XMS-888 - Mpeg4 - Firmware?

[davidf]

I tried the ReelMagic MPeg4 codec on a couple of vob files then muxed the ac3 back in. Unfortunately these files worked well on the PC but the XMS had a heart attack, although the video and audio played, the image kept 'Shearing' which distorted the audio at the same time.

So at the moment Divx 5.1.1 with AC3 is good and XVid with ac3 is good, havent noticed any difference between xvid(december 26 release) and divx 5.1.1 but divx is about 5-8 frames /sec slower than xvid for compression.

[lunchbox99]

The inability to disable macrovision on a divx player is one of the most baffling things I have ever seen.

I have a good but old-ish tv with no av inputs so I must connect a dvd player by passing through a vcr. My previous dvd player (nintaus from jb hi-fi) had macrovision disabled at the factory so this posed no problem. However, with my new xms-888 I cannot disable macrovision so am unable to watch legally purchased dvds without purchasing an rf converter or macrovision removal box (at least $50). THE IRONY IS THAT RIPPING THE DVD TO DIVX OR XVID CIRCUMVENTS THE COPY PROTECTION and I can watch the movie without buying anything. So indirectly, I am better off stealing and copying dvds rather than buying them in the future. What an absolutely farcical situation!! Obviously, some bozo from the recording/film industry has not really thought this through. Maybe they're just 5-10yrs behind the technology like they were with mp3?

[jokiin]

The inability to disable macrovision on a divx player is one of the most baffling things I have ever seen.

I have a good but old-ish tv with no av inputs so I must connect a dvd player by passing through a vcr. My previous dvd player (nintaus from jb hi-fi) had macrovision disabled at the factory so this posed no problem. However, with my new xms-888 I cannot disable macrovision so am unable to watch legally purchased dvds without purchasing an rf converter or macrovision removal box (at least $50). THE IRONY IS THAT RIPPING THE DVD TO DIVX OR XVID CIRCUMVENTS THE COPY PROTECTION and I can watch the movie without buying anything. So indirectly, I am better off stealing and copying dvds rather than buying them in the future. What an absolutely farcical situation!! Obviously, some bozo from the recording/film industry has not really thought this through. Maybe they're just 5-10yrs behind the technology like they were with mp3?

What's baffling, macrovision doesn't affect divx playback only dvd. I'm not saying I agree with it, but it's a law and the manufacturer is abiding by it. Ripping the movie isn't legal either, just because you CAN do something, doesn't make it right.

[lunchbox99]

Are you proposing that divx playback (and divx players for that matter) are used for legitimate purposes? Hmmmm... there must be an awful lot of people burning home movies. I wonder if the growth in video camera sales matches that of blank cds or dvds? You would have to be pretty naive to believe most mp3 and divx players are being used for non-copyright material.

[jokiin]

Are you proposing that divx playback (and divx players for that matter) are used for legitimate purposes? Hmmmm... there must be an awful lot of people burning home movies. I wonder if the growth in video camera sales matches that of blank cds or dvds? You would have to be pretty naive to believe most mp3 and divx players are being used for non-copyright material.

I don't believe for a second that is what they are used for, the point is that the macrovision does not effect divx playback which was what you were baffled by.

[lunchbox99]

I don't believe for a second that is what they are used for, the point is that the macrovision does not effect divx playback which was what you were baffled by.

OK. Point taken. Perhaps I should explain that I'm actually baffled by a regulatory system that allows me to play pirated material unhindered but prevents the viewing of original dvds without additional expense. It's simply a ridiculous situation.

[davidf]

OK. Point taken. Perhaps I should explain that I'm actually baffled by a regulatory system that allows me to play pirated material unhindered but prevents the viewing of original dvds without additional expense. It's simply a ridiculous situation.

A device which disables macrovision is just the same as decrypting the protected VOB files so that device would be for all intents and purposes as illegal as dvd ripping.

Macrovision was designed to specifically prevent copying DVDs, you are only unhindered in playing pirated dvds because you have chosen to flaunt the law.

I agree in principle with macrovision(even if it is a pain). What really amuses me is that some people still have antiquated TV's that don't have AV input. Get serious its been over ten years since even crappy TV's didnt come standard with AV inputs. MInd you outside of Australia its been 20 years since TVs didnt have AV input.

[lunchbox99]

A device which disables macrovision is just the same as decrypting the protected VOB files so that device would be for all intents and purposes as illegal as dvd ripping.

Macrovision was designed to specifically prevent copying DVDs, you are only unhindered in playing pirated dvds because you have chosen to flaunt the law.

I agree in principle with macrovision(even if it is a pain). What really amuses me is that some people still have antiquated TV's that don't have AV input. Get serious its been over ten years since even crappy TV's didnt come standard with AV inputs. MInd you outside of Australia its been 20 years since TVs didnt have AV input.

FYI davidf, CSS and macrovision are not the same thing. Macrovision was not developed to stop dvd copying. Macrovision was introduced in the early 80s to stop vcr-to-vcr copying by fooling the automatic gain control circuitry. CSS was developed to stop digital dvd copying. Macrovision was simply retained for it's original purpose - to stop analogue copies to vcr.

What is the real intention of selling a divx player? I suspect it's like mp3 players where many people are not only playing copies of music they own. I doubt Australian copyright law allows that "backup" use anyway.

Regarding the av connectors, are you proposing that I (and millions of others) should chuck out our tvs? It's one thing for a device to become obsolete, quite another for a company to make it obselete.

I think the real reason behind macrovision is to stop "casual piracy" in the marketplace. Companies probably know that the small minority of techno-savvy people will always find a way around protection schemes. Macrovision probably acheives very little in preventing dvd copying "for profit". A serious movie thief would not be deterred by macrovision.

