I recorded our appearance on Kabuhayang Swak na Swak the other day. Hey, its not everyday that one gets featured in a major TV channel. Ok, ok, so it was on a Sunday morning at 7am. But quite surprisingly, a few people whom I know saw it, and several interested prospects txt-ed us to know more about the product.
I used my old Philips DVD Recorder to save the show for posterity. The Philips recorder saves its recordings onto its internal hard drive. It does allow you to burn it into removable media as a regular DVD using its burn capability. Since my objective is to upload the video to YouTube, that got me thinking -- how do I convert DVD to a format supported by YouTube?
YouTube supports the major formats like MPEG, Quicktive (.mov), AVI, and Windows Media Video. Unfortunately, the only DVD converter I know is the DivX Converter. And YouTube does not support .divx. I've previously relied on my tech guys to convert DVD music video to WMV for Fliptunes. But now, it looks like I have to figure out how to do this on my own. As usual, first stop is Google!
My search led me to a free software called bitRipper. My search highlighted the word FREE when I searched for a converter, and bitRipper appeared at the top of the list. The installer file is small enough and the website looks very professional. So I installed it on my home PC and ripped the DVD that my Philips recorder burned.
bitRipper worked quickly on the DVD. Its a no fuss, no nonsense program. I did not really tinker with the settings options anymore and just used the default. In a few minutes, I got a 180mb AVI version of the 1-hour DVD content.
Now, obviously, I can't upload the entire show since a large part of it is irrelevant and it contains several commercials. So I needed another program to cut it down to just the portion that I needed (our segment!). I used another free video editing program called Avidemux. Just like bitRipper, its a no-frills program which does what its supposed to do very well. In a matter of minutes, I chopped down the file to just 20MB and just contains our segment. Then off it goes to YouTube!
A strange note -- the day after I did this, my monitor resolution went haywire. The usual 1440x900 widescreen format disappeared. In place are the usual resolutions which are meant more for 4:3 monitors. I tried reinstalling the video drivers to no avail. Finally in desperation, I uninstalled bitRipper. After a reboot, my screen was back to 1440x900. I'm not really sure what happened. I won't categorically say that it was bitRipper that caused the problem as it was working fine after my ripping session. The problem only cropped up after the reboot.
Showing posts with label philips dvdr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label philips dvdr. Show all posts
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Sunday, July 26, 2009
HDMI Output Does Look Better Than Component Video Output
Since my new Philips DVP5996k player supports HDMI output, I had to test and determine for myself if indeed HDMI upscaling to 1080p results to clearer video. From what the Link Worth projector sales man told me, my Mitsubishi home theater projector can display up to 1080i using component video. So I've always assumed that HDMI output would not be that much different if your player is not really running in Blu Ray format. After all, the scanlines produced by standard DVD discs are way below even the "regular" HD of 720p. So software interpolation to increase the number of lines to 1080p is not that big a deal.
Well, after staring at the screen for several minutes watching my downloaded Heroes Season 3 divx files, I can say that there is indeed a difference! Its not exactly as evident as moving from the world of VHS to DVD, but it is noticeable. The HDMI output is slightly much better than the component video output.
What I did was connect the Philips DVP5996k to our Samsung Series 5 LCD TV via both HDMI and component video. Then while the movie was playing, I would freeze a scene; toggle between HDMI and component video source; and try to detect the difference. I asked Cols to also make a comment without telling her what I'm experimenting on, and she also noted that the HDMI version had a bit more detail than the component video one.
I also read some time ago that HDMI only carry video signals. I guess that must have been an old spec of HDMI, as the one that came with my player already carried audio as well. At first, I didn't know what it meant when it asked me on the setup screen of Philips whether I want to enable audio on the HDMI. So I chose 'yes'. Then for some time, I couldn't figure out why the audio of the shows I was watching seem to have an echo. Later, I realized it was because the audio was being sent to the Samsung LCD TV and playing on its built-in speakers, while at the same time, the Yamaha A/V Receiver was also playing back the same audio. So the speakers at close proximity to each other caused the really weird sound effect. I disabled audio on the HDMI so that it will just pass video signals to the LCD TV and play its audio via digital coaxial cable to the Yamaha receiver and everything was good.
Unlocking Region Code with Philips DVD Player
Cols has been telling me the past couple of days that our brand new Philips DVP5996k player does not play our original DVD's. I didn't get to test it until today. I popped in my X-Men Trilogy original DVD and, indeed, it complained of incompatible region. Seems that this unit is region-locked. Very strange since practically no DVD player sold today still follow the antiquated copyright-protection of DVD players based on "regions".
I called Western Appliance Greenhills and talked to their Philips guy. He walked me through the process of removing the region lock by hitting some secret buttons. I don't know if this will work for all Philips DVD players, but this was the sequence for my DVP5996k:
- Open the tray
- Click the setup button on the remote control
- Go to preferences
- Type 138931 on the keypad (The screen displays the current region where the player is locked)
- Use the up/down arrow key to select Region 0 to open it for all regions
That's it! After that, it happily played all my original Region 1 discs.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Really Cheap HDMI Cables from CD-R King
We recently deployed a digital signage at our store using a Sharp 32" LCD and my old Philips DVP-5166k DVD player. I used the DVP-5166k because it supports USB video playback and has a feature to infinitely loop a file or folder. Since the signage needs to keep repeating a video clip throughout the day, I did not want to use a regular DVD disc and risk wearing out the spinning mechanism. At least with USB, there are no moving parts to wear-and-tear.
So our master bedroom has been without a DVD player for more than a week. I had to contend plugging our Sony portable DVD player via regular composite video to the Samsung LCD, and well, its not really a fantastic solution. I decided to go to Western Appliance Greenhills today to get a new player -- the DVP-5996K. Its an "upgrade" from the old 5166k and has the ff. new features:
I don't really care much about the latter 2 features. Its more of the HDMI output that I've been intrigued with. Since our Samsung is Full HD 1080p capable, I felt that I wasn't maximizing it with a low-end player connected via standard component video. Granted that even though this is not a Blu-ray player, I thought the HDMI upscaling would at least result to better output than regular component connections.
Since the player did not come with HDMI cables, I went to nearby Virra Mall's CD-R king to get one. Original Sony HDMI cables at appliance stores run for around Php3k. Amazingly, the 3 meter HDMI cable at CD-R only costs Php300. I did some Google research prior to buying it and nobody seem to have any complaints about it. (I was actually looking for just 2 meters, but there were no stocks available.)
When I plugged the player at home and connected it to the Samsung using the el-cheapo CD-R King HDMI cable, it worked perfectly fine. I played the Pixar Shorts for the kids and it looked pretty sharp. Although to be honest, I really cannot tell much the difference between upscaled 1080p vs. progressive scan on regular component video connectors.
