XMS-888 Great little machine!

[Fullnoise]

Thanks to Andw and Jokn and everyone for their contribution to the information available on the XMS-888. I purchased one of these on Saturday, upgraded the firmware to 1.2 and it is a great machine. Plays everything I could throw at it, DIVX3, 4 and 5, XVID,VCD and DVD-Rs and no audio sync problems with avis encoded with VBR MP3.
The only problem I had was one particular avi with AC3 sound was out of sync, yet other avis with ac3 played perfect. When I checked this problem avi on my PC the audio sync was good. I re-muxed it with MP3 audio and it played perfect.
Also the rear speaker volume on AC3 is very low compared to my 2 year old Omni DVD player. I have the front 5.1 outputs going to my stereo TV and the rears to my sound system. Can anyone advise the best audio settings in the XMS-888 for this setup?

[headrippa]

Where do you pick up these players from ??? and whats the price of them, I think i might invest in one

[Scaramouche]

Originally Posted by headrippa

Where do you pick up these players from ??? and whats the price of them, I think i might invest in one

Well Strathfield sells 2 of them, the XMS-888 - $179 & the Trio-628 - $249.

It seems to be a catch 22 as both have features that the other one seems to be lacking

XMS-888
- Older Chipset
- Cannot play on widescreen TV's properly
- No QPEL & GMC support for Divx
- Future support / firmware doubt due to release of new Chipset
+ Drive mechanism is more tolerant, can read -/+ RW better
+ Bigger forum support

Trio-628
+ Newer chipset
+ Supports more codecs
+ Can handle widescreen AVI's properly
+ QPEL & GMC support
- No word on firmware updates
- Drive mechanism supposedly has trouble reading discs
- Doesnt seem popular in this forum.

Personally iam leaning towards the trio

[andw]

Strathfield, about $179 (still I think), see this page on their current catalogue http://www.strathfield.com.au/catalo...1&PageNumber=2 .
Or for more info, www.xms888.tk

[headrippa]

Does the XMS-888 play normal DVD's on widescreen tv's ok, or is it just other file formats it has trouble with ???

[jokiin]

Originally Posted by headrippa

Does the XMS-888 play normal DVD's on widescreen tv's ok, or is it just other file formats it has trouble with ???

DVD's play fine, it's only the avi's that don't do widescreen correctly

[Fullnoise]

Yes, I paid $179 at Strathfield Car Radios, Rockingham, WA.

On the AC3 sound from the rear speakers, I tried a normal DVD and the rear sound output was perfect. Then tried an XVID avi with Ac3 sound it was just as good. I will have to try it agian tonight but maybe the trick is to first play a normal DVD? Anyone else experience this?

[foultaste]

Originally Posted by jok11n

DVD's play fine, it's only the avi's that don't do widescreen correctly

Hang on a minute, Let me get this one straight please.

In what way doesnt it do widescreen? My two cents is that none of the avi's I have ever downloaded have ever been anamorphic which is the reason why the player doesnt' stretch them to fit my 16:9 widescreen tv as it does with most dvd's which are usually anamorphic these days.

With my Metz 16:9 I simply use the zoom feature on my TV and zoom the picture to fill the screen without clipping.

Am I missing something?

What does the Trio do differently?

[andw]

On a 16:9 avi, the Trio does a Y-axis stretch so that a 16:9 avi fills the screen (if the player is set for 'widescreen TV', otherwise if the player is set for one of the 4:3 screen modes (e.g. letterbox) it displays the 16:9 avi in letterbox mode)
Also, if you have a 4:3 avi, and the Trio is set to 'widescreen', it will place black bars on the sides of the image, to keep the original aspect ratio.
(This also was the case with a 14:9 avi that I tried)

[foultaste]

Originally Posted by andw

On a 16:9 avi, the Trio does a Y-axis stretch so that a 16:9 avi fills the screen (if the player is set for 'widescreen TV', otherwise if the player is set for one of the 4:3 screen modes (e.g. letterbox) it displays the 16:9 avi in letterbox mode)
Also, if you have a 4:3 avi, and the Trio is set to 'widescreen', it will place black bars on the sides of the image, to keep the original aspect ratio.
(This also was the case with a 14:9 avi that I tried)

So the benefit is that it zooms the 16:9 non amorphic image to fit the screen automatically without you having to do it manually through either your TV or the zoom feature on your dvd player which (on the XMX) is crap. Right?

[andw]

Yes, that is correct.
(although it would be nice if it had a manual override, as if you do have an animorphic avi (rare I know), you have to go into the setup, and tell it that you have a 4:3 screen, otherwise you get the black bars down the sides, because it thinks it is 4:3)