mini divx player

yankinlk

looking for a few solutions...

1. my laptop has one usb port and no tv-out on board. is there a tv-out solution that comes in pcmcia or usb form? and where do i find it.

2. build-it-myself mini divx player to hook up to the tv, but it has to be damn silent (like a laptop)

PPC

Originally posted by yankinlk
looking for a few solutions...

1. my laptop has one usb port and no tv-out on board. is there a tv-out solution that comes in pcmcia or usb form? and where do i find it.

Yes Haupauge (SP?) do one in usb iirc

Originally posted by yankinlk
2. build-it-myself mini divx player to hook up to the tv, but it has to be damn silent (like a laptop)

Via eden board
Then you can passivly cool it

yankinlk

thanks, ill check both of those out. Just out of interest...anyone know the slowest pc you could play a divx (i have seen one run on a p100 laptop)

and the slowest pc/least memory video card you could export divx to TV?

Gerry

I don't think divx will play at full frame rate on anything less than a p2 300, and even that is scraping it. Its not full framerate on my laptop when its running at reduced speed on batteries ( 230mhz ).

yankinlk

is that running off the hard drive gerry?

PPC

Windows

• Windows 98 or higher
• Pentium II 450 processor or equivalent
• 64 MB or more of RAM
• 8 MB or higher video card
• Minimum 24-bit color when using Windows Media Player
• DirectX 7 or higher is suggested for best video performance

Thats the minium for DivX

po0k

Could get a desktop ATX case and that Sigma Xcard yoke for HW decoding (though I heard someone on baords said it doesn't decode VBR divxes), cut down the cards etc. and the usual sound mods.
Should be ok. Needs a P200(MMX?) minimum with 64meg ram.

Mixie

I could play divx on my old old pc with no problems.

p166mmx
96mb SD ram
divx on 8gb IBM 7200rpm HD
Guillmont Banshee (16mb) card.

^^ had TV out, but never tried it

Gerry

It was running off the hard drive yankinlk.

Mixie, are you saying that you played a decent quality ( 2 cd rip of a dvd ) divx at 25 fps on a p166mmx? Very strange.

Inspector Gadget

It just so happens that I was reading an article on the subject not so long ago... here it is, http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/r_via_eden/. On Page 2 of said review is the following:

Divx: On default settings, all video is VERY jumpy and out of sync, with both Media Player and The Player 2.0. However, when I lowered the DIVX quality settings (Start-Programs-DivX-DivX Pro Codec-Decoder Configuration) to the minimum, all playback was perfect. I noticed no sync issues. Playback was tested with a file run from the DVD player, and off of the hard drive, performance was the same. Minimal difference could be noticed between the quality settings in DIVX, especially when the TV-OUT was enabled.

To test the Eden’s ability as a dedicated DIVX box, I used a program designed for this application, DivXOS. This software is perfect for an application such as this, as when a CD is inserted with a movie file (DIVX or VCD) it will auto-play it. All control is done through the keyboard, and if you had a remote interface to the computer, it would be very easy to configure the remote to work with DivxOS. To get optimal ease-of- use, I placed this program in the startup folder, so that when the system is booted, it automatically goes into the program. Playback is perfect (due to the above tweaking), and this allow for a nice DIVX box.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw that into the mix...
Gadget

yankinlk

oh u 2 cd rippers are all the same

I have seen a good few "one cd" divx (with overburn, 710~ mb) that are pretty decent. Usually shorter movies and or animations, but still.

and then ive seen some that are shíte at 750 mb.

yankinlk

okay inspector gadget...u really got me thinking now...

http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=42&page=1

someone posted that a while ago, but it still shows what could be done...

COMPONENTS

VIA EPIA 5000 Mini-ITX motherboard As described above, no fan on CPU heatsink $120 typical
256 meg PC133 SDRAM Generic $25 typical
Seagate Barracuda IV 20G hard drive Still the quietest drive around $60 current value
Creative 12X CD-RW Older fairly quiet optical drive $40 typical
Seasonic SS-200SFD SFX (Flex-ATX) PSU Very quiet with S2FC fan circuit (4.3V default to fan); the fan in this sample, despite being the same 0.25A-rated Adda used in the SS300, is particularly quiet. It does not speed up at all in this application, as total power draw is extremely low. $32 typical
IKEA plastic breadbox (13.5" x 6" x 10") $6.50 (Cdn) $4
Small momentary contact switch For PC power $2
Power LED To show when the PC is on $1

TOTAL $284

yankinlk

http://www.mini-itx.com/projects.asp

have a look at "container pcs" projects

1 gascan pc (petrol)
2 lunchbox
3 n64
4 humidor
5 SEGA!
6 ....

on and on....

Wossack

Originally posted by yankinlk
http://www.mini-itx.com/projects.asp

Bah its the webby I was trying to find fer ages!

http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/mediabox/

Youve probably already found this, but its looks pretty damn
swank and along the lines of what you want to do

ozpass

2. build-it-myself mini divx player to hook up to the tv, but it has to be damn silent (like a laptop)

I'm not entirely sure if this would be 'mini' enough for your purposes, but you can (relatively) easily convert a Dreamcast into a DivX player. I must confess that I haven't tried this myself yet, but I do have Linux running on my DC quite happily. It runs X-mame a treat.

Here's a few links if anybody is interested:

http://www.dcemulation.com/soft-dcdivx.htm
http://www.moosegate.com/betaboy/dcdivx/
http://home.adelphia.net/~mdukette/downloads.html#DreamCast

Mixie

Originally posted by Gerry
It was running off the hard drive yankinlk.

Mixie, are you saying that you played a decent quality ( 2 cd rip of a dvd ) divx at 25 fps on a p166mmx? Very strange.

Nobody was more surprised than me... yeah 2CD versions of 2 different films, played through WinDVD, but as I said in the original post - the files were copied to the HD before playing.

tuxy

i didnt think WinDVD played divx ??

elmer

Originally posted by Mixie
I could play divx on my old old pc with no problems.

p166mmx
96mb SD ram
divx on 8gb IBM 7200rpm HD
Guillmont Banshee (16mb) card.

^^ had TV out, but never tried it

I find that very hard to believe - sure movies would play but they'd be all jerky if there was any kind of movement

PPC

Yeah cause those min specs are from the divx site www.divx.com

This looks sweet Via Hi-Fi PC

Might invest in one

Gmodified

Well get yourself Sega Dreamcast and you will have standalone DIVX player. My it's working fine .
Limitation:
not as good as seen on PC but OK
and
Didn't find any software which allows you to fast forward

yankinlk

Originally posted by elmer
I find that very hard to believe - sure movies would play but they'd be all jerky if there was any kind of movement

put your money where your mouth is, not just conjecture. i have seen a laptop with LESS specs than that play a divx from its hard drive .... and it looked as good as a videotape.

Altheus

I've not yet tried the DC DivX Player as I thought that it could only play movies at 384x320 and lower, which I may as well use VCDs for.

ozpass

Those are the specs.

'HW Tweaking' at its finest though.

Altheus

PS -> Currently in process of modding an old video player, to contain my PC. Specs will be as follows .....

Celeron 500MHz
Intel i810 (integrated video)
256MB PC133 SDRAM
Logitech or IBM Wireless keyboard (with integrated mouse dealy)
My old 20GB Western Digital (3.5" not too noisy)
SB Extigy

I understand you want it silent, so I'm gonna try to come up with the something good. The most expensive part is the Extigy, but it will also act as my MAME/SNES/SEGA Console, using my sidewinder USBs....

PPS: I've used this machine to play DivXs, and it can....