So our master bedroom has been without a DVD player for more than a week. I had to contend plugging our Sony portable DVD player via regular composite video to the Samsung LCD, and well, its not really a fantastic solution. I decided to go to Western Appliance Greenhills today to get a new player -- the DVP-5996K. Its an "upgrade" from the old 5166k and has the ff. new features:
- HDMI output with 1080p upscaling
- Support for Microsoft Windows Media WMA/WMV formats
- Ripping of audio CD to MP3
I don't really care much about the latter 2 features. Its more of the HDMI output that I've been intrigued with. Since our Samsung is Full HD 1080p capable, I felt that I wasn't maximizing it with a low-end player connected via standard component video. Granted that even though this is not a Blu-ray player, I thought the HDMI upscaling would at least result to better output than regular component connections.
Since the player did not come with HDMI cables, I went to nearby Virra Mall's CD-R king to get one. Original Sony HDMI cables at appliance stores run for around Php3k. Amazingly, the 3 meter HDMI cable at CD-R only costs Php300. I did some Google research prior to buying it and nobody seem to have any complaints about it. (I was actually looking for just 2 meters, but there were no stocks available.)
When I plugged the player at home and connected it to the Samsung using the el-cheapo CD-R King HDMI cable, it worked perfectly fine. I played the Pixar Shorts for the kids and it looked pretty sharp. Although to be honest, I really cannot tell much the difference between upscaled 1080p vs. progressive scan on regular component video connectors.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Commercials Knock-Out Pacquiao Fans
The much-anticipated bout between Manny Pacquiao and Briton Ricky Hatton ended quickly. In fact, too quickly for the sake of the big companies who bet big advertising money to have their ads splashed during the in-between-rounds break. But with the match ending in Round 2, the free TV network GMA 7 had to insert a LOT of ads between the introduction, to the pre-fight announcement, to the two lone rounds it took for Manny to finish the match. GMA7 had to play the same 2 rounds two or three times just to fill all the airtime that was blocked. If I were an advertiser, I would feel short changed. But alas, such is the fate of the game.
So for all of us who did not pay extra to watch to fight live, we had to endure the barrage of ads. But in my case, as with previous matches of Manny, I used my Philips DVDR to just record the match so I can watch it afterwards by skipping all the commercials. And I was glad I did. I did not have to waste time sitting in front of the TV for hours just to watch 2 rounds of boxing.
So for all of us who did not pay extra to watch to fight live, we had to endure the barrage of ads. But in my case, as with previous matches of Manny, I used my Philips DVDR to just record the match so I can watch it afterwards by skipping all the commercials. And I was glad I did. I did not have to waste time sitting in front of the TV for hours just to watch 2 rounds of boxing.
But wait -- it seems that the match is not yet over even long after the knockdown. The guy who sang the National Anthem, Martin Nievera, is still under fire for his "interpretation" of the song. The National Historical Institue (NHI) scolded him for changing the arrangement citing Republic Act 8491 that states "the rendition of the National Anthem, whether played or sung, shall be in accordance with the musical arrangement and composition of Julian Felipe.”
Granted that I did not hear the entire anthem as sang by Martin (I only caught the last part), I am not sure if there is really such a big issue over this. Sure, he ended the last part on a high note; but don't all singers do that when they are asked to sing their national anthem during a big sports event? They do that all the time for Star-Spangled Banner in big WWE pay-per-views.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The LGV Home Theater Mystery Solved
For some time now, we've been wondering why the door of our home theater "mysteriously" gets locked. According to Yaya, she never locks it. And Cols always think that I'm the one locking it. I've been tempted to review the DVR recording just to see why its locking itself. Of course, Cols has her usual "haunted" theories, which I don't really buy.
Anyway, today, I was transferring some camcorder recordings to the Philips DVDR, for further burning to DVD-ROM. Then Ethan and Yaya came in. That's when I noticed that when they open the door, they push it all the way to the wall. Since there is no door stopper, the door handle bumps the wall, which in turn, causes the lock to be pressed. Voila! That's what is causing it to lock! So that finally disspells Cols spooky theory.
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| From LGV House Blessing |
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Building My Home Theater Part 1: DivX Ultra Players
I've been doing a bit of research lately on DVD players with DivX Ultra support for my upcoming home theater at the house we're building. I was previously looking at the Philips DVP5982 and was thinking of asking a friend to buy it for me from the US and send it over via balikbayan box since I haven't seen it sold locally. But when I went to Western Appliance this Sunday, I was surprised to see several other low-cost Philips model already available locally and on display.
The Philips DVP5166k was on sale for a measly Php2,990. The sales guy said he can probably give me an extra discount and round it down to Php2,900. Just add Php910 for a 3-year warranty. Its a very standard DivX Ultra player with no fancy HDMI support. I'm partial to getting a DVD player with HDMI output support already.
The sales guy told me that the DVP5166k is being phased out already, thats why its on sale. The upcoming models that will replace it look interesting: the DVP5286K (PHP4,990 SRP) and the DVP3980K (PHP3,990 SRP). Both are capable of 1080i/p upscaling already; come with HDMI interfaces; plays all sorts of media (CD, DVD+/-R, etc.); supports the usual audio formats (WMA and MP3 -- but not AAC); have karaoke scoring features; and playback of still JPEG images.
1080p support is good because I plan to eventually buy a Samsung Full 1080p HD TV. But for the purpose of the home theater, it probably would not matter since the Mitsubishi projector (more on that in future blog entries) that it will connect to, can only go up to 720p and 1080i (not 1080p). For those interested in 1080i vs. 1080p debates, here are some consumer reviews talking about it. For most general DVD movies which are shot at 24 frames per sec, you probably would not be able to tell the difference. But perhaps in the future if high-definition becomes the norm and all movies are shot at 30fps or higher, then MAYBE you will see a difference between interlaced (i) and progressive (p) scanning.
The site lists that the DVP5286K supports DivX 4, 5 & 6, aside from Ultra. The DVP3980K only lists DivX Ultra. Hmmm... doesn't it follow that if you support DivX Ultra, you also support the older DivX versions (4 to 6)?
The DVP5286K supports playing of DivX directly from the flash drive via its high-speed USB 2.0 interface. Not sure how important a feature that is. I was previously commenting though why my Philips DVD3455H could not play DivX media files from USB even though it could from CD or DVD. The Pioneer sales guy at Western was also highlighting that feature for his Pioneer DV600AVS which costs Php6,790 (quite expensive compared to Philips although he kept saying that their service support is better because Pioneer has local service centers whereas Philips just rely on 3rd party authorized service centers).
The DVP5286K also boasts that it can "rip" your music CD's to mp3 and send the ripped version directly to your flash drive. It can even do so on-the-fly while you are listening to the audio CD. Again, not sure how big a deal that is unless you don't have a modern day PC.
Other than that, there doesn't seem to be that much big difference between the two. I guess I will have to wait a couple more months for these models to become widely available.
