Stand-alone MPEG-4 (DivX, XviD...) Player Buyers Guide - Page 5

thorz · 12th November 2006, 20:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

Personally speaking I've been very happy with my high-definition network capable Zensonic Z500...

In-fact Zensonic are due to release a couple of new devices (the CS505 and the CS510) under the brand name Ziova....

Here's what the Ziova Clearstream CS505 (with DVD/CD drive) looks like: -

It looks impresive. How does it handles XVIDs with packed bitstream? I have got a Pioneer DV-393s that I can have to test for 30 days but it is dissapointing that the video stuters when NVOPs are present:

VIDEO STUTTERS:
Original (encoded using XVID with packed bitstream (NVOP)):
The "evil" tag "DivX503b1393p" is present under metadata when checking the file with GSpot..

VIDEO OK:
Modified (unpacked, (no NVOP)) with MPEG4 Modifier 1.4.2 http://www.moitah.net:

If the Zensonic players can handle perfectly XVID PB and VobSub idx/sub I am sold.

Can the CS505 be easily made region free?

Thanks a lot!

thorz · 13th November 2006, 13:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Y.T.

My Sigmatek XM-400 Pro, with the current official firmware, can handle any packed bitstream XviD thrown at it.

So the Sigmatek XM-400 Pro doesn't stutter with XVID-PB? This is my option if the Ziova doesn't deliver. Can it be easily made region free? Thanks for yur answers Y.T.

SeeMoreDigital · 13th November 2006, 14:37

I'm currently testing and running "Beta" firmware versions on my Zensonic/Ziova player. So it's difficult to comment!

Given that the XviD encoder offers many different "profile" options, including AQ, VHQ selectivity options, and beta builds compiled by different people using different methods... Determining whether one persons B-VOP PBS encode will play on another persons player will require careful testing!

That said, the beta firmware I'm testing now does not display any stuttering when playing these "video only" samples: -

http://www.mytempdir.com/1057036 and http://www.mytempdir.com/1057076

How well do they play for you guys?

thorz · 16th November 2006, 00:56

I will test these on the Pioneer DV-363s and will post the results. But it would be easier to spot the problem with video stutter or flicker with an scene with lots of horizontal camera panning. On my Pioneer it is difficult to spot it with static camera like the one that your samples use.

Is it true that these players don't support VobSub idx/sub subs with XVIDs?

Thanks.

SeeMoreDigital · 16th November 2006, 10:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by thorz

Is it true that these players don't support VobSub idx/sub subs with XVIDs?

No they don't if your sources are MPEG-4 AVI's, with external IDX/SUB streams.

However, if you re-mux the MPEG-4 stream together with the IDX/SUB stream into the MP4 container with AAC audio (using YAMB/MP4Box), the VOBsubs should work okay on all players/devices offering NeroDigital certification.

Cheers

kurt · 17th November 2006, 18:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

I'm currently testing and running "Beta" firmware versions on my Zensonic/Ziova player. So it's difficult to comment!

Given that the XviD encoder offers many different "profile" options, including AQ, VHQ selectivity options, and beta builds compiled by different people using different methods... Determining whether one persons B-VOP PBS encode will play on another persons player will require careful testing!

That said, the beta firmware I'm testing now does not display any stuttering when playing these "video only" samples: -

http://www.mytempdir.com/1057036 and http://www.mytempdir.com/1057076

How well do they play for you guys?

Everything works fine here, no stuttering at all. My SAP: DK Digital DVD-339 (MediaTek MT1389xx Chip)

_ck_ · 20th November 2006, 17:17

By the way, any chance these high-end divx players can handle 1920x1080 mpeg2? Or are the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players the only game in town for that?

SeeMoreDigital · 20th November 2006, 19:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by _ck_

By the way, any chance these high-end divx players can handle 1920x1080 mpeg2? Or are the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players the only game in town for that?

There are plenty of players based around Sigma's EM8620L chip-set that can play 1920x1080 MPEG-2...

