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DivX 6 support: All Mediatek1389-based stand-alones should be able to play DivX6 encoded movies with the .avi extension. Many even support several audio tracks and subtitle tracks included in the .avi and some already accept .divx as the extension as well. A good overview of some common players tested for DivX6 compatibility can be found here:
http://www.divxtest.com/article.php3?id_article=67
Note that none of the current players support DivX6 Menus and Chapters yet. However, now that the DivX6 standard has been finalized, there is a chance that some of them will support it in a future firmware release... Which brings us to a very crucial point:
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Firmware update support: This is one of the
most-important aspects when choosing a player. Make sure the manufacturer and/or the user community actively support your model and release new firmware versions adding features and fixing bugs. If you are from a country that uses an alphabet that cannot be displayed with the standard set of latin letters, pay extraordinary attention - all Mediateks have problems with foreign .srt charsets and codepages, so you will need a modified firmware to have .srt subs in your native language.
A good starting point for firmware mods is the Mtz Website and Forums:
http://mtz.softpedia.com. Additionally, you should perform an extensive google search on your model, sometimes you can come up with active firmware developer communities where you never would have expected them - I have seen some in France, Poland and Brazil. Unless there are hackers out there modding the firmware for your model, you won't have much chance to remain up-to-date in the future.
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Nero Digital Support: I do not cover Nero Digital at all in this guide since it has already been completely and perfectly covered in this thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=94538. Basically Nero Digital certified players allow you to play back any files using the .mp4 container and AAC audio.
(Many thx to bond for the info)
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WMA & WMV Support: A lot of players already support WMA and WMV3. If so, it is usually always mentioned in the player specs and not difficult to find out about.
As for WMV9, right now only players based on the Sigma EM8620L chip can play those. You can find some info on it here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=84003
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=87751
One such player is the Zensonic Z500:
http://www.z500series.com/specs.php
(Interestingly, they also claim that they will have support for Matroska but have not implemented it yet...)
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3ivX Support: Not many test results are available but since 3ivx is MPEG-4 compliant, an MPEG-4 player should in theory be able to play it back. Custom 3ivX extensions like Chapters will most likely not work. For 3ivx files with an mp4 container and aac audio, you will need a Nero Digital certified player in order to play them
(thx to bond for the info). If anyone has some 3ivx test results to share, please post below.
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Dual Layer DVD Support: Support for dual-layer media is not always guaranteed so make sure to check/ask for it.
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Misc stuff: If you really need it, you will know to look for it. Examples include progressive scan support and the various advanced A/V connections you may or may not need like VGA or Optical.
4. Problems you should be prepared to run into- XviDs are stuttering...
-> Probably the XviD has packed bitstream and your player doesn't support it. See Section 3.3.
Another possible reason could be bad interleaving in the file. Cyberace describes this easy way to fix that:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyberace
To fix this problem use VirtualDub on your Windows computer to "Direct-Stream" both the video and audio which saves a new fixed file, (this does not affect the quality of the file as all it does is demux the audio from the video and mux them back correctly by interleaving the video with the audio data). Since VirtualDub creates a new header (internal index), it usually automaticly fixes any problems with bad/corrupt headers, too.
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- Picture smears and turns into psychedelic colours or just doesn't play...
-> You've hit one of those really rare XviDs with GMC enabled. You will need to re-encode the movie.
- Movies are displayed with the wrong aspect ratio...
-> Some of the Mediatek chips with some of the firmware versions seem to have this problem... You will have to investigate possible solutions for your model on your own, sorry.
- A part of the picture left and right is cut off on a 4:3 TV (even though the DVD player is set to Letterbox)...
-> This is due to overscan which can be a serious problem... Read more about it here: http://www.mastersofcinema.org/revie...kingbeyond.htm . The only real way to solve this would be to have a progressive zoom function for movies so that you can zoom out just enough until the full picture frame is visible and underscanned. Divxtest.com always tests for this functionality in their player reviews but so far no player supports it - you can only zoom out to 50% and watch the movie in a tiny window. Note that overscan does not occur if you use the TV-out on your PC to play movies so that can always serve as an alternative in extreme cases. Reportedly the Asian models Yamakawa 365 and 375 based on the Sigma chipset support progressive zoom so you could check those out if this is important for you.
- Filenames in the browser are too short; the subtitles don't look nice, the font sucks and you can't change the size; special characters and alphabets in subtitles are not displayed correctly etc. etc...
-> These are default problems on all Mediateks that are easily fixed with a small firmware hack. This should not be a problem on players with good firmware update support.
- JPEG viewing and MP3-CD listening sucks and is missing loads of functions (shuffle, anyone?)
-> This is basically the same for almost all the MPEG-4 stand-alones. Get a DVD/MPEG-4 player for the one function it is really intended to do: play movies. Consider getting something else for your slideshows and MP3s. A few of these things can be fixed in the firmware but don't expect too much.
5. Links you should check out (apart from this excellent forum )- DivX Compare
In French only but quite easy to browse (otherwise try translating it with babelfish). Great source for detailed technical reviews of the MPEG-4 playback capabilites of over 100 different players.
- DivX-Test
These guys have developed an excellent Test-CD with short movie clips to systematically test for a huge and very complete set of differently encoded movies you might want to play on your stand-alone. They have also tested a good deal of players with their CD, the results can be found here: http://www.divxtest.com/results.php3. Be aware that the tests were made quite a while ago with older firmware so the situation has changed since then for some of the models listed there.
- Video-Help DVD Player Database
Simply the largest index of DVD players out there. Very useful to read some user reviews of the model you are planning to buy and to check if there is an easy hack to make your player region-free. Unlike the two websites above, it lacks detailed information on DivX/XviD compatibility. E.g. it does have a field called "DivXSubs support" yet is not very meaningful since it does not tell you which subtitle formats are supported in which languages.
- MediaTek chip-set (MT1389xx) Information - Std Def
CruNcher's excellent thread on all things Mediatek1389 on this forum. Beware though, it is 20 pages long
- Official DivX Forum
The DivX DVD Players subforum on the official Divx.com forum.
- MPEG Playcenter
Good forum for information on stand-alones.
- Mtz Modified Firmware Collection
A starting point to look for both original and modified versions of firmware for your player. For models not listed there, try asking on their forum.
- MT1389 Yahoo Group
Mailing list discussing the Mediatek 1389 chipsets and firmware modifications.
- Australian DivX & Stuff Forum
Good Australian Forum on MPEG-4 stand-alones.
- DivX Players Forum
Very small new UK forum discussing MPEG-4 players.
- GoodDVDStuff Forum
Mostly Kiss player discussion but there are subforums for other MPEG-4 players, too.
- MPEG 4 Terminology
Excellent short explanations of terms like GMC, QPel etc. used in this article, courtesy of SeeMoreDigital.
Hope that information was able to help some of you!
Please feel free to post any additional information about the special features of the player you bought, new product developments or things I forgot to cover and I will try to update this Guide accordingly.
Yours Truly,
Y.T.