Western Digital Elements Play AV Media Players & .AVI files

[mustbeburt]

I used to have a mini-DV camera. I would then dump a 12 GB .AVI file onto my hard drive, then burn that file to a 1 hour DVD. However, as time when on, the DVDs started piling up and taking up space.

My new plan is to take the original .AVI files, split them up into smaller files, and that way I can organize the files in a more manageable way. I then want to move them onto my "Western Digital Elements Play AV Media Player". This is a device I have plugged into my TV via an HDMI cable.

My original thought was to split up the .AVI files into smaller .AVI files, but I get a message that the files are not compatible with the "WD Elements....Player". This is strange because .AVI is listed as a compatible file type (see list below).

So, I tried using both Windows Movie Maker and Handbrake to split the .AVI file into .MP4 files, but the picture is then displayed as a small square on my 32" 1080p television. But, if I play one of the DVDs, it looks just fine.

When I outputted the file using Windows Movie Maker, I selected the "For High Definition display" setting. Even though I understand I am not actually improving the quality, my hope was that it would output the best possible video file using the original .AVI file.

So, I have a couple questions?

1. What file type should I be outputting when splitting the .AVI file? Here are the compatible file types:

• „ AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1)
• „ MPG/MPEG/VOB/ISO/DAT (MPEG 1, MPEG 2)
• „ MP4/MOV (Xvid, MPEG4, h.264)
• „ MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4)
• „ TS/TP/TRP/M2TS (MPEG 1/2/4, AVC, VC-1)
• „ FLV (H.263, H.264)
• „ WMV/ASF (Xvid, VC-1, WMV9)
• „ RM/RMVB (RV8, RV9)

2. What program should I used to do this?

Here is what I get when I run one of these .AVI files through MediaInfo:

[Baldrick]

No. Your media player does not support DV video. Most media players does not support it.

I would convert to mp4 or mkv with h264 video. Use for example handbrake or vidcoder. Be sure to deinterlace the video if it's interlaced, see https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/370304-How-do-convert-a-Digital8-AVI-to-play-on-a-Roku3

What output resolution/frame size did you use in handbrake? Default? Does it look on your computer?

[mustbeburt]

I used the default settings within Handbrake. It played OK on my computer, but again, on my TV the video was only displaying in the middle of the screen. It was very odd. I'm used to seeing the black bars on the sides of the video when you're watching something that was recorded in standard definition, but I've never experienced black bars all the way around the video.

[Baldrick]

Have you tried play any other mp4/mkvs on wd media player? Same problem?

Post the details from one of the mp4 you made. Use mediainfo, open video and view->text.

[_Al_]

... oops

[mustbeburt]

Have you tried play any other mp4/mkvs on wd media player? Same problem?

Post the details from one of the mp4 you made. Use mediainfo, open video and view->text.

Yes, I've played other MP4 files on the wd media player, but with no problems.

Here are the details of one of the mp4 files created with Handbrake:

General
Complete name : C:\Users\tcapuano3\Videos\Handbrake test_2.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 6.59 MiB
Duration : 20s 721ms
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 668 Kbps
Writing application : HandBrake 0.10.0 2014112200

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 20s 721ms
Bit rate : 2 503 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Original display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.242
Stream size : 6.18 MiB (94%)
Writing library : x264 core 142 r2479 dd79a61
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=1 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=hex / subme=2 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=1 / keyint=300 / keyint_min=30 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=10 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=20000 / vbv_bufsize=25000 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Color primaries : BT.601 NTSC
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.601
Color range : Limited

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 20s 544ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 160 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 32.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 402 KiB (6%)
Title : Stereo / Stereo

[Baldrick]

Looks ok. You should only get borders at left and right on a 16:9 TV or else it's a crappy player.

But you could make an avi with xvid and see if make any difference. Use for example xmedia recode and choose the avi dvd player preset.