Play DivX/Xvid/MP3 on your Playstation 2

Do you have a large collection of DVD's or DivX movies in your cub board, but don't know how to play them independently without a desktop PC or don't want to connect your PC to TV via TV-out for obvious reasons or Do you have a Playstation 2 but don't know how to make an optimum use of your investment? In 10 mins you will learn how you can convert your same old PS2 into a Home Entertainment HUB. DVD burners and DVD-Rom's becoming cheaper day-by-day, its really convenient to backup all your movies into DVD's or backup your mini library into compress Xvid or DivX file format. You can store as-many-as six movies into one DVD in Xvid format. Of course you can opt for new DivX players available in market, but wait, are these players good enough? I don't think so.
Why should one opt for PS2 rather than some media player? One, you can play cool PS2 games, all the neighboring kids will envy you and befriend you. Two, you can play DVD's, CD's. Three, you can play DivX and Xvid file format movies. Four, you can listen to all those MP3's that you have collected since 1972. Five, you can play all the movies from USB hard-disk.
Disclaimer! Ensure that you legally own the original movies which you backup in DivX or Xvid formats. I take no responsibility for any damage to your property. Take your own risk.


Step 1:
You Need Hardware:

1. Playstation 2
2. Blank CD
3. USB Hard Disk (Optional)

Software

1. CD Gen PS2
2. SMS Player

Step 2:
SMS is a DivX and MP3 player for the PS2. Using SMS, you can stream movies and music right to your TV. forget about all the set-top boxes, forget about the 'Media PC', if you have a PS2, you have all the hardware you need.
Features of SMS include:

* Smooth DivX AVI Playback at decent resolution
* Pan/Scan and zooming
* Subtitles support (SRT and SUB)
* Visual seek (Fast Forward and Rewind)
* Multiple language and character set support for subtitles other than English
* MP3 Playback
* AC3 Surround Support
* Full resolution
* Multilanguage
* Copy your movies and mp3's to your internal HDD!

SMS will read video files from a variety of sources:

* Network Streaming
* USB Drives
* Hard Drives (both the Official Sony HDD and any normal PC HDD)
* CD/DVD-ROM (and NO modchip required!)

SMS can even read DVD-RW discs specially formatted with the DVD-Video filesystem, or CD-R Discs formatted with CDDAFS without needing a modchip or any Swap tricks.
Download SMS Player.
Download CDGenPS2.
Download USB.irx file which is part of Naplink.
Download the SYSTEM.cnf file.
Note: There are other Media players for PS2, But I chose SMS because I find it most efficient.


Step 3:
Extract the CDGenPS2 zip file to any location on your drive. Launch the CDGenPS2 exe file.

Drag all the files in the application which you have download (i.e SMS.elf, USB.irx, System.cnf)


Right click on "System.cnf" and click "Edit", check "Fix LBA", type 12231 in LBA "text box"
Click File->Create CD then Save
Voila! Burn to a CD (not DVD) using any of your favourite CD-Writer software.


Step 4:
Place the newly created CD into your PS2. Power On.
After the SMS player loads up. Replace the CD, with any DVD or CD which contains the DivX / Xvid or MP3's, just browse and play the files. If you want, I have created a CD-Image for you. Download SMS Player CD-Image Zip, extract it, then burn it to your CD.

How to Display Subtitles with an .avi file

First of all you need a program which can display Subtitles. For this purpose you can use VobSub.

After installtion of VobSub - From the Start/Programs menu, select Vobsub/DirectVobSub Configure

A window with tabs will show up:



General



16:9 refers to Widescreen avi files. There are also Fullscreen avi files, whose aspect ratio is 4:3. You could change this setting according to that, however 16:9 will do in any case. Enable MOD32fix. You won't need it most of the time. But it doesn't do any damage (as far as i know) so just put it on. Select Double if smaller than The numbers on the right refer to the resolution of an .avi, which means width per height. If the resolution of your video is smaller than the number displayed, selecting this option you'll double the picture's size. You can play with the resolution settings if you want, but there's no need to change them. Selecting: Always load Vobsub will start everytime you run an avi file.
Misc Just leave everything as default.
Timing Just keep everything as it is.

Colors Leave the original settings.

Paths Here you can select the Directory where your subs are stored. However remember that the sub file should be named exactly as the avi file, otherwise they won't be loaded.



Now you're done Configuring VobSub. You only have to do this once. Close the window.
3. Displaying the Subtitles
From now on, when you play a video an icon will appear in your taskbar:



Double Click it. You'll see the Direct VobSub Configure screen pop up.



If your sub files is in the same directory as the video you're going to watch, the subtitles will be displayed automatically. However, if the subtitles file is elsewhere click "Open" and select the directory where it's stored. NOTE: If the Subs are in the Vobsub format (.sub + .idx) you won't need to unrar them, in case. Check "Override Placement". H refers to moving the displayed subtitles from left to right. 50 corresponds to the center and is good. V refers to moving the displayed subtitles from the top to the bottom. 90 is a good setting but you can change it if you prefer. The higher the number, the closer to the bottom the subs will appear on the screen. Now click "Adjust" (bottom right on the screen) and select the language, in case your subtitles file includes more than one. Click OK. The subs will appear in your Video file when you play it.

Correct Audio Sync Errors

Correct Audio Sync Errors

Tools: Windows Media Player Classic and NanDub

This is a short tutorial for correcting audio sync errors using Media Player Classic and NanDub.
Here is the link for these programs: Audio Sync tools

Open Media Player Classic, looks like Windows Media Player, but is actually a sophisticated little media player.



