LG DV382 - USB Port

[Yabuike]

I'm trying to watch avi movies through the DVD player via the a Philips 16GB flash drive. I've tried two other flash drives which have all had the same problem. I had previously region unlocked the player to '0'. Because of the problem, I have since returned it to '3' (South Korea).


The drive is MS-DOS (FAT32). I put movies into the root (topmost directory). When I insert it into the USB drive of the player, the light on the flash drive flashes. When I push the USB button on the DVD remote, nothing happens and the player freezes. I can only turn if off by unplugging it.


Does anyone have any ideas?

[hech54]

Divx or Xvid "movie"?

[Yabuike]

Hmm. Good question. I'm not sure. I use VLC on my Mac, is there a way to find out?

[hech54]

According to Google...that player only plays Divx or Xvid.

[Yabuike]

Ah, so my regular AVI might be the problem? I honestly don't know the difference between the two...I though they were both AVI. I'll try converting a movie to both types and see what happens...

[Case]

AVI is just a container, which can hold many kinds of video codecs and audio codecs. DivX and XviD are just two examples of video codecs that are often found in an AVI file.
To look up the video codec of a movie file using VLC, bring up the Media Information window, then look in the Codec Details tab.

[Yabuike]

Thank you for the explanation. The movie that I was trying to watch was MPEG-4 Video (XVID).

I then tried converting it to DIVX and now says MPEG-4 Video (DX50). That one didn't work either. I tried putting it into it's own folder to see if it would prevent the player from freezing, but still no luck.

I should also note that I tried a friend's flash drive that contained pictures and short camera videos. I was able to load that. Then I added my own movie and the dvd player froze as usual. After taking the movies back off of the drive, it would no longer load the previous photos and videos and froze.

[jman98]

Yabuike - You need to read here.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/290800-My-DivX-DVD-Player-can-t-play-my-avi-DivX-xvid-video

Get Gspot or MediaInfo and post the results here from one of your files that won't play. Do note that some players do NOT support file playing through USB devices and only support USB for firmware updates. The documentation for the player should tell you if it really supports file playing through USB devices or if that exists only for firmware updates.

[Yabuike]

Thank you.

I used MediaInfo, because it has a Mac version:
1) Use of QPel (Quarter Pixel).
"No"
2) Use of GMC (Global Motion Compensation).
"No Warppoints"
3) Resolutions greater than 720x576.
VLC says: 620x256
4) Files larger than 2 GB in size.
"701 MiB"
5) Video bit rates higher than 2000 Kbps.
6) If you use AC3, LPCM or DTS audio, the video bit rate may have to be a lot lower than 2000, perhaps as low as 1200 for successful playback.
"Overall bit rate: 803 Kbps"
7) Packed bit stream (MPEG4Modifier can remove this).
I didn't see this written anywhere.

I've tried a couple different movies, as well as some TV shows...must of which I DL'ed. They all seem to have the same issue. I've read that players might need to be 'reset' after trying to watch a bad file. I don't know how to do this for my player though.

I can't check the documentation for my player because I bought it in Korea and don't read Korean I've tried to find a manual online, but wasn't able to. The player says "USB Plus" on a big shiny sticker on top. Also, like I said, it played a small digital camera movie momentarily, but now won't do so.

It's hard to tell what the problem is, because it won't even look at the files on the flash drive anymore; as soon as I push the button, it freezes up.

[EDIT]

I deleted all the movies and put a few jpeg's on the flash drive...inside a "pictures" folder. The player still freezes when I push the button. I had previously been able to view pictures.

I tried formatting my flash drive to "exfat" (the other options are osx formats). When I pushed the button, the player didn't freeze, but it says there were no files to read.

I also see that the DVD settings are Dolby Digital: Bitstream (opposed to PCM), DTS: Bitstream (opposed to Off), and MPEG: PCM (opposed to Bitstream).