I have an Zensonic Z500... And it plays 1920x1080 MPEG-2 (and MPEG-4) just fine

Scott_ · 21st November 2006, 08:19

I would like to thank the contributors of this post and the other guide-based post. I was finally able to find a good MPEG-4 DVD player for my system after carefully perusing each post's contents. Yay! So what did I get? Well first I bought a Samsung HD-860. Big mistake! I think I got a buggy one. Anyway, took the HD-860 back and decided to go with a player using the MediaTek chip-set. This time it was a Pioneer DV-490V. Quite simply this is an absolute brilliant solution for my modest system! I've thrown absolutely every kind of media and format I have here at it and it's handled them with ease. Even DVD-R DL discs play perfectly, which is a feat I've never been able to reproduce on my old Toshiba SD-2810 nor buggy HD-860 (the one I took back). Very happy days! I can highly recommend this player for a good cheap solution (Australia). Thanks again to Doom9!

And I waited five days to post this. Ha!

thorz · 28th November 2006, 00:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by kurt

Everything works fine here, no stuttering at all. My SAP: DK Digital DVD-339 (MediaTek MT1389xx Chip)

Interesting, thanks a lot.

@Scott: I think I have read that this is the same DV-363 but with HDMI?
It is a very good player, if it was not for the XVID+PB issue it would have earned a 9 of 10 in my book. It earns an 8 as it is now.

Scott_ · 28th November 2006, 04:24

Thorz, I think they are the same. But what issue is it that you're talking about?

thorz · 29th November 2006, 20:06

It stutters with XVID+PB videos. Is subtle, but you can easily see the issue in scenes with camera pan.

Appu · 7th January 2007, 06:54

Thanks Y.T for this excellent post. I stumbled upn this post during my search to buy a standalone player which supports mosts of the formats. Most of my queries were answered now.

Some more questions though..

1) Does these players supports more than 2 B Frames in XVID?
2) What is the status of H.264 and VC1 support now?
3) What about the support for arbitary resolution?. Say I have an XVID Stream of resolution 416X400 and 1280x720. Is there any player which supports SD output ( 720x576 or 720x480 ) for these resolutions?

Appu.

Ninjabrownie · 20th January 2007, 19:24

Hi,
great thread, I've picked up a lot from here and the doom9 alltogether. I'm looking for a standalone player that supports H.264 (x.264). It would be nice to be properly equiped for the future, besides it seems like a waste of money to buy anything else. Then again, I just started educating myself on the matter bout a week ago, so perhaps standalone players that support x.264 are either extremely expensive or simply non-existent?
The list of NeroDigital's collaborations with various manufacturers provided here offers some interesting products. At least GOWELL Enterprises has a distinctive category for H.264 players right here.
It is not clear to me whether NeroDigital actually can playback files encoded with eg x.264. Does it??

I have been told that basically all new DVD players are capable of playing *.mp4 files encoded with x264 although I find that very hard to believe. Recently I ordered the Xoro HSD 8410, believing it could playback such files. Tech support clarified the mistake, no Xoro players are able to do so. Seems like I'll have to return it after 10 days of testing

.

Next to DVD players (and home cinema systems, PC's) there are of course the nextgen gaming consoles. I assume the PS3 and Xbox 360 are able to handle the new codec. As for the Wii, I found this: Sonic+Nintendo=HD playback. Very interesting. I was supposed to get one within 2 weeks, now I think I'll wait another 6-10 months...

Anyhow, I would very much appreciate if someone who has more insight joins in to bring this thread back to life.

in advance

DewAsmara · 23rd January 2007, 05:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ninjabrownie

Hi,
great thread, I've picked up a lot from here and the doom9 alltogether. I'm looking for a standalone player that supports H.264 (x.264).

All Sigma HD chipset player support H264/X264/VC1 already, there is Zensonic, Snazzio and many other brand. I have been test at DivX HD 720p, WMVHD 720p and many other format. But I really do waiting for Pioneer or Panasonic even JVC to launch Micro HiFi DVD Home Theater that can play such format. No need HDMI for material HD, component is fine, but pretty bad none of those big brand give what we need. Not because I don't like Snazzio or others, but that kinda player too much complete for me, as I really want only to play that material on DVD Disc not streaming it through Wifi or LAN.

SeeMoreDigital · 23rd January 2007, 10:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by DewAsmara

All Sigma HD chipset player support H264/X264/VC1 already, there is Zensonic, Snazzio and many other brand....

