svcd and 5.1?

[statuspending]

on the svcd page here ( http://www.vcdhelp.com/svcd.htm ), it lists 5+1 audio as an advantage of mpeg2 on svcds. is this true?

can i get dolby digital audio out of my svcds? i thought that's what miniDVD's were all about.

thanks everyone.

[patrickm]

no, no dobly digital. no dts. MPEG-5.1, which is difficult to create and even more difficult to play back. search the forums, we've tried this many times with little luck.

however, it seems kenwood's new upper-level receivers do feature MPEG-5.1 decoding, and i know that many pioneer dvd players will output the signal for a dvd, though not a vcd. so it's possible that it becomes more common in the future, though still not too likely.

[statuspending]

awww....

thanks for the info.

i just got the apex660 and it's great, but i know that in the near future, someone(probably apex) is going to have a dvd player that supports mpeg5.1 and divx.

look at the market apex caters to
low price seeking consumers
people that like to create "backups" of movies
people that want to change things..like the eprom.

apex makes it easy to do these things... so i bet they will start doing divx. get an edge on the market for us clientel that no other mfr offers.


this is hardcore

[vitualis]

[quote]
someone(probably apex) is going to have a dvd player that supports mpeg5.1 and divx.{/quote]

Hardware support for MPEG-5.1 already exists on many players/receivers. However, it is probably more a European thing.

Hardware support for DivX will never happen for the older/original DivX codec as it is illegal.

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>apex makes it easy to do these things... so i bet they will start doing divx.</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

As above, this will never happen unless they wan't to be sued by Microsoft and have the MPAA breathing down their necks.

Regards.

[statuspending]

how do you figure? that's like sueing someone for supporting the mp3 format.

divx doesn't require the evil things we do with it...like backing up our dvds =)


this is hardcore

[adam]

mp3 is not illegal because it was released under a public licence. Essentially its freeware.

divx is a hacked mpeg4 codec. It was deleveloped entirely by Microsoft and was never meant to be used in the way it is today. The guys that cracked the codec and did not have microsofts permission to do so and everytime someone encodes using that codec, even it the material they are encoding is %100 legal, they are comitting a crime because they do not have the right to use that codec. mpeg4 is legal and someone can and probably will develop hardware to play it. Divx however will never have hardware support because it is inherantly illegal.

There are numerous mpeg4 codecs however and it would really require that one becomes the clear standard before any hardware is developed for it...and this probably wont happen for a while still.

[statuspending]

ah. i guess i fell short on history there...
interesting. i always thought mpeg4 and divx were the same thing, but i guess it's like comparing dolby digital and dts. different means, common end goal eh.

well, cheers to apex in advance since i know they will be the first to tackle mpeg4 or whatnot =)

[suspect]

A Divx Decoder is NOT illegal. DivX is exactly the same as the MS MPEG4v3 code it just has its fourcc changed. Also the ms mpeg4v3 codec has been hacked for "low-motion" to adjust the average bitrate not the maximum bitrate of the mpeg4 vbr. It was hacked because microsoft did not want it to be utilized in an mp3, but only using ms's decoder and in asf (now wmv) files (this was another one of their anti-competitive ideas). If a company makes a decoder that can decode ms mpeg4 (and therefore divx) without using microsoft's code, it would be legal.

To clarify, mpeg 4 is an open standard, and ms mpeg4v1 was based on iso mpeg4 video code. V2 and V3 are tweaks of the standard. Anyways, IMHO they should not work on supporting any MS derived mpeg 4 codec, but rather one that is open source, such as OpenDivX. The quality isnt fantastic in high motion scenes right now, but its still in beta.

[vitualis]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-07-04 17:05:44, suspect wrote:
If a company makes a decoder that can decode ms mpeg4 (and therefore divx) without using microsoft's code, it would be legal. </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, this is true. However, this is not an easy thing to do technically (i.e., creating a 100% compatible decoder without somehow referencing to the MS code).

Furthermore, there is an issue of the "spirit" of the thing. The decoder may indeed be legal, but it would be almost exclusively decoding illegal material (unless somebody also creates a 100% compatible encoder without using any MS code either).

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>Anyways, IMHO they should not work on supporting any MS derived mpeg 4 codec, but rather one that is open source, such as OpenDivX. The quality isnt fantastic in high motion scenes right now, but its still in beta.</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree totally with that sentiment.

Regards,
Michael Tam