hmm.. i got this message when i tried to open the movie in Mpeg modifier OpenDML AVIs aren't currently supported.
Does that app work on Mac? If not does anyone know a solution for Mac? I have one file and I am sure the pixels thing is the problem with it.
Sorry, The utility does not support OPENDML, maybe in the future and I don't know what you can with MAC, except if it is an option maybe somehow get it into a Windows environment, fix it and bring it back to the MAC
Well, you can do that. But if you have the capability to create a DVD that would be my choice. You probable will get better quality and it will take shorter time
I just ordered this player from Amazon, and was wondering if anyone can provide a synopsys of the mods I should perform on this player upon arrival. I'm quite looking forward to playing DivX. Thanks
The only 2 that I know of are the region free trick with the remote and upgrading the firmware (that entails downloading the firmware and pdf document about how to install it to your dvd player). These 2 should make you region free and up to date on video codecs.
Hey, what is everyone using to make their divx movies? Dr. Divx, AutoGK, Gordian Knot, or what? How many 2hr movies can you guys cram on one dvd-r and what kind of quality is it? I just used Dr. Divx to copy a movie but this whole subtitle thing is weird to me. Is there an easy program that can take the subs from the dvd rip (I use shrink 3.2 mostly and dvddycrypter on tough movies)? I'm loving the player so far but I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to making divx and xvid. What's your advice?
Hello everybody, I have been following this thread since it was created. I read and I see that this product is really good but I am here today to ask for your assistance and advice: I was about to pass the order for the unit at best buy but I saw that the tv set I have at home (a combo tv & VCR by Panasonic) does not have any other input/output other than the normal antenna input and a Video - Audio in (the RCA jacks). Do you guys know whether it will be possible for me to connect the dvp642 to this tv unit? Thanks a lot to all of you and have a great week end. Hope to have some input from you soon! Alba2
Recent purchased (from Target in Washington State) the 642/37 model. From what I can tell, they are all pretty much the same hardware as you can "change" one model into another. Using the (while the tray is open, can press "STOP" on remote for 2 seconds) 5+6+9+[ok] and then up/down and [ok] a 2nd time. Be warned this will cause the unit to come up in PAL mode if you have picked a PAL model. I luckily have a Sony wide screen projector that supports all formats (NTSC/PAL/HDTV/PC-VGA) so I was able to get it back to the 642/37 "model". Also be warned that changing the model (which might be required if you perform an update, I've heard rumors about the "wrong" model comming up after updating the firmware) your players unique "VOD" registration number (Divx Video On Demand) changes. If you have purchased a Divx VOD movie, it is locked to the VOD number and will be unplayable after changing. Be warned!!! VOD might cause problems. It is recommended that you go into the video setup and change the video output to Multi (if you have a dual mode NTSC/PAL monitor/tv). If you only have NTSC then leave at NTSC. Having your monitor/projector display the video content "natively" instead of converting inside the player should always look better -- as I have no PAL DVDs, I couldn't tell you. But when I used my 642/37 to play a NTSC DVD (region 1) (and forced the output to PAL via the Video Setup Page)... the PAL output had noticable scaling artifacts (not bad, but noticable). I suspect PAL -> NTSC will be the same. If you need another region, don't change the player "model" (642/xx) -- instead use (with tray open, can press "STOP" on remote for 2 seconds to open remotely) 7+8+9+[ok]+(region code, 1-8 or 0 for all). Setting the Region code to "0" doesn't seem to cause problems with DVDs (like the StarWars DVDs) that use RCE (Region Code Enhancment, additional "copy-protection" above CSS). My unit came with the latest (as of now) firmware, "VER0531" and it seems to work as advertised. Plays DVD, MP3's, MPEG1 (.MPG) files, etc. As for Divx, it plays those just fine AS-LONG-AS the audio track is either MP3 (VBR or CBR seems to work) or AC3, no other format is supported. PCM (uncompressed) wave files will not play, which is strange but I've heard that MP3 "compressed" data inside a ".WAV" file will. I've noticed ONLY major thing (and I don't know how to get ahold of Phillips to report this) that is wrong (a bug that I've noticed, I can't believe I am the only one that has noticed!!!). The "Standards" for aspect ratio playback on DVD players (MPEG2) is fairly straight forward (a little confusing, but makes sense) 4:3 content on 4:3 tv plays back unchanged 4:3 content on 16:9 tv can play back