New Divx-Enabled DVD player out in the USA

[Zerosix]

take a good look here...

http://www.avindustries.net

[Doom9]

I couldn't find what chipset the player is based on...

[Zerosix]

it is ESS.

[Doom9]

where did you find the technical specs?

[athos]

Originally posted by Doom9
where did you find the technical specs?

Features:
Complete compatibility ranging from DVD-R/DVD+R/MP3/ Divx™/ MPEG4/VCD/SVCD/ CVD/DVD/ JPEG/WMA/WMV and is both NTSC and PAL compliant.

Supports Divx™ version 3.11, 4.02 through 5.02



-Based on the ESS Vibratto Chipset
-Component Video
-S-VIDEO
-Composite Video
-Optical Out
-DTS Output
-2 or 5.1 Channel Surround Sound
-10bit Digital Video Processing
-24-Bit / 96kHz Digital Audio Processing
-Supports 1:1, 4:3, and 16:9 video
-Supports maximum Divx™ resolution of 720x576
-Supports Parental controls
-Has On Screen Display
-Karaoke Functions
-Kodak Picture CD playback
-Fully Functional Remote Control
-1 year manf. warranty
-Free software and firmware updates available from www.avindustries.net
Just click "Consumer Electronics"

[Doom9]

argh..

[Zerosix]

They are slick though... very well designed, and seem a lot faster and more compatible than the Sigma...

Although i believe that the X-100 is available in either Sigma OR ESS.

[WorldBook]

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?threadid=19902&highlight=zerosix

This is what "zerosix" had to say in another forum.

[Zerosix]

Yup, i'm the same guy... ;)

A lot of things have evolved in the past 5 months...

Just take a look at the website, and see for yourself. :D

[BoNz1]

Does it support things like quarterpixel, b-frames which aren't packed as in XviD, and more than 1 warping point GMC?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Me thinks this post should really be in 'Hardware DVD Players' section of the forum!

But I can't blame it being missed as there does not appear to be any moderators for this section at all. Which is a pity, coz I rather like this area of the forum!

I noticed this bit in the spec posted by athos
Supports maximum Divx™ resolution of 720x576 I did some tests recently and found that as long as you dont exceed 414,720 pixels, you can infact use any frame size!

Might be useful to some of you!

Cheers

[AV Industries]

That is definitely good information to know. ;)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by AV Industries
That is definitely good information to know. ;) Yes, I've been generating some PAL 2.35:1 DVD rips using an image pixel frame size of 768x432 (331,776 total pixels). And very good looking they are too!

I might give some NTSC 2.35:1 DVD rips a go, using an image pixel frame size of 656x368 (241,408 total pixels).

As you can see, both pixel frame sizes offer encodes with a 'true frame' aspect ratio of 16:9!

Cheers

[Zhnujm]

At least my Yamada (also ESS based) cant play anything above 720xXXX.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Zhnujm
At least my Yamada (also ESS based) cant play anything above 720xXXX. I've just dug out an old 864x480p NTSC DivX encode I did of StarWars 2. And I'm happy to say it's works perfectly with my Xcard.

Cheers

[Doom9]

@Zerosix, AV Industries: Any ties to the actual company? If so, maybe you could tell us something about your future plans in terms of audio, container and subtitle support and if there are any devices based on more powerful chipsets (supporting QPel for instance) in the works.

[AV Industries]

We have strong ties to AVX... We are their exclusive distributor in the Americas and Asia, and soon to be Europe, and Australia.

Future plans are pretty simple. We will support any and all emerging container formats that become "standard". By this, we mean we will only fully "support" codecs and containers authorized by DivX themselves... At this point in time, it is limited to .avi. We have a very strong desire to keep our entire product line Certified by DivX, and not go any other direction.

This doesn't mean that other formats aren't compatible. For example, XVid with AC3 sound is fully supported, and so is QPEL and GMC (kind of). the QPEL and GMC is rather rudimentary at this time, and it is not a requirement for DivX certification. However, as new firmware is available, this will improve. It is one of the areas we are working on.

There are chipsets that will be emerging that are more powerful than the ESS chipset we are currently using, however, we are choosing to NOT adopt them until they meet DivX's strict certification levels. It is just out of best interest from a marketing standpoint. ("Why is one certified and one not?") We want to keep it simple and eliminate any confusion for our customers. Once new sets are available and certified by DivX, we will implement them as soon as possible.

As of right now, we have three goals that we would like to have accomplished BEFORE our highest end products are released.

