DVD + DivX player £25 delivered

Stefarno

I got the Eltax DV-153 from ebuyer last year, and on that basis I strongly recommend the DV-154.

Never had a single problem with it, and yet to encounter a file it won't play, be it dvix, xvid or whatever. And it really it super small, about half the size of normal DVD players.

Hazzanet

sbutton wrote: »

I bought a Philips DIVX player about a year ago from France, and the quality of the DIVX movies that I've downloaded has been pretty useless. However, it can't be the source files as if I use divx-to-DVD converter and burn them to DVD they play fine (although at probably the equivalent of SVHS quality rather than full DVD)

It's particularly when the shots are "panning", which I guess means a lot of the picture is changing. The picture really jitters. These movies are almost unwatchable and make my wife feel sick they are so bad (literally).

Perhaps it's just my Philips player?? Perhaps it doesn't have a powerful enough CODEC chip??? Perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, just wanted to share my experience of DIVX and see if anyone has suggestions.

I thought that France used SECAM ... which might be part of the problem?

cwep2

porkytwo wrote: »

Would 1 of these "players" as in Kazuki DVD - 7400x be any good for me (grumpy old man) All I want to do is - copy my camcorder tapes to dvd, same with some VHS tapes & would like to transfer some old cassette tapes to DVD & of course be able to play any CDs that family may buy me for presents, the type that have Telegraph & Daily Mail written on them. Was in Comet & Currys today With a headache. Any suggestions would be very much appreciate Terry

Not sure any of these is a DVD recorder (which is what you would need to transfer other media to DVD), you are best of looking for a different product.

I have used a Yamada 6700 (although Umax and Chili are same manufacturer) for two years and almost worn it out. DivX and Xvid are pretty much the same thing (as is Mpeg4) essentially using the same compression although standards have not been set as yet. DivX is a proprietry and licensed format, XviD is the free for all (and just as good) alternative and you will struggle to find a player that plays DivX and not XviD or vice versa. MP4/Mpeg4 is a more generic term to describe this generation of compression of which DivX and XviD are both subsets. An avi file can be almost anything, but nowdays most you find are XviD but it can be almost anything so do not assume an avi file can be played on this sort of player. As mentioned standards have not been agreed so some future proofing is worthwhile.

One of the problems with some players is jerkiness with XviD files that have a "packed bitstream", my Yamada could have it's firmware updated to deal with these sorts of files, but this may have been the cause of the problems mentioned in a previous post. You can get rid of the packed bitstream without reencoding using a small program called MPEG4 modifier so this is not too much of a headache as long as you know about the issue. This does show some of the issues with standardisation though, some have PBS, some don't. With all these encoded files the player has to do more work to decode the files and show them on screen so you do get variable results on different players depending on how good their chip is. A modern PC will have no problem, but a computer CPU creates a lot of heat and normally has a noisy fan which you don't want on a DVD player, and the CPU costs a lot, not something you can afford on a £25 DVD player so corners are cut on some models. This means the same file can be 'blocky' or jerky on one player and fine on another, so views from other users is useful.

Hard disk or wifi XviD players are probably the way forward, but more expensive technology at the moment. It is worth thinking about storage costs as well, £60 for a 250GB hard drive is a lot compared with 10p per 4.7GB on a DVD-R so if you have a lot of data to save a DVD/XviD player is quite useful. I know you can probably get cheaper HDDs but you get the point. Also I have found to my expense cheap DVD-Rs to be a false economy if the data is not reliable 6 months later, but even so I think good quality DVD-Rs are cheaper than a hard drive for storing a lot of stuff (although less convenient/immediately accessible) and so having a player that plays them on your preferred storage medium is ideal it really depends on the volumes of data and your own preference.

I know this is a money saving site, but many of these are very cheap for a DVD player, and if you are only starting to use XviDs almost any of them will be a good introduction to what is possible. If you decide you need the HD or better outputs, or upgradable firmware at a later date then you can probably buy a more capable player in the future (which will probably cost less than the one you buy now!!)

