Watching WC videos on dvd player

For those who like me who have been watching the downloaded WC videos
(and regular movies) on computer monitor for years, I finally broke down
and got an inexpensive Philips DVD player (DVP5992, same as 5990) from
the local Costco ($45). It upscales to 1080 and plays very well full
screen on an HDTV. The computer files can be burned to CD/DVD or copied
to a USB thumb drive, just as they are in most formats (e.g., .avi).
Admittedly it's a cheap player, and there are better more expensive
ones out there, but if it holds up it's a real deal. And for this one
there is a firmware upgrade out there by some guy in Central Europe that
improves the menu structure/file text.

Gene

On Sun, 12 Apr 2009, wrote:

For those who like me who have been watching the downloaded WC videos
(and regular movies) on computer monitor for years, I finally broke down
and got an inexpensive Philips DVD player (DVP5992, same as 5990) from
the local Costco ($45). It upscales to 1080 and plays very well full
screen on an HDTV. The computer files can be burned to CD/DVD or copied
to a USB thumb drive, just as they are in most formats (e.g., .avi).

Just last week I was looking for a DVD player in the Philips DVP59xx
family (I wanted VCD, JPG, DIVX playing +USB port) . Zellers had one for
$CDN120, but then I saw a RCA DRC286 at Canadian Tire for $60 which
seemed to have the same features ("DIVX" playing + USB port). The USB
port is very handy, it's a lot easier to simply copy .avi videos (or .jpg
still photos) to a "thumb drive" than "burning" videos to CD, then
finding out they don't play!

Note: most of these DVD players say "DIVX" playable, but "DIVX" is
just a brand name (DivX Inc.) for software for the MPEG-4 video compression
algorithm. There are other versions like XVID, FFMPEG, etc., which
should also work BUT:

The .avi file has a 4-character tag called "fourcc" or "vtag" to
identify the video compression code. Some video players (hardware DVD
and computer programs) are very picky about the 4 characters, even if
the video format is correct. Some older versions of Windows-Media-Player
will only accept "DIVX"(even upper/lower case may be significant!). I
haven't checked all combinations with my DRC286 yet, but "divx", "DIVX",
"xvid" and "XVID" work but "FMP4" (default vtag for ffmpeg) doesn't. So
if you are converting video files to .avi format, check the "fourcc" tag
before burning them to CD (it's impossible to change the "fourcc" on CD
files, but possible on a USB-thumb drive!)

I use FFMPEG or MENCODER (uses same library as ffmpeg)
to convert videos. To convert a FLV video from YOUTUBE:

ffmpeg -i video1.flv -vtag DIVX video.avi
or
mencoder video1.flv -ffourcc DIVX -o video.avi

(FFMPEG and MENCODER have different default values for quality,
frame size etc which I haven't fully explored)

I can get 6 hours of VCR grade video on a
700 MB CD and 18 hours on a 2GB USB thumb drive!


--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/index.html

Thanks for the detailed reply. Among the .avi race files I tested
were some from Canmore 2005-06 that the player couldn't read. Perhaps
your hack would fix that. How are you checking and changing the
'fourcc' tag? I assumed that meant opening the code, but it's not
obvious using NoteTab Light (binaries filtered). Plus the files are
rather large.

Gene

David Dermott wrote:

On Sun, 12 Apr 2009, wrote:

For those who like me who have been watching the downloaded WC videos
(and regular movies) on computer monitor for years, I finally broke down
and got an inexpensive Philips DVD player (DVP5992, same as 5990) from
the local Costco ($45). It upscales to 1080 and plays very well full
screen on an HDTV. The computer files can be burned to CD/DVD or copied
to a USB thumb drive, just as they are in most formats (e.g., .avi).

Just last week I was looking for a DVD player in the Philips DVP59xx
family (I wanted VCD, JPG, DIVX playing +USB port) . Zellers had one for
$CDN120, but then I saw a RCA DRC286 at Canadian Tire for $60 which
seemed to have the same features ("DIVX" playing + USB port). The USB
port is very handy, it's a lot easier to simply copy .avi videos (or .jpg
still photos) to a "thumb drive" than "burning" videos to CD, then
finding out they don't play!

Note: most of these DVD players say "DIVX" playable, but "DIVX" is
just a brand name (DivX Inc.) for software for the MPEG-4 video compression
algorithm. There are other versions like XVID, FFMPEG, etc., which
should also work BUT:

The .avi file has a 4-character tag called "fourcc" or "vtag" to
identify the video compression code. Some video players (hardware DVD
and computer programs) are very picky about the 4 characters, even if
the video format is correct. Some older versions of Windows-Media-Player
will only accept "DIVX"(even upper/lower case may be significant!). I
haven't checked all combinations with my DRC286 yet, but "divx", "DIVX",
"xvid" and "XVID" work but "FMP4" (default vtag for ffmpeg) doesn't. So
if you are converting video files to .avi format, check the "fourcc" tag
before burning them to CD (it's impossible to change the "fourcc" on CD
files, but possible on a USB-thumb drive!)

