XMS-888 - Mpeg4 - Firmware?

[andw]

Hi buts, at the moment (firmware 1.1) I find it is best to power off / on the player before playing DVD's, especially if you have played any .avi type files previously.
This way, all your remote buttons will work again on DVD's (like 'menu').
Playing an avi file breaks some of the remote buttons, until you power the unit off / on again.

[andw]

']anyone know if this ill read 3iVX movie codec? i did some tests and found out its betetr than Divx 5.1.1 and Xvid 1 Beta3in quality level and speed encording
Hi W00t, just tried with 3iVX D4 4.5 encoder (encoded about 2 mins 12 secs of video).
pressing OSD on remote says the file is 3IV2, but fails to play it. (says "codec not supported")
I'll add it to the list on the website.
edit : I used the default settings for 3iVX, Gspot says 1012kb/s

[pepito]

Ok, pepito, you may have both problems, or either (mono and low bitrate)



Have been thinking about this problem of mine with this movie.

Does anybody know of an easy way to convert or re-encode it with something to increase the audio bitrate or remove the mono ?

I realise neither of these would improve the quality of the movie but at least could then watch the video on the XMS player instead of the PC.

ta in advance

[Richie]

Have been thinking about this problem of mine with this movie.

You should be able to demux your avi into video and audio only files. Process the audio by converting to wav format then fixing in your favourite audio editor, re-encode the audio and remux with the video file. Just keep in mind the end result may be a larger file than the original.

[andw]

Have been thinking about this problem of mine with this movie.
Does anybody know of an easy way to convert or re-encode it with something to increase the audio bitrate or remove the mono ?
I realise neither of these would improve the quality of the movie but at least could then watch the video on the XMS player instead of the PC.
ta in advance
I did this just the other day for the first time with an old 70's space tv show (had 56kb audio).
Use VirtualDub (freeware) http://www.virtualdub.org/ .
Open the AVI file, save the audio as a WAV, reimport the audio, and save the file. (It's a bit of messing around though)

[himem.sys]

hi just trying to get my divX encodings right (so that they play on the XMS) - so far not impressed.

I'm using smart ripper or dvd decrypter to rip .vob files from dvd's and using FlaskMpeg to encode them into .avi's - but when i got to play them on the XMS-888 i get brilliant picture and no sound :(

So far used divX 5+ codec to encode but audio have tried mp3 and PCM - i am new to this sort of thing so i might be doing stuff wrong can someone tell me what audio encodings work with the XMS (in flaskMpeg).

Also with the firmware 1.1 noticed on the site that theres a Nero Disc Image file - so is this just the same as dragging and dropping the file onto a cd and burning?

Another q with the firmware 1.2 - if i dont install fw 1.1 and go straight to 1.2 is this ok? Or do i have to install 1.1 first?

thanks

[jokiin]

hi just trying to get my divX encodings right (so that they play on the XMS) - so far not impressed.

I'm using smart ripper or dvd decrypter to rip .vob files from dvd's and using FlaskMpeg to encode them into .avi's - but when i got to play them on the XMS-888 i get brilliant picture and no sound :(

So far used divX 5+ codec to encode but audio have tried mp3 and PCM - i am new to this sort of thing so i might be doing stuff wrong can someone tell me what audio encodings work with the XMS (in flaskMpeg).

Also with the firmware 1.1 noticed on the site that theres a Nero Disc Image file - so is this just the same as dragging and dropping the file onto a cd and burning?

Another q with the firmware 1.2 - if i dont install fw 1.1 and go straight to 1.2 is this ok? Or do i have to install 1.1 first?

thanks

The image file needs to burnt as an image, not dragged and dropped, in nero 5x choose file/burn image, in nero 6x choose recorder/burn image. I only put that there as I had someone that killed a player because the settings they used were incorrect so I created an image of the firmware disc with nero so that I knew that the settings being used were correct.

Firmwares do not need to be done consecutively, If you haven't done so already I would suggest you change to 1.1

[andw]

hi just trying to get my divX encodings right (so that they play on the XMS) - so far not impressed.

