[OT] - DVD Player

[Amadeus W. M.]

On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 14:57:56 -0700, John Wendel wrote:

> Amadeus W. M. wrote:
>>>I have a Phillips 642 ( US $65.00 ) that plays many but not all DIVX 
>>>files. If won't play Qpel encoded files (whatever that is). It also 
>>>won't play HDTV resolution encodes. I still like it a lot.
>>>
>> 
>> 
>> I have the exact same model, and it does play divx files made (probably)
>> in windows, but doesn't play ANY of the files I made with
>> mencoder/transcode. I tried various codecs, divx, xvid, divx5, etc. to no
>> avail. I even called Philips, and they said if I thought there was
>> something wrong with the player, take it to a certified repair shop, where
>> I would have had to pay $100 only to have it looked at (it was ~$70 new).
>> The tech said the files must be made with some (obviously non-linux)
>> software I never heard of using some obscure option (something about home
>> or home theater). It might just be that I'm missing some options in
>> mencoder. Do you have any experience with this?
>> 
>> Of course, it does play DVDs, even my transcode backups.
>> 
>> 
> 
> No Windows here, so I use mencoder on an FC3 box for video stuff. I use 
> a locally compiled version of mplayer/mencoder (whatever the latest 
> release is).
> 
> Here's a little 2 line script that I usually use with mencoder that 
> works for me.
> 
> mencoder $1.avi -sub $1.srt -ovc lavc -lavcopts \
> 
>    vcodec=mpeg4:keyint=100:vbitrate=1000:vb_strategy=1:vpass=1 -oac copy
> 
> mencoder $1.avi -sub $1.srt -ovc lavc -lavcopts \
> 
>    vcodec=mpeg4:keyint=100:vbitrate=1000:vb_strategy=1:vpass=2 -oac copy
> 

I use similar things, except for vb_strategy, and keyint. The man page
does say that

	For  a  strict  MPEG-1/2/4 compliance this would have to be <=132.

So maybe these will make a difference. If it does, this would be a clear
case of too many options. Even if I learned the man page by heart, I'd
still wouldn't know which precise option makes the file readable by my
hardware player. 


> I'm not too hot with the millions of mencoder options, but the last 
> video I made used the commands above to add hard subtitles to a video. I 
> also use this to lower the video bitrate (makes it smaller).
> 
> The resulting videos play fine on my Phillips.
> 
> You might take a look at http://videohelp.com. Lots of info (too much). 
> Sorry I can't be of more help.
> 
> John

Thanks, you've been of great help already!