The Philips DVP5166k was on sale for a measly Php2,990. The sales guy said he can probably give me an extra discount and round it down to Php2,900. Just add Php910 for a 3-year warranty. Its a very standard DivX Ultra player with no fancy HDMI support. I'm partial to getting a DVD player with HDMI output support already.
The sales guy told me that the DVP5166k is being phased out already, thats why its on sale. The upcoming models that will replace it look interesting: the DVP5286K (PHP4,990 SRP) and the DVP3980K (PHP3,990 SRP). Both are capable of 1080i/p upscaling already; come with HDMI interfaces; plays all sorts of media (CD, DVD+/-R, etc.); supports the usual audio formats (WMA and MP3 -- but not AAC); have karaoke scoring features; and playback of still JPEG images.
1080p support is good because I plan to eventually buy a Samsung Full 1080p HD TV. But for the purpose of the home theater, it probably would not matter since the Mitsubishi projector (more on that in future blog entries) that it will connect to, can only go up to 720p and 1080i (not 1080p). For those interested in 1080i vs. 1080p debates, here are some consumer reviews talking about it. For most general DVD movies which are shot at 24 frames per sec, you probably would not be able to tell the difference. But perhaps in the future if high-definition becomes the norm and all movies are shot at 30fps or higher, then MAYBE you will see a difference between interlaced (i) and progressive (p) scanning.
The site lists that the DVP5286K supports DivX 4, 5 & 6, aside from Ultra. The DVP3980K only lists DivX Ultra. Hmmm... doesn't it follow that if you support DivX Ultra, you also support the older DivX versions (4 to 6)?
The DVP5286K supports playing of DivX directly from the flash drive via its high-speed USB 2.0 interface. Not sure how important a feature that is. I was previously commenting though why my Philips DVD3455H could not play DivX media files from USB even though it could from CD or DVD. The Pioneer sales guy at Western was also highlighting that feature for his Pioneer DV600AVS which costs Php6,790 (quite expensive compared to Philips although he kept saying that their service support is better because Pioneer has local service centers whereas Philips just rely on 3rd party authorized service centers).
The DVP5286K also boasts that it can "rip" your music CD's to mp3 and send the ripped version directly to your flash drive. It can even do so on-the-fly while you are listening to the audio CD. Again, not sure how big a deal that is unless you don't have a modern day PC.
Other than that, there doesn't seem to be that much big difference between the two. I guess I will have to wait a couple more months for these models to become widely available.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Streaming Video to your Home Theater via your Home LAN
I was just talking about the possibility of viewing DivX movies over the network last week with the announcement of DivX Connected. Well, it seems that there are other consumer electronic products already in the market which specifically targets this genre.
For those using Windows Media Center on their PC's, the Linksys DMA2x00 allows media files residing on your PC to be "extended" to your TV or home theater. It acts as a gateway between the PC world via an ethernet connection, and the TV/home theater world via standard audio and video connectors like HDMI, S-Video, RCA video plugs and component video. It also comes with Wifi connectivity, but users are cautioned with the quality of the stream if you are on standard 802.11G. The relatively low (54mbps) speed will cause high-definition video to jitter. A wired connection is still best. But if Wifi is really a must, then at least go with 802.11N.
If you are not running Windows Media Center on your PC (I think Win XP does not have this feature), the NetGear EVA8000 may be a better choise. Its a more generic gateway implementation. It reads your media file via the standard network shared folders of your home network; stream it over the network; then output it to your TV or projector.
The EVA8000 is still pretty much a bleeding-edge/first generation product. So don't expect a bug-free experience. This review from C-Net shows that it required several reboots in their test cases. The product specs are also still a bit conflicting. In some articles, it says the EVA8000 supports DivX. In others, its not mentioned.
I mentioned in my blog entry last month that my Philips DVDR3455H Player can play AVI. I found out this weekend that it seems to be picky on the kind of AVI file it will play. I was able to download the BBC Planet Earth series via BitTorrent. The AVI files are in 720p HD format and each were about 2.2GB in size. When I tried converting it to DivX, my DivX Converter gets an error midway. So I burnt it onto a DVD disk as AVI and tried to play it on my Philips DVDR player. It just keeps causing the player to reboot! So I guess to view these types of files, I would rely on products like those above to watch it on TV or projector.
Still, I look forward to having players in the future like my Philips DVDR to have network ports and do their own streaming directly from the network so that I don't have to buy a 3rd party gateway to do that work.
For those using Windows Media Center on their PC's, the Linksys DMA2x00 allows media files residing on your PC to be "extended" to your TV or home theater. It acts as a gateway between the PC world via an ethernet connection, and the TV/home theater world via standard audio and video connectors like HDMI, S-Video, RCA video plugs and component video. It also comes with Wifi connectivity, but users are cautioned with the quality of the stream if you are on standard 802.11G. The relatively low (54mbps) speed will cause high-definition video to jitter. A wired connection is still best. But if Wifi is really a must, then at least go with 802.11N.
If you are not running Windows Media Center on your PC (I think Win XP does not have this feature), the NetGear EVA8000 may be a better choise. Its a more generic gateway implementation. It reads your media file via the standard network shared folders of your home network; stream it over the network; then output it to your TV or projector.
The EVA8000 is still pretty much a bleeding-edge/first generation product. So don't expect a bug-free experience. This review from C-Net shows that it required several reboots in their test cases. The product specs are also still a bit conflicting. In some articles, it says the EVA8000 supports DivX. In others, its not mentioned.
I mentioned in my blog entry last month that my Philips DVDR3455H Player can play AVI. I found out this weekend that it seems to be picky on the kind of AVI file it will play. I was able to download the BBC Planet Earth series via BitTorrent. The AVI files are in 720p HD format and each were about 2.2GB in size. When I tried converting it to DivX, my DivX Converter gets an error midway. So I burnt it onto a DVD disk as AVI and tried to play it on my Philips DVDR player. It just keeps causing the player to reboot! So I guess to view these types of files, I would rely on products like those above to watch it on TV or projector.
Still, I look forward to having players in the future like my Philips DVDR to have network ports and do their own streaming directly from the network so that I don't have to buy a 3rd party gateway to do that work.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Playing DivX Videos Over The Network
DivX's recent announcement of their DivX Connected initiative is pretty exciting. The client/server model now allows a remote DivX-capable player to get its video input stream from a "DivX Connected Server" over a TCP/IP network -- wired or wifi. The Connected Server is just a software that you would install on your Windows XP or Vista. It listens for incoming requests and streams data to the remote player. This is pretty convenient. That means when you download stuffs from BitTorrent; you can convert it to DivX; then start sharing it to your devices!
