western Digital HDTV player I mentioned above. It's very small and takes up little space. That plus your BluRay player should easily cover all your needs and it costs around $100. Assuming you can even find a "plays everything including BluRay" player (and I'm not sure we even have any yet), is it really worth spending $300+ for such a player when about $100 would get you the Western Digital player and do the job?

[jagabo]

the Panasonic DMP-BD55 at...

The unit absolutely will NOT play DivX files burned to rewritable DVD media.

Be sure you are not using a packet writing format like Nero's InCD (which also works on DVD). I don't know of any players that support packet writing formats. (These allow you to treat CD RW or DVD RW like big floppy discs or removable hard drives.) This probably isn't your problem since you have a Philips player that plays your discs (Philips doesn't support packet writing formats either) but I thought it worth mentioning.

It is also *extremely* slow -- it's slow turning on and off, slow to open the drawer, and slow to load any kind of media.

I've read this about many of the BD and HD DVD players. Especially the first generation.

I don't really use any other features (memory card slot, etc.).

Can it play video off a memory card? That may be the solution to your DVD RW problem.

have there been any new players at reasonable price points that I might try?

I hear good things about the LG BD390. Divx, HD Divx, h.264 MKV, etc. Probably worth looking into.

[absinthecarolinas]

Hey,

Thanks for the suggestions, but I do use Verbatim media and I never use packet writing. When I was trying to figure out why the darned thing wouldn't play my burned DVDs, I went digging through the manual. The manual goes into detail about what it will and will not play from various types of media. The following is even posted at Amazon now:

FORMAT
BD-ROM Playback BD-Live
BD-RE / BD-RE DL BD-MV (BD-RE version3), BDAV (SESF), JPEG (HD)
BD-R/BD-R DL BD-MV (BD-R version2), BDAV (SESF)
DVD Playback DVD-Video
DVD-RAM Playback DVD-VR, JPEG (HD), AVCHD
DVD-R/-RW/-R(DL) 1 Playback DVD Video, DVD-VR, AVCHD, DivX® (DVD-R/-R DL only)
+R/+R(DL)/+RW Playback DVD-VR, AVCHD
CD, CD-R/-RW 2 Playback CD-DA, DivX (CD-R/-RW only), MP3 3 (CD-R/-RW only), JPEG (HD) (CD-R/-RW only)
SD Memory Card AVCHD, JPEG (HD)

In fact, from the table it doesn't even look like you can use +R media for DivX; it's gotta be -R. Go figure.

Anyone, thanks for the idea about the Western Digital Media Player. I have ordered one. I also got a large flash-based USB hard drive at Christmas that hasn't even been opened yet, so those two items will make perfect companions. I think my disc-burning days will soon be over

Thanks again, -abs

[jagabo]

If you're going to get the WD TV also get a 4 GB USB thumb drive. That will be useful for quick transfers of stuff you are only going to watch once then throw away. It's a lot easier to move a flash drive around than an external hard drive and it's power supply. If you have a wireless network look into the mod firmware that supports wireless networking via a USB network adapter.

[jman98]

DVD-R/-RW/-R(DL) 1 Playback DVD Video, DVD-VR, AVCHD, DivX® (DVD-R/-R DL only)
+R/+R(DL)/+RW Playback DVD-VR, AVCHD
CD, CD-R/-RW 2 Playback CD-DA, DivX (CD-R/-RW only), MP3 3 (CD-R/-RW only), JPEG (HD) (CD-R/-RW only)
SD Memory Card AVCHD, JPEG (HD)

In fact, from the table it doesn't even look like you can use +R media for DivX; it's gotta be -R. Go figure.

Wow. That doesn't make sense to restrict Divx playback to -R media. Weird. Never heard of that before.

You won't regret the decision to purchase the WD player. I have it and a BluRay player and each is useful to me in different ways.

[neomaine]

absinthecarolinas,

Have you looking at the new Samsung 4600 player? Little steep at $499US (msrp) but looks to handle at least some of your requirements. With DivxHD playback, I'll be considering it for my first BR standalone. See here:

http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=audiovideo&type=blu_ray&subt...d=BD-P4600/XAA

[T.rex]

i've always thought to be the case, that DVD-RW are more tricky to play than a DVD-R. In fact, a DVD-RW burned on my Windows won't play on my Mac, but it plays DVD-R fine.

DVD-R's are so cheap if u buy in bulk... why not just archive all your movie on that? Basically, burn a permanent disc, and throw it in a big binder for easy organization.

[Billf2099]

If you're going to get the WD TV also get a 4 GB USB thumb drive. That will be useful for quick transfers of stuff you are only going to watch once then throw away. It's a lot easier to move a flash drive around than an external hard drive and it's power supply. If you have a wireless network look into the mod firmware that supports wireless networking via a USB network adapter.

A better suggestion. Get an 8GB drive and reformat it to NTFS so you can take a bigger then 4 GB file. I've done that and have been able to bring movie length mkvs at pretty high bitrates to my WD machine. I love the WD so much I think I'll buy another the current generation of BR is still not ready for prime time. With the exception of the Sony PS3. I can't justify that. And here's the trick. The chip in the WD is the same chip used in BR devices. So not supporting these formats is a considered decision by these manufacturers. I was Hoping Philips would go out on a limb like they did in DVD.