DivX Connected and ffdshow for Dummies

Even after virification is done, it says an em-mail has been sent , yet I do not see any mail nor any activation link.

What are you talking about? Is this question DivX Connected related?

Love your tutorials.... spent most of the day tinkering with Divx Connected and the PC Client on a laptop plugged into my big screen. It was fun at first but that quickly faded when I discovered about half of the movies I have won't play properly. Any thoughts? When I try to play them I get a "error initializing audio" but the video plays fine (silent audio). I initially was using the Divx Connected 1.3 build 58 server but uninstalled it and installed 1.2.0 Build 48 instead along with everything in the AllInOne RAR file. I dropped the .config file in Program Files > Divx Connected > Bin > Divx Connected folder, double-clicked both of the .reg files and still get the error. What am I doing wrong? If I can get this right and get 100% of the divx/xvid movies on my computer to play, I'll order a DSM-330. ;)

Hi,
I was able to install your config file to support other formats.
Everything is ok except for mpeg 2 playback. Video is really choppy and I think I've done everything right.
The video is a dvd that I moved to my hard drive and it plays fine on my computer. When I play it on the DSM330 it starts off choppy
where it seems to have still moments and continues to get worst. The volume is also lower than the MP3's or divx movies I'm playing which all seem to work fine and I have to crank the volume up all the way to hear anything.
My connection  to the DSM 330 is hardwired cat5.
I don't know alot about FFDshow so I'm really not sure what to try or if it is even related to my problem
I would appreciate any of your thoughts - Advice
Thankyou !!
 
 

http://labs.divx.com/node/1186#comment-3319

The Haali splitter is not very good at dealing with VOBs, so the above link might show you a possible workaround

Thanks for the link, I downloaded the MKV Merge and when I try to open my MPEG files from
my Video TS folder it shows up as empty. When I choose the all file types then the Ts files show up.
I select all the TS files from the folder and then specify the location and start the merge.
This is taking a really long time, Not like the " 2-3 minutes" you described in your link.
The files in the Video TS Folder are named as follows:
VIDEO_TS
VIDEO_TS.BUP
VTS_01_0
VTS_01_0.BUP
VTS_01_1
VTS_01_2
VTS_01_3
VTS_01_4
When finished the file looks like a Matrosa file but the DSM 330 just indicates "?" and won't play.
More History: Original DVD files made from DVD Rip, Plays on computer , Plays on DVD machine.
Any thoughts would again be appreciated.
Thanks!!
 
 

I've done a little more concerning MPEG2 and MKV conversion and I've noticed the following:
The MKV files that I downloaded using Vuze "Plugin"  all play fine. (Great Quality)
The MKV files that I create from my DVD's with about 4 different software applications (DVD to MKV)
all play fine on my computer and look great but none of them will play on the DSM 330 ?
I really wanted to play my DVD's on the DSM in the native MPEG2 format in order to maintain the quality of the original DVD.
 It's close, they all play but they are choppy and have a reduced volume.
I have found that Divx , Xvid formats etc.. don't come close to the quality of my DVD rips. And it's really noticable on My HD Plasma TV system. No matter what res or multipassing I do. (Some even took 3 or more hours)
Since playing MPEG2 is going to be problematic I took your advice and tried to convert them to MKV without success.
It could be that I need some tutorial or something in order to make MKVmerge convert the DVD's correctly ?
Seems like MKVmerge doesn't recognize the files on the DVD unless I choose the "All Files" Option and force the files into
MKVMerge. I've notice that I'm getting Audio errors that are being omitted by MKVmerge. "Even though the outputs play on my computer perfectly.
If I can't get my movies onto the DSM330 then I'm not sure I have a use for it? I don't think that Divx , Xvid formats are practical when it comes to quality.  The main reason for spending the money on my system was video quality
My original goals were to put my entire DVD library onto my computer and view them with the DSM330. I find it hard to believe that this MPEG2 support is not native to the DSM especially since everyone I know has large DVD collections.
Maybe some day Divx quality will improve and it won't take 3 hours to get the quality you want.
Maybe someone notices something that is obvious from my comments and can offer advice
Thanks!!!
 