I'm using smart ripper or dvd decrypter to rip .vob files from dvd's and using FlaskMpeg to encode them into .avi's - but when i got to play them on the XMS-888 i get brilliant picture and no sound :(
So far used divX 5+ codec to encode but audio have tried mp3 and PCM - i am new to this sort of thing so i might be doing stuff wrong can someone tell me what audio encodings work with the XMS (in flaskMpeg).

Hi, emm386.exe :) , I have used both FairUse (freeware) and DVDx (also freeware), both of these programs do not need to be ripped first, and DVDx will do either (ripped or not). I have used both Xvid codec, and divX5 codec with no problem. DVDx in particular does everything for you, including the audio.
If your using another program to do it yourself, make sure that you use MP3, and at least 128k/s stereo for audio.

Also with the firmware 1.1 noticed on the site that theres a Nero Disc Image file - so is this just the same as dragging and dropping the file onto a cd and burning?

Use Nero, select File - Burn Image - select the .nrg image file.


Another q with the firmware 1.2 - if i dont install fw 1.1 and go straight to 1.2 is this ok? Or do i have to install 1.1 first?
thanks

No, you can jump straight from 1.0 to 1.2 if you want, it's the same as flashing a PC's bios, and nothing like doing a service pack.
That is, the new firmware completeley overwrites the old one.

Although, I would recommend going to 1.1, as it fixes up some lock up bugs, and on screen display issues.

[andw]

blast, jok11n beat me to it.

[jokiin]

blast, jok11n beat me to it.

Only jumped on it so there was no confusion over what the nrg file was about, already had one person kill a player because the instructions weren't followed correctly, just trying to avoid that happening again.

[andw]

- I was just playing around - Your welcome to jump in and post any time. (especially if your announcing new firmware :-) )

[jokiin]

- I was just playing around - Your welcome to jump in and post any time. (especially if your announcing new firmware :-) )

don't worry, when I have the firmware you will get to preview it first anyway.

[davidf]

Himem,
when you are encoding with divx or xvid make sure you are using a standard audio setting, also I have noticed that single pass encodes seem to work better on the xms than multi pass encodes. Audi is the biggest problem and I have found that if you want to use vbr for the audio make sure the audio is mp2 and not mp3. there is definitely an issue with mp3 vbr audio when muxed with an avi file. I have found that vbr mp2 files work from 96k-384k sampling without hassle on the xms. As an aside I would suggest that if you are encoding you use xvid in preference to divx take a look around the web and you will find most avi torrent files are xvid not divx and that to me indicates that xvid is gaining a huge following. Another thing give xmpeg a miss its got some real hassles you should try dvdx 2.2 similar to flask but less buggy.

[antec]

I have been using the XMS for a while now and theres a lot of things that the hand comes up for. On example is if you try skip to the start of the movie with the previous button, it brings the hand up. Subsequently, all other buttons are disables and you are forced to turn the player off and on again.

This sort of dodgy behavious is indication that the porson who wrote the firmware really doesnt know how to white a state machine. There seems to be a lot of "if this goes wrong then that will be inactive" problems. So my question is why dont the makers of the XMS 888 release the firmware as opensource. That way, the professional consumer can taylor the firmware to suit their own needs. Having written many such menu applications in my line of work, I know that I could do a darn sight better job!

I guess Im just _another_ frustrated consumer. And to think that the manager at the Adelaide branch had the nerve to say that I was getting a bargain and that this player should be $100 more! With these bugs its not worth $20 and no professional establishment would put up with it.

XMS = eXtremely Mediocre Stuff

[lat3ralis]

Hi W00t, just tried with 3iVX D4 4.5 encoder (encoded about 2 mins 12 secs of video).
pressing OSD on remote says the file is 3IV2, but fails to play it. (says "codec not supported")
I'll add it to the list on the website.
edit : I used the default settings for 3iVX, Gspot says 1012kb/s

3iVX is just another mpeg-4 codec, I'd try changing the avi's fourcc code to 'XVID' or 'DIVX' and see if it works. For instructions on how to do this, see one of my earlier posts :D

In related news, 3iVX 4.5.1 is out ... see www.doom9.org for details.

lat3ralis

[andw]

I have been using the XMS for a while now and theres a lot of things that the hand comes up for. On example is if you try skip to the start of the movie with the previous button, it brings the hand up. Subsequently, all other buttons are disables and you are forced to turn the player off and on again.

