tzikeh: (question - inquiry - bafflement)
tzikeh ([personal profile] tzikeh) wrote2007-02-12 06:46 pm

tech help with avi torrents?

I have complete seasons of tv shows I've downloaded from torrent sites (HI THERE MPAA COME GET ME), and this weird thing happens.

I burn them to DVD in order to watch them on my DivX player on tv. Every once in a while, one file out of the 11 or 12 on the disk is all blocky and yucky. The rest of the files play just fine. To make it extra weird, the blocky and yucky file plays perfectly on the computer.

Anyone out there know of a way to fix this? Some kind of re-encode or something?

[identity profile] par-avion.livejournal.com 2007-02-18 11:00 pm (UTC)(link)
The DVD players are set up to play DivX files, but many torrents use Xvid.

"Xvid encoded files can be written to a CD or DVD and played in a DivX compatible DVD player. However, since Xvid specifies three warp points for its implementation of Global Motion Compensation as opposed to the one of DivX, enabling some of the more advanced encoding features can compromise player compatibility. Some issues exist with the default Quantization Matrix used in tools such as AutoGK that create an MPEG-4 stream with Xvid. These produce videos that have unstable playback and artifacts on DivX compatible DVD players." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xvid

Using the Divx converter (http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/author/ -- free trial available) should help. Or you can convert to Divx using a free program like ffmpegx etc.

[identity profile] tzikeh.livejournal.com 2007-02-18 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Huh! Interesting. I found a shorter way, though - hit ... one of the buttons (can't remember) on the remote twice and voila - fixed. The word "interlacing" comes up on the screen and the blockiness is gone.

HOWEVER.

One other problem I've had - with files that play perfectly visually - is the audio slipping out of sync. The episode starts off fine, and then slowly loses sync with the visual. Any ideas on that front?

[identity profile] par-avion.livejournal.com 2007-02-19 07:18 am (UTC)(link)
That's weird. I don't know what would make it do that :(

addendum

[identity profile] tzikeh.livejournal.com 2007-02-18 11:13 pm (UTC)(link)
it plays *without* losing sync on the computer.