1) Full support for QPEL and GMC
2) Full support for OGM containers
3) Maintain our DivX certification by doing so.

It is important to us to receive feedback from potential customers and from existing ones so that we can enhance our product line and deliver the most requested features.

Any other questions, feel free to ask. :D

[manono]

Hi-

Any other questions, feel free to ask.

OK :)
1. Do your units support external subtitles? If so, which ones? If not, when can this very important feature be expected?
2. Why don't any of your models have either DVI out or HDMI (http://www.hdmi.org/) out? Do you plan on making a unit with one or the other in the future?

[AV Industries]

External subtitles are not supported ***yet***. Some have reported that they do work, however, just not very well. We are glad to test any sample .avi files for you and let you know our results. New firmware should be available in the next couple of months. This is something that will definitely be supported 100% eventually.

Our initial unit, the X-100 doesn't include DVI because we are aiming to keep it as close as we can get to a budget machine. We have heard requests for DVI though, and our next two units, the X500 and the X600 will BOTH include it. HDMI is a strong possibility for the next generation as well. We have inquired about including it and how much sense it would make. It all depends on how widespread it is when the next generation machines are ready for production.

The X-100 will probably not include either... not yet.

Hope this helps.

[manono]

Hi-

Hope this helps.

It helps a lot. Thanks for the replies. I'll be keeping an eye on you guys. Best of luck with the new units. It's good to have someone in the "biz" monitoring this board to get an idea of the kinds of features we're looking for in a DVD/MPEG4 player, and to answer questions.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by manono
[I]It helps a lot. Thanks for the replies. I'll be keeping an eye on you guys. Best of luck with the new units. It's good to have someone in the "biz" monitoring this board to get an idea of the kinds of features we're looking for in a DVD/MPEG4 player, and to answer questions. Yes, thanks for the replies.

The new generation of DVD players complete with multi codec chips is certainly is starting to hot up now.

From the information available throughout the net it would seem to me that alot of the new chips are now (or soon will be) capable of decoding just about any codec. So with that in mind I suppose it will be down to licensing rights that will determin what can or cannot be read by a player!

Cheers

[wing1]

@AV Industries

Features:
Complete compatibility ranging from ... JPEG/WMA/WMV ...


What does this section equates to?

Am I reading this as being able to support Microsoft WMVx format or WMV9-VCM?

[AV Industries]

You're right... WM9 isnt supported yet...we are hoping it will be supported soon. Sorry for any confusion.

[r6d2]

@AV Industries,

Does the player support only square pixels or can it too deal with NTSC and PAL PARs? The specs say "NTSC and PAL compliant", but I'm in doubt anyway.

The question may sound weird, but I'm experimenting with 1:1 DivX encodings, keeping the original source size (except mod-xx needed cropping) and original pixel aspect ratio.

[manono]

Hi-

Yes, I was curious about something related to that. In the specs, it says -Supports 1:1, 4:3, and 16:9 video. Can it resize MPEG4 as well as DVDs? I realize (now) that that's not quite what you have in mind, r6d2, but if it can resize .avis to 4:3 or 16:9, then even that would be a step forward, and a first (I think) for a DVD/MPEG4 player.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by manono
... Yes, I was curious about something related to that. In the specs, it says -Supports 1:1, 4:3, and 16:9 video. Can it resize MPEG4 as well as DVDs? I realize (now) that that's not quite what you have in mind, r6d2, but if it can resize .avis to 4:3 or 16:9, then even that would be a step forward, and a first (I think) for a DVD/MPEG4 player. Yes, I know what you mean too!

This is the main reason why I have not purchased an DivX capable standalone player yet and I'm sticking with my Sigma Xcard. Even the Kiss players (with Sigma chips) did not work as well as I had hoped. At least with the Xcard you can 'manually' alter the output frame size using the remote controls up/down arrows!

Anyway, in order to test various capabilities of DivX players I burned a series of PAL 6min test files onto a CD-R. All are from the same 2.35:1 source: -
Test #01 - 720x576 1:1 anamorphic frame with mattes 'as original source'
Test #02 - 720x432 1:1 anamorphic frame with mattes cropped
Test #03 - 640x480 4:3 true frame with mattes
Test #04 - 640x272 4:3 true frame with mattes cropped
Test #05 - 1024x576 16:9 true frame with mattes
Test #06 - 768x432 16:9 true frame with mattes cropped

I never expect #05 to work on a standalone (or my Xcard) as it's way over the 414,720 pixel chip limit. But #06 works very well!