unchanged or matted (on left&right) depending on player and stream flags 16:9 content on 4:3 tv must be matted (top&bottom) unless the content is flaged as Pan&Scan-able (with crop regions,) and then it is cropped (loose some of the picture from the left&right) -- Many DVD menu's take advantage of this option (play Planet of the Apes on 4:3 with video setup for 4:3 and ditto for 16:9 tv/video setup) 16:9 content on 16:9 is played back unaltered... This is what happens for DVD MPEG2 and the 642/37 w/ firmware "VER0531". Now for Divx, there is no support for real-time cropping (left/right). However if the content is 16:9, the 642/37 player will ALWAYS matte (top&bottom) the output, EVEN if the VIDEO SETUP is setup for 16:9... Basically the Divx portion of the decoder assumes you have a 4:3 TV. I am forced to "crop&scale" (top/bottom) the Divx 16:9 output (as if it was 4:3) in the projector ... to fix the aspect ratio!!! but the quality sucks.. The only workaround is to use (for example) Dr. Divx to encode a 16:9 source (a 720x480 AVI, VOB, etc where the unaltered content looks stretched on normal 4:3 TV) and create a Divx/MPEG4 AVI file with the headers lying and saying the content is 4:3 (pixel width to height ratio is 0.9 instead of 1.2). Then the Divx decoder inside the Phillips 642/37 VER0531 with decode the AVI file and NOT matte the content and it looks perfect and much higher quality on my 16:9 projector. I know this is wordy, but man, this IS a technical bug and if I am the first to notice this... WOW! --Doug
About OpenDML (Avi files 2GB+) ... The Divx player doesn't support AVI files larger than 2GB, however the Windows Media player (I use version 9) WILL play back Divx/MPEG4/XviD files in OpenDML no problem. Adobe Premiere 6.5 (and 6.0 I think) will import OpenDML AVI files too. As the Divx Player doesn't support 2GB+ AVI's ... the Phillips 642/37 VER0531 doesn't either.. You will have to burn this kind of file to a DVD+R/+RW/-R/-RW in order to have files that big! But a typical Divx/MPEG4 movie should be btween 800MB and 1.2GB in size anyways (2-channel MP3 ~112kbps VBR) anyways (meaning about 4 movies per DVD). You will be much closer to the 2GB limit (perhaps break it) when using an AC3 audio stream inside the AVI file. So be careful not to break the 2GB barrier or else the 642/37 will not play it as well as the "Divx" player (which is one way of testing before burning). This is all assuming you encode the video at ~900-1100kbps and a typical movie length of ~2hrs. Imagine stringing several DVDs (like the extended version of Lord of the Rings movies) into a single Divx file so you don't have to swap disc and pause during the playback. You'll have to MP3 the audio or scale the video down from the "720xwhatever cropped" to maintain decent quality! A "workaround" that is decent, (taking the extended versions of the Lord of the Ring movies, Gathering/ Two Towers/ Return of the King [not out yet]) on TWO files. (FILE1.AVI, FILE2.AVI) and the player MIGHT (haven't tested it) auto-play both back-to-back. I know the player auto-plays the first movie in the directory!!! --Doug
Hmm.. after closer reading page 8 of this thread... came across MPEG4Modifier.exe ... I think I see what is going on here... the output from (what I am using) Dr.Dixv always creates "square" pixels .... which means the target output is designed primarily for VGA. 4:3 NTSC uses a Pixel Ratio (width/height) of 0.9 16:9 NTSC uses a Pixel Ratio of 1.2 VGA (like 1024x768 or 640x480) uses a PR of 1 (square) I am not 100% sure about the PR for PAL however I can calculate it, just like one can calculate 4:3 NTSC the screen is physically 4:3 (like 8" wide, 6" tall, 10" diagonal). For those that understand what the overscan region is, the typically accepted minimum overscan is ~2%. So a 720x480 (D1/DV/MPEG2,etc) NTSC digital signal, only 704x480 is ever really seen (which is why some capture cards support capturing 704x480 and save about 2% on disk space -- they just fill (matte) in 8 pixel in black on the left and right to achieve the needed 720 pixel count). "Effective" width is based on the Pixel Ratio (PR), so: (720x0.9)/480 = 1.35 (which is ~2% [overscan] higher than what it should be 4/3=1.33) 1.35-0.02=1.33 Take "WideScreen" 16:9 (720x1.2)/480 = 1.8 (minus 0.02 [~2%]) =1.78 (16/9=1.77) Which is why pixel ratio is somewhat important to understand. I will experiment and use Dr.Divx to make a "1:1" (convert to "Square" pixel, assuming source is "square") copy of a 16:9 source and change the AVI headers with this tool back to NTSC 16:9. (and test on Phillips) Wish me luck! --Doug
