Video Encoder?

[mike_rad]

Hello. I d/load lots of videos and like to put them on a flash drive so I can plug that into the DVD player and watch them on a bigger screen. While they will all play on my laptop many won't play on the DVD player - unsupported format error. Some just won't play at all while some will give no picture but the soundtrack is clearly audible. Others will give both but the picture continually freezes for a minute or so while the soundtrack is ok.

I was thinking if I could re-encode them into a more universal format (mpeg 2?) then maybe I can overcome this problem. I can't connect the laptop to the TV as the latter is an older CRT type. Any ideas? TIA.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Media Player?

Much less painful than converting.

[mike_rad]

Sure, but how can I be sure that it really will play all formats? My DVD player makes similar claims.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Sure, but how can I be sure that it really will play all formats? My DVD player makes similar claims.

I'm sure that your DVD player does not make similar claims. Perhaps MPEG 4 at best. If you want to be sure, take your USB drive to the shop with you.

[retoocs01]

I assume, the Videos that won't play, are h264/aac or h264/mp3 or similar encoded ones.

Most older/cheaper DVD player doesn't recognize these formats.

Use a Mediaplayer or even better, a cheap Android tablet with HDMI.

Or a newer TV, which plays all kinds of movies from a stick/hdd without any external player, like my new Sony does.

Edited January 8, 2013 by retoocs01

[dave_boo]

Handbrake has a "Universal" preset that has worked really well for me for quick and dirty re-encodings that just needed to be played. Try that and if it works, try another one. The "Universal" starts off at 720x*** (depending on your source of course). It then goes up through the various iPod/iPhone/iPad presets. The biggest issue most of those "MP4" players have though is not the resolution, but rather the extra options with the reference frames being a major stumbling block. As a side note, the iPhone&iPod Touch setting is the same as the Universal but at 480x***. I think if you keep the reference frames to 3 or less and the device advertises mp4 capability you should be good to go.

Plus it's free.

[pattayadingo]

Any Video Converter. AVC does many formats and lets you increase the volume on movies with quiet soundtracks.

I convert - where needed - to Xvid format and all are watchable. I load them onto a USB stick and watch them.

Depends really on what format your player plays and if it does not support HD then pointless trying to play HD movies until you convert them.

Check what extensions will play. Are they .mkv / .avi or whatever and convert your non-playing movies to that format.

[JakeBKK]

1 ) don't waste you time re - encoding vid's. buy the latest thai dvd player you can find (for less than 700 THB) and use your movies/shows right away.

2 ) connect you laptop to your telly.

3 ) is it a Samsung smart TV by accident? you can root 'em and install VLC and codecs.

hope that helps.

overlooked that CRT bit. take choice 1. you could use a dongle ( around 2k THB) , so see choice 1

Edited January 8, 2013 by JakeBKK

[laowai1960]

I use Format Factory. It’s free and it works perfectly. It’s also relatively fast.

I convert all formats – avi, mp4, mkv – to mpg and play them on my run-of-the-mill DVD player.

[manarak]

freemake

[mike_rad]

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll try those apps. My situation is that I'm travelling around the region for the next 18 months or so and most hotels/guest houses still only have the older tvs, otherwise I would connect my laptop by the HDMI port.

1 ) don't waste you time re - encoding vid's. buy the latest thai dvd player you can find (for less than 700 THB) and use your movies/shows right away.

Got one last week, 990 baht from Central World here in Pattaya and on the box it says all popular formats supported, but not so. Thanks anyway.

[ukrules]

A new chipset came out a few years ago (Realtek 1055 Chipset). If it has this inside it will play pretty much anything that's out there.

The issue is most likely going to be with H.264 and Matroska formats as mentioned by another forum member above.

I had similar problems before I got my 'crystal accoustics mediamatchbox' player. It has HDMI and composite A/V outputs so can be used in any hotel. It's also smaller than a packet of cigarettes so it's very handy for taking on trips away.

[mike_rad]

I had similar problems before I got my 'crystal accoustics mediamatchbox' player. It has HDMI and composite A/V outputs so can be used in any hotel. It's also smaller than a packet of cigarettes so it's very handy for taking on trips away.

Sounds good. Do you know if is it available in Thailand?

[tominbkk]

format factory - it's free!

[bkk_mike]

I'm a second vote for Any Video Convertor.

I use it to convert stuff to the format that the kids' iPads will play with Air Video so that my server doesn't have to do on-the-fly conversion.

P.S. It's also free.

Edited January 14, 2013 by bkk_mike

[reflectionx]

Best Free video converter: SUPER

http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

The only issue is that their website is so messy - hard to find the d/l linky. Here:

http://erightsoft.podzone.net/GetFile.php?SUPERsetup.exe

Best media player: open source Media Player Classic Home Cinema - plays everything you throw at him and more:

http://www.xvidvideo.ru/media-player-classic-home-cinema-x86-x64/

Cheers

[mike_rad]

Thanks everyone. Tried all three and I have to give the nod to AVC as it will do the ones that fail on FF. Super I can't seem to get into, the gui is a pain and it puts my security s/w on high alert, but I'm at ease with AVC. Thanks again.

[Chicog]

A DVD player. How quaint.

I just use media files and storage now. And plug it into the Briteview.

[bobl]

I'm late to the party but fwiw, I use a Mede8er med500x. Switched to that from MviX, around the time h264 became prevalent because the MviX couldn't handle it. Plays everything I've ever thrown at it. Failed one file once (iirc it was a drm'd wmv) out of thousands of hours of use I call that negligible.

Will shortly be in the market for something with an even newer chip that can handle h.265, since it seems to be the next popular codec on the horizon...

As for converters... good luck with that... depending how frequently you have to do it, you WILL go nuts sooner or later waiting for those suckers to transcode (then find the audio's 3 seconds out of sync after waiting 4 hours for the bloody thing and settling down with a cup of coffee to watch it)

I second (or is it third or fourth) the vote for a media player... Or dare I say, a better tv you can connect your laptop to (doesn't need to be expensive, pretty much anything is an upgrade from a crt)

[mike_rad]

I just use media files and storage now. And plug it into the Briteview.

Sounds like the media matchbox player mentioned above. I guess it's available here in Thailand but knowing my luck there'd be some it wouldn't play so I'd have to use conversion s/w anyway.

Also what do you do if you just want to watch a DVD? Convert it first? That seems a bit of a pain. Tho I have done this in the past for archival purposes (CloneDVD), it is time consuming.

[mike_rad]

As for converters... good luck with that... depending how frequently you have to do it, you WILL go nuts sooner or later waiting for those suckers to transcode (then find the audio's 3 seconds out of sync after waiting 4 hours for the bloody thing and settling down with a cup of coffee to watch it)

It's still early days yet but I have done several and so far none of the audio has got out of sync.