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Best way to transfer divx to vhs?
I'm not quite sure of the best way to go about dubbing a divx movie to vhs. -- Do I need to buy a high end AIW card or will the tv-output differences really be noticible on different cards?
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The G450 DVDmax feature is the best I've seen yet for TV output. But it may not play DivX clips.
Not everything that plays in media player goes out the TV out with DVDmax -- I've not yet figured out if its a specifc set of codecs or just some screwball parameters people have used in the past. (I've been looking at lots of old clips) and most play on the TV with DVDmax -- and many look like crap as some of this stuff dates back to premiere 4.2 on windows 3.1! But the quality of a TMPGEnc encoded MPG form DV original is outstanding when played back thru DVDmax. If it'll do DivX, its worth buying a G450 for. I don't have DivX codec or clips so I can't say if it will work or not.
Unless ATI has made fundamental improvements to their TVout subsystem since the AIW-Pro, the quality will stink compared G450 DVDmax TVout.
--wally.
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Do you think you could go to the Divx homepage:
http://divx.ctw.cc
and test it for me?
All you have to do is run the install for the codec and then d/l a small trailer to test.
I would greatly appreciate it before buying the card! So this card blows away a
AIW Radeon? How much is it?
Thanks again.Comment
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I get error 403 (in French) when I click on the black square where it says to see the logo download DivX.
Got a more direct link? I've been meaning to try DivX to see what all the hoopla is about but haven't found time to the pieces I'd need. Perhaps you can point me to what to download directly and I'll let you know if it works with DVDmax on windows 2000. Sorry but I've no win9x around any more -- its w2k or nothing for me these days.
--wally.
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The G400 (and thus most likely the G450 as well as it's basicly the same chip using even the same drivers) has very good TV-Out picture-quality and can be adjusted to give you borderless video-playback.
It also plays DivX ;-) clips nicely but only as long as their width is an integer multiple of 32. If this is not the case, overlays are not used causing ugly and jerky playback even on the Monitor with high CPU usage - and to make things worse the movie won't be put on the TV via DVDMax.
Unfortunately Matrox refuses to look into any DivX ;-) problems taking the unclear legal state (or should I say "clear illegal state"?) of DivX as cheap excuse to back out.
Another thing you probably should be aware of is that with the G450 it is not possible to have a TV-only system. You won't see the controls of the DVD player on the TV when using DVDMax and in Clone mode the overlays don't work on the TV-out. This is not that important if you have the TV/VCR and your monitor in the same room, but can be quite annoying if this is not the case. With the G400 this problem can be avoided by using the older PD5 drivers, unfortunately those don't exist for the G450.Comment
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I'm sorry, it seems like that link is down, I should've checked it first!
Here's one that should work.
http://www.divx-digest.com/software/divxcodec.html
3.11 alpha is the version I'm using.Comment
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Absolutt,
I downloaded the codec, where's a link to a suitable test clip?
Does your encodings match the mod 32 width Indiana has mentioned?
--wally.
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I tried three that had trailers with widths divisible by 32, none would download.
I refuse to allow JavaScript or unsigned ActiveX controls for security reasons.
My test is will only be useful to you if I try a clip with the same encoder settings that you've used.
--wally.
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DivX clips work fine with DVDMax on the G450.Comment
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Okay.. try this one!
ftp://209.61.191.16/Upload/Databases/This%20is%20DVD.avi
You might need to take out the %20.
Anyway.. that clip is one I had that is
640x480 so it should work well.
Let me know how it goes!Comment
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Defiler.. even clips where the resolution isn't divisible by 32?
As well.. what makes the G450 DVDMax output any better than say, the AIW Radeon?Comment
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The AIW Radeon's TV out simply sends your desktop out to the TV - so if you want to put out full screen video, you have to make sure that nothing else is showing on your computer desktop. You don't realize what an incredible pain in the butt that can be until you try it. The AIW Radeon also frequently does some strange sizing and aspect ratio things to the picture going to the TV (like squeezing everything vertically); this can be massaged sometimes through the TV out controls, but again, it's a pain in the butt. Worst of all, your computer monitor has to be set to the same resolution and refresh rate as your TV when using TV out - so you can look forward to 640x480 at 60 Hz. Yuck.
DVDMax, by contrast, sends only what's playing in your overlay to your TV. It sends it in perfect full screen - even if your overlay window is minimized on your desktop - and it could care less what resolution and refresh your computer monitor is set at. Oh, and Matrox's TV out quality beats the pants of ATI's (and everyone else's). True story: I have a Sony DVP7000 DVD player; it's getting a bit old, but the picture quality is still top-notch. Just for kicks one day, I played a scene from The Thin Red Line on that player, then quickly switched the TV's S Video input so it was being driven by my computer (and G400). I then played the same scene out to the TV using DVDMax. The Sony's picture was definitely better (a $1000 player had better be), but the difference between the two was MUCH smaller than I was expecting. If my dedicated DVD player ever breaks, I could live using my computer and DVDMax to play my DVDs. That, to me, is amazing.
Dualhead and DVDMax is THE advantage that the Matrox cards have over everything else out there right now. If TV out is very important to you, I really think that a G400 or G450 is your only choice.Comment
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Absolutt,
I downloaded your "This is DVD" trailer and after I installed the DivXalpha3.11 codec it played back fine on the TVout of DVDmax on the G450.
Can't say I'm impressed by the quality --many artifact filled frames, but thanks for making it easy to try DivX.
--wally.
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Okay great.. I guess that's all I really wanted to know. I'm not sure where that file came from, it shouldn't really be representative of what DivX can and can't do.. if you like, I'll stick on the same ftp a few high bitrate files that show it off a bit better. But anyway! Is there a compelling difference between the G400 and the G450 that would make me get the G450 for tv out etc? Is there a large price difference? Thanks again.
On a side note, I'm on call this week so I'll have our on call laptop, an IBM A21 at home which has TV-out. I've got a few movies I'm going to try and output with that.. just to see what it can do. It has an ATI Rage Mobility chip so my hopes aren't that high.. should be fun to mess with tho.
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