[warnerwh]

Does anybody make dvd players that play both formats? Thanks

[bubba966]

The OPPO 971 does. Does a rather good job on the PAL transcoding. Looks better than my $800 video transcoder fed by my Pioneer DV-AX10.

[warnerwh]

Thanks much bubba. I doubted this PAL option had been available. I've noticed the Oppo players brought up in other places. Is the PAL ability the reason or? My video knowledge is pretty nil but I just checked and it does Divx and xvid too.  Thanks so much!

[bubba966]

No, the OPPO isn't ever mentioned for it's PAL & multi-region capabilities (don't know why as it's very good at both). It's mentioned frequently because of it's insanely great video quality over either DVI or HDMI. It's ok over Component Video, but truly shines when using it's digital video out.

If you do pick one up and want to kick the performance up a good bit send it down to Bolder Cables and have Wayne do his Digital/Video + Bybee mod to it. I borrowed Wayne's personal player with those mods and put it up against a stock player and it was by and large better with the mods.

I've seen a lot of DVD players both high end & low end Multi-Region players. The OPPO is better at PAL playback/transcoding than any other player I've ever seen. It even plays back 16:9 PAL discs properly (most of them don't). And if I had a digital video input on my Loewe I'd sell off my DV-AX10 & TR-21 ($7,000 worth of gear) and replace it with a fully Bolder modded OPPO (which'd be $700 for the player & the mods).

[warnerwh]

Sounds good to me, especially for 150 bucks. Is Divx quality worth messing with? Thanks

[bubba966]

Hey Warner, I was talking about the OPPO 971 which is a $200 player, not the OPPO 970 (I think that's the model #) which is their $150 player. I've not had the pleasure of playing with their $150 player. I don't think Wayne has either if I'm remembering Friday night's conversation properly.

Wayne was telling me a bit about his Divx experience and says he liked it when he burned his own discs. I can't comment on it though as my AX10 has no Divx decoder & I didn't try that function out on Wayne's when I borrowed it.

[Russell Dawkins]

FWIW, I've seen multi-region DVD players as low as $59 CDN around here. I imagine it will become a standard feature on all DVD players currently in the design stage.

[fredgarvin]

Oppo is releasing a new model alleged to be the 981, which will feature the upgraded audio capabilities as the 970 possesses and even better video than the 971. It will have upscaling in component as well. Oppo had info on it but has taken ogg the link.

[jqp]

Sounds good to me, especially for 150 bucks. Is Divx quality worth messing with? Thanks

I think with divx and xvid, the issue is not that the quality is so good. (It is maybe 90-95% of the quality, and takes up much less space)

The issue with ability to play divx and xvid is that you can burn your own discs, that you make using movies, or simply video clips, that you get from the internet, that have been encoded in the divx format to save space. It would be analogous to listening to MP3s instead of listening to CDs. The quality may not be as high, but you can make discs with whatever clips you want, from all the files you can get from the internet, and they take up less space.

Now my question is, has anyone done this (burn discs of divx/xvid clips to play on a DVD player), and what is the process, and what are the choices for DVD players besides the OPPO?

[SET Man]

FWIW, I've seen multi-region DVD players as low as $59 CDN around here. I imagine it will become a standard feature on all DVD players currently in the design stage.

Hey!

  This is ture. It dosen't take much to make a multi-region or region free player. I think many will be surprised by how many region encoded players out there could play PAL DVD.

   For example I have a Lite-on 5005 DVDR. Ture that they do not advertised or listed anywhere in they manual as a region free player but with a quick hacking code via it remote it will become a region free player. This is also ture with the Oppo I think.

   I think the reason why you don't see lots of "region free" player here in the US is because of the law here. That is why many players out there are not advertised as "region free" and yet they can  play any region disc. Unlike in Thialand of which I from and other countries where you could go to the store and see some DVD player of which cleary advertised as a "region free", this is more so with the cheaper one.

   Anyway, I think there are some Video forum out there that do have list or some who know what player could be hacked to become region free player.

Take care,
Buddy

[jqp]

Now my question is, has anyone done this (burn discs of divx/xvid clips to play on a DVD player), and what is the process, and what are the choices for DVD players besides the OPPO?

Well to answer my own question, since mine just arrived today...

The process is to simply burn any old divx/xvid clips to a DVD (and maybe even a CD) and pop them into the player. It recognizes them and presents a directory that you navigate with the remote, and then you just select the video you want to play. (The same way many players let you play MP3s). This is a super player - see my upcoming review!