I was wondering if anyone here could recommend a standalone DVD player that would have all or most of the following features... I don't care about the manufacturer or, indeed, anything else about such a player, as long as it has these features, or at least the majority of them.
The features that I'm looking for (either built in or via changed firmware, factory code, etc...):
- XviD, DivX5, DivX4, DivX3 compatibility (DivX3 does not need to be 100% compatible, I know many players have problems with this outdated format)
- packed bitstream and GMC compatibility
- ideally, QPEL compatibility (but not necessarily)
- (Other formats - MP3, OGG, JPEG, WMV, etc. - would be nice, but are not necessary at all)
- Macromedia skipping
- PUO skipping
- preferably RCE skipping
- ideally, DVD9 layer change pause skipping (but this is not a necessary feature)
- (And, of course, region selection, either manual or automatic - that is always an obvious requirement from a player :))
My current player does not play QPELs and cannot skip RCE and PUOs, so it's on the "almost" list. :) (As a matter of fact, if the player that I have now could skip those cursed PUOs, I wouldn't even be looking for any other one...)
Well, I have the Philips DVP-642 (0531 firmware) and it does almost everything. You still have to use the SYSTEM buttom-twice trick with some DivX. The 5960 is the newer version and is supposed to be somewhat better, probably supporting packed streams though I don't know for sure. I don't know of any DVD player that handles OGG, WMV or layer skipping, but it's multiregion (although RCE is a different ballgame - discs with RCE may still cause problems). If you can get a DVP-642 with 0531 firmware or earlier (maybe even 1109), you partially bypass Macrovision, though I understand you still can't make a DVD-to-DVD copy.
-Do you believe you own your computer and shouldn't be told what you can run and do? Then say *NO* to Microsoft Vista!
-Since half the questions here involve media problems, here ya go: Only use Verbatim or Taiyo-Yuden discs (get your TYs from Rima.com, not Supermediastore or meritline). Forget the rest, no matter what "brand" they sell under. Always burn at 4x speed regardless of the speed rating of this discs or your drive. If you have burn problems with these then you have to update your drive's firmware. For double-layer discs, only use Verbatim DVD+R DL and burn them at 2.4x speed.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 14. August 2006 @ 23:37
