Note: There are some changes in the numbers below since I posted earlier, I was posting from memory, and got some of the resolutions wrong.

Updated as of 01/21/2010

Updated as of 01/22/2010 See post 3 for more details

BLUF = ClonedDVD Mobile Generic divx format works on both SD and DVD-based DivX, with bitrate limitations for SD.

After installing my Z110BT this weekend, I started some experimentation on compatible video formats. I focused in on the mpg4 video w/mp3 audio formats because they appeared to be the same standard.

I encoded some of my kids' shows into a generic divx format with CloneDVD Mobile at 768kbps and 480 x 360. The software output these files with a FourCC identifying it a Xvid (FourCC = DIVX/DIVX). I then confirmed that these would play via the SD drive without any issues. I also tried a video at 1280 kbps and 852 x 480; this gave a bitrate error when I tried to play it via SD.

Next, I wanted to test the same files to see if they'd play as DivX via the DVD drive. to be on the safe side, I changed the FourCC to DIVX/DX50, which is correct for the commercial DivX 5.0 codec. It only takes a second to change the FourCC to whatever you want using ABCavi, as no recoding is required (though, the wrong FourCC could make the video unplayable).

After confirming that playback worked on my PC with the changed FourCC, I burned them to DVD and checked them in the Z110BT. It was recognized as DivX and worked flawlessly. Quality was better, because, in Disc mode, the aspect ratio was correct (4:3 displayed without stretching on both main and rear monitors, as did 16:9. 2.35:1, etc). In SD mode, 4:3 video was stretched to fill the screens, which was rather irritating.

Now, knowing that these files worked, I tried some video files I had encoded with CloneDVD Mobile some time ago at ~1400kbps and 720x400 for an old Archos video player (that I no longer have, left under a seat on a plane over 2 years ago). These files have a FourCC that identifies them as Xvid (I think it’s virtually the same profile as generic divx), so I really did not think they would work. They were already burned onto DVD (I have several dozen of these DVDs, with 3-5 movies on each of them), so I had nothing to lose. They worked perfectly, and looked as good as a DVD on the small screens (7” for Z110BT and 8.8” for the rear monitors).

Now I have nearly 100 movies/TV shows that can be viewed on the rear monitors in my car (since SD will cannot be viewed on the rear monitors, and looks bad anyway). Among all of these movies there’s at least 2 dozen kid-friendly shows, so I’ve got plenty of road trip entertainment ready for the kids.

Now, using CloneDVD Mobile does not let you have all the full bells and whistles that using the commercial DivX converter does (multiple audio, chapters, subtitles, etc.) but, do you really need that stuff in your car? I’m sure that any of the “convert from DVD” programs that come with Roxio or Nero (and other freebies) can create the same files, so you don’t need to buy anything else, just make sure the target profile is generic DivX. I think the bitrate does not matter, as long as you stay below the bitrate limitation of the physical DVD drive (10.8 Mbps?) and any horizontal resolution beyond 480 is a waste of bits, since the native resolution of the Z110BT is 800 x 480, and nearly all rear monitors are even less (and they’re composite video, so it’s not like you’re going to squeeze any more performance out). When they start making true HD-compatible mobile equipment with hdmi connections, then it might be time to start upping the bitrates and resolutions!

Note: if you try to play any DivX file that exceeds teh 720x480 max resolution for DivX Home Theater Certified Profile, it will not play, the Z110BT will display a warning "Cannot play HD content." This is a correction to what I posted earlier, which said I played 852x480, as I was mistaken. I apologize if anyone wasted time with the previous settings. I'll continue to post more info as I try other settings.

Update 01/21/2010: After some more experimentation, I have settled on a resolution of 720 x 404 at a bitrate of 1412kbps mpg4 video and 128kbps mp3 audio for a total bitrate of 1540kbps. There's not much gain in quality beyond these bitrates for the small screens we're using, the video even looks decent on my laptop, expanded to 1280 x 800 on a 14" display. If you plan on doing more with the video, like using it on a home video server for display on a HDTV, then you can crank the bitrate up a bit (or just make 2 version, one hires for home, and one following this guide for mobile, then another for iPod, etc., etc...). I don't recommend using the DivX Home Theater profile resolution of 720 x 480, though, because this is not true 16:9 and will have black bars on the sides on the Z110BT, and everything will be a little "skinny" on the screen. I'm assuming video coded with the actual commercial Divx Codec may have some sort of tag in it that forces the non-16:9 resolution to be forced to 16:9, but using this generic profile, it's a no-go.