I have problems with 2 video files:
A.
 No audio. "Error initializing audio" messenge in DSM-330.
This is what I get with Gspot:
Codec 0x2000 (Dolby AC3) AC3 CBR
Info 48000Hz 192 kb/s tot, stereo (2/0)
1 Stat Codec(s) Installed.
 
B.
Doesn't play. "An error occured during playback of the selected media" messege in DSM-330.
This is what I get with Gspot:
Audio:
PCM Audio
22050Hz 176 kb/s (1 chnl)
Video:
MP43 S-Mpeg 4 version 3
Codec(s) are Installed
 
Both files play flawlessly in windows media player...
 
Can you help me to play this in my DSM-330?
Thanks!
Johnny

Shannon1
I too am very frustrated by the lack of the most common video support in the DSM330. They seem to want all Divx. Converting a MPEG2 to DIVX takes hours. that is not for me. BTW I have over 2TB of disk space so I do not care how big the files are.
I compare all media streamers to the Holy Grail of streamers called SageTV Media Extender STX-HD100. This streamer will do all formats period and to top it all off it is a PVR if you want to.  If you rip a DVD to a hard disk; VOB's and IFO's in a directory, the HD100 will play the DVD from the hard disk as you would in a normal DVD player. The menu system will even show you cover art if you include the picture file in the same directory as the dvd files are in.  I have yet to play back any type of file that the STX-H100 refuses to play, oops did not check FLV.
I am still in the window to send the DSM330 back for a refund. I may keep it for trailers and such but with my Mac Mini in my theater system with Front Row that may be a moot point also.
Maybe a plug in will fix the MPEG2 playback problem, a very serious problem it is.

... for letting me know! :-)

Thank you very much for this patch - it's really useful - well done.
 
I have just one issue though. All the mkv files I have are 720p (x.264) and when I play them back through Connected on the DSM-330 or the PC client, they appear to lose a lot of quality. They are originally 1280 * 720 and play properly in HD with either DivX player or WMP using the ffdshow decoder, but through Connected it looks like they have been resized down considerably and then resized back to 1280 wide. The only clue I have is that there is a considerable amount of aliasing in the playback and detail is lost. It is like it is playing back in SD.
 
I had a look at my ffdshow video settings and notice that under the resize option for Connected there appears to be only a max of 720 * 576 in the pull down. Is this the issue? I'm a bit sceptical as the default is the same and other playback programs work fine. Is there a reason that ffdshow has separate parameters to everything else?
 
I have version 1.4.0 (build 59) of the server and v1.0.2 of the client. The DSM-330 has 1.0.1.30 firmware. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Thanks in advance, John

Hi John,unfortunately one of the reg files I hosted here on kamiwa.de had the ffdshow resize option turned on by default. When you play your MKVs, the ffdshow video codec icon should be active in the taskbar. Right click it, and make sure, that the resize option isn't checked.

Al, I've checked - the resize option is not set. I've also just downloaded your latest All-In-One-Pack and reinstalled the registry patches, but there is still a quality problem that isn't there with WMP or DivX player using ffdshow. I've looked closer and there also appears to be a number of artifacts appearing on Connected playback that aren't there on the other two either.
Any ideas?

I have read the existing comments but still a little confused. I have installed the allinonepack 1.4 and trying to playback files created with a hauppauge wintv card and a nebula digitv card, both  record in mpeg2. When I add the files to the connected server they just get listed with a question mark when I try to view them. Is this a different problem from the vob issue and is there anything I can do to apart from converting them to divx?Thanks.

HI could you possibly send me a link to your directshow.config file? I would like to use my itunes library but cannot for the life of me figure out all the steps needed to make this happen? Also do you know if DRM protected files are playable on the DSM 330?