[Yabuike]

New weirdness. I put a movie onto a new flash drive at work and brought it home. I put it into my player and it worke perfectly. Menu came up and the movie played. I then stuck the drive into my computer (Mac) and added a different movie. Now the player freezes up again. I took the new movie back off and try to play the first movie...the player now freezes up with the new drive. I've tried 5 different drives. The two that worked for a short while were the ones that have never been in my Mac (only a PC). AFTER plugging them into the Mac, they stopped working. Do Macs infect drives somehow, making them unrecognizable to the player? Am I grasping at straws?

[jman98]

If I remember correctly Apple machines put one or two small files on removable flash drives that start with dots in name. Maybe your LG player is just incredibly sensitive. You are ejecting the media properly on the Mac BEFORE you pull it out of the USB slot, right? If you are just pulling stuff out without ejecting it first, that could cause it to be corrupted.

Maybe the USB port on the LG is going bad, or the LG unit is just unbelievably flaky or maybe your USB flash media is not very good. I've been using Patriot for all my USB flash drives for a while now and I've found those to be reliable. We get posts here from time to time from people who use whatever cheap USB flash drives they can find and they report bizarre problems like files just disappearing or the drives failing to work after a very short time period. Some of us believe that these are issues related to cheaper drives as we've never had these issues on the better flash drives like by Patriot and a few others.

[hech54]

I can still find no verification that an LG DV382 plays Divx/Xvid via USB. I did a world-wide Ebay search for this player and found exactly ONE for sale.....in South Korea. The specs listed in the auction are VERY vague. Text in the auction says it plays "movies" and "Divx"(not Xvid), but the picture for "USB Plus" does not show that it plays video of any kind. Under FUNCTIONS it says Divx CD is supported.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LG-Superslim-DVD-Player-DV382-USB-Plus-/250702373910?pt=DVD_Pl...item3a5f06a416
I also came across some message board posts where users have said that "USB Plus" is a joke(meaning that it doesn't really do anything - it does not function as it says it does).

I'd burn an Xvid/Dixv file to a CD and see if the player plays that.....if it does then the "joke" rumors are true and LG either lied or goofed up in their crappy description/specs.

[Case]

I've tried to find a manual online, but wasn't able to.

I found this online: http://diplo-best.com/review/LG/DV382 . Find “Download your LG DV382 user guide or user manual” on the page. Click it to go to a next page. Skip the rating, find the “security code” link to the captcha page, enter the code, then download.
From that PDF:

[Yabuike]

Thank you for the updated suggestions and also for the manual, I've been looking all over. I think the 'joke' evaluation is accurate, regardless of the reason for the problem.

I do know that it plays video through the USB, as I've had it work twice. I've tried five different brands of drive including a brand new Phillips. I always eject if properly, so that wouldn't be the issue...it does seem that they stop working only after files have come via the mac. I'm going to format two drives here on my work PC and put on different movies, then I'll check to see if they work.

I'm also going to put some stuff on CD's but I don't think that will be a problem.

I'm limited in my options here in Korea. I chose this one because it was inexpensive and I knew the region unlock code. Unfortunately, I went against my past experience and went with LG (a Korean company) even though I'd decided never to do so again (I bought a bad phone...then the replacement phone also went bad, all within a week).

[Yabuike]

Problem 'solved'. I formatted two flash drives (both of which I'd tried previously) in the PC. The movies on both now work on my player. For whatever reason, the DVD player will not accept a USB previously used in a Mac. I knew that Korea hated Macs, but this is crazy.

[jman98]

Possible reasons (but these are just guesses so who knows?):
1) Like I said I seem to recall that Mac puts some files on the media that start with a dot in the name. Maybe the device doesn't like that for some weird reason. (ie. Maybe ANY file that starts with a dot causes it to completely freak out to due to some bad code that didn't consider this as a possibility.)
2) Maybe Macs don't format 100% correctly for FAT-whatever or the ejection process is just not quite kosher on those devices. I doubt it, but I throw it out as a possibility, even if unlikely.
3) Maybe LG has some issues with Apple (ie. maybe Apple made them license a patent and they don't like the terms) so to stick it to Apple indirectly if they find those Apple dot files they just refuse to play the media in the hopes that you'll figure out the link between "device attached to Apple" and "device no longer plays" and assume that the problem is Apple's and conclude that "Apple sucks" and stop buying their stuff.