This is pretty cutting edge for now. Aside from their highlighted product -- the D-Link DSM-330 DivX Connected HD Media Player, there seems to be no other consumer electronic product available yet that supports this streaming protocol. The DSM-330 is very interesting though. It has a wired+wifi interface to the TCP/IP network, and a video out interface (S-Video, Component, Composite and HDMI) on the other end. It can playback in 720p HD.
The DSM-330 is available for pre-order at Amazon for US$280.99. A bit still pricey. Also, according to its specs, the DSM-330 only plays DivX (of course) and Windows Media Video (WMV). No support for MPEG4, Quicktime MOV, etc. At that price, I might still consider just buying several US$60 DivX Ultra-certified player like the Philips DVP5982, and just use DVD-RW discs to transfer the movies around the house.
I'm sure in the next several months, mainstream consumer electronics manufacturers like Philips will eventually embed network connections to their boxes. And if they get DivX Connected certified, there would be no need for intermediate/gateway devices like the DSM-330.
This is pretty cutting edge for now. Aside from their highlighted product -- the D-Link DSM-330 DivX Connected HD Media Player, there seems to be no other consumer electronic product available yet that supports this streaming protocol. The DSM-330 is very interesting though. It has a wired+wifi interface to the TCP/IP network, and a video out interface (S-Video, Component, Composite and HDMI) on the other end. It can playback in 720p HD.
The DSM-330 is available for pre-order at Amazon for US$280.99. A bit still pricey. Also, according to its specs, the DSM-330 only plays DivX (of course) and Windows Media Video (WMV). No support for MPEG4, Quicktime MOV, etc. At that price, I might still consider just buying several US$60 DivX Ultra-certified player like the Philips DVP5982, and just use DVD-RW discs to transfer the movies around the house.
I'm sure in the next several months, mainstream consumer electronics manufacturers like Philips will eventually embed network connections to their boxes. And if they get DivX Connected certified, there would be no need for intermediate/gateway devices like the DSM-330.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Playing AVI on the Philips DVDR Player
In my last blog entry, I was talking about how it seems that most video downloadable via BitTorrent seems to be in AVI format. I've download some videos recently, notably, WWE's 2008 documentary on The Rock, and the much acclaimed BBC documentary series entitled Planet Earth in AVI format. But strangely, the AVI files encounter errors somewhere halfway when I run them through my DivX Converter. So I figure I'm stuck with watching the AVI's on my PC's Windows Media Player.
Just out of curiousity, I burned The Rock AVI's onto CD tonight and played them on my Philips DVDR Player. I was wondering if it can actually handle it. The other night, I tried playing the AVI's on my mom's fake China DVD Player. Although it can play the audio part, nothing appears on video. But to my pleasant surprise, the Philips player actually played the AVI on TV (audio and video)!
Even though the AVI's look very sharp on the PC, I get the feeling that the Philips DVDR player can play DivX clearer than the AVI version. The TV screen looked also a bit warped on the left and right edge whereas they look more normal when I play DivX files. I should try this tomorrow with the Planet Earth AVI's. The ripper claims that those AVI's were ripped from 720p HD DVD format and they looked fantastic on the PC. Its not exactly 1080p, but then again, I'm just using a conventional TV and not HD. I have to see what the quality will look like.
Just out of curiousity, I burned The Rock AVI's onto CD tonight and played them on my Philips DVDR Player. I was wondering if it can actually handle it. The other night, I tried playing the AVI's on my mom's fake China DVD Player. Although it can play the audio part, nothing appears on video. But to my pleasant surprise, the Philips player actually played the AVI on TV (audio and video)!
Even though the AVI's look very sharp on the PC, I get the feeling that the Philips DVDR player can play DivX clearer than the AVI version. The TV screen looked also a bit warped on the left and right edge whereas they look more normal when I play DivX files. I should try this tomorrow with the Planet Earth AVI's. The ripper claims that those AVI's were ripped from 720p HD DVD format and they looked fantastic on the PC. Its not exactly 1080p, but then again, I'm just using a conventional TV and not HD. I have to see what the quality will look like.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Downloading Movies
I've been doing a bit of downloading lately with BitTorrent. Although I've heard about it before (who hasn't), I've never really understood where does one get the p2p data to download since there is really no "centralized" server to query. Well, it seems that finding torrent is a lot more simpler than I thought!
While there are sites that host or index torrent files (eg. mininova, torrentz), nothing is simpler than just using Google! From the search bar, just enter the song/movie/document that you want with the keyword "torrent", and it will give you all the links you need. I can understand why the Hollywood types would be very concerned about BitTorrent. Almost any recent Hollywood movie that you are interested can be found (and downloaded) in any of the torrent index sites.
Almost all the video files are available in Audio-Video Interleave (AVI) format for some strange reason. Since I bought a licensed version of DivX Converter, I still have to do an extra step to convert AVI to DivX before I can play it in my home Philips DVDR Player. Caitlin has been enjoying the SpongeBob series on the player care of BitTorrent. :)
Downloaded AVI files are usually in the 700MB to 1GB range. Converting them to DivX results to about the same size. The quality is pretty good -- as good as DVD on a regular TV. I only notice some pixelation on dark scenes. But on bright daylight scenes, I can't distinguish it from an original DVD output. Its sure a lot clearer than the pirated DVD's that I've bought in the past. None of the typical skippings or bad disc sectors found with those pirated discs.
Sometimes, you can even find entire ISO images of the DVD. I found a 4GB Spiderman 3 ISO image file. So if you burn it onto DVD-R, its as good as the original DVD without any compression. For those with high-end players, I've also seen ISO images of Spiderman in Blu-Ray format (10GB+) or Transformers in the defunct HD-DVD format.
I've been using Imation and HP DVD-R discs. They sell at PC Express for PHP13.00. Out of the 10 Imation discs I've bought and used, 2 had errors during writing/recording. That's about the same failure rate I've experienced with Philips DVD-R discs from CD-R King. But so far, the HP DVD-R's are doing well, although I've only used about 5 pcs.
If C/S keeps replaying Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles, maybe I'll just wait for the series to be available in DVD and download via BitTorrent. :)
While there are sites that host or index torrent files (eg. mininova, torrentz), nothing is simpler than just using Google! From the search bar, just enter the song/movie/document that you want with the keyword "torrent", and it will give you all the links you need. I can understand why the Hollywood types would be very concerned about BitTorrent. Almost any recent Hollywood movie that you are interested can be found (and downloaded) in any of the torrent index sites.
Almost all the video files are available in Audio-Video Interleave (AVI) format for some strange reason. Since I bought a licensed version of DivX Converter, I still have to do an extra step to convert AVI to DivX before I can play it in my home Philips DVDR Player. Caitlin has been enjoying the SpongeBob series on the player care of BitTorrent. :)
Downloaded AVI files are usually in the 700MB to 1GB range. Converting them to DivX results to about the same size. The quality is pretty good -- as good as DVD on a regular TV. I only notice some pixelation on dark scenes. But on bright daylight scenes, I can't distinguish it from an original DVD output. Its sure a lot clearer than the pirated DVD's that I've bought in the past. None of the typical skippings or bad disc sectors found with those pirated discs.