Hi all. First time poster - go easy on me Yesterday I purchased the Euro eqivalent of the 642 (the dvp-630 - Single scart and PAL prog. only, apparently). Having 'tried' out a Yamada6600 and a KiSS DP-1000 (and being seriously unimpressed) I opted for the 630. Though it's not as feature packed as other players, it does seem better at doing it's stuff (i.e. playing DivXs and DVDs) The first negative thing I came across, and pretty much the only serious bug for me, was the aspect ratio quirkiness. 4:3 source DivXs are expanded (full width, 2/3 height on my WS TV) 1.33:1 source are shown correct(ish) width but looks compressed vertically. 2.35:1 source are shown correct(ish) width, but looks horribly compressed vertically. I'm using my TV to expand the picture back to what it should be, but at a loss of resolution. From Doug's posting it seems that I'm not alone with this problem, but how can we put pressure on Philips to fix this? The Yamada I tried seemed to have no problems with this.
I found out that the history of "MPEG4" (Divx/Xvid) is pretty much assuming that the pixel is square width to height 1:1. To understand the relationship between pixel size and aspect ratio... Quicky math lesson: PR = (Aspect Width / Aspect Height) / (Width in pixels / Height in pixels) -or- PR = (4/3) / (720/480) (=0.88888, rounded to the "0.9") PR = (16/9) / (720/480) ( =1.185185, rounded to "1.2") a PR of 0.9 is typical for 4:3 NTSC a PR of 1.2 is typical for 16:9 NTSC The numbers will always be slightly below by ~2% .. This is related to the whole overscan/underscan ... CRT ... history *thing*.. (aka on typical CRT display device, you will *at least* NOT see ~2% of the horizontal picture, off the edge of the screen)... 4:3 NTSC PR 0.9 = 0.88888 * 1.02 (add ~2%) 16:9 NTSC PR 1.2 = 1.1851 * 1.02 (add ~2%) Not sure what the overscan percentage is for PAL but I think it is about the same. (same math can be done for PAL or ANY format, High Definition anyone?) The "Divx" codec (decoder) for PC, and Divx hardware (like 642/37) is "hard coded" to assume all MPEG4 streams are 1:1 (or PR of 1) I know nothing about the Xvid codec (decoder) Divx always plays back AVI's with FOURCC's for XVID even tho I *THOUGHT* I went in and disabled it.. I will have to uninstall or disable the Divx PC codec to see if the Xvid PC codec (decoder) supports more than a fixed PR of 1. As the codec encoder settings supports encoding either the aspect ratio (16:9) or pixel ratio (1.2 [:1])... The decoder might handle it, but I don't think so as the encoder settings mention that it is the responsibility of the player to read the AR/PR embedded in the stream and deal with it correctly. I don't know of ANYTHING that supports the aspect ratio flag (ONLY the Xvid codec allows you to embed this information). Sooo... what I have done is written a spread sheet (using OpenOffice) that you can plug in the source video size. (720x480) and the "source" ratio (as you want to interpet it) and how much you want to crop it and recalculates what you should scale it to. I've built in round-to-nearest-16 (and 8) routines... I'm working on it and it works.. For example. Source 740x480 (that really is 16:9, Pixel ratio of about ~1.2:1) and interpet it as 4:3 (~0.9:1), crop top (56) and bottom (60) (total 116). Calculate the effect source ratio (~2.35:1) .... etc... I'm working it out... The output from the above example says to crop 740x480 to 720x364 and then scale to 720x416... What you are doing is ignoring the fact that the source is 16:9 and really wanting to pretend it is 4:3 so that when it plays back it is "stretched" on 4:3 (but plays perfect on 16:9 TV).. Scaling to 720x416 is because at that point the pixel is now Square (1:1) ... Divx will change the 1:1 pixel ratio back to 0.9:1 (= 4:3 NTSC) and add the black matte during play back. Optionally I've allow a scale width to option... So if I want the width to 640 .. it will figure out the correct height (rounded to nearest 16 or 8). So can Phillips fix it? MPEG2 DVD players must support 4:3 and 16:9. MPEG4 is too new and until aspect ratio / pixel size address in the *standards* .. --Doug
20. October 2004 @ 20:15 I'm unable to get my 642/17 to display any subtitles. I've been searching through the threads, but can't find the info I need. I can't get my DVD player to read any types of subs files. It seems to decode all sorts of MPEG, DivX movies properly, but I can't get any subs to show. After I flashed the memory using the update on PHILIPS website, at least the subs files have a little icon in the menu view, but if I click on the subtitles button on remote, it indicates that the function is not valid. I've tried renaming movie and sub files so that they're short and identical. I've tried DVD +R CD R CD RW DVD RW . . . always same result. Finally spoke with people at Philips support site in Canada today. They were pretty much no help. They said they have no idea if the subs are supposed to work. They did tell me that the font has to be a 'latin' script. Does anyone know how to check what script is used for subs in .SRT file? Is it possible to convert these subs files so that they'll work?? Any advice greatly appreciated, and if I've missed the appropriate thread, I apologize.
