How can I build a DivX Standalone Player?

[crahak]

@The Maynard
You're lucky, I didn't manage to get anything smaller than a 1.3 around here... Such a big HD is not needed, unless you're going to copy movies to it.

@likwid8
1-well, most likely, it will be always on (power saving mode) so it will be fast, and anyways, compared to having to spend countless hours to reencode it all... Again, I've explained why this and not all the other options on my website :P
2-hmmm, I never have things like that happen... And I dunno where you get the hard reboot thing from. If your stuff is installed properly, it just works.
3-Makes no apparent sense. You can spend more and/or get a smaller one. I completely miss this point.
4-divx isn't a technique. custom size? we size divx to whatever we want. we use resolution and bitrates and settings we want. It is not as restrictive as mpeg.
5-laptops suck as for outputting to TV, and they work like a computer. No remote, have to configure the TV out thingy every time (and it sucks even more than a desktop's machine) or you get to watch on a ugly 15" LCD. No way a laptop that can play divx will cost less than my 125$ project either. Smaller? Once it's open, rigged with cables and all on a table/desk? not really.
6-Funny how electronics need electricity eh? Laptops batteries die, and decent laptops cost a lot, and their screen is small. I am doing this to watch movies on a TV in my living room.

@vhelp: another guy who likes long posts... lol
I'm not worried about movies going bad. I've never had it happen so far, and there's fixes for them. Sand your DVD's and tell me you're not going to have problems with your set top DVD player either... lol

My player will be mainly aimed at playing movies off CDR's as they're all already burned.

As for the CD-Rom drives, the noise levels vary a LOT depending on the drive you're using. True, some are really loud, but there's some quiet ones out there. Might be just luck, but I don't really have loud drives except a couple older ones.

[likwid8]

heh, I get your point, so then what are you going to use your original computer for then?

CHECK YOUR EMAIL? LOL

[crahak]

Weird. My last post vanished on it's own

I received no email (it's divx_proj@yahoo.com)

Actually, it will solve a lot of problems This computer I used to play with does the captures as well. So I was running into several problems:
1-can't play while capturing (doh!)
2-can't play while encoding (not enough power)
3-can't really do much with PC if it's playing divx...
there is always something getting into the way of doing whatever I wanted to do with it...

So now I'll have a player, that works all the time regardless, and it will be easy to use

Note to self: never create multiple email account at yahoo. It sucks having to sign in and out with every account all the time

[vhelp]

crahak,
ps: if you ever get a GOOD forum up and running, let me know how you
got one started. Like phpBB is a good one. has a freeware install.. tried it,
but don't know whta the HECK ta do next - am not phpBB savy as you can
tell. Aint it funny how you become forgotten, and thought of as little or
insignificant, when you have things working right - who cares about the
other guy(s)
well, I've uninstalled it, since I don't have a clue what to do next. I just
don't understand it. Well, anyways.. ..

The laptop was a good idea, but then you tainted it w/ the wire nonsense,
he, he..

But, as far as my Line no 2 goes, I still feel that things WILL go, or eventually
go wrong w/ a clip/movie/disk/partition, etc. sooner or later, and you'll
have to figure out a fallback or have a way to deal with it. I don't buy
that perfect file bus. I've done many encodes in my time, and I have had
a few that would no longer play (divX being most of those experiences)
For example, I did some divX clips this weekend. I know they played fine,
for those few times I tried them, later today, I went to replay them to see
where I left off in my encoding processees, and would you believe it, those
so called PERfect divX encodes (no-file issue that is) would no longer play,
and would hang my vdub app into an endless loop of "ding, ding, ding"
..well, that's the error box that popped up every time. And, only way to
stop this is to SHUT-DOWN. So, I say, you MUST have a means for dealing
w/ these - they will happen. But, then again, it's not THAT serious a divX
player machine anyways, so I guess you point (or was is mine) is mute.

Well, if I figure out how ta get a phpBB type forum up and running (like
kwags for ie site and others I've seen through my research) I'll let you know how
I managed it, and you can add one to yours.

