So far the Mintek 1600 is not working. The original template produces blue screen - the beta template produces skipping audio. Mintek is made by Shinco - the Apex people. The player itself is $60 and can play everything. Even .mpg files burned on a data cd (at almost any resolution / bitrate). The only thing it cant play are SVCDs so the Apex BBMpeg mux trick would not work with this player using the beta template. Once the firmware is hacked by someone I should be able to add SVCD support by flashing the firmware - a technique which worked well with previous Mintek/Shinco brand players. Until then this player will only work when encoded at 352x240.

It turns out it was as easy as setting the fps to 29.97 to get the KVCDx2 Beta template to work. Looks great. This quick fix might work with similar players (mintek/shinco/shinsonic/apex). For $60 this player is impressive.

I am successful setting 29fps in TMPGEnc with KVCD but KVCDx2 is not working even with 29fps in APEX 660. I guess some buffer issue as the player 660 is unable to keep video in pace with audio (audio starts immediately with blank video and hangs after 2sec.). Tried demux but no success. KVCDx2 is by far the best. I will wait for some help and then will replace player.

gopalk, your system might be the same as the pioneer..two way you can resolve it... try each one seperated, test them if it doesnt work try both

1. use a buffer of 22 or find you own vbv
2. use a MVBR control bit (my pioneer has problem with the CQ)


my experience is using both method, with a bitrate calculator to find the maximum bitrate

I wanted to go ahead and refresh the topic for the mintek dvd 1600 model. I've tried all the templates at varable bit rates from 640-4500 with no problems. I did notice the intro screen skipping on one movie, so maybe there is a min bitrate limit? I dunno yet. If you max out the bit rate the movie will skip and the audio will be horrible.
The 704x480 resolution does not work. It rolls vertical like the tracking is off ;p. Other than that the movies play great with audio ranging from 44.1 to 44.8kHz and 96 to 256 kb/s. It plays movies with framerates 23.976 25 and 29.97. PAL movies seem to work although I've only tried one with the 25fps framerate. 60fps does not work.

Quick recap
Bitrate : 650-4500 ; Possible min bitrate ?
Mintek 1600 (bought from best buy 03-11-2003 49.99$)
Good Resolutions: 720x480, 352x240, 352x480, 528x480
Bad Resolutions : 704x480
Good fps : 23.9,25,29.97
Bad fps : 60
Good Audio : 44.1-44.8 x 96-256kb/s
Bad Audio : None so far

Overall its is a really good player. Hope this info helps.

Bytecode,

As the subject says: "How did you do it?" When I try this, audio continually fades in and out. Please let me know. I have a new Mintek 1600, as well.

Thanks.

100571

I'm not sure why your audio is fading in and out. Mine plays fine. What are you encoding your audio with and at what bps/freq? I usually use 44.1khz for everything and for movies that span two disc and are a higher quality I use 112-128kbs, but for 1 disc movies I use 96kbps.

Something else to try. I run everything in my bedroom through a sony reciever, but I only have 2 speakers hooked up in my bedroom, so if I forget to change it to 2speaker mode instead of the dts surround sound mode, my audio will fade. Probably not your problem, but still something to look at. If you could give me more info about how your encoding the audio and video I can maybe help more.

Hope this helps

-BC

Thanks for the eply.

I use DVD2AVI and "Force Film" when appropriate. I then use TMPEnc with audio set at 160kbs, 44.1.

I do not have this audio problem when I encode at 29.97fps though.

This is strange because I use TmpegEnc and avisynth, with besweet to convert my audio. I've never used DVD2AVI before, so I'm not sure if thats the problem. Try resampling your audio with a diff program. I will check it out closer tonight when I get home to make sure I'm just not noticing the problem, but I've even encoded PAL movies (25fps) and they work fine.
I'm positive I have MPEG1 XVCDS encoded at 29.97,23.976, and 25 fps NTSC/NTSC Film/PAL, and I've never noticed the audio problem. Try lowering your sample rate and see if that helps. You may also be exceding the bit rate limit on the movie, so maybe try lowering that and see if it makes a diff, although it seems when I exceed the bitrate on some movies my dvd player just skips and seems to freeze a lot. I've never experenced any audio fading. Are you encoding to SVCD VCD or DVD-R ? It may also be a problem between revisions on the Mintek models we have. I've noticed on other message boards people have mentioned having problems with the model that has the "VCD" logo on the front. Let me know the stats on the movie your encoding and I will see if I can duplicate the problem.