Some of you may wonder, why not just encode everything for iPod? I'd rather not tie up the iPod to p;ay backseat video, and rather use its flexible music playback capability (much better than disc or SD-based music playback) I think video playback via DVD/DivX is as good or better (better when it comes to Aspect Ration handling) than the iPod, so this provides the best of both worlds

My next experiment will be using some of the DVD Ripping tools in Roxio with the commercial DivX codes to see what I can produce.

PLease see the original post for corrected info...

After lots of tweaking and evaluation, I've arrived at the following CloneDVD Mobile profile, it can be pasted into the Devices.ini file:

[AVIC-Z110BT (DivX)]
Manufacturer=Pioneer
Res1=320x240
Res2=480x360
Res3=640x480
Res4=540x404
ResAna1=320x180
ResAna2=480x270
ResAna3=640x360
ResAna4=720x404
AllowNativeTVResolution=0
VTag=DX50
mopts=-lameopts cbr:br=%abrate%
lavcopts=vcodec=mpeg4
moac=mp3lame
Format=avi -noodml
FileType=avi
ARate=48000
ABRate=128
MVolume=10
Quality=23
useMencoder=1
SubTitle=0
MaxVBitrate=1412

This is as close a CloneDVD can get to the actual Divx Home Theater Profile. I highly recommend you perform at least a 2 pass encode to get decent quality (3 pass is better). Each additional pass adds about 75% more time to the encoding process, so, if it takes 60 minute to encode your video in single pass, it will take 105 minutes to do 2 passes and 150 minutes to do 3 passes.

I've found that using the full DivX Home Theater Profile spec for bitrate actual makes a noticeable difference in scenes with lots of motion (despite what I said earlier about keeping in the 1100's). The 1412 video and 128 audio for a combined bitrate of 1540 looks really good, approaching DVD quality. Again, I use the 720 x 404 resolution istead of the spec's 720 x 480 becuase some devices (like the Z110BT) don't handle the pixel-for-pixel aspect ration sources properly. Hard coding the AR into the resolution will save you some headache, at the price of a loss of horizontal detail (again, not a big deal on all mobile monitors, and probably not a big deal until you start getting above 40" for home video).

During my expirmentation, I used the commercial DivX Pro convertor with the mpeg2 plugin (allows it to convert mpeg2 files) and had a few issues like random gray frames added to the video, repeated audio and video frames (almost like they'd loop for a couple of seconds) and the inability to play the completed video file to the end. This varied based on the level of copy protection the source material had. It is a shame, though, becuase the parts of the videos that DID play, were indistinguishable from the DVD version, whatever algorithms DivX uses to analyze and encode video must be awesome. An interesting thing is that it took the DivX Pro Converter about as long to convert a video as did CloneDVD Mobile to do a 3-pass encode, which leads me to beleive DivX is performaing at least a 3 pas encode.

Another downside of the DivX Pro converter is that it does not let you crop any of the video if you want. I'm a big advocate of original aspect ration viewing for home theater, but for mobile video, anything wider than 16:9/1.78:1 is too small horizontally to enjoy on small screens. Programs that allow you to perform a "cinemascope zoom/crop," let you maximize the bitrate you're using to fill every pixel of your screen with acutal video and not black bars. For 4:3, however, I leave it as 4:3 becuase I don't like "fat" video (from stretching) or "headless/footless" video (from zoom/crop). Basically, any converting tool that uses mencoder, should give you the option to crop/zoom.

Don't forget, in order to backup your commercial videos to any format using any software, you need something to overcome the copy protection, I don't think I mentioned that. I, personally, use AnyDVD, but there are a lot of free options available out there as well.

I hope these little guides are helpful.

Encoded some 4:3 material today (kids' cartoons). You can save a little space by realizing that 4:3 video has 75% of the pixels of 16:9 video, therefore, you can reduce the VIDEO bitrate by 75% and get the same quality level.

So,

- For a 16:9 video, you'd encode, using the profile above, at 720 x 404 at 1412/128

- For a 4:3 video you'd select 540 x 404 at 1059/128

Note: No change is audio bitrate, 128 is the recommended minimum (Though, for audio I'll be listening through the ipod or my Squeezbox systems at home, I always choose 320kbps). If I were encoding these to use in a home theater system with someting like a Networked Media Tank or other net video player, I'd go with a higher bitrate (though, then we start looking at creating diferent version that maintains AC3 audio for surround, and we're now beyond what a lot of these programs can do).

Thanks, great work!

That's what I was looking for after spending some time finding proper encoding settings without any success.