I reported the DivX/Xvid aspect ratio issue to Philips. This was the response I received.... ------------------- --------------- Doesn't sound too promising if no-one has reported the issue before. I intend to collect as much info as I can which I'll pass onto Philips. If I could suggest that anyone who's experiencing problems with incorrect aspect ratios on their 630/642s log a call with their relevant Philips support site. Any other suggestions?
About the subtitle thing... place your ".srt" (or the other formats also supported) into the same directory as the AVI... highlight the file in the menu and press the sub-title button and the screen (at the top) should have a message to the effect of "Dixv subtitle selected" or something to that effect. Also I have had SubRip put wierd timecodes in the file... I turned on subtitles and they started playing during the credits. It was because I IFO's the source VOB's into a single VOB and the subtitle stream got messed up also! Hopefully this works for you, it worked for me! --Doug
About reporting the pixel ratio issue to Phillips.. I've tried to send information via a website "comment" field. (no direct email message) What email address did you use? I'll explain what simplified technical things I have found out... However, the Divx code basically mattes the source file (assuming a square pixel) so the overall aspect ratio is 4:3... Remember this: NTSC 4:3 PR is 0.9 so (720*0.9) / (480 * 1.02) = 4/3 (1.02 is the overscan correction) Picking on a nice square pixel size 640x480 source... say it is cropped (because the source was 16:9) to 640x360 ... the divx software tries to evenly add black bars to top and bottom.. (pad back to 640x480)... It does this because if you take 640/360 you get 1.7777 (16:9) and it should be 1.33333333 (4:3) ... so padding (matting) required... (side note) Perhaps!!! (never tried it) if the ratio was taller than wider, say 480x480 ... 480/480 = 1.000 so it needs padding left and right to make the output 640x480... At the last moment, the video hardware (in the 642) creates a NTSC signal (D1 720x480)... from the 640x480 ... or whatever it is... you can have a 720x480 source file, but it will scale it to 720x540 (remember square pixel is the way divx works) 720/540 =1.3333 (4:3) The Divx size of the hardware may not support scaling. But since the DVD/MPEG2 can do some of what is needed, however that side understands that 720x480 can be 4:3 (0.9) or 16:9 (1.2) source. --Doug
(semi-joking) perhaps the solution is to just purchase a hacked XBox with EvolutionX and the XboxMediaCenter applications. The other hardware I've also looked at was Liteon's LVD-2010 but it isn't available in the USA or perhaps anywhere, it might be a model that got "kilt" (killed aka never made it to production) aside from a just a few. --Doug
Hi everyone, I have read all the replies in this thread, and I wanted to ask someone, if my divx movies which have vbr mp3 tracks on them, will they play fine? I read in one of the posts that there were issues. Secondly, when you put more than one movie on a dvd-r disc, how do you select which movie to play i.e. when the disc loads, I assume the player will automatically play the first movie listed alphabetically, so how do tell it to play the next movie or the one after that? Third, in some of the posts on this thread, people have mentioned that dvd-r do not play but dvd+r will? What is the final verdict on that because the posts kind a went back and forth on that issue? Thanks for the help.