Thanks for your time.
Well, have a good evening - night that is. I'm pooped and still have things
to do. damn. well, its about 1 am now.. ..
-vhelp

[crahak]

I didn't blame anyone for my post dispearing, if it's someone's fault, it's probably the guy who coded the php? lol

Well, so far as I know, those packages come with instructions, and there's starting to be more of them... I'm not big on php myself... And my web hosting doesn't support it either. Even if it did, I just don't have time and energy to set something like that up...

As far as your clips goes, uh, I don't know how this happened to you. Bad codecs? files went bad?... how did it happen? I honestly couldn't say, but usually with the proper codecs installed right (some really don't want to cooperate I tell ya...) then if you leave 'em the heck alone, everything should be fine. And like I mentionned, once I get the codecs working fine on it and all, I'll make a ghost image. Never have to troubleshoot any of those things. PC is screwed up? Oh well. A few seconds and we're back with a fresh install... Great tool.

[vhelp]

crahak,
yes, I agree w/ you. Ghost it!! I practice this on my 2nd pc, since I have
it partitioned to 900mb only. You and I are probably the only ones actually
using it for some good.. .. ..But, there's a reason to my madness.

I'll explain. Case anything goes cu-poowy, like a crash or something, and
I have to reboot, you know very well what happends next right ??
Yes, you have to run a scandisk or allow DOS to use its own. I rather let
DOS take it from there, and when hte partition is under a gig in size, it
runs though a QUICK scan (taking care of whatever errors in the backgrnd)
and boots right up into windows QuiCK!!
The old way was, I have 30 thousand files that scandisk had to scan through,
and when you have that may (and more) scandisk a disk, after a crash, took 5
minutes or longer (pending hd size and partition) and to boot up as well.
I found that if I partitioned a small chunck from my 60gig, I could save my
self a LOT of grief. I haven't regreted since. And, if all else fails, I have
an Ghosted Image of it ready.. case scandisk got rid of some files I didn't
want deleted or fixed.
So, when my system crashes (and it does quite often, due to the completexities
I put on it) a reboot/scandisk is usually under 40 seconds!!! I love it !!

And, all my other files are on D: and my capture drive is E:

No frame drop issues, even w/ my analog cap cards ie WTVGO. But, I now
use my ADVC-100, so , it don't matter anyways, he, he... ... ...

Well, I can't wait to try out my Light-Bulb idea. Soon as it comes in the
mail, I'll let you all know how it goes.

Oh, I took a break on my Delphi (thanks to the FORUM issues I'm having) for a
few days. Right now, w/ Delphi project, I only want to create the app to PLAY the
avi file (divX) then, I'll work on letterbox'ing it etc. Again, concentrating
on vdub quality - that's a priority.

Well, see you all later.
-vhelp

[Xgamer]

Why not throw in a pci tv tuner card as well so it can also serve as a cable box? Just have your media player autoplay whenever u boot (assuming your booting windows). Just modify some of windows startup tasks. That should save some grief for ya. Or you could even look for a special flavor of Linux. Hope this helps.

[The Maynard]

Personally, I'll deal with a 20-30 second boot up time if it means I'm going to get near DVD quality and Dolby Digital surround sound.
As far as the noise from a CD drive what I would probably do is to transfer the divx file from the cd to the hard drive before playing the movie. THat way there won't be any lags due to read error and no spin noise.
Also, I could just put the cds in my other computer in the other room and stream it over the network. There's lots of options.

[crahak]

@vhelp
ghost is even better if you store all bookmarks/documents/important stuff on some other drive than C. It takes a couple of minutes to change some settings in your registry, but it pays off. I got d:\docs and d:\bookmarks. It's also real fast to get there to sort stuff. (unless you think the bookmark manager is good? lol) There are a couple big programs I don't include in the ghost image, but I aheva CD server on my network, and it installs very fast, so

About the Light-Bulb idea... wtf? LOL I have no idea whatsoever as what you're refering to. I might have missed something mind you...

Ok, I have never looked at the code of virtualdub to see how they do the decoding itself. But also, the decoding filter does change quality a lot... Some people are starting to like the 3ivx filter for playback, but I want to give it some time, it's not really compatible, and not everyone likes it...

You're definately more courageous than me to write your own player lol.