I use FFMPEG or MENCODER (uses same library as ffmpeg)
to convert videos. To convert a FLV video from YOUTUBE:

ffmpeg -i video1.flv -vtag DIVX video.avi
or
mencoder video1.flv -ffourcc DIVX -o video.avi

(FFMPEG and MENCODER have different default values for quality,
frame size etc which I haven't fully explored)

I can get 6 hours of VCR grade video on a
700 MB CD and 18 hours on a 2GB USB thumb drive!


--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/index.html

On Mon, 13 Apr 2009, wrote:

Thanks for the detailed reply. Among the .avi race files I tested
were some from Canmore 2005-06 that the player couldn't read. Perhaps
your hack would fix that. How are you checking and changing the
'fourcc' tag? I assumed that meant opening the code, but it's not
obvious using NoteTab Light (binaries filtered). Plus the files are
rather large.

EUREKA! I just found out a few things about "fourcc" etc.

I mostly use Linux (Fedora8 with KDE), but have to use Windows-Xp
for some things. My Windows Media viewer is
not up to date and won't play some .avi videos. I found a little
program "Nic's AVIC fourcc changer" in the XviD package that is supposed
to change the "fourcc" tag but I've had mixed results.

On Linux I've changed the fourcc by copying the file with FFMPEG
(creates a second file of the same size and takes time).
But I just found a very simple program that seems to work.

CFOURCC from http://sarovar.org/projects/gfourcc
It just reads the 224 byte header from the AVI file, changes one or
two 4 byte strings and re-writes the header back to the original file.

But it turns out that there are 2 fourcc tags! one is the "Use"(u) tag,
the other the "Description"(d) tag. Why 2 tags???
The UNIX progam "file" shows the "use" tag, but
the KDE file viewer shows the "description" tag!

It's probably safer to change both tags to the same value.

"cfourcc -d DIVX -u DIVX video1.avi"

So I used "cfourcc" to make identical files with different tags,
copied to a thumb drive and tried it on my RCA DRC286 DVD player.

DIVX and divx plays
XVID and xvid plays
DX50 and dx50 plays (DX50 is the tag for DIVX-5)
FMP4 and fmp4 doesn't play (default for FFMPEG's MPEG-4)
The player seems to ignore the "d" tag.

YMMV: Other DVD plays may work differently

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/index.html

Would I need C to get cfourcc to work? I decided first to try Super, a
very good free conversion and encoder program, with one of the
problem .avi files and it worked (avi to avi). A 280MB file took
15-20 minutes at the same resolution (as is).

Gene

David Dermott wrote:

On Mon, 13 Apr 2009, wrote:

Thanks for the detailed reply. Among the .avi race files I tested
were some from Canmore 2005-06 that the player couldn't read. Perhaps
your hack would fix that. How are you checking and changing the
'fourcc' tag? I assumed that meant opening the code, but it's not
obvious using NoteTab Light (binaries filtered). Plus the files are
rather large.

EUREKA! I just found out a few things about "fourcc" etc.

I mostly use Linux (Fedora8 with KDE), but have to use Windows-Xp
for some things. My Windows Media viewer is
not up to date and won't play some .avi videos. I found a little
program "Nic's AVIC fourcc changer" in the XviD package that is supposed
to change the "fourcc" tag but I've had mixed results.

On Linux I've changed the fourcc by copying the file with FFMPEG
(creates a second file of the same size and takes time).
But I just found a very simple program that seems to work.

CFOURCC from http://sarovar.org/projects/gfourcc
It just reads the 224 byte header from the AVI file, changes one or
two 4 byte strings and re-writes the header back to the original file.

But it turns out that there are 2 fourcc tags! one is the "Use"(u) tag,
the other the "Description"(d) tag. Why 2 tags???
The UNIX progam "file" shows the "use" tag, but
the KDE file viewer shows the "description" tag!

It's probably safer to change both tags to the same value.

"cfourcc -d DIVX -u DIVX video1.avi"

So I used "cfourcc" to make identical files with different tags,
copied to a thumb drive and tried it on my RCA DRC286 DVD player.

DIVX and divx plays
XVID and xvid plays
DX50 and dx50 plays (DX50 is the tag for DIVX-5)
FMP4 and fmp4 doesn't play (default for FFMPEG's MPEG-4)
The player seems to ignore the "d" tag.

