Still Testing DivX

I've been doing some more tests on DivX since my blog last week vis-a-vis my Philips DVDR3455H Personal Video Recorder. I mentioned last time that the DivX Encoder can merge multiple DivX files onto a single large DivX file with menus. That one apparently works with the PC-based DivX Player. But when I burnt the resulting merged file onto a DVD-R and played it on my Philips player, it would only play the first section (that corresponds to the first DivX file) and does not even display the menu. It then stops when it reaches the section when it is supposed to skip to the next chapter. :(

However, if I just burn the multiple DivX files onto a DVD-R disc and plop it into the Philips player, then choose the first DivX file, the player would play it to the end then automatically move to the next DivX file. There is a noticeable pause of about 2 seconds as it switches to the next DivX file. But at least, it does not hang unlike with the merged file.

I also noticed that for some strange reason, my Philips DVDR Recorder/Player will not play DivX files when it is stored on a flash drive (the Philips Player has a USB port). I say its strange because the player can handle JPG files whethers its from a DVD/CD disc or from a USB flash drive. Same with MP3 files (yes, its also an MP3 player!). The player does not distinguish the media source as long as it recognizes the file format. And that makes a lot of sense. Which makes me wonder why it does not treat DivX files in the same way. It displays DivX files in its menu list when you put it in as a DVD, but not when its on the flash drive.

The DivX Encoder does not gracefully handle encoding of damaged files. I have a pirated DVD disc of Sunshine which seem to have some bad sectors. My regular Pioneer DVD Player skips and freezes when it reaches that part of the movie. When I dragged-and-dropped the VOB file to the DivX Encoder, it chugs along fine at first, then hangs at around 14% encoding. Even more strangely, the same DVD disc seem to play ok with the Philips Recorder/Player! It also plays ok on my PC's DVD Drive and using the PC-based DVD player software that came with the drive.