Playing Top Gear directly on DVD Players

Yes it is possible. My girlfriend bought a "Telefunken" DVD player for next to nothing and it was the best investment she has ever made.

You just burn the data files onto the DVD, pop it in, use a little menu that comes up to select what file you want to play and there they are with no fuss and no reduction in quality.

In fact I was quite shocked when she showed it to me, I'm used to getting quite a reduction in image quality as I usually convert them to iPod format and use that to play them on my TV, but this was a nice, clean, perfect image.

I'm thinking of going to get one myself. :p
 
Most of them have the same chip anyway, so you won't have problems...

There were some sites around that compared all their abilities, but I can't remember one right now...
 
I've got the same Phillips one and I can't really complain. There are some files that don't quite play right on it, but those are usually using much-older or even beta versions of the XVID/DivX codecs... All of the TG episodes play on it fine (VUKs rips and the 700mb "scene" releases). Definately a great buy for the money. If only all my other friends had one...
 
the phillips' only down side that is very annoying is that it can only display so many characters. So i'm always looking at "Top.Gear.s08e..." where the dot dot dot doesn't tell me what episdoe it is. I have renamed my filenames so it just reads the dates without the word top gear.
 
AxlxA said:
the phillips' only down side that is very annoying is that it can only display so many characters. So i'm always looking at "Top.Gear.s08e..." where the dot dot dot doesn't tell me what episdoe it is. I have renamed my filenames so it just reads the dates without the word top gear.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't really call it a "downside". It's not like it's a big deal to rename the files to something like TG-SE08x01
 
If i had known that this was possible i just would have bought a Divx DVD player a long time ago. Makes you wonder why people just buy the Divx players instead of turning the videos to SVCD, VCD etc.. to watch them on DVD as they are not expensive.
P.S: if a DVD player plays Divx does it mean it'll play Xvid as well?
Are Divx and Xvid the same thing?

Cheers.
 
v8can said:
If i had known that this was possible i just would have bought a Divx DVD player a long time ago. Makes you wonder why people just buy the Divx players instead of turning the videos to SVCD, VCD etc.. to watch them on DVD as they are not expensive.
P.S: if a DVD player plays Divx does it mean it'll play Xvid as well?
Are Divx and Xvid the same thing?

Cheers.
Click to expand...

DivX isnt Xvid, but the majority of players say MPEG4, and can generally play both formats.

BUT, again, DivX/Xvid Players are very picky, as I mentioned in my last post, so many versions of the chips inside them.

And yeah, buying a dvd only player is pointless nowadays :p

Been using my DivX/Xvid player for ages now. :thumbsup:
 
TechZ said:
I got a Philips DVP-642 (that my dad uses) and its horrible, maybe a firmware upgrade will sort it out.
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Horrible? bah! I've had mine for several months and have nothing bad to say about it. In fact, I like the model so much I bought one for my parents too :) It will play any DivX/XviD file as long as it's been encoded to the standard format (the majority are). And it's not a big deal to re-encode, which I rarely have to do....

For $59, it's well worth it.

But with that said, I haven't checked out the Sunstech model you spoke of either ;)
 
sns2015 said:
If only all my other friends had one...
Click to expand...

That is exactly how I feel! I'm actually thinking of buying my friends cheap divx playing DVD player for Christmas. I'm so sick of them all asking me for DVD's of Top Gear, Prison Break, Lost etc. They think that it is just a simple process to make a video DVD, they don't realise how much time and effort has to go into it.
 
i have a zensonic z500 and that plays every format and even things that i do not know about. it is $500AU but i believe that it is the best one out there on the market
 
There is a plan B.

That is, connect the S-video output from your graphics card, and dual channel sound from your sound card via some phono leads to the camcorder in port - Robert is your uncle.

OK OK I've got a very long S-video and audio leads and a graphics card with an S-video out and dual head capability. This means that you can watch anything on your TV that you can play on your computer.
 
Cobol74 said:
There is a plan B.

That is, connect the S-video output from your graphics card, and dual channel sound from your sound card via some phono leads to the camcorder in port - Robert is your uncle.

OK OK I've got a very long S-video and audio leads and a graphics card with an S-video out and dual head capability. This means that you can watch anything on your TV that you can play on your computer.
Click to expand...
i have done that a few times but the quality is not the best.
 
jeffy777 said:
TechZ said:
I got a Philips DVP-642 (that my dad uses) and its horrible, maybe a firmware upgrade will sort it out.
Click to expand...

Horrible? bah! I've had mine for several months and have nothing bad to say about it. In fact, I like the model so much I bought one for my parents too :) It will play any DivX/XviD file as long as it's been encoded to the standard format (the majority are). And it's not a big deal to re-encode, which I rarely have to do....

For $59, it's well worth it.

But with that said, I haven't checked out the Sunstech model you spoke of either ;)
Click to expand...

I'm glad for you, but honestly, the revision/version of the DVP-642 I have here, its truly horrible.

And ALL DivX/XviD players I've seen so far have a bad menu system, you can never read more than a few characters of text.
 
STi Nut said:
Cobol74 said:
There is a plan B.

That is, connect the S-video output from your graphics card, and dual channel sound from your sound card via some phono leads to the camcorder in port - Robert is your uncle.

OK OK I've got a very long S-video and audio leads and a graphics card with an S-video out and dual head capability. This means that you can watch anything on your TV that you can play on your computer.
Click to expand...
i have done that a few times but the quality is not the best.
Click to expand...

Its bloody awful! Don't be so cheap, its Top Gear!!! ;)
 
Buba said:
STi Nut said:
Cobol74 said:
There is a plan B.

That is, connect the S-video output from your graphics card, and dual channel sound from your sound card via some phono leads to the camcorder in port - Robert is your uncle.

OK OK I've got a very long S-video and audio leads and a graphics card with an S-video out and dual head capability. This means that you can watch anything on your TV that you can play on your computer.
Click to expand...
i have done that a few times but the quality is not the best.
Click to expand...

Its bloody awful! Don't be so cheap, its Top Gear!!! ;)
Click to expand...
:lol: :lol: x2
 
To watch Top Gear on my TV, I use a 50 foot S-Video cable running to my TV from my dad's video card and an equally long 2 channel mini-plug cable. I have a splitter on the main output on my dad's audio card and it runs upstairs to the stereo under the TV. We watch the video on the TV and hear the audio through the stereo speakers.

Works quite well and the video is quite good as well.
 
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