Month: July 2006

Having in previous postings expounded about the greatness of my Philips DVP3040 DVD player, I thought it a good idea to reveal some of the problems I have had with the player after a month or so of use. The main problem has been jittery or jerky video playback on various DivX or XviD files. Some files worked, others were unwatchable. Turns out the player does not like the encoding on specific files. The issue is video that uses a “packed bitstream.” There is, thankfully, an fairly easy solution. There is a small, free piece of software called MPEG4 Modifier that can analyze a video file, and re-save it with an “unpacked bitstream.” The re-saved files are actually a tad smaller than the packed ones and work perfectly in the DVD player. The application is tiny, does not require an install, and very easy to use.

My band, Nonagon, will be playing a live show on Saturday, August 5th at The Note in Chicago’s trendy Wicker Park neighborhood (1565 N. Milwaukee). The show starts around 9 o’clock PM and the line-up is as follows:

• From Monument To Masses (from San Francisco, CA)
• Nonagon (from Chicago, IL)
• Driftless Pony Club (from Madison, WI)
• 1908 (from Waukegan, IL)

Please, please come to the show if you are in town on that weekend. It will be much better than the lame-o-rama Lollapalooza crapfest that will be going on at the same time. And our crapfest is much less expensive.