Question about AVI files and DVD player Philips DVP 5982

[jtrinc]

Hello everyone,
I have a quick question regarding AVI files and different types of codecs.
My DVD player (a Philips DVP 5982) has a USB port.
I have a portable hardrive that I plug to the DVD player through the USB port. The DVD player is usually able to read the files stored in the portable drive. The DVD player, thought the USB port, is able to read the files directly.
The problem is that the DVD player doesn't always find or shows all the files that I have on my portable drive. It doesn't usually have problems with pictures, but video files are a different story. Actually, it plays AVI and a very few others. But it can't play quicktime, windows media player files and other smaller formats.

My question is this: unlike the AVI files that I get online, the AVI files that I render with Sony Vegas (a video editing software) don't play on my DVD player.
I render them with my computer, then I store them in my portable drive, and then I plug the portable drive into my DVD player through the USB port. But for some reason those files rendered with Vegas don't play. Actually the sound plays just fine. It is the video what doesn't play. You can listen to it, but can't see it.
Apparently there is a problem with a codec. But I don't know if that makes any sense, because like I said, other AVI files play just fine.
So the question is: are there different types of AVI files? Is it possible that the AVI files that vegas renders are different from other AVI files?
If that is the case, are there any solutions to this issue? Is there a way to update my DVD player or something like that, so it can play all kinds of AVI files?
Let me know if this is clear. Thanks so much for all your help!!!

[guns1inger]

AVI is a container, not a codec. The codec is what is needed to compress the video and audio inside this container, and then to read it back again. Most standalone players that play AVI files are limited to playing avi files encoded with Divx or Xvid, and encoded within a fairly narrow set of parameters.

FWIW, as a long time Vegas user, I have never had a great deal of success encoding to Divx or Xvid from Vegas. This hasn't really concerned me greatly, as the material I work with in Vegas usually has to be output at a high quality anyway, with possible Divx/Xvid versions being of secondary concern.

There are applications that have presets designed specifically to encode material for playback compatibility on standalone players. The better ones are AutoGK and Xvid4PSP. I would start by using one of these (Xvid4PSP is the more flexible) for encoding to Divx/Xvid for your standalone. Use the AVI (Hardware) preset.