I've also done the same for RAW Mpeg1 and Mpeg2 encodes. And would like to the same for the other codecs too!

Cheers

[manono]

Yes, SMD, I think that what r6d2 wants is a player that can play your Test #2 and with proper AR. I think that may be a bit much to hope for at this stage, though.

If I understand the specs correctly, it should be able to play your Tests #1 and 6 properly. Any player today should play your Tests #3, and 4, although not all do. I don't know if the AV Industries models have that 720x576 (414,720 pixel) limitation or not, but maybe your Test #5 is just a future dream.

[r6d2]

Originally posted by manono
[B]Yes, SMD, I think that what r6d2 wants is a player that can play your Test #2 and with proper AR. I think that may be a bit much to hope for at this stage, though.
If #2 means that "1:1" is still in the source PAR, yes, that's what I want.

It's a bit too much for software PC players too :)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by r6d2
If #2 means that "1:1" is still in the source PAR, yes, that's what I want... #01 is what I have used for the majority of my encodes. #02 was what I originally wanted to use! But strangely I've just found that #06 works best of all with the Xcard!

As a PAL user I was pretty selfish not mention the fact that I do have an NTSC AR test disc too. All are from the same NTSC 2.35:1 source (which is StarWars2 Ch41): -
Test #01 - 720x480 1:1 anamorphic frame with mattes 'as original source'
Test #02 - 720x368 1:1 anamorphic frame with mattes cropped
Test #03 - 640x480 1.33:1 (4:3) true frame with mattes
Test #04 - 640x272 1.33:1 (4:3) true frame with mattes cropped
Test #05 - 864x480 1.77:1 (16:9) true frame with mattes
Test #06 - 656x368 1.77:1 (16:9) true frame with mattes cropped
Test #07 - 864x368 2.35:1 frame size with mattes cropped

When using this test disc I have found that both #05, #06 and #07 work well!

I'm quite suprised that some of the DivX capable standalones still display the encoded image in a frame. When I loaded the original drivers that came with my Xcard I found it suffered from this problem. But the latest 'beta' drivers have cured this gripe and more besides!

If you guys are like me, and like to watch your encodes on a TV. Then this post (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=392570#post392570) I made in another section of the forum may interest you too!

Cheers

[Zhnujm]

Originally posted by AV Industries
You're right... WM9 isnt supported yet...we are hoping it will be supported soon. Sorry for any confusion.

Does this means you can implement this with the current ESS based player or does this need a newer chipset ?

[wing1]

@AV industries
Thank you for answering my question.

@Zhnujm
I am sure the chipset can support wmv9, hence wmv was mentioned in the spec. However, wmv is micro$oft and there is royalty to be ironed out before things can be made to roll :)

The question is will the clip be in avi or wmv format or both.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by wing1
... The question is will the clip be in avi or wmv format or both. Well, I hate to hark on but as of yesterday I am able to view both WMV9 formats and RV9 encodes on my TV with my Xcard!

If anybody is out there thinking of building an HTPC I would highly recommend an Sigma Xcard (http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/xcard.htm) with JovePlayer (http://8dim.com/JovePlayer.htm) software.

It really is a great combination!

Cheers

[Zhnujm]

Originally posted by wing1
The question is will the clip be in avi or wmv format or both.

I have seen just to many lies on webpages to belive everything. :)
The question for me is can the ESS chip play WMV format or not. There are many players out with this chipset and none of them can play WMV files (or wmv in avi, or gmc in xvid, or qpel). So is this just a question of a new firmware ?

[unixfs]

Originally posted by AV Industries
We have strong ties to AVX... We are their exclusive distributor in the Americas and Asia, and soon to be Europe, and Australia.

Future plans are pretty simple. We will support any and all emerging container formats that become "standard".
Any other questions, feel free to ask. :D

Hi, I have 2 questions:

1) there's an already standard format that unfortunately is always overlooked (or forgotten): mpeg4-video-es in MPEG2-PS. It has the advantage of not requiring an index, plus it can still use all the extra features VOB can offer, and let's not forget that MPEG2PS has already been well tested and well working for years now.
I wonder why no one ever uses it. What's your position about it?

2) how will your players handle video resized so as not to require
A/R modifications (1:1) eg. 720x576 cropped and resized to 640x352
or 640x272 ? Can users specify how to (not-)manage A/R?

Thanks.