YMMV: Other DVD plays may work differently

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/index.html

The next project is to convert my VCR tapes to computer or DVD. I just
got EasyCAP with a previous version of Ulead's Video Source off eBay.
It's a basic video grabber and is supposed to work really well.

Gene

wrote:

Would I need C to get cfourcc to work? I decided first to try Super, a
very good free conversion and encoder program, with one of the
problem .avi files and it worked (avi to avi). A 280MB file took
15-20 minutes at the same resolution (as is).

Gene

David Dermott wrote:

On Mon, 13 Apr 2009, wrote:

Thanks for the detailed reply. Among the .avi race files I tested
were some from Canmore 2005-06 that the player couldn't read. Perhaps
your hack would fix that. How are you checking and changing the
'fourcc' tag? I assumed that meant opening the code, but it's not
obvious using NoteTab Light (binaries filtered). Plus the files are
rather large.

EUREKA! I just found out a few things about "fourcc" etc.

I mostly use Linux (Fedora8 with KDE), but have to use Windows-Xp
for some things. My Windows Media viewer is
not up to date and won't play some .avi videos. I found a little
program "Nic's AVIC fourcc changer" in the XviD package that is supposed
to change the "fourcc" tag but I've had mixed results.

On Linux I've changed the fourcc by copying the file with FFMPEG
(creates a second file of the same size and takes time).
But I just found a very simple program that seems to work.

CFOURCC from http://sarovar.org/projects/gfourcc
It just reads the 224 byte header from the AVI file, changes one or
two 4 byte strings and re-writes the header back to the original file.

But it turns out that there are 2 fourcc tags! one is the "Use"(u) tag,
the other the "Description"(d) tag. Why 2 tags???
The UNIX progam "file" shows the "use" tag, but
the KDE file viewer shows the "description" tag!

It's probably safer to change both tags to the same value.

"cfourcc -d DIVX -u DIVX video1.avi"

So I used "cfourcc" to make identical files with different tags,
copied to a thumb drive and tried it on my RCA DRC286 DVD player.

DIVX and divx plays
XVID and xvid plays
DX50 and dx50 plays (DX50 is the tag for DIVX-5)
FMP4 and fmp4 doesn't play (default for FFMPEG's MPEG-4)
The player seems to ignore the "d" tag.

YMMV: Other DVD plays may work differently

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/index.html

I have LG DVX 390 - not expensive (less than 25 euro, 90 polish zloty)
and very good one, also for World Cup races :]
Now I'm downloading rest of this season videos and I will have quite
everyting.

On Tue, 14 Apr 2009, wrote:

Would I need C to get cfourcc to work?

Maybe not , under the download section
there is a pre-compiled version of cfourcc for
Windows:
http://sarovar.org/frs/download.php/....1.0-win32.zip

I decided first to try Super, a
very good free conversion and encoder program, with one of the
problem .avi files and it worked (avi to avi). A 280MB file took
15-20 minutes at the same resolution (as is).

Reconverting and encoding to the proper video and audio codecs is
probably the safest way to go but 15-20 minutes seems slow. I'm using a
Celeron D-330 , 2.6 GHz and reconverting a 45 minute TV show (from a
VCR, resolution:352x240,size: 368 MB): takes 6min using FFMPEG. Bonus:
with the default settings, it compressed it to 95 MB with little loss of
quality.

Does your AVI converter have a "stream copy" mode? In this mode
it simply separates the audio and video channels, copies them as-is,
and re-multiplexes them into AVI format again. This is much faster,
the above 368 MB file only took 30 seconds.

The documentation for the advanced settings of FFMPEG
is rather poor. There are versions for Windows and Mac OS-X
with graphical front-ends, eg FFmpegX

On Tue, 14 Apr 2009, wrote:

The next project is to convert my VCR tapes to computer or DVD. I just
got EasyCAP with a previous version of Ulead's Video Source off eBay.
It's a basic video grabber and is supposed to work really well.


I'm in the "between season", between winter activities and nice
cycling/kayaking weather, so I have some time for computer/video hacking.
I also just bought a video "grabber" (DVDXpress DX2) and am transfering a
friend's VCR programs to CDs'. The simplest way is to set up the grabber
and software (this is where I need to use Windows-XP): set for resolution
352x240, max record time 4 hours, and go away for 4 hours. When I come
back, hopefully I have a 1.5 GB AVI file. Note that an AVI file has a size
limit of 2 GB, the program with stop when it exceeds this size. Then I
switch to Linux, use FFMPEG to cut out various segments from the big file,
and re-compress them into 30-60 minute segments.