No, no, no, no, no!

None of these players support MPEG-4 Part-10 (ie: AVC/H.264/x264) or VC-1 (high profile). Sigma's EM8620L chip-set does not support these formats. Only Sigma's EM8622/3L, EM8624/5L and EM8628/9L chip-sets do.... And they are not available yet!

pd · 23rd August 2007, 01:07

three good candidates: the Kiss DP-1600 the elta 8882 and the OPPO DV-981HD 1080p High Definition Up-Converting Universal DVD Player with HDMI <-- my personal favorite

hgoku · 26th September 2007, 17:12

Hi

Can anyone recommend me a really good dvd player which plays xvid files and possibly ogm files. I live in the UK and the sigmatek xm-400 and the pioneers are not available anywhere in the UK, so i'm looking for some other ones, however I have got no idea which ones are good and which ones are not. The only decent ones I have come across on divx-compare are 2 PEEKTON ones. The PEEKTON PK6006N and PK6005-MK2 Black LE but these are not available in UK either as they are old. Are there any good recent ones out there which will not die on me.

kitsaros2000 · 25th November 2007, 06:07

Where can i find nowdays an decent idx/sub capable player ? The article is rather old. Peekton players are hard to find.
Sigmatek
XS-700 Pro
XS-520 Pro support vobsubs ?

azzoti · 7th December 2007, 01:50

Got this a week ago and it has played everything (20+) Divx Mpeg4 I have thrown at it. (I now use AcidRip with -ffourcc DIVX option which tricks hardware players into thinking that its DIVX.) A couple of my older (gordian?) backup rips will not fast forward or rewind but will play and pause.
Live TV pause and all recording superb.
Plays DivX/Mpeg4 straight from USB powered FAT32 hard disk.
Five stars.
Replaced my sigmatek 400 dvd player which broke after 18 months.

13th November 2006, 14:37	#83 \| Link
SeeMoreDigital Life's clearer in 4K UHD Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Notts, UK Posts: 12,227	I'm currently testing and running "Beta" firmware versions on my Zensonic/Ziova player. So it's difficult to comment! Given that the XviD encoder offers many different "profile" options, including AQ, VHQ selectivity options, and beta builds compiled by different people using different methods... Determining whether one persons B-VOP PBS encode will play on another persons player will require careful testing! That said, the beta firmware I'm testing now does not display any stuttering when playing these "video only" samples: - http://www.mytempdir.com/1057036 and http://www.mytempdir.com/1057076 How well do they play for you guys? __________________ \| I've been testing hardware media playback devices and software A/V encoders and decoders since 2001 \| My Network Layout & A/V Gear \| Last edited by SeeMoreDigital; 13th November 2006 at 14:47.

16th November 2006, 00:56	#84 \| Link
thorz Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 17	I will test these on the Pioneer DV-363s and will post the results. But it would be easier to spot the problem with video stutter or flicker with an scene with lots of horizontal camera panning. On my Pioneer it is difficult to spot it with static camera like the one that your samples use. Is it true that these players don't support VobSub idx/sub subs with XVIDs? Thanks. Last edited by thorz; 16th November 2006 at 00:59.

21st November 2006, 08:19	#89 \| Link
Scott_ Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 2	Thanks! I would like to thank the contributors of this post and the other guide-based post. I was finally able to find a good MPEG-4 DVD player for my system after carefully perusing each post's contents. Yay! So what did I get? Well first I bought a Samsung HD-860. Big mistake! I think I got a buggy one. Anyway, took the HD-860 back and decided to go with a player using the MediaTek chip-set. This time it was a Pioneer DV-490V. Quite simply this is an absolute brilliant solution for my modest system! I've thrown absolutely every kind of media and format I have here at it and it's handled them with ease. Even DVD-R DL discs play perfectly, which is a feat I've never been able to reproduce on my old Toshiba SD-2810 nor buggy HD-860 (the one I took back). Very happy days! I can highly recommend this player for a good cheap solution (Australia). Thanks again to Doom9! And I waited five days to post this. Ha!