Clive

jonifen

simonabc wrote: »

It is the Umax Kazuki DVD-2700X MPEG4/DivX/DVD Player

http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=2087

Seems like a good deal to me, has anyone purchased this product and has anyone bought from SVP before?

I bought my Mum one of those, and tested it myself before passing it on (basically to RMA it myself if any problems), and it really is quite good... especially for the price tag that comes with it (£27 + P&P). It doesn't have a screen on the unit itself but the onscreen display is pretty clear and useful.

I've bought numerous times from SVP. Their customer service dept is good, and on the one occasion my order was short, I called them up, they were very apologetic and I received the rest of the order within 2 days which is very good in my opinion.

jowie

IanWorthington wrote: »

This year, with availability of disks f serious capacity at a reasonable price, I've finally done the same with all our DVDs. Its taken 1.5TB: 3 x 500GB disks. I chose not to compress to divx due to the time this would take and the loss of quality and features.

Really? So you've ripped everything from VOB files and changed them into MPEG-2/AC3 muxed files? Interesting... On what do you play them?

Sid_Harper

davery83 wrote: »

If you're gonna buy one and not expect any CS then its a great deal, but beware if the player goes wrong you'll be in for a very long drawn out process of getting a replacement or any money back!

I completely agree I've had the same experience with Pixmania and the fact all their stuff is sold under French law, and that they really do NOT give a stuff about customer service, means there is no way I would buy anything from them ever again.

About 40 calls to customer service (which you hold for ages on an 0870 number) and you are promised someone will call back, and they just quite simply don't bother. Even if you have someone's name, they don't care!

Peterj_3

My little portable DVD player broke last year & I bought a new one from ALDI (£65 if I remember).
On the box it was written DVD, MP3.... MPEG but absolutly no other information on the box or in the instructions.

Was very surprised then when I attempted with a DIVX and it worked fine. (Also connects to a TV with no probs)

Now compress all movies to DIVX and store 3 per DVD - cuts down clutter when traveling.

If I were buying a fixed box now I'd get one that records DVD's as well - saw one that records DVD & reads DIVX (did not see if it recorded DIVX) for about £50 - but was in France.

NB the french TV system is SECAM but all DVD players output in PAL (french televisons are multistandard unlike UK ones - if you are ever thinking of traveling on the continent its better to buy over there).

Agrajag

astralbee wrote: »

SOME ADVICE:
[*]Some people questioned the quality of DivX movies. It is true that the quality does vary a little, but it is the person who encodes the video who makes choices that weigh file size with quality of picture. So you can't exactly download someone else's encoded movie and complain about the quality. Encode your own movies, or find someone who does them better. When the picture is very dark (for example, a movie scene set at night) you can notice the compression more because less shades of black are used; but on standard TV equipment you will be hard pressed to notice a difference between DVD and DivX in most instances.

DivX is great. You can fit an average of 6 movies per disk, and usually fit an entire season of a TV show averaging 45minutes per episode accross 2 disks. Just make sure you are not infringing copyright, of course.


Dar.

Dar. Which software do you use to encode your DVDs?
I have tried Auto GordianKnot, but have come across sound sync issues. Is there anything you would recommend?

Neal

simonabc

simonabc wrote: »

I have found one that has DivX and XVid capabilty aswell as being multi-region all for just £30.54 delivered!

It is the Umax Kazuki DVD-2700X MPEG4/DivX/DVD Player

http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=2087

Seems like a good deal to me, has anyone purchased this product and has anyone bought from SVP before?

Is this the cheapest Multi-Region, DivX and Xvid player?

Si

So are we all agreed that mine is the best deal with the best features with good customer service? :rotfl:

swapnilz

IanWorthington wrote: »

If only... My wife and I travel internationally at lot for long periods of time. Music and videos used to be taken out of their cases and put in quality Caselogic storage, but it get heavier and heavier, so a few years ago I bit the bullet and ripped all our CDs to mp3.

This year, with availability of disks f serious capacity at a reasonable price, I've finally done the same with all our DVDs. Its taken 1.5TB: 3 x 500GB disks. I chose not to compress to divx due to the time this would take and the loss of quality and features.

ian

hi what r disks f where does one get them
does one need a special writer to write on them
thanks