Playing local video files

[victor]

Hi,

I have a 80+ year old mother that is not computer literate so I get her some Asian drama mp4 files for her to watch on a USB stick plugged into a 4K TV. My problem is that the TV player does not remember anything so it is a pain for her to exist each file and select the next one manually, and the worst part is it does not even highlight the one she just watched so she has to remember each one. As a result, I am looking for a player or a box that can organize and watch mp4 files and remember everything that is being watched. Does such thing exist? Any info you can provide will be appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks,
V

[jagabo]

Any standalone player that can run Kodi (XBMC) remembers which files have been played and can resume where you left off if you stop watching before the end of the show. See all the Android TV boxes, for example.

[victor]

Hey thanks for the suggestion. I bought a MQX Pro 4K Andriod media player last night on Ebay. Hope it will work. I can't seem to find Kodi in the App Store on her Samsung 4K TV for some reason, perhaps I will find it on the media player box I just bought.

[jagabo]

Please write back with your experience with the android box.

You may want to set it up to go directly into Kodi on startup. And simplify the Kodi interface to just the options your Mom needs.

I don't now about that particular device but many of the cheap Chinese Android TV clones aren't true Android TV devices (designed to work with a simple remote control) but rather contain Android tablet or smartphone firmware with hacks to work with a remote. Many apps you might try to use (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video) don't work properly without a touchscreen or mouse. But the boxes are fine for running Kodi because Kodi itself is designed to work with just a simple remote.

[victor]

Got my MXQ Pro 4K media player. It has a lot of USBs which I like even though I am not sure if I can use them all. The Android interface is slow and confusing so I had to switch between the mouse mode and arrow mode constantly on the remote to navigate around. It does not seem that impressive but for $28 I did not expect a lot as long as it can play some video files for my mom.

Okay for the player part, an "alpha" version of Kodi was installed by default so I updated it to whatever the latest in Google Play Store (18 something?). Now I ran into a problem immediately when playing a RM file, as the playing speed seems slow with the sound and video out of sync. While disappointing, I downloaded another video player from the app store called MX player and this player played the RM file just fine. That tells me the box is not a problem so it is a Kodi problem. Any idea why Kodi is having this problem? Thanks.

[victor]

Forgot to mention that I did download Kodi on my PC, played around with it, and really like how it remembers things in Video mode. The strange thing is in Movie mode, it does not remember like in Video mode. Thanks for your info.

[jagabo]

Got my MXQ Pro 4K media player. It has a lot of USBs which I like even though I am not sure if I can use them all. The Android interface is slow and confusing so I had to switch between the mouse mode and arrow mode constantly on the remote to navigate around. It does not seem that impressive but for $28 I did not expect a lot as long as it can play some video files for my mom.

Okay for the player part, an "alpha" version of Kodi was installed by default so I updated it to whatever the latest in Google Play Store (18 something?). Now I ran into a problem immediately when playing a RM file, as the playing speed seems slow with the sound and video out of sync. While disappointing, I downloaded another video player from the app store called MX player and this player played the RM file just fine. That tells me the box is not a problem so it is a Kodi problem. Any idea why Kodi is having this problem? Thanks.

Thanks for that update. It will help others.

I agree that having a mouse and keyboard for setup is very helpful. Once you're set up a simple remote works fine for kodi.

I only have one old rm video. Kodi on my box (Raspberry Pi 3B) shows the file but doesn't even attempt to play it. Oh, I found an old rmvb video. It played fine, no A/V sync problems.

Regarding keeping track of where you loft off in Movie mode: it's working fine here (same as Video mode, TV Show mode, etc.). Unless you quit within the first minute or so. I have several thousand movies and TV episodes in my library on a network share. They're pretty well organized (and backed up!) and I usually know what I want to watch. So it's easiest to navigate if Video (folder/file) mode.

[victor]

Couldn't get Kodi to work correctly even after messing around with all the video settings. Kodi's display is also weird as it cannot seem to know the resolution of the 4K TV, so I had zoom it down 5% to fit the screen properly. Nonetheless, MX Player seems to serve the purpose of what we are looking for so I think we will stick with it. It highlights the last file watched so that helps a lot. Thanks for the help and info. Really appreciated.

[jagabo]

Kodi's display is also weird as it cannot seem to know the resolution of the 4K TV, so I had zoom it down 5% to fit the screen properly.

That's your TV's fault. Turn off overscan on the TV's setup menus. Unfortunately, the name of the setting varies from TV.

https://www.cnet.com/news/overscan-youre-not-seeing-the-whole-picture-on-your-tv/

Fixing that setting will help no matter what player you use.

[lingyi]

RealMedia made a lot of changes to its codec to force users to constantly upgrade their proprietary players and lock out unlicensed software and hardware. In doing so, some old videos (like older .rm) were incompatible. Same thing happened with Apple. Remember the days when you had to have two QuickTime players? The paid QuickTime Pro and the free QuickTime player?

[lingyi]

I just tried playing a couple of .rm videos from 1998 with MX Player on my phone. Just a blank screen. I don't have any .rmvb files to try.

[Ai Haibara]

I haven't used MX Player in a while... does it still require a separate 'codec pack' install for AAC (or was that AC3?) and some other formats?

I'm trying to remember if I ever attempted to play RM clips on it...

[lingyi]

It's been a long time since I last installed MX Player on my devices, but I believe you still have to install the AC3/DTS codec.

From the MXPlayer FAQ:

"MX Player crashes soon after starting playback of videos having AC3/DTS audio.

MX Player tries to use device's built-in audio decoder for codecs not shipped inside such as AC3/EAC3/DTS. If you keep facing crash down only for videos having these codecs, you can make MX Player not to try built-in audio decoder by checking off Settings > Decoder > HW+ audio on SW video."

Source: http://apps.mxplayer.in/faq#TOC-MX-Player-crashes-soon-after-starting-playback-of-vide...AC3-DTS-audio.