@Xgamer: Hm, sorry but I see that as a bad idea. Your TV is there with cable already, why would anyone pay to buy a card, to convert it to PC, then to reconvert it to TV? Besides, that only works if you got analog cable, which is dying fast. (I two different satellite systems so far... analog cable is ways back now). And as far as linux goes, I already ruled that out quite a while ago.

@The Maynard: yes, a short delays to boot is ok, especially if you don't turn it off all the time anyways.

As far as copying to HD, that's been part of my features for a long time, and not only for movies. The big restriction will be as to how big a HD you toss in the player. Network playback is also on the list, but I don't want to get into making a huge network browsing thing from a remote control, y'know? lol Most my stuff resides on one or two machines (those that haven't been burned yet), so maybe just a feature to look across the network in those usual places in a list... We'll see. Network has to be able to cope with the bandwidth too... (I'm on 100BT, but if decent gigabit ethernet routers weren't still this expensive... Mind you I could have a hybrid LAN, and it's looking like that in a near future...)

Edit: vhelp, you like this rage fury pro too? Had problems with it ever? (mine works great, just wondering...) Also, I thought you had a website, and the one in your profile obviously ain't it...

[The Maynard]

One thing that would help with bootup time would be to put the system in hybernation instead of shutting it down. This will give you a bootup time of around 15 seconds. I think that is tolerable.

[crahak]

Or good ole' power saving. HD stops to spin, so noise and power consumption already go down. Anyways, gotta make popcorn (or whatever) and get a beer eh? Oh, good canadian beer is also prefered (ok, the irish stuff is good too lol)

[vhelp]

crahak,
sorry, I was a bit upset w/ a friend who was suppose to come over ad help
me put a phpBB FORUM on my website. He bailed out after receiving help
from someone else w/ HIS problem (that I was suppose to help him with)
But, he was in too much of a hurry, that he sout help elsewheres.
Anyways. .

Ghosting..
I didn't know about this feature Bookmarks, or were you on to something else here ??
I still feel that a imaged CDR/CDRW is the ultimate restore, for my purposes
and setup. When ghosting my 3rd pc setup for stricly interneting, I don't plan on
having any LAN support. It will strictly be a WEB SURFER box, nothing else. So, I
need absolute certainty on a restore method.. but i'm open to other suggestions

vhelp, you like this rage fury pro too? Had problems with it ever? (mine works great, just wondering...) Also, I thought you had a website, and the one in your profile obviously ain't it...

Yes, I like it it suit's me well. I have no problems that I know
of (AGP ver) but I think it is a bit outdated now. I have a newer GC but
i haven't yet connected on my 2nd pc. ..its the one in that purple/green
box w/ PNY stamped on the box, Verto GeForce4 MX 440 AGP.
This one has the 7 pin din socket, but I don't have an S-Video TV set
but my ADVC-100 unit does come with an RCA-to-Mini DIN converter cable.
I'm going to give that cable a try, and hook my TV set to it (13") and see
how its' TV-OUT handles on quality and what-not for divX stuff.
I will let you know how my Verto G4 goes w/ TV-OUT. I think I paid too
much for this $98 too much ?? got at Walmart, caues I was there he, he...
If anyone has this same card, and has good/bad experienc, I'd appreciate
any info you may have (TV-OUT quality ??)

There's a LOT of crummy encoded divX stuff out there, and to think that
people are actually D/L'ng them is a shame. If I were going to share my
divX samples, (whole movies and TV shows etc) I'd give nothing but the
best quality I were able to give. Well, that's another issue altogether.

