I have been downloading some old series of Casualty and Holby City on torrents

All are labelled as .avi but some are not recognised by my WDHD Tv player.

Looking with MediaInfo there are some difference.

The ones that play have an entry for

Codec Id- Xvid

Codec ID/Hint - Xvid

The others do not have these entries. Otherwise they look the same.

All files will play on my PC.

There are no further firmware upgrades for my WDTV player,

so I guess I need to covert the files if I want to watch them on TV.

Any ideas on the best SW to do this?

The ones that play have an entry for

Codec Id- Xvid

Codec ID/Hint - Xvid

The others do not have these entries. Otherwise they look the same.

Try using Virtualdub or TMPGEnc to convert.

BTW, what's the Codec Id/Hint for the AVI files that do not play? Wouldn't happen to be MP42 would it?

What do you think of the WDHD TV device? Was thinking of getting one.

Do you plug it into the TV USB port and it connects wirelessly to a PC?

The one I was looking at was about 8k and had the word "Live" in the title. Is that the same as yours? If so, what does the "Live" refer to?

Thanks

Mick

There are other brands instead of WD, have a look around.

Format Factory is a pretty good free converter.  Just make sure you select Xvid as the target and your conversion should play.

What do you think of the WDHD TV device? Was thinking of getting one.

Do you plug it into the TV USB port and it connects wirelessly to a PC?

The one I was looking at was about 8k and had the word "Live" in the title. Is that the same as yours? If so, what does the "Live" refer to?

Thanks

Mick

I got the "WD TV Live Plus" a bit more than a year ago and am very pleased with it. I know I haven't even explored most of its capabilities.

I connect it to my tv with the HDMI connection, and use an external one terrabyte drive to transfer files downloaded and then to watch - connects to the WDTV by USB. Plays many different video formats, as well as sound formats, and ordinary graphic files. It will set up a wifi network with the computer so I suppose I can transfer and/or watch things that way - haven't done any of it yet. And, I also suppose that if I have a streaming video through the computer, the wifi network would send that to the WDTV and on to my tv screen, too.

I have a newer Samsung LCD TV. The USB interface supports NTFS and plays anything/everything: avi, mvk, asf, wmv, 3gp, mp4, VOB, ISO, so I just plug in a 500 GB USB HDD and play direct from that. The TV remote is used to navigate the HDD. A cool feature I discovered by accident: the TV remembers where you stopped a file previously and allows you to jump to that point. Amazing.

Anyway, this week I did run in to a problem with an AVI file, the first that wouldn't play (CODEC not supported) in 1,000's to date, The Mentalist S03E14. It played on PCs (VLC) but not on my TV. Using Gspot, the only odd thing I could find were a bunch of entries in the 'User Data / Metadata' fields: [JUNK] MPlayer junk data .

I gave up and downloaded a 720p/mkv version of that ep. and it played fine on my TV.

I have old WDHD Tv box, not the Live version

Generally I am very happy with it.

Plays virtually anything, except the files I have mentioned.

Packs in my suitcase when I travel.

However I have just helped a friend set up a Mede8er.

He has put a 2Tb disk inside.

A very swish bit of equipment.

Will try the suggested programmes

Thanks

Hmmmm....I've got the "live" box and have played hundreds of files with no problems. But have not specifically tried the one you point out. I do have it connected to the internet and have updated the firmware a few times. Maybe that helps?

So far, I'm really happy with this box. I do have the house networked, and have accessed YouTube videos from it. But have not been able to access my PC yet...I'm sure it's just a technical glitch. Will have to get somebody over to help me out. For now, I just connect an external hard drive to it. No biggie. And if I am in a hurry, just put the new file on my 16gb thumb drive and plug that in.

I did get a new Samsung TV that supports USB directly. IMHO, the interface is not as slick. It's OK, but the WD box is easier to use and obviously, has lots more features. But since I only have one WD box, I just plug an external hard drive/thumb drive into the new tv and it works fine.

I will try and download one of those series and let you know if I can play it...

edit: that Mede8er looks pretty cool. One thing I don't like about the WD is it gets real hot. This device has a fan!

I've got a WDTV player and one out of over 500 avi's didn't play on it. My favorite converter is Hamster Free Video Converter.

They might not have properly encoded to play on a standalone player - I use AVIRecomp to sort them out.

FormatFactory seems to do the trick.

Great piece of SW

Thanks for recommending it. :jap:

I have a newer Samsung LCD TV. The USB interface supports NTFS and plays anything/everything: avi, mvk, asf, wmv, 3gp, mp4, VOB, ISO, so I just plug in a 500 GB USB HDD and play direct from that. The TV remote is used to navigate the HDD. A cool feature I discovered by accident: the TV remembers where you stopped a file previously and allows you to jump to that point. Amazing.

Anyway, this week I did run in to a problem with an AVI file, the first that wouldn't play (CODEC not supported) in 1,000's to date, The Mentalist S03E14. It played on PCs (VLC) but not on my TV. Using Gspot, the only odd thing I could find were a bunch of entries in the 'User Data / Metadata' fields: [JUNK] MPlayer junk data .

I gave up and downloaded a 720p/mkv version of that ep. and it played fine on my TV.

==================================================================

Could you be kind enough to let me know which Samsung LCD TV you bought (serial number?)

However I have just helped a friend set up a Mede8er.

+1 for the Mede8er... I bought mine years ago to replace my crappy (codec support) MviX's (anybody want an MviX? I have 3 here...)

With the exception of a couple of .wmv files, Mede8er's never let me down...

Could you be kind enough to let me know which Samsung LCD TV you bought (serial number?)

Series 5 and up should be fine. Just check the set has at least 2 USB sockets one of which should be designated for a HDD.

Not necessarily, it depends on the age of the model.

My series 6 is about 2 years old now, and definitely does not support video, only audio.

Best to take a usb with you when buying to check for yourself,

sales staff will tell you what you want to hear, rather than what is true.

Hmmmm....I've got the "live" box . . . But have not been able to access my PC yet...I'm sure it's just a technical glitch.

My live box accesses my PC just fine. Just takes a little setting up. I share my movie folder. I've also used the PS3 Media Server on my PC, which in some ways makes things simpler.

I figure, why buy an extra disk when you've got one right there on your PC already.

I don't think any media player is guaranteed to play every possbile codec. Some files will likely need to be converted.

I've used Any Video Converter for a long time. A lot of formats available. The free version suits me very well and there is a paid version.