XMS-888 - Mpeg4 - Firmware?

[jokiin]

David, thanks for the response. I tried doing that earlier and it's not letting me get past the preferences screen. Should I have a Zone 1 disk in at the time?

Try it with no disc in

[andw]

Hi jok11n / others, did your player lose the 'title' and 'menu' buttons after playing an avi like mine did as described above.
p.s. someone else posted the region fix (not sure who at the moment)

[jokiin]

I'll have to try it again when I get home. I suspect that it is keeping the settings for avi when you change to dvd and is not refreshing the settings based on file type when they are changed. If that is the case I'll see if I can get it altered in the next firmware to reset on change of file type.

[Spank]

Yes well I think I will have a talk to my brother about this and see what he wants to do with it(probably take it back with one of the MPEG4 movies) and try get a refund on it. I was going to take one in when I bought it but I forgot to take it with me(1 hour drive to Brissy Car Sound). So I will see what my brother says first and go from there.

Edit: I just tried one of the MPEG4's that didn't work again, and it worked this time, so i thought i would take it out and put it back in and see if it played it again. So i stopped the movie, ejected the CD, put it back in, pressed play and got the Disc Error message.

So these CD's are just working when they want to. How is this possible? Is my DVD player FUBAR? because i'm thinking take it to Brissy Car Sound and show em it not working.
Hi Guys,
I'm also having troubles with "Disc Error" when trying to play AVI files.
I have read the previous postings, and have tried different types of discs.
Verbatim (blue and silver), Sony, TDK and Laser.
Most of the discs if have put in show "Disc Error" after doing the "Reading Index" phase.
I thought that it may have been the file size, however I made a new AVI and split it (using Virtualdub) into 5 segments each about 100meg. The first 3 worked great, then it skipped over 4 and read 5 fine.
One very interesting thing I have noticed is when it is "Reading Index" if you press the OSD button it will display the correct chapter length.
I thought this was strange as the XMS-888 can read the disc as it displays the AVI file name as well as the length of the file/ chapter.
Does anyone have any ideas??
PS - thanks heaps for setting this up, without it I think I would have blown my top by now, it good to know that I am not the only one who is having problems.

[davidf]

Jok11n next time you speak to the manufacturer can you ask them about future plans for container support i.e. ogm or MP4-Video.

this MPeg4 player and the support of the distributor seems very interesting.

http://www.avindustries.net/

[andw]

Hi Spank, If you can, take your 'broken' discs down to the store, and try them on one there. I have not had any problems with any discs, although some people have.
Maybe there was a batch with bad drives?
I have not had any problems with file sizes, 800MB even (on cdr).
Some people have tried multiple large files on DVD discs, so, It could be a bad drive I suppose. Just my thoughts.

[jokiin]

Jok11n next time you speak to the manufacturer can you ask them about future plans for container support i.e. ogm or MP4-Video.

this MPeg4 player and the support of the distributor seems very interesting.

http://www.avindustries.net/

Not sure about the container support you are reffering to, can you be more specific? I have checked out that site before, it looks as though they are resellers not manufacturers. The player seems to be based on much of the same internals, I notice they don't have any firmware yet either. Reading through their site it reads as though their player is guaranteed to play back files created with the software that they are selling, which is logical I guess as it's parameters are a known quantity.

[jokiin]

Hi Spank, If you can, take your 'broken' discs down to the store, and try them on one there. I have not had any problems with any discs, although some people have.
Maybe there was a batch with bad drives?
I have not had any problems with file sizes, 800MB even (on cdr).
Some people have tried multiple large files on DVD discs, so, It could be a bad drive I suppose. Just my thoughts.

This could also relate to the file itself, rather than the disc.

[andw]

this MPeg4 player and the support of the distributor seems very interesting.

http://www.avindustries.net/

Hmm.. I wonder if that is the same as ours with a different face plate.
I like the 'coming soon' AVX-500. (the 500 is a bit deeper than ours tho)

[davidf]

Container formats are basically files that hold the video, audio, subs, chapters and menu streams.
If the player supported OGM created discs would behave the same way a DVD behaves and that would be great.

OGM and MP4 seem to be the 2 common formats. The distributor of the AVX-100 is claiming that OGM support is currently under development for that model.

[Spank]

This could also relate to the file itself, rather than the disc.
I first thought it might relate to corrupt file, however I have tried at least 20 different files. With different versions of DivX (mainly 5.02) and different resolutions. There are a couple of them which will play (sometimes after pressing play up to 5 times) and then there are others which play when they feel like it. Then again I have a couple which play no problem at all. I have checked for any differences and can't find why one would play and others won't.
By the way I have noticed something about the OSD button not in the manual (surprise surprise)
If the OSD button is pressed while an AVI is selected on the "Smart Nav I" screen, it will show all the Properties about the file.
File size,
Audio compression,
Video compression,
Total Playing time,
Resolution
File creation date.
This is shown on both the AVI's I can and can't play.
So I don't get it why it spits the dummy on most of the AVI's, but I'll take Andw's advice and head on down to Brisbane Car Sound today and see what happens.

