[Thorz]

Hi all!!

After extensive testing I have found that in my player the XVIDs that use packed bitstream don't play as the ones that don't use it. The difference is very subtle but it is there. It is easy to detect with the naked eye in scenes that make big horizontal camera pans (movement), not so easy if the scene is with people that is static in one position or scenes where the camera doesn't move. The problem is that the movies with packed bitstream don’t look as smooth as the ones that don’t have it. You can really see stuttering or mini-jumps on the image, it is not fluid as when packed bitstream is not used.

This is an example showing the AVI info from GSpot of an affected movie (click the tumbnails for bigger pics):

Movie: 16 Blocks:
Original (encoded using XVID with packed bitstream (NVOP)):

The "evil" tag and keyword here is "DivX503b1393p" under metadata.

Modified (unpacked, (no NVOP)) with MPEG4 Modifier 1.4.2 http://www.moitah.net:

Do you see that after unpacking it the metadata doesn't show "DivX503b1393p"

Have you noticed this?? I have heard that this can be a common problem with several players including Philips ones. I was thinking that the Pioneers could handle packed bitstream (NVOP) perfectly, but it appears that I was just dreaming.

I can confirm that both movies (packed and unpacked) play perfectly on my Windows PC using BSPlayer. I am using the component connection of the DV-393s and have tried in progressive and normal (120Hz.) mode, no difference on the results. I have also tested with several AVIs downloaded from diferent sources, TV series and movies and all them show the same behavor. All them play smooth after riping away the packed bitstream with MPEG4 Modifier.

I would like to hear some comments about this. It is really disappointing because almost all the movies that you can download from the net come nowadays as XVID with packed bitstream. I can of course run MPEG4 Modifier to unpack them but this really beats the advantage that a player like the DV-393s has over older models. Thanks a lot.

[dinderi]

Unfortunately, all players that we talk about here (older and newer), have the same problem with PB in Xvid.
It is only the proof, that new models are only bit different then old ones, but not improved.

[lechu]

In fact the new pioneer players are not more advanced than an old ones. There is the same main processor, so you cannot expect an advantage in playing divx/xvid movies. This processor is simply to slow.

[Doodleboy]

I have just purchased a new Pioneer DV696 which is DivX Ultra liscenced and it plays all the DivX/XviD movies I have tried with no problem. I have even tried one movie with one unmodified and the same file modified with MPEG4 Modifier and there is no seeable difference!! I have had a DV575 and all packed bitstream files had to be modified before viewing or they did not replay properly. So things are getting better

[Thorz]

Doodleboy wrote:

I have just purchased a new Pioneer DV696 which is DivX Ultra liscenced and it plays all the DivX/XviD movies I have tried with no problem. I have even tried one movie with one unmodified and the same file modified with MPEG4 Modifier and there is no seeable difference!! I have had a DV575 and all packed bitstream files had to be modified before viewing or they did not replay properly. So things are getting better

These are EXTREMELY good news!! Thanks a lot for sharing!!

[dinderi]

Doodleboy, would you please keep checking Xvid files with PB on dv-696? To be compleately sure that every PB movie is playing fine. I hope, one day someone find the way to implement this to all Pioneer's firmwares.

[!robert7]

Packed Bitstream causes troubles on DVDs with old RISC (it's NOT a hardware issue) only if:
- Max consecutive B-VOPs: 2 (or more)
- Quant type: MPEG

If you need an easy test for the Packed bitstream issue:
http://robert7spam.front....stream_test.rar

[ Added: 2007-02-13, 17:22 ]

dinderi wrote:

I hope, one day someone find the way to implement this to all Pioneer's firmwares.

RISC replacement from 696 to 393 may fix it, but the question is will it kill the DVD?

[gufiak]

robert7 wrote:

RISC replacement from 696 to 393 may fix it, but the question is will it kill the DVD?

Yes. Player shows background and hangs. There is too much differences between 696 and 393 ARM & 8032 codes. This could be a problem. Maybe some day I will try to add some logging in 8032 startup code and analyze ARM startup code to find the reason of hanging. Maybe the've made some simple detection of code type.