Personall, I think the 2pass is over-rated w/ the v5.0.2 codec. Maybe
you can get good quality results, but I think it will really just plain
depend on the user's level of experience/skill and so on. I've gotten
VERY good to EXCELLENT results w/ v5.0.2 using 1 pass. I'm pretty much
settled with the settings I use currently, for my ADVC-100 Satalite
projects. It's obvious, that divX doesn't handle dark scenes very well,
but does excellent in lighted or outdoor lite scenes.

divX is a good alternative for viewing on PC when a DVD player is not
an option. A good TV-OUT feature is even better, but there lacks a
serious "software player" that will play them w/ proper Aspect Ration (RA)
levels on a given TV set. That is why I find that its important to NOT
alter the resolution of a capture project and just encode as is, etc.
ANd, I've ben working on this issue for a while now and feel I've come
up w/ a good comprimise, yielding as good quality WYSIWYG ratios, but
in ordre to appreciate this setup, a good "sofware player" is needed
for the TV-OUT viewing quality. And, resizing only adds artifacts to
the clip during TV-OUT. Those divX clips one D/L's off the net, that R
small like 320x240 would probably do best view on PC monitor, for quick
viewing or enjoying, but that's about it. For REAL power-house viewing,
an more effective setup is needed. This is what I'm working on now, hence
my ongoing Delphi "software player" project, among other apps under
development, and perhaps, should I finally develop this app for playing
divX clips w/ WYSIWYG quality, this could potentially be added in a divX
only box as THE player for TV-OUT cards.
But, wait, this will go on even more. Prehaps in the MPEG1/2 area
as well, but instead of the usual standarsd for MPEG1/2, ASF, MOV etc.,
a slitely different approach for other TV-OUT alternatives, whatever they
may be.

I think I will stay away from all the other Delphi projects and stick
to the "sofware player" one, till I've at least gotten to where I can
actually PLAY an AVI file (divX or other)

My webpage needs to be update some more, as I haven't done much additions
to it since. I'll try and ad pic's to show my apps in progress maybe.
Look for a Projects link under MainMenu or News. I'm going to do some
work on the NEWS page, maybe change the format some.

Gosh, zillions of things to do right now.
Well, I'm off to my Delphi projects and stuff.. I'm sure I'll be hearing
from you's some more

-vhelp
----------------------------------------------
HAPPY NEW YEAR ! ! !

[The Maynard]

If encode a divx at the DVD aspect ratio will it be resized to fit on a TV when you use the TV of the video card? I didn't even think of this. Do you need to resize when encoding or will it be done automatically by the software?

[vhelp]

the maynard,
the resize will greatly depend on the divX software's "resize" ability.
That is, it's resize algorithem. Not all divX apps use the same algorithem
or techniques, and not all use the same technique that MPEG1/2
player apps use, and/or the algorithem used for mpeg1/2 will not yield
the same quality for divX clips.

I've seen many apps basically produce the same crummy quality, when
it resized a divX clip.

Also, the final resize quality will largely depend on the divX's current
resolution ie, 320 x 240 will not resize very well to a TV's resolution or
whatever Aspect Ratio (AR) they use for TV-OUT viewing.

I know from expeirence, that when you use any of these apps, zplayer,
BSPlayer, WinDVD, PowerDVD, etc. the video's quality goes down hill,
ie, artifacts can ben seen, or color space gets messed up, etc. These
issues will depend on each individual's PC / TV-OUT cards' setup etc.

Only way to achive as good a WYSIWYG quality, is to run a bunch of trial
N error testing. I've already done most of this, up to this point (quite exhaustively)

You may need to do the same sort of testing for YOUR tv size, as tv size
will reflect quality/performance as well. ie, just because I can set an AR
for example 600 x 400 for my 13" tv, and have quality at it's WYSIWYG
best, does not mean that you will obtain the same results for YOUR 27"
So, experiment, experiment, experiment till your eyes are satisfied.

-vhelp
----------------------------------------------
HAPPY NEW YEAR ! ! !

[Donny661]

I've been skimming through this thread, though I haven't read everything, and when I came across this I thought you might find this useful for your OS. http://sourceforge.net/projects/movix/

MoviX is a tiny Linux Distribution that boots from CD and automagically plays every movie file (DivX, mpg, avi etc.) you put on the CD root directory. In other words, your CD will contain not only the movie but also the software to boot and play it!

I'm not sure how stable it is yet. Also, I'm not sure if you have to burn all your movies with the software on it, or if it supports disc swapping.

[crahak]

For the bookmark thing, go into regedit, and look into:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Exp lorer\Shell Folders\
There you will see where it feels like storing all the stuff... You can change after installing windows so these files, bookmarks and such go on another partition... And then you can ghost away without any thought of possibly loosing stuff. (Favorites is the one for bookmmarks).

