DivX DVD player advice

My current DVD player is on it's last legs (irratic reading of discs, etc)

I would like DivX/XVid and reasonable music quality from CD (when conencted to amp via digital output). Price is a very important factor.

I have heard the Toshiba 340e is good and also the Pioneer DV-470 and DV-575 (which seems to be about £70 more than the first two)

All advice appreciated.

[NX3]

The toshiba is a re-badged Philips 720SA, Philips are quicker at getting new firmware out.

All the ones you mention use the same MediaTek chip so prob not much in it.

[Spiny]

I;ve just bought a 340e & tried it with divx. It plays both divx and xvid OK, although it does want to stretch the image to fill the screen, rather than obey the aspect ratio & have top & bottom borders.

[NX3]

Check to see if there is an updated firmware from Toshiba ? I've read you can use the Philips 720SA firmware but I'd read up on that and don't take my word for it.

[Panasonic_Dude]

NX3: whats your opinion of the tosh, does it handle different media ok or is it fussy about a lot of disks? i've read it's a nice player but is crippled by half the dvd-r/dvd+r not being read properly

[Spiny]

Originally Posted by Panasonic_Dude

NX3: whats your opinion of the tosh, does it handle different media ok or is it fussy about a lot of disks? i've read it's a nice player but is crippled by half the dvd-r/dvd+r not being read properly

It's still pretty fussy. Dosen't want to touch the -Rs I have but is much better with the +Rs (Datasafe). Although I've had some trouble with these recently too.

Surely it can't be that hard to make a drive that reliably reads stuff. PC drives do it all the time & they're as cheap as chips.

I may change my dvd writer to see if this helps.

[NX3]

I've not got the Tosh so don't know about media. I've gone for the Pioneer DV-470 instead.

[Indiana Jones]

I am also looking for a new DVD Player which can run Divx. My current one is a DK 339 which uses the Mediatek chipset for Divx playback and on the newest titles I have tried it just stutters the playback so dont want to get a Pioneer or Toshiba as they use the Mediatek chipset so I have been thinking about getting either the Samsung 244 or the Philips DVP630, anyone have an opinion on either of them?

[NX3]

MediaTek make several difference version of the chip so if you player is having issues it would be worth finding out which chip it has compared to the big brands like Philips / Toshiba / Pioneer.

The Philips DVP630 is a older generation player with the ESS chip, not as capable in divx terms as the Tosh 340, Philips 720, Pioneer 470.

The Samsung 244 use the new Zoran Vaddis chip, its meant to be quite good/

"for Divx playback and on the newest titles I have tried it just stutters the playback" this is probably caused by a the way the film is encoded and no hardware player will fix it. Find out the codec version used, gmc ? qpel ? packed bitsteam ? Then you can reencode taking without those options as no player really deal with these options too well. Some will do GMC and QPEL to a certain level but packet bitstream is more likely to be the issue for you.

[Indiana Jones]

I was thinking about the Philips 630 as I know its pretty easy to make Region Free but didnt know whether the Toshiba or Pioneer could be made Region Free very easily so had not thought about them.

[NX3]

You can buy the Pioneer region free from places like Avland.co.uk

[Panasonic_Dude]

I thought the 470 was multiregion already? i'm also planning on getting a 470, can they be made multi region easily or am i better off buying multi region ready player from somewhere like rgbdirect?

[Indiana Jones]

The Pioneer looks like a nice player but what is the Divx Download Information about that Avland talks about? do you have to enter a code everytime you want to watch a Divx or XviD encoded file?

[NX3]

No thats just for VOD (Video On Demand), normal divx movies will just play.

Did you investigate your movies thats are stuttering ? Was it packed bitstream ?

[Indiana Jones]

How would I find out if they are using Packet Bitstream?