Any problems with the audio being out of sync? I converted several music dvds(concerts) using TMPGEncDVDAuthor3 which has a Divx output and burned them to DVD+R DL discs. The program works great and the quality looked great at the highest video setting...a typical 4 gig dvd encoded at around 1 to 1.5 gig divx. However I am having problems with them being out of sync which can be most irritating. Any ideas? These conversions were typically 1785kbps and the audio was encoded at 320kbps. Would possibly encoding the audio at a lower bitrate keep them "synced" better? I haven't experimented this yet.

All my Audio is in synch using the methods I've used. I'm not familiar with the specific converter you're using; you'll probably get better answers on a support forum for it.

Is it in synch when you play them back on your PC?

I checked a couple and they do seem to be in sync but I may have been watching a vid on the Z110BT that came from a dvd that may not have been in sync to start with. I tried using the CloneDVDMobile and was having some difficulty on some PAL dvds. It would quit and have errors on the last pass leaving me with no audio. On some it did finish encoding but it had an error on the last chapter. When this happened I reencoded(re-outputted) the dvd with my dvd authoring program with an extra chapter at the end so I would get the whole thing and the last chapter with the error would be only seconds long and expendable. I do however like being able to encode separate chapters though. My thinking was the longer large 1 gig+ vids might have been getting out of sync because of the size and length. I thought the shorter chapter by chapter encodes would yield a more in sync finish product. Also having separate files for each chapter gives me the ability to have "chapters" while watching a concert or the like. The only problem with this however is waiting for the player to read the next file before playing it.

Look on the SlySoft forum... I think folks that convert PAL to NTSC use a program called reclock to take care of the problem you're experiencing. I've never tried it myself, though.

I had the same problem with an NTSC dvd last night when I tried to convert it. It doesn't make any sense. Some work and some don't.

I've found that winavi converting to ipod setting works great. Have done a dozen movies already and all have worked and have great quality video and audio with no video lag or chopping.....

Is it possible to play DivX files of TV shows downloaded from torrents? Do they play full screen? They're usually fairly low resolution, despite having "HD" in the filename (I think that just means the source was widescreen HD).

DivX playback won't be useful for me if I have to do any reconversion.

Also, I assume the Z110BT will NOT play VOBs or support DVD Menu?

Is it possible to play DivX files of TV shows downloaded from torrents? Do they play full screen? They're usually fairly low resolution, despite having "HD" in the filename (I think that just means the source was widescreen HD).

DivX playback won't be useful for me if I have to do any reconversion.

 

Also, I assume the Z110BT will NOT play VOBs or support DVD Menu?

The TV shows from torrents can work depending on how you convert the file. Like others said, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I've tried a number of video formats that are in the manual as "compatible formats" (.mp4, .avi, .mpg, etc.) but that all depends how you convert into the formats and what video source it was from. I actually made a red hot chili peppers live music dvd with a DVD Menu and it worked fine when burning to a DVD. I also found that the DVD format is a little easier to get stuff to play on the Z110BT then on an SD card. But burning a DVD is soooo much less convenient (and also wastes a whole dvd if it DOESN'T burn properly/lags) then uploading stuff to my 16GB SD card that I can always change up..

felixgun - thanks for the reply, but what I meant was, can the Z110BT play .avi files straight from torrents without conversion? Just copy to SD, stick it in, and it plays?

And by DVD Menu support, what I mean is can I rip a DVD into AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS, then copy those files to SD card, and the Z110BT can play them with full navigation of the DVD menu?

With my current setup, I have a WD TV Mini connected to A/V inputs and I control it using its IR remote. It's not entirely convenient, but the WD TV Mini will play DivX and Xvid .avi files right from torrents without any kind of conversion, just copy to flash drive, plug it in, and it plays. WD TV Mini does the same with DVDs when AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS are copied to flash drive. I am also able to plug in an external HDD to it full of ripped DVDs and play them individually. It supports DVD Menu so for DVDs of TV shows, I can select the episode I want to watch or use scene selection. I was hoping the Z110BT would have those kinds of features built in.

I can confirm that these video settings can be played on an SD card.

The maximum video bitrate is around 1000kb/s. There is also a size limitation of around 1GB. Any video bigger than 1GB won't play. Also, I believe any resolution larger than 640 X XXX and it won't play.

VIDEO

CODEC: XVID (*.AVI)
RESOLUTION: 640 X 360
FRAME RATE: 29 NTSC or 24 FILM
BITRATE: 975 kb/s

AUDIO

CODEC: MPGA
BITRATE: 128 kb/s
SAMPLE RATE: 48kHz

I use AVS Video Converter to encode my videos.

felixgun - thanks for the reply, but what I meant was, can the Z110BT play .avi files straight from torrents without conversion? Just copy to SD, stick it in, and it plays?

