Sony RDR-HX720 problem with divx

[giltic]

Hi !
My parents got this player for gift. DVD's plays fine but the problem is with divx and xvid movies. The player just don't want to expand the picture across whole screen. I have tried on normal 4:3 CTR and my LG 37'' LCD HDTV with no luck. All video settings (normal/wide screen TV;format of the picture;...etc) doesn't make no difference - there is black bar around the picture (up, bottom, left and right) so the picture is really small. The player is connected to TV via scart-RGB (no HDMI option) and it suppose to support divx format. The manual says that it could happen that some films won't be expanet across whole screen.
Is there any other thing I am missing or is this just one of the ''Sony things'' to make the users life difficult?

[giltic]

No one with similar non-stretched picture?

[Krispy Kritter]

The problem is with ALL movies? Black bars on all 4 sides sounds like an issue with the avi files.

You should also verify the video setup of the player and the TV. The DVD player video output should be set to 16:9 ( or widescreen). Display should then be handled by the TV.

With that said, if standard DVD's are playing correctly, then I still believe the issue is with the files.

[giltic]

I don't think that the files are the problem because they are playing fine on my Yamada, Bellagio and Philips DVD player and they are all streched across whole screen. Also, it can't be the TV because all my other players are doing fine with it.
So, there is something with this Sony player. I have set all settings and all combinations with no sucess. The most logical explanation would be, that the genious from Sony deliberately have put something in, so the Divx movies won't play as it should. We all know why they might done that.
I was asking this forum because I thought, someone else have the same problems.

[orsetto]

There is no end to people with the same complaint as yours, and the answer is always the same: the recorder mfrs lie about DiVX and Xvid compatibility. For whatever reason, recorders cannot reliably handle anything but simple recording and burning of MPEG2 dvds. The mfrs claim the recorders can handle anything, hoping it will sell more recorders, but it isn't true, especially the widescreen aspects. People also assume the presence of a hard drive in recorders like the Sony 720 means they must be as capable as a computer- this is wrong. The hard drive is simple storage space, you will be disappointed if you expect more.

Frequent and full use of DiVX/Xvid requires a computer or a cheap DVD player designed primarily to handle multiple file types. DVD recorders are better thought of as dedicated recording machines with minor playback features included to check their own recordings, not much else.

[giltic]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I can't do nothing more except to give my parents one of my cheap 40€ player - each one of them plays perfectly divx, xvid and avi files with support for subtitles.

[jman98]

Some DVD players that support Divx/Xvid ignore the flag for 16:9 and can only display Divx/Xvid in 4:3. It seems that you have one of those players.
My old Philips DVP-642 is the same.