How to play AVI videos on a DVD through a Menu?

[ConverterCrazy]

Is it possible to play AVI videos stored on a DVD to play through a menu -- just as they are played when in VOB format?

Thanks.

[redwudz]

Not really, AFAIK. Ultra Divx authoring comes the closest. If you have a Ultra Divx certified player. Other than that, set top Divx players may have some internal format to show a list of the files on a disc.

[ConverterCrazy]

Thanks, redwudz.

[Bonie81]

as sais bt redwudz,
all you need to play avi files in a DVD player, is Divx DVD Player.

[ConverterCrazy]

Divx DVD Player?

I think xvid is universal and AVI files can be played on most DVD players!

Am I wrong to think so?

[Ai Haibara]

Perhaps. DivX and Xvid are roughly similar (so that anything capable of playing a DivX-encoded video SHOULD technically be able to play an Xvid-encoded video (though some older players do things like only allow certain FourCCs...).)

However, not all AVIs are encoded with DivX or Xvid. (And, of course, there are other limitations...)

[ConverterCrazy]

Thanks for the information. But, from experience, I think XVID is universal.

[Ai Haibara]

What do you mean by 'universal?'

[redwudz]

Xvid is a derivation of Divx. Both are similar. Divx has came out with 'Ultra Divx' which has some menu capabilities. But those only work on a Ultra Divx certified player and need to be encoded with a Divx certified encoder, AFAIK.

With Divx set top players, there are a few qualifications for successful playback. This thread outlines them: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/295067-Common-DivX-DVD-Players-AVI-Playback-problems! If your video meets those qualification, it should work on most any Divx player.

[ConverterCrazy]

What do you mean by 'universal?'

By that I meant the format and associated codec that works on all CD/DVD commercial players manufactured in the last 5 years.

[Ai Haibara]

It doesn't.

Not all players manufactured in the last five years have support for playing AVI/.divx files.

[jagabo]

What do you mean by 'universal?'

By that I meant the format and associated codec that works on all CD/DVD commercial players manufactured in the last 5 years.

Not at all. And any player that plays Xvid AVI will also play Divx AVI. They are both implementations of the MPEG 4 Part 2 codec. There is one Xvid feature that no DVD player supports: 3 warp point GMC.

[porfitron]

redwudz is right. DivX Ultra is the closest thing to getting DVD-like menus in avi/DivX format. A product that can be used to make DivX Ultra videos is DivX Author. There are also a few free DivX menu-maker tools out there, too, since the whole spec was made public on our website.

To see the DivX Ultra menus on a DVD player, it has to be a DivX Ultra certified player (e.g. many Philips players). If you put a DivX Ultra file in a non-Ultra, DivX [Home Theater or HD] certified player, it will still work without the menu and play all the titles in the file in order. For example, the PlayStation 3 is DivX Home Theater certified, so it will not show the menu but still play the videos fine.

It is also fair to say that all DivX certified players will play AVI files created with Xvid (barring files that do things out of our profile). The same is not necessarily true the other way... many players with Xvid-only playback ignore DivX features like XSUBS, multiple audio tracks, menus, or simply refuse the .divx file extension.

Also noteworthy, we are still actively working on bridging our software with hardware, by moving toward DivX Plus HD (MKV/H.264) as well as making sure our DivX/AVI work on newer platforms (e.g. Windows 7, DXVA...).

[Ai Haibara]

There's always one thing I wonder when I see requests like this, though - can a DivX Ultra video actually call another (separate) video file on the disc? Or would the videos have to be combined into a single .divx?

I know people are probably primarily thinking that maybe you can set up a DVD-Video menu that calls the AVI/.divx files, but I have to wonder if they're wanting the first option, above, to some extent.