As far as the ghost image themselves, I don't store them on CDRs. I have a small partition on every machine that can hold them. If your image is too big, you'd have to span across CDR's and the like. I always keep 2 images, the basic just windows and basic drivers (you can always rebuld the other one from this...) and the other one is my "working" one with what I use (codecs, tools, utilities and mostly everything but huge programs). I always ghost with the 2nd, unless I really change something, or it gets to be a codec/whatever mess, then it's just easier to rebuild from image one... Anyways, lots of ways you can do this. Also, you can setup a ghost multicast server, but then it gets into multicast routing and all the other fun stuff... My bootcd lets me map drives across the network if I want to anyways, so I don't really see a need for the multicast server. Oh, you can delete your swapfile, empty temp folders, IE caches, cookies and all before making the image too. I like 'em CLEAN.... LOL

About the Fage Fury Pro, I wasn't using it anymore, but the TV out on it is good, so I'm going to use it for this divx player I think. I was just inquiring if you had problems with it. Everyone seem happy with their GeForce4 VIVO TV outs, but I ran into a problem. Straight to TV work, thru my recoton switch, no luck. Worked with every (ATI) card I have, but not with the only GeForce one (MSI GeForce 4 Ti4200 VIVO OC'ed to 300/600)... Strange. Same without OC'ing it. (I am no fan of OC'ing, but if I can get a almost Ti4600 out of it...) The MX seres GeForce 4 won't work with TVTool, but I guess you probably already know about that. Oh, my Ti4200 VIVO costed me about 120$. Plugged directly to the TV, it looked OK, but I like having the possibility to use more than one source on my TV (satellite, DVD, computer...) so I have to use my recoton S-video switch. That is another thing this divx player will solve...

As for the quality of stuff downloaded, let's not even get there LOL. And I'm on 56k, so no thought about it either. I rip all mine from my DVD's.

As for the 2 pass, it does give somewhat better results, but mainly predictable filesize. Mine always end up to the expected size with 2 Pass VBR (it's all I really do...) I haven't extensively tried 1 pass, but I am sure it can give good quality too.

TV out wise, if you come up with a better player... Sure I do resize my captures, but keeping the AR. (1% is ok with me anyhow). Mind you, there's some resons to it, I capture at D1, but there's black borders on each size that vary from time to time, and I only get 470 lines out of it. My other satellite was only worse... So I crop and resize to proper AR. So far, I have good results. Bibubic work ok, but like zooming anything else in, you can only expect so much. (Another reason why I don't go for VCD like resolutions-besides lack of detail). So how do you decode/display? ffdshow? ... ? I'd like to see how v'dub does his...

I looked for your page again, but all I get is this daily net advisor thingy....? Am I looking at the right thing?

Ok, by the time I got around to write this, there's like 3 new answers. LOL

About divx resizing, I encode with the proper AR for the picture. (You crop the black borders then you resize so it's a valid resolution, and at a proper AR) I let the player add the "letterbox" black bars if it has to, that's all. As for knowing what for quality, it comes with time, testing and encoding. I can sure see a difference in my first encodes and nowadays... Big time... lol Test clips are good, especially if you can find some high motion stuff and the like... I play all mine on a 32" GAOO usually.

@Donny661: Ok, again, I ruled out linux a while ago. For lack of drivers, and what not... Besides, no one is making an OS (?). Also, most movies are already burned, and you can't add that to them now, and even still, it wouldn't fit, and I'd rather use the full CD space for the best possible quality. Also, this has got to be really limited... (like you said, I don't even know if it supports disc swapping, AC3 passthru, WMA audio, changing AR, ... and the list goes on biiiiiiiiig time.)

Can anyone explain why I do have that intense highjacking-a-thread guilt feeling?

Happy new years to everyone

[vhelp]

>> Can anyone explain why I do have that intense highjacking-a-thread
>> guilt feeling?
don't go feeling guilty.. just start another thread - that easy!!