20th January 2007, 19:24	#94 \| Link
Ninjabrownie PowerOfNightmares@BBC Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 6	Update Please!! Hi, great thread, I've picked up a lot from here and the doom9 alltogether. I'm looking for a standalone player that supports H.264 (x.264). It would be nice to be properly equiped for the future, besides it seems like a waste of money to buy anything else. Then again, I just started educating myself on the matter bout a week ago, so perhaps standalone players that support x.264 are either extremely expensive or simply non-existent? The list of NeroDigital's collaborations with various manufacturers provided here offers some interesting products. At least GOWELL Enterprises has a distinctive category for H.264 players right here. It is not clear to me whether NeroDigital actually can playback files encoded with eg x.264. Does it?? I have been told that basically all new DVD players are capable of playing .mp4 files encoded with x264 although I find that very hard to believe. Recently I ordered the Xoro HSD 8410, believing it could playback such files. Tech support clarified the mistake, no Xoro players are able to do so. Seems like I'll have to return it after 10 days of testing . Next to DVD players (and home cinema systems, PC's) there are of course the nextgen gaming consoles. I assume the PS3 and Xbox 360 are able to handle the new codec. As for the Wii, I found this: Sonic+Nintendo=HD playback. Very interesting. I was supposed to get one within 2 weeks, now I think I'll wait another 6-10 months... Anyhow, I would very much appreciate if someone who has more insight joins in to bring this thread back to life. in advance Last edited by Ninjabrownie; 20th January 2007 at 19:33.*

7th December 2007, 01:50	#100 \| Link
azzoti Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 1	Philips DVDR3595H/05 DVD Recorder + 250Gb Hard disk + DivX is great Got this a week ago and it has played everything (20+) Divx Mpeg4 I have thrown at it. (I now use AcidRip with -ffourcc DIVX option which tricks hardware players into thinking that its DIVX.) A couple of my older (gordian?) backup rips will not fast forward or rewind but will play and pause. Live TV pause and all recording superb. Plays DivX/Mpeg4 straight from USB powered FAT32 hard disk. Five stars. Replaced my sigmatek 400 dvd player which broke after 18 months.

20th November 2006, 17:17	#87 \| Link
_ck_ Registered User Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 43	By the way, any chance these high-end divx players can handle 1920x1080 mpeg2? Or are the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players the only game in town for that?

28th November 2006, 04:24	#91 \| Link
Scott_ Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 2	Thorz, I think they are the same. But what issue is it that you're talking about?

29th November 2006, 20:06	#92 \| Link
thorz Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 17	It stutters with XVID+PB videos. Is subtle, but you can easily see the issue in scenes with camera pan.

7th January 2007, 06:54	#93 \| Link
Appu Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 70	Thanks Y.T for this excellent post. I stumbled upn this post during my search to buy a standalone player which supports mosts of the formats. Most of my queries were answered now. Some more questions though.. 1) Does these players supports more than 2 B Frames in XVID? 2) What is the status of H.264 and VC1 support now? 3) What about the support for arbitary resolution?. Say I have an XVID Stream of resolution 416X400 and 1280x720. Is there any player which supports SD output ( 720x576 or 720x480 ) for these resolutions? Appu.

23rd August 2007, 01:07	#97 \| Link
pd Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 18	three good candidates: the Kiss DP-1600 the elta 8882 and the OPPO DV-981HD 1080p High Definition Up-Converting Universal DVD Player with HDMI <-- my personal favorite

26th September 2007, 17:12	#98 \| Link
hgoku Registered User Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 2	Hi Can anyone recommend me a really good dvd player which plays xvid files and possibly ogm files. I live in the UK and the sigmatek xm-400 and the pioneers are not available anywhere in the UK, so i'm looking for some other ones, however I have got no idea which ones are good and which ones are not. The only decent ones I have come across on divx-compare are 2 PEEKTON ones. The PEEKTON PK6006N and PK6005-MK2 Black LE but these are not available in UK either as they are old. Are there any good recent ones out there which will not die on me.

25th November 2007, 06:07	#99 \| Link
kitsaros2000 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 61	Where can i find nowdays an decent idx/sub capable player ? The article is rather old. Peekton players are hard to find. Sigmatek XS-700 Pro XS-520 Pro support vobsubs ?