Sometimes, you can even find entire ISO images of the DVD. I found a 4GB Spiderman 3 ISO image file. So if you burn it onto DVD-R, its as good as the original DVD without any compression. For those with high-end players, I've also seen ISO images of Spiderman in Blu-Ray format (10GB+) or Transformers in the defunct HD-DVD format.
I've been using Imation and HP DVD-R discs. They sell at PC Express for PHP13.00. Out of the 10 Imation discs I've bought and used, 2 had errors during writing/recording. That's about the same failure rate I've experienced with Philips DVD-R discs from CD-R King. But so far, the HP DVD-R's are doing well, although I've only used about 5 pcs.
If C/S keeps replaying Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles, maybe I'll just wait for the series to be available in DVD and download via BitTorrent. :)
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Authoring DivX Videos
I downloaded a 30-day trial copy of the DivX Author software from, well where else -- DivX. Creating DivX movies complete with DVD-style menus was pretty easy. You can import still images/photos, music files or video files (divx, avi, etc.). Video files can easily be edited with the built-in Editor. You can cut sections you don't want, or cut only the section that you do want. Then you put a music track to serve as the background music.
All these look great. The only problem is -- the output of DivX Author can only be played by DivX Ultra certified players. As far as I know, there are no DivX Ultra-certified players in the Philippine market yet. A scan of the list of certified players at DivX shows one that does interest me though -- the Philips DVP5982 has the features including an HDMI interface and upscaling capability to HD (1080i/1080p). And most amazingly, it lists for as low as $59.99 at Circuit City! At the current exchange rate, that's only around P2,500! And so far, I'm pretty happy with the performance of my Philips DVR, which unfortunately, is only DivX standard certified (not Ultra).
All these look great. The only problem is -- the output of DivX Author can only be played by DivX Ultra certified players. As far as I know, there are no DivX Ultra-certified players in the Philippine market yet. A scan of the list of certified players at DivX shows one that does interest me though -- the Philips DVP5982 has the features including an HDMI interface and upscaling capability to HD (1080i/1080p). And most amazingly, it lists for as low as $59.99 at Circuit City! At the current exchange rate, that's only around P2,500! And so far, I'm pretty happy with the performance of my Philips DVR, which unfortunately, is only DivX standard certified (not Ultra).
Monday, April 7, 2008
Catching Up On My Recorded Videos
After suffering from a really bad cough and cold (which I got from the kids and Cols) the past 2 days, my body finally gave up and I came down with fever. There is no work today anyway. Its a holiday today because of the Arroyo government's policy of moving a national holiday to the nearest Monday or Friday. So they moved the April 9 Araw ng Kagitingan holiday to today (April 7).
So anyway, since my body is aching all over, I just stayed home today and caught up on several movies that I've recorded on my personal video recorder. I normally go through the schedule guide of HBO Asia and Star Movies at the start of the month to know what movies to record for the whole month. One of the movies that caught my attention last month was a 3-part mini-series on Star Movies entitled The Lost Room. It originally came out in Sci-Fi Channel in the US in Dec 2006. I did not know what the movie was about other than the short synopsis listed at Star's website. But I'm really glad I recorded it. This is a very good 3-part series!
The basic premise of the movie is the existence of a motel room #10 that seems to be floating in a different plane of reality. The Key can be used to open any door and it will lead you to this "lost" room. Then from the lost room, you can exit from any door, anywhere in the world by just picturing it in your mind. The plot is quite complicated and it will not do any justice for me to explain it by myself. So I'll just provide this link to an entry in Wikipedia about The Lost Room which does a pretty good job is summing up the plot.
Each episode is about 1.5 hr long. So the 3 episodes totaled to 4.5 hrs. But its so engrossing that you would want to watch it from start to end in one sitting -- which I did! But I have to admit -- while I enjoyed the story development, the ending kind of left me hanging. I did not really understand the ending. Since Joe Miller killed the Occupant, and took his place as the Prime Object, shouldn't it also drive him raving mad and live in that detached reality? How did he figure out how to retrieve his missing daughter, Anna.
Reading through the Sci-Fi Channel's forum, it seems that I am not the only one baffled with this same issue. But there are explanations from other viewers, which was supposed to have been explained by the Occupant, and which I probably did not catch. Being the only object with consciousness, the Prime Object can survive room resets and can look for missing persons inside the room. I think I have to watch the last part of Episode 3 again and listen carefully to the dialogue.
Overall, I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes watching Twilight Zone or reading Neil Gaiman novels.
So anyway, since my body is aching all over, I just stayed home today and caught up on several movies that I've recorded on my personal video recorder. I normally go through the schedule guide of HBO Asia and Star Movies at the start of the month to know what movies to record for the whole month. One of the movies that caught my attention last month was a 3-part mini-series on Star Movies entitled The Lost Room. It originally came out in Sci-Fi Channel in the US in Dec 2006. I did not know what the movie was about other than the short synopsis listed at Star's website. But I'm really glad I recorded it. This is a very good 3-part series!
The basic premise of the movie is the existence of a motel room #10 that seems to be floating in a different plane of reality. The Key can be used to open any door and it will lead you to this "lost" room. Then from the lost room, you can exit from any door, anywhere in the world by just picturing it in your mind. The plot is quite complicated and it will not do any justice for me to explain it by myself. So I'll just provide this link to an entry in Wikipedia about The Lost Room which does a pretty good job is summing up the plot.
Each episode is about 1.5 hr long. So the 3 episodes totaled to 4.5 hrs. But its so engrossing that you would want to watch it from start to end in one sitting -- which I did! But I have to admit -- while I enjoyed the story development, the ending kind of left me hanging. I did not really understand the ending. Since Joe Miller killed the Occupant, and took his place as the Prime Object, shouldn't it also drive him raving mad and live in that detached reality? How did he figure out how to retrieve his missing daughter, Anna.
Reading through the Sci-Fi Channel's forum, it seems that I am not the only one baffled with this same issue. But there are explanations from other viewers, which was supposed to have been explained by the Occupant, and which I probably did not catch. Being the only object with consciousness, the Prime Object can survive room resets and can look for missing persons inside the room. I think I have to watch the last part of Episode 3 again and listen carefully to the dialogue.