[crahak]

Uh, I think I'll learn to live with the guilt

There's a new ffdshow that supposedly fixes some problems with some xvid clips. Just in case anyone is having problems... And it looks like I'm finally gonna use one of those dreaded SB Live 5.1's (I got a spare one now, so cost is 0$). Hopefully with the new AC3 filter, it shouldn't be too hard to get it working...

Been busy lately... All the new year's fault. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try the new gordian knot too. I don't think mpeg4 formats/encoders are gonna get that much better in a near future, but at least, I want to keep my player updated so everything plays fine on it...

[Nelson37]

Not sure if this will fit with your project but -

I have built 2 SVCD players using p-200 machines and a Hollywood plus or a similar MPEG-2 decoder card. They play SVCD movies beautifully, TV-out and Dolby AC-3 support as well. I know that one of the software players says it supports DivX on a Hollywood Plus, not certain if decoder chip is supported as I have not tested it myself.

Cost of old PC - $0, salvage parts or free. Hollywood or Dxr-3 board, about $75.00. (at one time I had three of them).

In terms of your project requirements, no real programmability required. You seem to be re-inventing the wheel.

BTW, the ATI Rage 128 will support TV-out with no drivers, boots DOS with TV display on, AFTER it is activated in Windows.

Here's an idea for a device which would be useful, AND have commercial application, and be practically doable. You've seen those towers that store 99 CD's and will open the corresponding tray thru software control? How about a robotic arm that picks up the CD, and transports it to the CD-ROM drive on the PC, opens the drive and drops it on the tray?

This could be added to the DivX player, pop that sucker on a network and you've got a Video Server!

[crahak]

Well, if I had all the parts, it would cost me 0$ too. I already have my vid card, no no spending 75$ on that, also, you can get a card with TV out for much cheaper too.

About reinventing the wheel. Nope. You miss the point. If you looked at my website, you'd see it's not going to be a PC that can play whatever. It will be standing there, waiting for a CD, and it will use a remote and not mouse/keyboard. It will do a LOT more than just play media files too.

About the RAGE 128, ok, never seen a rage 128 with TV out before, my my rage fury pro does that too. Not an issue anyhow.

I've seen those CD towers, epensive, and not much storage. They also take space. I store mine in CD wallets, and it works pretty good. (about 10$ for a 160 CD wallet).

It will be on a network, but not to be a video server, it's the other way around. I have plenty of ways to get the media, what I'm doing is a way to display it on a TV.

Thanks for the input anyways

[The Maynard]

I just hooked up my computer to my TV yesterday for the first time, to see how the divx's would look. Since my S-Video jack is busted on my TV I had to use the RCA jack. I have to say I am impressed with how the movies look on the TV! There is absolutley NO artifacting or picture loss due to compression. The only thing I had a problem with is that everything had a slightly hard edge to it and had some vibrating noise moving along the edge. It was really only noticable when I was up close to the tv but I would like to get rid of this. Does S-Video get rid of video noise like that?

[crahak]

S-Video is only sharper, so I don't think it will help that.

However, I don't know which player you're using or codecs for playback. Some codecs are better to display divx movies (post-processing). In lots of players, you'll see "DivX decoder filter", that needs to be above minimum It helps a lot. Otherwise, it also depends by how much you're resizing, I stick to the lower screen resolutions. A few lil' things...

[The Maynard]

It was actually like that on everything on the screen. I think it had to do with the adapter cord that splits off the output and gives you either the RCA or S-Video plug in. The other card that I'm going to get will have the RCA and S-video plug built in to the card so I think that will make all the difference in the world.
But as far as the Divx filter, thanks for the suggestion. I'll give that a try as well. But other than that it looked absolutly beautiful! Much better than VCD!

[crahak]

Well, good quality DivX looks really great. (Not the 2 hour per CDR type). As far as VCD goes, I better not comment on it not to start a thread war... lol

[crahak]

Well, right now I'm having mixed feelings. Don't want a PC, don't exactly want a HTPC either... I'm reassessing my needs, and it seems it will involve a lot more than I thought. I'm still making that player, but I think a XP 1600+ box is going to get converted too somehow... (most likely dedicated capture/encode only... but it's uncertain) Plus a dedicated mp3 server (probably just an old pentium with a big HD and a NIC). I'm looking for an overall setup, a solution to all my needs, and I will also have to do some serious ATI rage fury pro/7000 ve/geforce 4 ti4200 vivo (plus tvtool and look into the recoton switch problem) and see which one I'll use.