 

And by DVD Menu support, what I mean is can I rip a DVD into AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS, then copy those files to SD card, and the Z110BT can play them with full navigation of the DVD menu?

 

With my current setup, I have a WD TV Mini connected to A/V inputs and I control it using its IR remote. It's not entirely convenient, but the WD TV Mini will play DivX and Xvid .avi files right from torrents without any kind of conversion, just copy to flash drive, plug it in, and it plays. WD TV Mini does the same with DVDs when AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS are copied to flash drive. I am also able to plug in an external HDD to it full of ripped DVDs and play them individually. It supports DVD Menu so for DVDs of TV shows, I can select the episode I want to watch or use scene selection. I was hoping the Z110BT would have those kinds of features built in.

No the .avi files straight from torrent -> straight to SD do not play without conversion.. I personally have tried several (I have lots) just to make sure it wasn't that one .avi, and still nothing.

If you rip the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS from a DVD and stick it on an SD nothing will happen (including using the full navigation of the DVD menu which would be awesome). The only time you can use the DVD menu is when you are actually on the DVD input of the Z110bt. Otherwise you have to use the controls on the SD input. The SD file formats are very limited. If you rip the full uncompressed DVD and then convert to one of the "working" formats (according to the manual), it MIGHT work... depending on what tool/program you are using to convert.

I also looked at the WD TV Mini and yes all of those features would be awesome in the Z110 but none such features exist. I would get one but then I would have to find a place to put it in my tahoe and i've run out of room behind the dash from all the extra components (HD Radio/MSN Direct/etc) and doesn't look like that would fit in my glove compartment where my iPod touch/USB ipod cable goes. Plus you would have to get an AC/DC converter plugged into your battery/ugly external cigarette lighter charger to plug in to run it for the extra power. How exactly do you have yours set up in your car?

I also looked at the WD TV Mini and yes all of those features would be awesome in the Z110 but none such features exist. I would get one but then I would have to find a place to put it in my tahoe and i've run out of room behind the dash from all the extra components (HD Radio/MSN Direct/etc) and doesn't look like that would fit in my glove compartment where my iPod touch/USB ipod cable goes. Plus you would have to get an AC/DC converter plugged into your battery/ugly external cigarette lighter charger to plug in to run it for the extra power. How exactly do you have yours set up in your car?

Thanks for the info! Being able to play .avi or DVD without conversion would be the main reason I'd want to upgrade my HU, so if the Z110BT doesn't do it, I'm not disappointed that I missed the great deals that were going around earlier in the Spring.

WD TV Mini runs on 12V so no AC/DC converter or cig lighter necessary. I used an old universal radar detector hard-wire kit and a fuse adapter. I have the WD TV Mini plugged into a fuse that comes on with ACC power, same as the HU. It's currently just sitting in the glovebox, only drawback so far is I have to open the glovebox to use the remote control, so I also had to pull the glovebox bulb.

I've found that winavi converting to ipod setting works great. Have done a dozen movies already and all have worked and have great quality video and audio with no video lag or chopping.....

Thanks for this, I've tested a couple of videos and that seems to work. I'll try a couple more before converting, my entire library.

I have tried different formats with Handbrake today, but no luck playing videos on my Avic-Z120bt.

Have anybody succeeded converting movies with Handbrake? If so please share your settings.

Thanks a lot.

Try out AVS video converter and use *.AVI (XVID)

Does the folder name have to be anything specific on the SD card?

I've found that /Movies/Music Videos work, but /Videos/Movies or /Videos/Music Videos does not. it could be because of my files, but i just wanted to check.

I was following the step in this thread, and put in an SD card but it wont see any video in the card, only can see the music I was put in there

http://avic411.com/index.php?showtopic=12971

did I do anything wrong? or this step wont work with Z120?

I am using hamster video conter free from cnet download, i just clicked on the ipod classic and it worked without a hitch usind sd, i converted over 180 misic video and put it in 1 8 gb sd card and it plays, didnt have to configure anything email me for any question

i have 120bt

hope this helps

i been using the website www.KeepVid.com

put a link to whatever video on line, youtube...

and the site converts it for u and downs it to your pc.

im sure someone knows.

The easiest converter i have found is hamster, its free at cnet download.com, all you need to pick is the ipod classic setting and it will play in your avic 120bt, ive tested this and it worked on music vidoes and movies, you dont have to mess with the setting. Also good thing on this is you can que up as many avi you want to convert and let it convert all night

this will work on sd and USB 8 gb max on either one

i use the you tube downloader and use the hamster to convert all of the music videos and its very fast

Hope this helps