I have a Yamada MPEG4 decoding DVD Player, and, for films that I want to watch on it, I have stuck to ye olde faithful DivX5...

Which switches (if any - am I imagining things here) am I not allowed to use when encoding with xvid if I want to keep the stream compatable with my player?

Thanks!

Xvid 1.0+ supports the official/semi-official MPEG-4 profiles. Try using the "Simple @ L3" profile, it shouldn't cause any problems even with older hardware.

Will I be gaining anything over DivX5 with that?

Xvid should give better quality.

If you have the DVX-6600 DVD, you should even be able to use all ASP features including GMC. Just a too-high bitrate could make him choke because capping it still doesn't work in XviD 1.01.

You can probably find information on your specific Yamada here.

[offtopic]
I think the best DivX/XviD player for your HT might be a modded Xbox. (consider features vs. cost)

Current version of Xbox Media Center can play xvid cip with every advanced features, not only in AVI but Matroska and OGM. It supports AAC / Ogg (and much more) audio track. External subtitles like (.srt .ssa VobSub) are also support. It is cheaper than most MPEG-4 player and you can play Halo on it too.
[/offtopic]

I'll test xvid later on sometime, let you all know (along with the model number...)

[offtopic @ Stoneroses]
Home Theatre is TV-Out from my PC, so thats no hassle.
The Yamada is the Parents Home Theatre - they dont want an xbox
[/offtopic]