Software wise, it still sounds like zoom player, along with cinemaster for dvd playback most likely, but nothing is set in stone...

[akical]

haha ..

i leave for two weeks of mad parties ... n ejp up n dissappears

[vhelp]

akical,
your SIG is a blast. It cracked me up.. thinking of ejp n' all he he...

Well, as for me, I found some more AVI, MPEG and Other code snipplets,
..sifting through the net soaking (assemilating) data, and doing all sorts
of MPEG farting around.. so on and so forth.

All this fun assemilating keeps me up all hours of the night.
-vhelp

[scoobybone]

Why just DivX? Why not all codecs? I've been planning on building one:
- Small box (the size of a DVD player with a STRONG fan)
- Small 1-5Gig HD
- DVD-Rom
- Windows XP Media Center Edition
- 700+ MHz
- TV in/out card
- 5.1 Channel audio card
- Infrared keyboard and mouse (remote control style)

You can give it network support for getting codecs off the net. Windows XP MCE will turn it into a Tivo type recorder/player. A bigger HD allows for more recording. Would probably end up at $200 - $400.

[vhelp]

I myself like the idea to some degree, but..

The first priority is the color output quality issue -> TV-OUT.

My experience thus far has lead me to some dissapointments in this area.
Resizing a divX clip only worsen's the matter (quality)
It would be interesting to see just how MPEG1/2 files are AR'ed (or, for
better works, stretched to TV size)
I honestly believe 98% now, that TV resolution is 800x600, and not the
352x240 or 352x480 or 640x480 resolution. It not 800xnnn then perhaps
640x480. But, this needs to be further studied.. but, it's strange how MPEG1/2 seems to do the AR'ing very well, and w/out any sersious
degrasion in visual quality!! ..moving on..

crahak is right, in that a TV-OUT is the way to go w/ this endeavor. You
already got the DVD player for DVD movies. Stop kididng yourself. well,
anyways, for alternatives, a TV-OUT is it. Plus, experimentationally
speaking, this would be/is a fun and challenging endeavor.
However, crahak and I are pretty much on the same track with
the quality issue of the video. It's poor. NOT recommended for D/L'd
movies, as those are VERY unpredictable in quality. IF, however, you were
to do the divX encodes yourself, as crahak and I do, then quality becomes
a subjective matter - - is that virtual's line ?? he, he...
divX CAN provide great looking quality videos - but at a modest bitrate,
and yes, still lower than usual, pending source quality. I'm speaking of
source being for the most part, DVD.

I hope I didn't speak out of turn here.
-vhelp

[crahak]

I just felt like everyone lost interest in the thread... lol

My project isn't about ONLY divx, it will actually do a WHOLE LOT MORE than that...

XP media center is overrated, I don't even see a reason to really use it.
CPU wise, I couldn't manage to buy <1300mhz, and anyways, I would have only saved like 5$, 700 is quite already on the weak side anyways.
There is lots of PVR software out there too, but none of the setups really fit me it seems (I like virtualdubvcr) and besides, I am making a player, another machine will handle capture/encode.

I am making a lot of progress now (after spending a few days wondering which way really was best), and I'm updating my website once in a while too. Think I got lots of great infos (and links) on the subject

As far as vhelp's post, I agree fully on it. Downloaded divx (well, say, 99.5% of it) jsut doesn't have "quality". Anyone who looks into it and does it right is bound to get MUCH better results than that... As far as TV out, I've finally settled on a radeon, sounds like the best bet for this task

As for resolution, well, this is quite a subject on it's own. You'd have to clarify what you mean by "TV resolution"... What the specs call for? What we can really see? ... Lots of ways to understand the statement, and there are NTSC and PAL and lots of other things to mix things up. Yay

Anyways, I mainly stick to 800x600, and sometimes 640x480. I try to upsize the least possible, if the divx is 640x??? then use 640x480, if it's bigger, I use 800x600. Works good enough.

Again, http://divx.reallybites.com