Move the slider at the bottom to a point in the film where you can easily check the audio sync.
Pause the video, on the toobar go to Play, Audio, Options. Click on Audio Switcher under Filters, and check the box for Audio Time Shift



Now you have to put in a little work, if the Audio is before the Video, enter a + value, it the Audio is after the Video, enter a - value. I start with a 1000 ms, remember this is just one second, click apply and ok. Play the video and check the sync, adjust as necessary. Pause between tries so you don't have to refind your spot. Sometimes this can take awhile, just be patient and when you have adjusted the Audio to sync with the Video move the slider ahead several times to make sure it holds true for the whole file. I have had to adjust as much as 6000 ms before, so don't be afraid to put in big numbers, just make sure you don't go past your sync.



Once you get your Audio in sync you can close Media Player Classic
Open NanDub,
Go to File, Open Video File, and open the avi.



Click on Audio, Interleving.
Go to the Audio Skew Correction, Delay Audio Track and enter the value you have from Media Player Classic



Click OK, check Audio, Direct Stream Copy is checked, should be. Important, go to Video, make sure that Direct Stream Copy is checked, Not Full Processing Mode. Full Processing Mode will give you a 4 gb file



Now just go to File, Save As Avi, and rename the file. New avi file should have synced audio, be sure to check it.

How to adjust the frame rate of subtitles

NOTE: this tutorial only shows ONE of the ways to adjust the framerate of subtitles. Actually the same thing can be done using Subtitle Workshop, which is the most complete tool for editing subtitles. Here you will find an excellent guide for learning how to use it.
First of all you need Subconvertor 1.2 This freeware application needs no installation. Just extract the file to a folder and execute it.

Using Subconvertor
You only have to use Subconvertor if your subtitles have a different framerate than your video file. Once you've executed Subconvertor a window will pop up:



You don't need to change any settings, but you can uncheck: srt=>ssa newline use \n If this setting is selected, your subtitles files will be saved as .ssa format instead of .srt.

1. Click "Open" and select your subtitles file. This program only supports .srt, .ssa and .sub files, which, however, are the most common filetypes.

2. Input the framerate of your video (for example 29.976 frames per second).

3. Save the file using the "Convert as" option, typing the name.extension of the output subtitles file, unless you've already chosen to save it as .ssa or as .srt

get the free program here:
http://www.urusoft.net/downloads.php?lang=1

HJ split tutorial, split save and join files

Download :
http://www.freewr.com/freeware.php?download=hjsplit&lid=2486

Steps:
To Split a file when files are too large for a floppy disk:
Double click on the HJSplit icon on the desktop.
Click the "Split" button. A new window should appear.
Click the "Input File" button. Select the file you wish to split.
Click the "Start" button.
The program will begin splitting the file.
The split file will appear in the same folder location as the original input file.
The split file will have the same name as the original file, with the exception of, the split file(s) will end with xxxxx.001 for the first of the split files, and xxxxx.002, and xxxxx.003, etc, for the next files in the split set.
Once the splitting is completed, press the 'ok' button on the popup dialog box.
Click the 'close' button.
Click the 'exit' button to exit from HJ Split.


Copy the Files to a Disk:
Select your split file(s) and right click on them using the right mouse button.
Move your mouse over the "Send To" option on the popup menu.
On the second popup menu, select the "3 1\2" Floppy Drive" option.
Make sure you copy the HJ Split program to your disk as well. To do this:
Double click on the "My Document's" folder on the desktop.
Right click on the folder "HJ Split" and move the mouse cursor over the "Send To" option.
Select the "3 1\2" Floppy Drive" option.


To Join a File:
Double click on the HJ Split icon on the desktop.
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Click the "Input File" button and select the first file in the split set. (Note: the first file in the set will have the extension .001 at the end of the file. The rest of the files in the set will be found automatically.)
Click the "Start" button. The joined file will be placed in the same folder location as the original input file.
Press the "ok" button.
Press the "Close" button.
Press the "exit" button to exit from HJ Split.

How To Watch A Movie By Setting It As Wallpaper

Most of u may know this trick already, but.. for ppl who donno this.. its really a gud tip..

What if we want to chat with some one simultaneously watching movie? Opening a movie in window is quite irksome.. So, how about making the video as wallpaper?? Just try out...

For this, you need VLC player. It is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats. (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, h264, xvid etc...) .If you are having a hard time playing videos, VLC media player will more than likely will solve your issue.Download it from here.

Now, Play any movie in VLC player, Right click on the screen and select Wallpaper. Minimize the screen.. Thats it... you can do anything in parellel watching the movie...

How to check the quality of a movie without downloading the whole thing

Ok, this is a very quick and simple tutorial on How to check the quality of a movie
(that is compressed in multiple rar files) without downloading the whole thing.

This way, you can check if that CAM is worth grabbing or if it really is a DVD Rip.

First, you will need two pieces of software.

WinRAR - http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
VLC Media Player - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

1. Download the very first rar file in a set.
2. Right click on the file after its downloaded and select "extract files"

You will see this screen -


3. Check (US) or Tick (UK) the box that says Keep broken files. Then click OK.

Winrar will unrar the first rar file and then give an error that it could not find the 2nd rar in the series.

4. Click cancel/ok.

Now you will see a new folder wherever you unrared the zip. Inside the folder will be a fragment of the movie. (This will not play in WMP.)

5. Open the fragment with VLC media player and check if the quality is to your liking.