Do you have a Dreamcast and would like to test a DivX player?

[Chainmax]

As you may or may not already know, the Dreamcast has had a few video players released for it, al of them pretty crappy. The latest player that was released was uDCDivX v0.1, almost a year ago. It's widely acknowledged as the best MPEG4 player for the Dreamcast, but there hasn't been much investigation as to what it can play. From what little I could gather, maximum resolution is 496x496, it doesn't support b-frames (skips them) and only supports MP3 sound and AVI container. I think it would be nice to try and find out exactly what (if any) ASP features, maximum audio bitrate and maximum video bitrate it supports. I would conduct some tests myself, but I don't have a Dreamcast for now. Anyway, if you're interested you can download DiscJuggler ISOs here (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/udcdivx.shtml).

[Zyphon]

@Chainmax

I still have my old Dreamcast and did several DivX tests (Mainly from my 'The Matrix' DVD) and was quite suprised at how reasonable the quality was.

However another downsize was that with 'DCDivx' which is what I used at the time you needed to use Mono MP3 at a frequency of 22050 Hz Mono, otherwise the video and audio would skip.

>>Here<< (http://dcdivx.corecodec.org/) is the site of the original DCDivX on which uDCdivx is based on check it out if you wish.

I am a member of DCEmu athough I haven't been there in a while so I might check out this new version and see how it performs.

Thanks for the info. :)

[Chainmax]

Awesome, and thanks for volunteering to test :). What is needed to know in order of importance is, IMO, the following:

- Wether bframes are skipped or not.

- Maximum supported video bitrate.

- Wether maximum resolution = 496x496 means that pixelcount must not exceed 246016 or that neither width nor height can exceed 496.

- Maximum audio bitrate.

- Other audio capabilities (stereo, frequency).

I assume that it doesn't support OGM or MKV (so no Ogg audio), soft subs, custom matrices or QPel so don't bother testing those. One thing though: even if you don't use any filtering, be sure to use IVTC if applicable. IIRC, most people at DCEmu were trying 29,97fps streams that probably were IVTCable, therefore wasting precious bitrate and processing power in those useless extra frames.

[Chainmax]

I can create some test clips if you need.

[Zyphon]

I can create some test clips if you need.

Yes I may need them, I now have the time to run some tests.

I will follow this guide >here< (http://www.dchomebrew.org/zacmcd/DcDivX4dummies/) it is a long time since I used this guide years in fact, shall I just test it with a small section of a DVD or do a full movie?

As I said the DC has limitations with the sound so i will use 22Khz as to avoid video/audio skipping, also resolutions larger than 480 x 480 is a problem as the DC hasn't got a big enough buffer to be able to render video and audio without skipping at larger resolutions.

What res do you think I should use? I was going to go for a 352 x 288 resolution what do you think?

[Chainmax]

Leave the test clips to me. I have a 74 seconds sample vob from one of my DVDs and will create encodes at different resolutions, bitrates, Xvid features and sound quality. I should have them available within the next 24 hours.

[Chainmax]

I have finished encoding the first four clips. Do you have somewhere I can upload them to or should I use something like rapidshare?

[Zyphon]

I have finished encoding the first four clips. Do you have somewhere I can upload them to or should I use something like rapidshare?

Rapidshare would be good, however I have a problem. I burned the CD with the image for the DC and it doesn't work I get a white screen and nothing else.

Could you hold on to these files until I can sort this problem out please?

I may have to find another image to burn. :)

[Chainmax]

Sure thing. It's weird that you had trouble burning them, are you sure you burned the right version?

[Zyphon]

Definately I burned the PAL version and believe me I am no noob at burning DC images I have burned tons of homebrew apps/games etc with no probs. I think the problem lies with my DVD Burner. I am going to dig up my old PC and use the CD Burner in that as that always worked fine for me in this regard.

I will let you know of my progress.

[Chainmax]

Great. I made a thread about this at DCEmu in the homebrew forum so as to get more testers, stop by there if you can :).

[Zyphon]

Sucess, I used my old CD Burner and it did the trick. I made my own selfbootalble image file and it boots fine in the DC. I will be away tomorrow and im not back until Saturday.

I shall take those test files off you then.

Btw it has been so long since I have been to DCEmu that I cant remember my login details or what e-mail addy I used.

I normally go >>Here<< (http://www.dcemulation.com/) for my DC stuff. :)

[Chainmax]

If I'm not mistaken, that site hasn't been updated for ages. The best places for Dreamcast related stuff are The DCEmulation Forum (http://www.dcemulation.com/phpBB/), DCEmu.co.uk (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/) and DCEvolution (http://dcevolution.net/). The last one is probably the best site, they have tons of free legal stuff, like a compilation of all three Marathon games on the DC port of AlephOne, a disc with the now-freeware graphic adventure "Beneath a Steel Sky", emulation compilations with PD Roms, an eBook reader and much more.