This sort of dodgy behavious is indication that the porson who wrote the firmware really doesnt know how to white a state machine. There seems to be a lot of "if this goes wrong then that will be inactive" problems. So my question is why dont the makers of the XMS 888 release the firmware as opensource. That way, the professional consumer can taylor the firmware to suit their own needs. Having written many such menu applications in my line of work, I know that I could do a darn sight better job!

I guess Im just _another_ frustrated consumer. And to think that the manager at the Adelaide branch had the nerve to say that I was getting a bargain and that this player should be $100 more! With these bugs its not worth $20 and no professional establishment would put up with it.

XMS = eXtremely Mediocre Stuff
Hi antec, I'd agree with you on the problem of the 'hand', however jok11n has asked them to fix this up by resetting some stuff on file load.
I can't see any of this sort of thing ever being open source, because of all the macrovision and dvd decryption stuff in the code. (but it would be good)
Hopefully 1.2 will be the answer we are looking for....

[andw]

Himem,
when you are encoding with divx or xvid make sure you are using a standard audio setting, also I have noticed that single pass encodes seem to work better on the xms than multi pass encodes. Audi is the biggest problem and I have found that if you want to use vbr for the audio make sure the audio is mp2 and not mp3. there is definitely an issue with mp3 vbr audio when muxed with an avi file. I have found that vbr mp2 files work from 96k-384k sampling without hassle on the xms. As an aside I would suggest that if you are encoding you use xvid in preference to divx take a look around the web and you will find most avi torrent files are xvid not divx and that to me indicates that xvid is gaining a huge following. Another thing give xmpeg a miss its got some real hassles you should try dvdx 2.2 similar to flask but less buggy.
I have a tv show (that shall remain nameless) that GSPOT reports as..
Video: xvid 640x352 (1.82:1) [=20:11] bitrate 993 kb/s FPS 23.976
Audio :0x0055(MP3) ID'd as MPEG-1 Layer 3 129 kb/s (64/ch, stereo) VBR 48000 Hz
This VBR works...
(gspot really needs a 'copy settings to clipboard' option)

[pepito]

Thanks Richie and Andw,

I'll give it a go tonight.

cheers :)

[davidf]

I have a tv show (that shall remain nameless) that GSPOT reports as..
Video: xvid 640x352 (1.82:1) [=20:11] bitrate 993 kb/s FPS 23.976
Audio :0x0055(MP3) ID'd as MPEG-1 Layer 3 129 kb/s (64/ch, stereo) VBR 48000 Hz
This VBR works...
(gspot really needs a 'copy settings to clipboard' option)

One thing I have noted with both gspot and avicodec, they both get it wrong quite often. The header on the mp2 audio file is usually a lame header as the mp2 version of the lame encoder is the most commonly used. If you try to demux these files, depending on the software, you will get warnings about the properties of the audio file being incorrect or corrupt an example of this is nandub, more often than not nandub will suggest that you convert the audio to wav then back to mp2 in order to get the correct audio sync. Basically if the audio is vbr it is about 90% chance that it is mp2 and not mp3.

This is yet another issue that needs to be resolved with the xms firmware, reading header information of an audio data stream is not enough at least reading a few frames of the audio stream will allow a better choice in the selection of the playback codec.

[andw]

3iVX is just another mpeg-4 codec, I'd try changing the avi's fourcc code to 'XVID' or 'DIVX' and see if it works. For instructions on how to do this, see one of my earlier posts :D
lat3ralis

OK, on the 3iVX issue, YES, if you use 'Nic's Mini AviC Four CC changer', and change the 4cc code both Description and Used code from 3iVX to XVid the file plays perfectly. (takes all of about 5 seconds to do)