PS I just checked the fourcc tag on one of the original files that the
video-grabber saved:
(from cfourcc)
FOURCC of 'Movie-0001.avi' :
Description : DIVX
Use : DX50

So the "u" and "d" tags are different in this case,
but it still plays on my DVD player.


--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/index.html

cFourcc looks like a developer's copy. So using SUPER, I chose FFmpeg
and set stream for video and audio. A 400MB file took less than a
minute, but the sound was superspeed and the file size was unchanged.
How did you get them resynchronized? Then I set streamed video and
left audio as is, and that took 4 mins and came out fine, but the file
size was only 20MB less. My sense is that the video stream setting
takes the original resolution as it is, no matter what it's set at
before the stream option is chosen.

How are you getting file compression?

I tried the EasyCAP USB hardware + Ulead's Video Source software I got
for $17 on eBay, and it works pretty well transferring VHS's. It seems
to do best when resolution is set to 320x240 and nothing else is
running on the computer. I'm using an 1.8 MHz Athlon 64, 3GB RAM and a
separate video card.

Gene



David Dermott wrote:

On Tue, 14 Apr 2009, wrote:

Would I need C to get cfourcc to work?

Maybe not , under the download section
there is a pre-compiled version of cfourcc for
Windows:
http://sarovar.org/frs/download.php/....1.0-win32.zip

I decided first to try Super, a
very good free conversion and encoder program, with one of the
problem .avi files and it worked (avi to avi). A 280MB file took
15-20 minutes at the same resolution (as is).

Reconverting and encoding to the proper video and audio codecs is
probably the safest way to go but 15-20 minutes seems slow. I'm using a
Celeron D-330 , 2.6 GHz and reconverting a 45 minute TV show (from a
VCR, resolution:352x240,size: 368 MB): takes 6min using FFMPEG. Bonus:
with the default settings, it compressed it to 95 MB with little loss of
quality.

Does your AVI converter have a "stream copy" mode? In this mode
it simply separates the audio and video channels, copies them as-is,
and re-multiplexes them into AVI format again. This is much faster,
the above 368 MB file only took 30 seconds.

The documentation for the advanced settings of FFMPEG
is rather poor. There are versions for Windows and Mac OS-X
with graphical front-ends, eg FFmpegX

On Tue, 14 Apr 2009, wrote:

The next project is to convert my VCR tapes to computer or DVD. I just
got EasyCAP with a previous version of Ulead's Video Source off eBay.
It's a basic video grabber and is supposed to work really well.


I'm in the "between season", between winter activities and nice
cycling/kayaking weather, so I have some time for computer/video hacking.
I also just bought a video "grabber" (DVDXpress DX2) and am transfering a
friend's VCR programs to CDs'. The simplest way is to set up the grabber
and software (this is where I need to use Windows-XP): set for resolution
352x240, max record time 4 hours, and go away for 4 hours. When I come
back, hopefully I have a 1.5 GB AVI file. Note that an AVI file has a size
limit of 2 GB, the program with stop when it exceeds this size. Then I
switch to Linux, use FFMPEG to cut out various segments from the big file,
and re-compress them into 30-60 minute segments.

PS I just checked the fourcc tag on one of the original files that the
video-grabber saved:
(from cfourcc)
FOURCC of 'Movie-0001.avi' :
Description : DIVX
Use : DX50

So the "u" and "d" tags are different in this case,
but it still plays on my DVD player.


--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/index.html

Originally Posted by

For those who like me who have been watching the downloaded WC videos
(and regular movies) on computer monitor for years, I finally broke down
and got an inexpensive Philips DVD player (DVP5992, same as 5990) from
the local Costco ($45). It upscales to 1080 and plays very well full
screen on an HDTV. The computer files can be burned to CD/DVD or copied
to a USB thumb drive, just as they are in most formats (e.g., .avi).
Admittedly it's a cheap player, and there are better more expensive
ones out there, but if it holds up it's a real deal. And for this one
there is a firmware upgrade out there by some guy in Central Europe that
improves the menu structure/file text.

Gene

I just got a WDTV and I love it. Very handy, I got it on sale for around $120CDN and it can play anything. I just put my media (video, photo, or music) onto my USB drive and plug it into the WDTV, it provides playback for every video file including .mkv that is becoming more popular with 1080p encoding. It supports all resolution up to 1080p and playback is seamless.

It plays all World Cup races with ease and great quality. The best part is is that I no longer have to burn anything, just a quick transfer and it's ready to play. It has composite and HDMI plug-in too.

I suggest it to anyone who downloads a lot of media off of the internet.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/wdtv/