[Chainmax]

Upload complete. Here's the first batch:

http://rapidshare.de/files/4093230/1.avi.html

http://rapidshare.de/files/4094262/2.avi.html

http://rapidshare.de/files/4095186/3.avi.html

http://rapidshare.de/files/4095611/4.avi.html

The quality is quite crappy, I know, but the focus is not on image quality for now so this should suffice.

[Zyphon]

If I'm not mistaken, that site hasn't been updated for ages. The best places for Dreamcast related stuff are [URL=http://www.dcemulation.com/phpBB/]
This site is usually constantly updated maybe there is no news to report that is why the last entry is 5th August, the link you gave above is the forum to DCEmulation and although I havent been there in a while it is a pretty active one.

I havent been to the other links you posted in ages, yes they are good. I must make the time to visit them again. :D

Thanks for the files, I shall do some tests. :D

[Chainmax]

One more file:

http://rapidshare.de/files/4164753/6.avi.html


Files 5 and 7 will be uploaded shortly.

[Chainmax]

The files I posted won't play at all on uDCDivX, I deleted them and uploaded a new version of the first clip. Get it here:

http://rapidshare.de/files/4305088/1.avi.html

[Zyphon]

The files I posted won't play at all on uDCDivX, I deleted them and uploaded a new version of the first clip. Get it here:

http://rapidshare.de/files/4305088/1.avi.html
Sorry I have been away for a few days.

Im glad I read this post, I found that out the hard way. :(

I burned the files you sent me onto a CD-R a few days ago and although the uDCdivx works it would not play the files, I just got a black screen. So I tried burning the CD in Mode1 the same problem.

I thought maybe the problem is the AVI is NTSC and my DC is PAL but I thought this should not be a problem.

So wasting a couple of discs I resigned myself to not getting this player to work.

Thankfully you uploaded another file.

I shall grab it and let you know how I get on. Cheers. :D

EDIT: I tried to download the file you posted here and it says file deleted by the uploader. :(

[Chainmax]

Yeah, none of the files seem to work, not even 1.avi which is why I deleted all of them. Try this one:

http://rapidshare.de/files/4324460/2.avi.html

It's a new version of 2.avi with the DIVX fourCC.

[Chainmax]

That one didn't work either. I'm making one last try with Xvid before switching to DivX, please try this one and report back:

http://rapidshare.de/files/4463062/2.avi.html

[wolf82]

Some time ago i made video disk using xvid. udcdivx didn't play any file.
in my opinion the best video player for dc is old DC Movie Player by bero. Image quality is rather poor but its FAST and supports all XVid/DivX, with no resolution limit and b-frames (and even ogg/ogm). This player is unfortunately discontinued.
It has another one disadvantage too - displays ugly "test version" during playback. If someone could recompile it (i checked source code - it seems that one line needs to be removed to get rid of it), maybe even with newer (faster?better?) ffmpeg library.
Unfortunately i have no time to learn how to set up cross-compiler etc. :(.
btw i wanted to reply ealier but new forum users have to wait several days. and sorry for my poor english.

[Chainmax]

Well, I don't care for fastness but image quality. I bet that most people that complain about speed don't know what IVTC is and how that allows for better quality than just encoding whatever you rip as-is. Besides, I'm not interedtes in seeing "test version" every time I want to watch something. Could you please try the latest file I posted with the uDCDivX version I linked to?

[wolf82]

Unfortutnately my toshiba died in august (was only 7 months old!) so im waiting to have it fixed (still .. :/) and my other recorders are LG and have difficulties with writing dc cds (i wasted several tdk :/).
I think i will try to recompile dc movie player in my spare time (i dont have any spare time now but anyway mabye i will try). IMO this is the only player that works (i have seen only one old divx5 or divx4 file that worked with udcdivx and it was choppy even at 352x288@25, but maybe due to b-frames)
I live in Poland, we use PAL here so there is no need to use IVTC... we have 25fps everywhere* (last time i have seen ntsc was 10 years ago on amiga - i used ntsc mode to lower resolution and get rid of ugly 56pix border at bottom of the screen :P)
And yes this "test version" makes me sick. Its UGLY. that's why i will try to get rid of it.
*i forgot about dreamcast's PAL60 mode

When will this damned toshiba return to me :devil: i dont have hardware to burn new version of chui's excellent amiga emulator for DC.. i heard its awesome!