Does x264 / h264 work on standalone "DivX" player?

[homerpez]

I guess I've become very very confused over time, and I'm not sure what "mp4" really means when it comes to standalone players that support it...

I just bought an upscaling DVD player, I pick it up in a few minutes. :devil:

It's the Samsung DVD-1080P7 http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsung-Hi-Def-DVD-Player-DVD-1080P7/sem/rpsm/oid/178671/catOid/-12873/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do... model just came out recently.

Now, I know I want it for the DVD upscaling, but it also has "DivX" mp4 support... what I'd like to know is... what does this actually mean?

I've always been confused... can any "mp4" codec be used to encode the video? Can I take my pick of DivX, Xvid, or x264/h264? Or are they different?...

Ideally, I'd want to encode up to the max 720x480 res mp4 that this player supports (ideally 16:9 aspect as well), with ac3 audio. I assume I'm stuck with an AVI container since it allows you to mux anything with anything, just badly. :p

But can I pretty much use any codec to encode the mp4 stream? I'd love to have the best quality possible (x264). Thanks!

[Raere]

Nope, it most likely only supports MPEG-4 ASP (DivX, Xvid) and not MPEG-4 AVC (*264).

Your best bet would be to encode a DivX/Xvid file in a standard AVI container with MP3 audio (the player probably supports AC3 as well, try that if you don't mind bigger filesizes). One thing worth noting is that some standalone players (mine included) don't support QPel. So, when you encode, make sure you don't tick QPel in the options, or you might waste encoding time and a perfectly good disc.

[homerpez]

Thanks for the quick reply... yeah, I knew it was too good to be true. :p

Would ac3 codec work for 5.1 audio? I'd heard of it working for xvid files before (depending on the player), but I wonder if I can get that to sync the right way... maybe aac would work in mp4?...

I'm guessing that since it has a Zoran chip, and is more or less brand new (as of May 2007 anyways) that it should keep up with most "Divx" players... I hope.

[Raere]

If it can decode AC3, then it should do 5.1 as well. My standalone player (Philips DVP642) which is a few years old, can.

AAC 2 channel might work, I haven't tried it on mine. However, 5.1 AAC probably won't work. The DVD player might still read it, but it'll only come out as 2 channels. 99% of speaker receivers only accept 5.1 in the more standardized formats like AC3 and DTS. Even if your DVD player outputs the AAC in 5.1, the receiver will only read it as a plain old 2 channel stream.

So, your best bet is to use AC3 if you want 5.1.

Sorry if my post is confusing, I'm not too good at expressing technical stuff.

In short: AC3 should work up to 5.1. AAC might work, but if it did it would only output as 2 channels. Other formats like Vorbis probably wouldn't work. If you have lots of spare CD-R's then experiment.

But, at the very least, it should work with standard DivX/Xvid with MP3 or AC3. Anything besides that is a plus, and you can't be sure if it'll work or not.

[bond]

the 0815 mpeg-4 players out there will definitely not support avc