Standalone DVD Player for DivX

[cryse]

hi,

are there any commercial hardware players for "alternative" codecs like DivX available or are there projects/tutorials on the net to build one by yourself?

thx
*bored* cryse

[Mark Madness]

They don't exist. Warner Brothers is trying to develop an MPEG-4 DVD player as a cheaper route of creating hi-def movies while still using red laser and normal DVD discs as opposed to the blu-ray discs. I doubt it will support DivX.

[Mac Sidewinder]

From doom9 website today:

KISS has announced that it will use Sigma's latest decoder chip in their upcoming DVD players. These players will be capable to play MPEG-4 (including DivX - if it's MPEG-4 compatible so count DivX3 out), MP3 audio and WMA audio. The players will also have an internal harddisk for direct video and audio file storage, progressive video output and HDTV output.

Read here about it: http://www.kiss-technology.com/news/content.asp?id=44

Sounds pretty good.

Mac

[khp]

AFAIK The KISS player is based on the SigmaDesigns decoder chip, which to the best of my knowledge isn't compatiple with all the mpeg-4 features in divx5 pro.

[cryse]

thx...

... I can wait

cryse *stillbored*

[cryse]

hi again

...seems as if KiSS has presented its DVD DP-450 some time ago. According to golem.de [1] it's possible to handle DivX 4.02 and higher (including 5.x???).

Does anyone know more?

It's available for € 400 meanwhile - nevertheless I think I'll wait some time...

[1] http://www.golem.de/0209/21564.html

[magnumx]

OK Here's all I know. The KISS DP-450 doesn't have the Sigma Designs EM8500 chip but a modified version of it (better).
It can play DivX Videos encoded with DivX version 4.02 and above, without the QPEL and GMC options (the rest are OK: B-Frames, etc). Since it is complaint with MPEG4 SIMPLE AND ADVANCED SIMPLE PROFILES, it will probably be compatible with XviD too.
The firmware of the player is updateable so we could see full compatibility in the future.
But for now, no 3.11: But at least it's better than what we have now (nothing). One last thing, the Sigma/XviD issue has nothing to do with this chip.


Well, the tech-specs (divx complaint aside) are quite good for a DVD player: Progressive Scan, 96KHz Audio, Integrated DD Decoder, etc. Am I right about this??? How much are we paying for the DivX thing??
Full Specs are:

DVD-VIDEO/MPEG4/DivX-XviD/VCD/SVCD/HDCD/CD/MP3/WMA/CD-RW/DVD-Rw
Superbit (TM) DVD
JPEG Picture CD viewing
Kodak Picture CD
Progressive Scan Video Out
Screen menu
PAL & NTSC
Integrated Dolby Digital Decoder, DTS, MPEG AUDIO 5.1 & HDCD
24 BIT / 96 Khz PCM AUDIO
4:3 PanScan, 4:3 Letter Box, and 16:9 Widescreen
audio RCA
Optical / Coaxial S/PDIF
SCART Conector with RGB
S-Video OUT
Composite Video Output
Region Free


About the 400 euros, maybe its woth it (my view)

[cryse]

hmm... sure - sounds interesting! Everything in... but still expensive to my mind!
There are rumors that Yamakawa is working on a "low budget" version using the same board and chip for about € 270! [1]

In addition I think I'll study tests after the introduction period first before I decide to get one...

[1] http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/vza-03.09.02-000/ (German)