Comments on: What files can be burned to a DivX disc?

Question: What files can be burned to a DivX disc?

tweebiscuit — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:09:44 -0800

I just got a DivX-capable DVD player. Is there some way of telling (on OS X) what DivX/XVid files can be burned directly to a DivX disc without requiring conversion?

I've tried dropping a few DivX files into Toast, but it wants to convert them all first, which is going to lower their quality some more -- the reason I wanted DivX in the first place was so that I could watch downloaded files on my TV without having to lose quality by having to convert them before watching. Is a particular framerate or resolution required to make a valid DivX disc?

By: rsanheim

rsanheim — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:20:49 -0800

Not sure what dvd player you have, but I have a Phillips 642, which can basically play anything I throw at it - xvid, divx, mpg, whatever. You have to burn the divx file as raw data, as if you were just archiving it, assuming your dvd player works like mine does. So tell Toast to not do anything to the file - just burn it as plain data.

By: jjg

jjg — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:22:04 -0800

Have you tried simply burning a DivX file to a disc from the Finder and seeing if it plays?

By: quin

quin — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:22:31 -0800

i would try just grabbing the divx file and dragging it to the blank disk on your desktop (skipping Toast entirely). Burn that, and put it in your DVD player. It should work fine.

By: zsazsa

zsazsa — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:23:52 -0800

I don't know how Toast works, but it wants to convert the videos, it's burning a video disc. Just tell it to make a normal data disc and burn the .avi files as you would any other normal file.

By: unmake

unmake — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 18:12:00 -0800

You need to find out how to burn them as simple data files on an ISO9660-formatted disc. Some of them won't work - standalones (ie, DivX-capable DVD players) generally don't like files which have been encoded with advanced options such as Qpel, GMC, or B-frames. If you're lucky, whoever produced the files will indicate whether those features were used, or if the file is "standalone-friendly". If you're not, you've got a coaster.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 18:28:54 -0800

I have the Philips, as well. It seems to play everything I throw at it, even though it doesn't support Qpel. I suppose most people who encode TV shows (which is almost all of the content I'm playing) aren't using that feature, luckily.

Anyway, your player will play all those other formats when it sees them on a typical data disc. It doesn't do anything fancy. Specifically, as implied by some previous comments, you don't want to make the disc with an application that typically makes DVD video discs unless it knows how to make a plain ole data disc with the file on it. Many apps will be "helpful" and re-encode it to MPG for you.

(Although I've been wondering, and wishing if it's not the case, that I could make a regular DVD video format disc but encode the video with xvid or whatever. That makes no sense being that it's not in spec, but, hey, the player understands that codec anyway, it'd be nice if they let us make DVDs using it.)

By: SweetJesus

SweetJesus — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 18:58:34 -0800

The DivX home players only support DivX files encoded with the home theater option.

By: holgate

holgate — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 19:18:13 -0800

Data Disc in Toast, ISO 9660 format.

As others have said, the big no-go with the DVP642 is quarter-pixel encoding (QPEL). There's no GSpot equivalent for Macs, but you can get basic codec information in VLC (pause, Cmd-I for info), and MovieGate is reputed to provide more info.

By: cwhitfcd

cwhitfcd — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 20:12:59 -0800

tweebiscuit - just set the Toast DivX setting to "never encode".

99% of the avi's I download are either DivX Home Theatre encoded, or XVid and work just fine on my player.
I have only hit an unplayable avi once, and that was easy to reencode externally using ffmpegx.

By: unmake

unmake — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:41:01 -0800

make a regular DVD video format disc but encode the video with xvid or whatever

This isn't possible, but you can place a number (about 6CD's worth) of divx/xvid files on one (Data-mode, probably UDF 1.02) DVD-R.

By: tweebiscuit

tweebiscuit — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 23:19:35 -0800

Yup, the Phillips is what I got too, for that reason. Good to know that popping it straight in will work. Turns out that what Toast didn't like was the XviDs, and kept wanting to convert them -- my player deals with them fine, though. At the moment, I'm just telling it to burn a DivX video disc and "never convert" it.

Ethereal Bligh, that would be great!

By: Pinback

Pinback — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 03:57:49 -0800

EB : "I've been wondering ... that I could make a regular DVD video format disc but encode the video with xvid or whatever."

Unfortunately, no. In theory, MPEG-4 can be carried as a "private stream" in an MPEG-2 container - IIRC, this is how the UK intends to transmit terrestrial HD in the future.

In practice, DVD vobs are a limited subset of the MPEG-2 container which allow only 2 private streams. The first contains subtitles/subpictures & non-MPEG audio (e.g. AC3 / DTS). The second is used for navigation data.

Again, in theory it should be possible to shoehorn a 3rd private stream into a DVD vob - but, being so non-standard, they'd immediately be seen as corrupt by any player.

By: Big Fat Tycoon

Big Fat Tycoon — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 10:31:35 -0800

By: holgate

holgate — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 05:41:05 -0800

If I had say, two files with the same name and a numerical identifier at the end, would they play as one continuous video

Not 'continuous' as in 'can't see the join', but they'll play in alphanumeric sequence (vid1.avi -> vid2.avi etc.)

By: SweetJesus

SweetJesus — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 13:04:48 -0800

How does the Philips handle multiple AVI files with subsequent file names? I have the Philips, but rarely burn DivX AVIs. If I had say, two files with the same name and a numerical identifier at the end, would they play as one continuous video or do I have to actually go in and select each one individually to play?

I've got the Phillips up-converting one and it plays DivX files in alphabetical order. When the last file stops, it just loads the next one on the disc. You'll get a 5 second "MPEG 4 Loading" message, but that's about it.