-BC

Hi Bytecode,

My DVD-1600 does not have the VCD logo on the front. I encode in TMPGEnc at 480x480 as a VCD and use the Nero Wizard to burn as a VCD, as well. Do you think there is an issue using 23.97 with 480x480 (since this is a SVCD resolution and SVCD's play at 29.97)?


Thanks for your help.

100571

I've done quite a few test samples trying to play around with the kvcd templates on my 1600 over the last few days, and I can confirm that my audio is great from 44.1 to 48 khz @ 96 to 196, but I did get some jerky-ness when watching the test sample @ 256, but I could've just exceeded the bitrate max (not sure what that is yet). I do know that the 1600 has a min bitrate, but I cannot figure out what it is yet. @ min 300 the titles scroll sometimes, but its not a big deal.

I've never used 480x480 as a resolution for my movies, but I've used 720x480 and 528x480 and they play fine, so I can't imagine that the resolution would be the problem. I would try using vcdeasy instead of nero, or if you do use nero turn of the compliance check at the start of the burn wizard thing. I think nero tries to convert your audio/video to fall within the SVCD standards. I would bet the problem is nero though if I were guessing. The fps of 23.97 works fine, so I think your video is okay. Try resampling your audio and make sure it plays okay on your computer then burn it with something like vcdeasy instead of nero and see if it makes a diff. You might also try downloading some of the sample cds from here and burn a cd and see if you still have the same problem. That would help you figure out if its your player or your encode/burn process.

-BC

Wow!

Thanks to Bytecode and others for the suggestions. I am now able to play at 23.97 and I don't have to worry about any interlace/de-interlace issues on my Mintek DVD-1600.

Here's what I use for excellent results.

Rip: cladXP (no frame serve option)
Frameserve: DVD2AVI
Aspect/Resize: FitCD
Encode: TMPEnc (I use the MPEG-1 KVCDx3 template, but I have made the following changes in the Advanced Section (MPEG-1 > MPEG-2, 23.97 (29.97 internal), and ALWAYS interlace > 3:2 pulldown. I also select noise reduction and set CQ to 20, and audio to 128kbs.

I then encode as an MPEG-2, but use the VCD Header Trick to create an MPEG-1 header.*

Burn: Nero 5.5 (use wizard and burn as VCD non-compliant.

Here are some results on a Minority Report (2h:24m DVD), thusfar.

A: Full-Movie
1) As per above, but CQ at 30 and audio at 160kbs: 1900~2000MB
I could put on two 90 minute CD-R's with overburn!!!

2) As per above (CQ at 20): 1500MB
Easily fits on two standard CD-R's

B: 2 minute encode sample
1) As per above: 51MB

2) As per above, but changed frame rate to 29.97 (both with and with out 3:2 pulldown): 59MB

3) As per above, but changed frame rate to 29.97 and encoded as MPEG-1: 59MB

*Note: Without Header Trick, SVCD will not play in Mintek DVD-1600.

Other:
With the settings described at the very beginning, I set to create a universal template for 29.97, 29.97FILM, and 23.97 videos. Thusfar, I have ben successful. Even with 29.97 DivX downloads, I perform the steps above to create a psuedo SVCD and the final reuslt is awesome video with a file size smaller than if I had encoded straight to 29.97 as an MPEG-1.

I still need to explore other 29.97 videos, but for now all is good.

One happy guy,
100571

I should add that all of the encodes below were done at 480 x 480. For low res video downloads, I can use the standard VCD res of 352x240 with no problems.

Also, the sample encodes were not 51MB and 59MB, but rather 21MB and 29MB, respectively.

100571