[lunchbox99]

A device which disables macrovision is just the same as decrypting the protected VOB files so that device would be for all intents and purposes as illegal as dvd ripping.

Macrovision was designed to specifically prevent copying DVDs, you are only unhindered in playing pirated dvds because you have chosen to flaunt the law.

I agree in principle with macrovision(even if it is a pain). What really amuses me is that some people still have antiquated TV's that don't have AV input. Get serious its been over ten years since even crappy TV's didnt come standard with AV inputs. MInd you outside of Australia its been 20 years since TVs didnt have AV input.


By the way, when did I ever say I want to play pirated dvds? My point is that I'm trying to play legally purchased movies. Get it now?

PS It's flout the law not flaunt the law.

[malcez]

Enough of this semantics and fandangos.

We should all concentrate on the issue at hand - improving the suboptimal firmware on the XMS888.

Questions:
Can anyone explain to this newbie junkie WHERE the firmware is flashed to exactly?
Is it held in flashrom on part of the Vibratto chip? Or somewhere else?

How does firmware work? Is it just a program that runs on a predefined system where the power, outputs, dvd mechanism, on screen display and lcd display are already geared to go? Or do you require a working firmware to get all of these things going?
How much of the circuitry is firmware-independent?

For example - if i flash the player and stuff it up, will the machine allow me to get my disc out on next reboot? And allow reflash of old firmware?

I know that power to the player is not part of firmware, and that you should be able to provide power on next reboot no matter how badly you stuffed up the system, but is disc ejection mechanism part of the firmware?

If you stuff up the firmware, can you change a jumper on the inside to reset it like on a computer BIOS?

Can we try other firmwares? Would other firmwares damage the circuitry irreversibly, or could they simply be reversed by reflashing with our 1.1?

Sorry i need to know more about this. Getting impatient waiting for the next firmware upgrade. Someone out there must be wealthy enough to gamble $188 on experimenting on their own unit. I sense, but cannot be sure, that we will be able to use one of those yamada firmwares, or at least a modified version of those firmwares, since they are based on same hardware as ours. But i don't have the knowledge, expertise, or confidence to go experimenting just yet.

Any thoughts?

[jokiin]

If you flash with incorrect firmware your machine will not work, there is no reset function at all the player will be dead. Please don't be tempted. Try not to be too impatient with the firmware, it will come. Asking the factory to provide firmware multiple times for every little issue is time consuming and labour intensive, getting multiple fixes each time makes much more sense. The focus of the next update will be mpeg-4 audio issues and picture size (zoom)

[andw]

I agree with jok11n, as I posted some pages back when this was brought up (see my post on my XMS-150 somewhere above)...
Just because a DVD player has the same chipset does not mean it can use the firmware.
The firmware on the DVD player is like the BIOS on a PC, use the wrong one, and you could quite easily say goodbye to your PC / DVD player.
Only recently have some PC mainboards started shipping with 2 BIOS chips, so you can change a jumper to use the other one if you stuff up the flash. These mainboards are usually a bit more expensive than the single BIOS ones.

[andw]

from Skaman (digitalathome forum)
Hey andw!

Thanks for the links. I'm collecting ESS Divx firmwares for analysis.

The Yamada and XMS do NOT share the same chipset. The Yamada uses a Vibratto S chip (external loader control) while the XMS uses a Vibratto II chip (integrated loader control). Swapping firmwares between these two units is NOT recommended.
ESS uses a single code suite that is configured by each OEM to match their hardware. The basecode is standard across all of these units. When you disassemble the firmwares, you'll be surprised by how similar they are (BUT that doesn't mean that they can be swapped!).

If anyone wants to see more ESS Divx firmwares, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ess_divx_firmware
There are also some others stored in the MIPSX SRC Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mipsx_src

BTW, if anyone locates a ESS Divx firmware that is not stored in the ESS_Divx_Firmware group, please upload it there - I can't keep up with all of the new releases!

Happy New Year!

[davidf]

FYI Lunchbox99 maybe I didn't make myself clear. I didn't mention CSS and DVD macrovision is not like the copy protection on tapes, they are protected by a weakening the tracking signal of the tape. On A DVD a pulse is emitted during playback.

If your TV is that good then I would suggest that to maintain the quality that DVD video offers (another reason not to go through a tuner), you take your TV to a reliable techie and have an AV socket set added to it. This is a very simple process which in a TV under 20 years old only requires, at worst, the soldering of a few connectors on the output side of the TV's tuner.

Back to reality, I'm sorry to everyone else in this forum for what is almost a flame, but it gets on my goat when we are here specifically to resolve issues relating to the xms and someone wants to bitch about irrelevant/illicit issues.

So now i'm going to go cut down all my favorite vinyls so that they fit in my cd player, that should work right?, damn why do they keep changing technology on me :)

[davidf]

Almost forgot happy newyear to all and especially andw n jo11n for all your efforts.

[andw]

Sorry about the cross post, but the 'website' has been updated here.
http://home.swiftdsl.com.au/~wweb/xms888/

[fluffydog]

Does this XMS 888 player support *.srt, *.smi and *.sub subtitles?

[davidf]

Does this XMS 888 player support *.srt, *.smi and *.sub subtitles?

Not at this time but there is hope for the future.

[davidf]

Just stumbled across this url seems like a reasonable information provider, has a lot of information on technology releases and who is doing what.

http://svartling.hopto.org/Blogg/default.aspx

[fluffydog]

Not at this time but there is hope for the future.


Thanks for that Davidf.

So far I'm leaning heavily to ordering one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3069065105