Overall, I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes watching Twilight Zone or reading Neil Gaiman novels.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles @ C/S
The second season of Heroes 2 has already finished. It felt like a much shorter season as compared to Season 1. Maybe that's why C/S channel would repeat the same episode for 2 consecutive weeks -- just to fill in the time. In any case, the new tv series that took over its time slot is Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I've always been a big fan of the Terminator series. The original Terminator back in 1994 and the T2 sequel are one of my all-time favorite movies. I have to admit though that Terminator 3 was not that great for me, although the plot twist at the end was pretty good. So I was kinda looking forward to this spin-off tv series. And since it was on the same time slot, I just had to rename the title of the pre-set timer event in my Philips DVD Recorder.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles stars Lena Headey in the title role popularized by Linda Hamilton. Lena is a 34-year old British actress whose only other appearance that I've watched is as Queen Gorgo in the movie 300. The movie pretty much picks off where T2 ended, but before T3 began. So Sarah appears here with her 15 year old John Connor, who will be the future resistance leader, and therefore, has been sentenced to termination by the machines of the future. Sarah and John would go from town-to-town to avoid being detected. And in the last town they ended up, John was befriended in school by the character played by Summer Glau, who turned out to be a terminator sent back to protect John.
Summer's terminator is the first one in the series, so far, which has the physical features of a teenager. I suppose since she is John's classmate, she is supposed to be around 15 years old also. But in real-life, Summer is about 23 years old according to some websites. She pulls off looking like a teenager though, so I guess its ok.
Unlike the movie series, the main human characters in the tv series traveled through time (to escape a terminator). I don't want to even begin thinking all the possible time paradoxes that can result because of that. But I guess the whole point of enjoying the terminator series is NOT to think about the time paradox. Overall, the series is pretty exciting so far.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles stars Lena Headey in the title role popularized by Linda Hamilton. Lena is a 34-year old British actress whose only other appearance that I've watched is as Queen Gorgo in the movie 300. The movie pretty much picks off where T2 ended, but before T3 began. So Sarah appears here with her 15 year old John Connor, who will be the future resistance leader, and therefore, has been sentenced to termination by the machines of the future. Sarah and John would go from town-to-town to avoid being detected. And in the last town they ended up, John was befriended in school by the character played by Summer Glau, who turned out to be a terminator sent back to protect John.
Summer's terminator is the first one in the series, so far, which has the physical features of a teenager. I suppose since she is John's classmate, she is supposed to be around 15 years old also. But in real-life, Summer is about 23 years old according to some websites. She pulls off looking like a teenager though, so I guess its ok.
Unlike the movie series, the main human characters in the tv series traveled through time (to escape a terminator). I don't want to even begin thinking all the possible time paradoxes that can result because of that. But I guess the whole point of enjoying the terminator series is NOT to think about the time paradox. Overall, the series is pretty exciting so far.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Watching the Pacquiao-Marquez Fight in 40 mins
Today's the big boxing bout between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. Knowing how the commercials last longer than the actual rounds, I decided to just record the entire fight on my Philips DVD Recorder/Player. That way, I could just skip through all the commercials. Since the match went the full 12 rounds, and each round takes 3 mins., I watched the entire fight for 36 mins. vs. about 3 hrs, I think on free TV.
I noted in a previous blog entry about some odd behavior of my DVDR. I made a couple more observations over the weekend as I try some combinations that I haven't previously attempted. For example, it seems that the DVDR can actually record a TV program, while at the same time, playback a recorded episode from the same hard drive simultaneously! In operating system parlance, the firmware seems to be multi-threaded (or at the very least, can perform asynchronous callbacks). I was expecting it to complain when I tried watching a recorded episode while it was recording, but surprisingly, it did not. I noticed some slight skipping in 1 scene during the playback, but that's about it. It was fairly smooth considering it was recording at the same time.
But the strange thing was -- when I tried playing a DVD while it was recording a TV program on the hard disk, it prevented me from doing so. An icon appeared apparently telling me that DVD playback is not allowed during hard disk recording. Now that was strange. The DVD playback was happening on a different media source: the DVD disc drive, as opposed to, the built-in hard drive. If it can handle playback on the same hard drive where it was recording, why would it not handle a playback from a different drive? Wouldn't that actually be simpler since the playback and the recording would not be contending on the same device? Its one of those eccentricities just like not being able to play DivX files from the USB, I guess.
Anyway, I'm beginning to appreciate the DivX format as played on my Philip DVDR. Quality is as good as regular DVD (assuming, of course, that the original source that was encoded into DivX was of good quality). I'm sure that in the very near future, somebody would figure out how to put an ethernet network interface into these personal video recorders and make them IP-accessible. Then you can store all your DivX movies in a central home server with a large drive where the player can just stream it.
I noted in a previous blog entry about some odd behavior of my DVDR. I made a couple more observations over the weekend as I try some combinations that I haven't previously attempted. For example, it seems that the DVDR can actually record a TV program, while at the same time, playback a recorded episode from the same hard drive simultaneously! In operating system parlance, the firmware seems to be multi-threaded (or at the very least, can perform asynchronous callbacks). I was expecting it to complain when I tried watching a recorded episode while it was recording, but surprisingly, it did not. I noticed some slight skipping in 1 scene during the playback, but that's about it. It was fairly smooth considering it was recording at the same time.
But the strange thing was -- when I tried playing a DVD while it was recording a TV program on the hard disk, it prevented me from doing so. An icon appeared apparently telling me that DVD playback is not allowed during hard disk recording. Now that was strange. The DVD playback was happening on a different media source: the DVD disc drive, as opposed to, the built-in hard drive. If it can handle playback on the same hard drive where it was recording, why would it not handle a playback from a different drive? Wouldn't that actually be simpler since the playback and the recording would not be contending on the same device? Its one of those eccentricities just like not being able to play DivX files from the USB, I guess.
Anyway, I'm beginning to appreciate the DivX format as played on my Philip DVDR. Quality is as good as regular DVD (assuming, of course, that the original source that was encoded into DivX was of good quality). I'm sure that in the very near future, somebody would figure out how to put an ethernet network interface into these personal video recorders and make them IP-accessible. Then you can store all your DivX movies in a central home server with a large drive where the player can just stream it.
Friday, March 14, 2008
The Absolutely Non-sensical Marimar Grand Finale Fight Scene
Just to make things perfectly clear -- I don't watch cheezy Tagalog telenovelas. I couldn't care less about ABS-CBN vs. GMA fighting over the ratings of prime-time soaps. And I certainly don't care about the grand finale / big wedding scene of Sergio (Dingdong Dantes) to Marimar (Marian Rivera) in GMA7's top-rating soap Marimar (or is it supposed to be "MariMar"?). But since my 4-year old daughter, Caitlin, had to go to sleep already and she did not want to miss the big wedding scene, I had to record the episode for her using my trusty Philips DVDR.
What was recorded on my DVDR had to be one of the stupidest fight scene I have ever seen -- EVER! Its so dumb that I can't imagine how this tv series has managed to be the top-rating show for the past 8 months or so (well, for the guys, I can sort of understand because Marian Rivera is pretty hot). But seriously, if that fight scene was representative of the quality of the story for the entire season, then I have to say its really lame!
