AVI capable player not showing all files on data disk

[Seeker47]

Try checking the third (missing file) with gspot. Could be something is different/wrong with that file.

Based on some strong recommendations here, I picked up a player that was said to play "just about every video file format you can throw at it." Well, after making a single session and finalized data disc of assorted video clips, I'm still really puzzled. About half of the .AVI and .WMV clips show up -- but not necessarily the same ones that show up in a couple of other (less fancy) standalone players ! All but one of the files that do show up will play o.k., although two color clips only play in B&W. Perhaps GSPOT will reveal the gory details, but this tells me that a lot of this video stuff is pretty haphazard, and the idea of widely followed standards is probably pretty laughable.

(All the files in question play just fine on the computer, using PowerDVD, or GOM, or VLC . . . but I know from reading many threads here that that doesn't mean much.)

[Krispy Kritter]

Try checking the third (missing file) with gspot. Could be something is different/wrong with that file.

Based on some strong recommendations here, I picked up a player that was said to play "just about every video file format you can throw at it." Well, after making a single session and finalized data disc of assorted video clips, I'm still really puzzled. About half of the .AVI and .WMV clips show up -- but not necessarily the same ones that show up in a couple of other (less fancy) standalone players ! All but one of the files that do show up will play o.k., although two color clips only play in B&W. Perhaps GSPOT will reveal the gory details, but this tells me that a lot of this video stuff is pretty haphazard, and the idea of widely followed standards is probably pretty laughable.

(All the files in question play just fine on the computer, using PowerDVD, or GOM, or VLC . . . but I know from reading many threads here that that doesn't mean much.)

You should start your own thread.

With that being said, ALL of the files should show up in the menu on the player, even the files that it cannot play. However, there aren't any standalone players (exceptions being a HTPC, modded X-box, or somethign similar...but those don't count as a standalone player) that will play every file. If you check the files that don't work in gSpot, you will most likely see that the files that don't work have QPEL, GMC, VBR audio, and/or packed bitstream. Those encoding options aren't handled well by most players.

[mats.hogberg]

the idea of widely followed standards is probably pretty laughable.

Not at all. It's called Video DVD.
And please:
Don't hijack threads - Start a new for a new issue (even if related to the old). I've split this off for you.

/Mats

[RabidDog]

Also some/all/most/few players are picky about the file extension you use. Not quite to the point of rejecting say, movie.AVI but accepting movie.avi but say, movie.mpg is ok movie.mpeg is bad.
The problem is who encoded them ? and what std did they use? I find most video clips are very playable even on my dusty old player but it doesnt like gmc or qpel, it recognizes and plays some mpg, it recognizes wmv but wont play it and it understands and plays jpeg, jpg and mp3 but not divx (all extensions)
Easiest thing is to name the player? or look it up in the player list.
The malata range are renowned for their high quality, user friendly features..

[Nelson37]

What standard are you complaining about? You got several random files, from several random sources, and they are different. Why are you surprised?

Try RTFM, you will find that any player has limitations it cannot exceed. The only rigid spec where playback could possibly be guaranteed is the one you are ignoring, DVD-Video.

I could make a 4096x4096 MPG1, 20 GB file. Would you really expect any player to play that?

Both the hap and the hazard are on the user end.

[guns1inger]

Divx/Xvid capabple players general operate within a fairly narrow standard. Yes, there are some variations that mean a file that plays on one may not play on another, but for the most part they follow the same basic configurations.

Video playback on the PC, on the other hand, is limited only be the codecs you have present. Can't play a video ? Install the right codecs and you will be able to.

If you want this type of freedom of playback on a set-top box then you don't want a standalone player, you want a HTPC.

G-spot will tell you exactly what's wrong, although I can sum it up for your right now. PEBKAC. Quite simply, you have unrealistic expectations because you have little understanding of what digital video is all about. Even the simple things have escaped you : black and white playback of colour files is a classic symptom of PAL playback on NTSC devices.

So don't waste time just dumping files willy-nilly onto discs and hoping they will work. Read the manual, find out what you can play, and with what limitations, and encode appropriately.

[Seeker47]

Easiest thing is to name the player? or look it up in the player list.
The malata range are renowned for their high quality, user friendly features..

The player in question is the NAD 534. I guess the Malata crack was a bit of sarcasm ? I do have that circa-2002 player also, and would be reluctant to part with it, as in actuality it whomps the hell out of a topline JVC I also bought, in terms of "user friendly features." Neither are much good for video files you can run on a computer, however. The jury is still out on the NAD in that department.

[Seeker47]

G-spot will tell you exactly what's wrong, although I can sum it up for your right now. PEBKAC. Quite simply, you have unrealistic expectations because you have little understanding of what digital video is all about. Even the simple things have escaped you : black and white playback of colour files is a classic symptom of PAL playback on NTSC devices.

So don't waste time just dumping files willy-nilly onto discs and hoping they will work. Read the manual, find out what you can play, and with what limitations, and encode appropriately.

You seem to be assuming that I made the files, when in fact I made none of them . . . so they could be anything. That data disk was an early, crude experiment -- the equivalent of tossing a whole bunch of things at the wall to see if any of them stuck. In that situation, what you said about PAL etc. makes perfect sense. Yeah, I guess my expectations ran too high.

I probably won't be encoding things of this type myself (Divx, AVI, WMV) . . . unless there is the possibility to convert files like these into formats that would play on standalone players, with reasonably good results. Otherwise, I will be looking into the inner details of such "found" video files, and reading up on exactly what the players claim they can handle.

[guns1inger]

Actually, I assumed that you downloaded a bunch of crap from all over the placed, burned it to a disc, stuck it in the drive and wished really, really hard that it would work. Wishing is for sissies.

AVIRecomp is a lowest common denominator encoding app for standalone players. That is not to say it is low quality (I suspect you have low quality covered in spades amongst your collection of videos), but it encodes using the minimum specification and it's results are pretty much guaranteed to work on all certified (and most non-certified) players. AutoGK can also do this for you.

Have a look at either of these to solve your problem. However you won't solve it without re-encoding.