Deathbearer said:
that deal is tempting.... but u know i dont think i will spend 5k's just to c the menu...so will have to do without it.
I'm no expert, but since I have had the same exact problem as you, I registered just to help with this issue. I actually wanted to respond to a number of things besides the issue of menus itself, so it's probably way too much information. Well, that's how I do things.
ABOUT PLAYERS
The "
Philips 5150" link listed in the message above yours is a Consumer Catalog branch that points to the "india.philips.com" website. (Click on "Home" on the page and that's where it takes you.) Therefore, the "Rs. 4,900" price listed is likely given in Indian rupees: about $114 USD. That wouldn't be the one to get, even if you were interested in another player.
In my opinion, the solid, inexpensive choice for DivX Ultra and multi-format support is the "
Philips DVP5140". I got mine at Walmart for $50, but you can find it even cheaper. The DVP5140 plays about every conceivable type of video file. One website says,
"The Philips DVP5140 Progressive Scan DVD Player supports DivX Ultra and can play CD-R/W, DivX, Xvid, DVD, DVD+R/W, DVD-R/W DVD-Video, MP3, MPEG4, Picture CDs, VCD, and SVCD". You can find an an excellent review with lots of pictures
here. More detailed information and comments by those who have bought it can be found
here.
Note: The 5140 it doesn't support HDTV. For that, you need to pay about $20 more for a nearly-identical unit, the
Philips DVP5960. It has HDTV support and also a USB port. My friend bought one and told me that he can play videos straight off the flash drive with no need to burn anything. Wish I had got that one ...
About XVID vs DIVX & the Menu Problem
XviD is DivX spelled backwards. And for a good reason. DivX is proprietary (roughly meaning NOT FREE) and XviD is open-source (roughly meaning FREE). Therefore, it's not in the best interest of companies to support XviD. I wouldn't look for conversionless, XviD-compatible menu software for some time to come. For now, all I've looked at aren't even close.
DivXMediaBuilder (two popups) is just a mess, requires conversion to .divx format, and the final version is certainly not going to be freeware.
The makers of
QuickMenuBuilder (one popup) have a clue since you don't need to convert, but -- aside from being terribly buggy -- it creates an
executable file and doesnt work on stand-alone DVD players.
TMPGenC for DivX Authors 3 requires conversion to .divx format. Additionally, the 5 XviDs I could fit on a 4.7G data DVD require a whopping 16G after re-encoding. Conversion ... pfft! :no:
SO WHAT CAN WE DO ?
What we really want with a menu is to have a little helpful information to decide which movie to see. Actually selecting the movie from the menu is not that big a deal. With this in mind, what I do to make a kind of "menu" is this:
1. Copy a few lines of the each movie description from IMDB and paste it into Notepad.
2. Repeat Step 1 until done with the the movies you want info for on the DVD.
2. Using any graphic utility with an "insert text" feature (Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, even MSPaint), create a new 640x480 JPG image.
3. Paste the text from the Notepad file into the image.
4. Adjust Font Size until it fits comfortably into the image and save.
Takes about 10 minutes to do. You can click on the attached sample, if you like. It is mildly fancy in that I added some color and another font or two. It took me 18 mins in all. (Note that it is
just a sample. I don't even have any movies. :hap5: )
Now when you burn your data DVD, just add the JPG along with your XviDs, SVCDs, etc. Not effortless, but you will have a still image that shows all the movie info -- without the hours of pointless conversion.
Well, that is what I do. If anyone knows a better way to add a menu or movie info to a data DVD with mixed video, please feel free to post or PM. To me, whatever works best
is best!
:huh: 