I started recording at around the scene where Marimar was fighting the evil character played by Katrina Halili. Sorry, but I have no idea what is the name of Katrina's character, so for the purpose of this blog entry, I will refer to her as "The Evil Lady". Anyway, their fight began at a place which kind of resembled a junk yard. It was a night scene. And Sergio were fighting the guys -- I think he was there to rescue Marimar. It was good kick-ass action with Marimar slamming The Evil Lady's head onto the car window a couple of times, and causing her face to bleed everywhere. The Evil Lady runs away and Marimar runs after her. Take note that this was a night scene.
Then in the next scene, it was already mid-day / broad daylight -- and Marimar was still running after The Evil Lady! So let me get this straight -- they were like chasing each other for at least the past 8 hours?! They were no longer in the junk yard but were in some open field /hill (well, surely after running for at least 8 hrs they must have left the junk yard already) and there was a white helicopter waiting with its blades whirling already.
Hmm... was that Marimar's chopper or was it the getaway vehicle for Evil Lady? Well, Evil Lady went straight to the helicopter and boarded it with Marimar hot on her heels and also boarded it before it had the chance to lift off. Aha! So it must be the getaway vehicle for Evil Lady! I mean, otherwise, it would not make any sense to run and board your enemy's (Marimar's) chopper, right? I think.
Then Marimar and Evil Lady duked it out at the back seat of the chopper while the pilot lifts-off and mysteriously hovers about 10 ft. off the ground for a really long time -- or at least really long enough for Sergio to come from nowhere. Presumably he has been running the past 8 hrs also looking for Marimar. Strangely, in the previous scene when he was talking to Richard Gomez's character at the same junk yard, he did not even have any idea that Marimar was in the same place. So how the heck did he figure out where to chase them?! But anyway, since the pilot conveniently hovered his chopper a few feet off the ground for what seemed like an eternity, Sergio makes it and jumps to catch the landing gear of the chopper. He then hangs on there uselessly while the ladies continue to kick each other at the back seat.
Now as to why the chopper pilot lifted off with the ladies fighting at the back totally did not make sense to me either. If assuming that the white chopper is really the getaway vehicle, then that makes the pilot the Evil Henchman. What self-respecting Evil Henchman would fly the chopper instead of just keep it grounded and helping your Evil Mistress against her lone opponent?! Surely the two of you can beat the crap out of Marimar; dump her out of the chopper; then fly away to safety! But NO! The Evil Hencman/Pilot decides to lift-off with his mistress in apparent danger.
Anyway, going back to the fight, Marimar manages to kick Evil Lady out of the chopper. She miraculously manages to catch the landing gear of the chopper also to stop her fall. (Evil Pilot should have landed back his chopper so that Evil Lady will not fall.) Since Sergio was on the other landing gear, Sergio gives her a kick in the gut causing her to lose her hold on the landing gear and falling to her death. I guess the chopper must have flown farther up than the initial 10 ft where it was hovering from earlier (although I never noticed it).
Evil Lady falls to her death. Then the camera pans to show some crocodiles. Then next scene shows Evil Lady's dead body being dragged off the camera (presumably by the crocs). Ok, where the heck did the crocs come from?! Marimar and Evil Lady were running in some open field /hill. It wasn't in some marshland. Crocs just don't hang around regular open fields where choppers can land.
Then next scene shows Marimar and Sergio cuddling inside the chopper. I guess Sergio must have eventually figured out how to climb the chopper from the landing gear. And to add insult to injury, Evil Henchman/Pilot flies them away into safety (and to their impending wedding)! Huh?! If you were the Evil Pilot, why the heck would you do that? Its not like Sergio had a gun pointed to his head telling him to drive. He was doing it voluntarily!
Could it be then that the white chopper was really Marimar's or Sergio's all along, and not Evil Lady's? But if so, why didn't the pilot just keep the chopper grounded and help Marimar beat the crap out of Evil Lady? Why lift off and put their lives in danger? And why did Evil Lady run into the chopper with Marimar hot on her heels if it was Marimar's chopper all along? Who would run head-on to her enemy's getaway vehicle?!
And to think that all these senseless action scenes happened in a span of like 10 mins (minus the long dragging commercials in-between, of course). Arrgghh!! Who knows that other illogical plot actually transpired in the past 8 months?!
What was recorded on my DVDR had to be one of the stupidest fight scene I have ever seen -- EVER! Its so dumb that I can't imagine how this tv series has managed to be the top-rating show for the past 8 months or so (well, for the guys, I can sort of understand because Marian Rivera is pretty hot). But seriously, if that fight scene was representative of the quality of the story for the entire season, then I have to say its really lame!
I started recording at around the scene where Marimar was fighting the evil character played by Katrina Halili. Sorry, but I have no idea what is the name of Katrina's character, so for the purpose of this blog entry, I will refer to her as "The Evil Lady". Anyway, their fight began at a place which kind of resembled a junk yard. It was a night scene. And Sergio were fighting the guys -- I think he was there to rescue Marimar. It was good kick-ass action with Marimar slamming The Evil Lady's head onto the car window a couple of times, and causing her face to bleed everywhere. The Evil Lady runs away and Marimar runs after her. Take note that this was a night scene.
Then in the next scene, it was already mid-day / broad daylight -- and Marimar was still running after The Evil Lady! So let me get this straight -- they were like chasing each other for at least the past 8 hours?! They were no longer in the junk yard but were in some open field /hill (well, surely after running for at least 8 hrs they must have left the junk yard already) and there was a white helicopter waiting with its blades whirling already.
Hmm... was that Marimar's chopper or was it the getaway vehicle for Evil Lady? Well, Evil Lady went straight to the helicopter and boarded it with Marimar hot on her heels and also boarded it before it had the chance to lift off. Aha! So it must be the getaway vehicle for Evil Lady! I mean, otherwise, it would not make any sense to run and board your enemy's (Marimar's) chopper, right? I think.
Then Marimar and Evil Lady duked it out at the back seat of the chopper while the pilot lifts-off and mysteriously hovers about 10 ft. off the ground for a really long time -- or at least really long enough for Sergio to come from nowhere. Presumably he has been running the past 8 hrs also looking for Marimar. Strangely, in the previous scene when he was talking to Richard Gomez's character at the same junk yard, he did not even have any idea that Marimar was in the same place. So how the heck did he figure out where to chase them?! But anyway, since the pilot conveniently hovered his chopper a few feet off the ground for what seemed like an eternity, Sergio makes it and jumps to catch the landing gear of the chopper. He then hangs on there uselessly while the ladies continue to kick each other at the back seat.
Now as to why the chopper pilot lifted off with the ladies fighting at the back totally did not make sense to me either. If assuming that the white chopper is really the getaway vehicle, then that makes the pilot the Evil Henchman. What self-respecting Evil Henchman would fly the chopper instead of just keep it grounded and helping your Evil Mistress against her lone opponent?! Surely the two of you can beat the crap out of Marimar; dump her out of the chopper; then fly away to safety! But NO! The Evil Hencman/Pilot decides to lift-off with his mistress in apparent danger.