[jokiin]

I first thought it might relate to corrupt file, however I have tried at least 20 different files. With different versions of DivX (mainly 5.02) and different resolutions. There are a couple of them which will play (sometimes after pressing play up to 5 times) and then there are others which play when they feel like it. Then again I have a couple which play no problem at all. I have checked for any differences and can't find why one would play and others won't.
By the way I have noticed something about the OSD button not in the manual (surprise surprise)
If the OSD button is pressed while an AVI is selected on the "Smart Nav I" screen, it will show all the Properties about the file.
File size,
Audio compression,
Video compression,
Total Playing time,
Resolution
File creation date.
This is shown on both the AVI's I can and can't play.
So I don't get it why it spits the dummy on most of the AVI's, but I'll take Andw's advice and head on down to Brisbane Car Sound today and see what happens.

I didn't mean that the file was corrupt, but perhaps an unsupported format. Take your discs with you and try another player, it could just be that the drive itself is faulty which would warrant a replacement. Didn't know about the file details in smart navi, I'll check it out.

[davidf]

Second thing is, I had a DVD-RAM thingy, but too many disk incompatibilities and UDF problems - Have now gotten a Diamond Data DVD+/- burner which also has HD-CD. Nero 5599 and up supports HDCD and it's a great feature. 1.4Gb on a standard 700Mb disk. UNfortunately, Nero gets confused with 800Mb disks and HDCD. Anyway... Point 2 is ... Having the XMS-888 recognise HDCD disks.


This interested me just for a second, HDCD is an audio format so i was confused about an audio format somehow doubling the capacity of a CD.

Then the reality :(
'HD-Burn' a new burn method introduced by Sanyo

http://www.sanyo.co.jp/koho/hypertext4-eng/0209news-e/0925-2e.html

With the ongoing development in DVDr technology I can see the CDR going the way of the floppy in the not to distant future, anyone remember the imation 20mbyte floppies ?

[davidf]

Just a thought

1 x 800mb CDR - 35c cost/mb 0.04375c
1 x 4450mb DVDR - 105c cost/mb 0.02359c

[andw]

Didn't know about the file details in smart navi, I'll check it out.
Yes, this was reported by someone else, a loong way back, it was also in Firmware version 1.0, but as I said before regarding this, some of the info has to be taken with a grain of salt.. (eg some files report differently than Gspot)

[andw]

Just a thought

1 x 800mb CDR - 35c cost/mb 0.04375c
1 x 4450mb DVDR - 105c cost/mb 0.02359c
1 x DVD burner $200+ :PI

[davidf]

2 weeks ago at a computer fair DVD burners were going for $198 cant wait to see the prices at the end of January for 4x +/-r. My guess is that 8x burners will not go much over $200 which would put the older stuff at around $160.

[malcez]

Response to Spank:

The "disc error" upon playing .avi's on a CDR is a problem i had too. And yes, it is inconsistent. Sometimes they play, sometimes they don't. It can take >5x to get one to play. This made me think that is was a laser problem. But then, as you said, the file information is readable. It is peculiar.

I never had a problem with DVDR's. So therefore what i am doing is burning 5-7 .avi's per DVDR. And yes, andw, DVDR's are more bang for your buck. Although i have not seen them as cheap as $1.05 each. I get them in a pack of 25 for $35 ($1.40 each) from "the disc shop" in mansfield, brisbane. my dvd burner is a 4x + or -.

I have given up on CDR's. They seem only to work well in this machine for things like VCD / MP3 etc. Go DVDR.

[andw]

This makes interesting reading, it is about the "Yamada" player based on the ESS chipset. Interesting, thread starts about September, same sorts of early problems. (e.g. turn off OSD, units display stops updating etc)
http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?threadid=85884&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
EDIT:
p.s. page 3 - they have the zoom and subtitle support fixed on that player (ESS chipset) (sheridan2000 post - from german website)

[davidf]

The flexibilty and pricing of DVDr is a good reason to use them, I think that media will still get cheaper. Putting multiple movies etc on DVDr is the only way to go which is why I think that support for menus and chapters is a 'BIG' must have for the DVD player.

Princo Grade A 50 spindle (printable) $50 (wont burn at 4x but who cares)
RiData 4x DVD-r 50 spindle $65
RiData 4x DVD+r 50 spindle $75
RiData 4x DVD+rw 20 spindle $55
Hico 90min CDR 50 spindle $17
Melody 99 min CDR 10 pack $ 9

this is what I paid for the discs I bought 2 weeks ago. (had to stock up for xmas :) )