Anyway, going back to the fight, Marimar manages to kick Evil Lady out of the chopper. She miraculously manages to catch the landing gear of the chopper also to stop her fall. (Evil Pilot should have landed back his chopper so that Evil Lady will not fall.) Since Sergio was on the other landing gear, Sergio gives her a kick in the gut causing her to lose her hold on the landing gear and falling to her death. I guess the chopper must have flown farther up than the initial 10 ft where it was hovering from earlier (although I never noticed it).
Evil Lady falls to her death. Then the camera pans to show some crocodiles. Then next scene shows Evil Lady's dead body being dragged off the camera (presumably by the crocs). Ok, where the heck did the crocs come from?! Marimar and Evil Lady were running in some open field /hill. It wasn't in some marshland. Crocs just don't hang around regular open fields where choppers can land.
Then next scene shows Marimar and Sergio cuddling inside the chopper. I guess Sergio must have eventually figured out how to climb the chopper from the landing gear. And to add insult to injury, Evil Henchman/Pilot flies them away into safety (and to their impending wedding)! Huh?! If you were the Evil Pilot, why the heck would you do that? Its not like Sergio had a gun pointed to his head telling him to drive. He was doing it voluntarily!
Could it be then that the white chopper was really Marimar's or Sergio's all along, and not Evil Lady's? But if so, why didn't the pilot just keep the chopper grounded and help Marimar beat the crap out of Evil Lady? Why lift off and put their lives in danger? And why did Evil Lady run into the chopper with Marimar hot on her heels if it was Marimar's chopper all along? Who would run head-on to her enemy's getaway vehicle?!
And to think that all these senseless action scenes happened in a span of like 10 mins (minus the long dragging commercials in-between, of course). Arrgghh!! Who knows that other illogical plot actually transpired in the past 8 months?!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Testing DivX
Ok, so I'm a bit of a latecomer when it comes to DivX. I've never really had any need to use it before. But recently, I was trying to make a copy of a DVD from my hard disk (he he he) and when I was using Nero to burn it as DVD Video, the resulting disk image gets bloated. The original five (5) .VOB files which used to fit in a single DVD Video could no longer fit into a single DVD. I can only manage to put in one .VOB file with Nero. So I decided to do some research on DivX and see if it can solve my problem of cramming the original DVD VOB files onto a single disc.
In layman's terms, DivX is to video what MP3 was to audio. Its a video encoding format that is supposed to give incredible compression with very good quality video and audio. One can download a DivX Player and a 15-day trial copy of the DivX Encoder from the DivX site. If you don't want to watch movies on your PC with the DivX Player, there are several DivX standalone players that you can connect directly to your TV set. Incidentally, my oft-mentioned Philips DVDR3455H Recorder is one such standalone player which supports DivX.
My experiments with DivX so far has mixed results. When I encoded some Quicktime .MOV files, it complained that there are "invalid video streams" and refused to encode it. There were some .MOV files that it encoded without any hitch. But I noticed the file sizes are practically the same. So I guess .MOV files are pretty optimized already and there is not much that DivX can do further. The .MOV files which takes up only about a quarter of my 19" widescreen AOC LCD monitor (at 1440 x 900 resolution), when converted to .divx and played on my Philips Player at home, comes out unbelievably clear on the TV. It looks almost as clear as watching a DVD video.
I also tried dragging-and-dropping the .VOB files mentioned above onto the DivX Encoder, and got really strange results. Although the conversion went through, the file actually became three times (3x) larger! Doing the same for the Windows Audio-Visual Interleave (AVI) format yields a slightly better result. It reduced the original AVI file by about 15 to 20 percent only. Its still far from fantastic. But now, at least I can view the videos on the TV instead of on the PC.
The DivX Player has an interface similar to Windows Media Player wherein you can drag-and-drop the movies you like to burn onto its "burn list". Then just click the "burn" button to initiate transfer. However, I noticed that it seems to only support CD burning and not DVD. Maybe I'm better off using Nero to burn onto Data CD or Data DVD format.
The DivX Encoder will let you combine several input files and merge them into a single DivX file complete with menu. But if you want the merged output file to be in some other format like MPG or VOB, you have to use a 3rd party software. The Allok Video Joiner shareware tool allows you to merge multiple DivX files into a single large file with the format of your choice. The unregistered/free trial copy only converts half of each file though. :P I was able to merge 7 x DivX files into a single DVD .VOB file.
Personally, I'm not yet that sold to DivX. I guess I will still have to do some more experimentation.
In layman's terms, DivX is to video what MP3 was to audio. Its a video encoding format that is supposed to give incredible compression with very good quality video and audio. One can download a DivX Player and a 15-day trial copy of the DivX Encoder from the DivX site. If you don't want to watch movies on your PC with the DivX Player, there are several DivX standalone players that you can connect directly to your TV set. Incidentally, my oft-mentioned Philips DVDR3455H Recorder is one such standalone player which supports DivX.
My experiments with DivX so far has mixed results. When I encoded some Quicktime .MOV files, it complained that there are "invalid video streams" and refused to encode it. There were some .MOV files that it encoded without any hitch. But I noticed the file sizes are practically the same. So I guess .MOV files are pretty optimized already and there is not much that DivX can do further. The .MOV files which takes up only about a quarter of my 19" widescreen AOC LCD monitor (at 1440 x 900 resolution), when converted to .divx and played on my Philips Player at home, comes out unbelievably clear on the TV. It looks almost as clear as watching a DVD video.
I also tried dragging-and-dropping the .VOB files mentioned above onto the DivX Encoder, and got really strange results. Although the conversion went through, the file actually became three times (3x) larger! Doing the same for the Windows Audio-Visual Interleave (AVI) format yields a slightly better result. It reduced the original AVI file by about 15 to 20 percent only. Its still far from fantastic. But now, at least I can view the videos on the TV instead of on the PC.
The DivX Player has an interface similar to Windows Media Player wherein you can drag-and-drop the movies you like to burn onto its "burn list". Then just click the "burn" button to initiate transfer. However, I noticed that it seems to only support CD burning and not DVD. Maybe I'm better off using Nero to burn onto Data CD or Data DVD format.
The DivX Encoder will let you combine several input files and merge them into a single DivX file complete with menu. But if you want the merged output file to be in some other format like MPG or VOB, you have to use a 3rd party software. The Allok Video Joiner shareware tool allows you to merge multiple DivX files into a single large file with the format of your choice. The unregistered/free trial copy only converts half of each file though. :P I was able to merge 7 x DivX files into a single DVD .VOB file.
Personally, I'm not yet that sold to DivX. I guess I will still have to do some more experimentation.
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