AVI files from DV not playing

I purchased WD TV HD Live (WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN) a week ago and I wasn’t able to play any AVI file transferred from a DV (via firewire).  My media player is connected to a wireless network (USB adaptor) and has the latest 1.01.17 firmware update (after purchase it uploaded the previous firmware,  I believe 1.01.11).

The same thing with MOV files. All these types play fine on Windows Media Player or QuickTime.

Since all my home movies are AVI this is important (to know if this WD player is useless or not).

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I assume the files are on your pc (transferred via firewire from your dvc).

Copy a file to a flash drive, plug into the WD and try playing it.

Do other video files play across the network ?

What reports do you get ?

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Done that. Copied AVI and MOV (made with a camera) onto a USB flash drive, connected the drive to WD TV Live and the same result: format not supported. Other files (such as JPG and MPG) are playing fine over the wifi.

It’s very dissapointing if AVI DV format is not supported!!!

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See this post http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live/DV-AVI-Request/m-p/2303

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DV AVI not supported by WDTV Live however MOV should be.

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AVI files with DV AVI codec are not supported. Nor are most of the MOV codecs. For AVI only Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4 codecs are supported.

WD may, at one point, in a very distant future, add the support for these popular codecs.

Considering their response time and reaction speed, this is something next generations may enjoy.

I will consider this issue closed, since I’ve discovered other “inconveniencis” other users complained about: audio-video desynchronization for MKV, download freezing, etc.

We’ll deal with these as they come (I can feel already MKV issues)

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How can you mark this as solved, when the problem has obviously not been solved yet!

I still see this as an error that you cannot play the most common used format for home video recordings. So change status back to unsolved!

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Thread authors are allowed to chose the post that best answers their post as a solution. It doesn’t necessarily mean they solved the issue, in some cases the “Accepted Solution” may be that there is no solution. :slight_smile:


-WendyM

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Currently neither AVI DV nor MOV based on the DV codec are supported by your WD Live, they are not internally supported by the chipset either - I don’t think it is much of a problem since most people transfer their DV into DVD anyway - With a good enough encoder you can get excellent results, I know I do.  Adding new codecs can be costly for WD.  I think it would be better to spend the money on further enhancements and new features as a priority, and given the fact you can convert your DV footage to a supported format while retaining the quality, I don’t think should be a priority.

Just bought one and was shocked to discover that the WD TV can not read DV codec neither  all soft codecs of AVI files from the old good time.  same problem with many VOB  and  MOV files.

The WD is very slow to aquire the contents of the hard disk.

I guess FLV files are not supported (did not try it)

Big deception.

I will decide this week if to replace it with xtreamer.

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gachbash wrote:

Just bought one and was shocked to discover that the WD TV can not read DV codec neither  all soft codecs of AVI files from the old good time.  same problem with many VOB  and  MOV files.

The WD is very slow to aquire the contents of the hard disk.

I guess FLV files are not supported (did not try it)

Big deception.

I will decide this week if to replace it with xtreamer.

 

I hope you have done more research on the xtreamer than you did on the WDTV.  No of course you have not as Xstreamer does not support ‘old’ AVI  or DV. AVI.

http://forum.xtreamer.net/viewtopic.php?f=104&t=9323#p70536

Xtreamer Official Forum

Video: Support for WMV7/WMV8 & DV.AVI

Including support for WM7 and WM8 files and DV-AVI (for camcorder files) please. There are lots of widely used video codecs that are not supported meaning only about 30% of the files I have can be played.

NOTICE: After discussions with the development team. I can confirm that support for this requested feature will not be implemented. Topic closed.



You are right about me not checking yet the xtreamer.

Maybe it is not better… maybe worst…

Maybe best  is to buy a tiny  10" laptop for 300 usd. Will do everything incl cooking…

Up to now all my video/DVD /Youtube files played. Now all I get is a blank screen, the list comes up ok but when I press play, black screen. The photos are grand, I am using the Passport hard drive and have been delighted with my WD up to now.

Thank you very much for the post. I was prepared to purchase the WD Mini-player primarily to view AVI files. After reading the numerous posts have decided that this is not the product I am seeking. Thanks again for all the posts informing potential customers of this product and its limitations. 

“Adding new codecs can be costly for WD.”  First of all, virtually every windows based video player I have somehow manages to play my DV-AVI files. Even the free ones like VLC.  But why are you an apologist for WD?  

Convert my DV files? I have 30 Gigs of DV.  If you’re that ignorant about the time and diskspace required to convert even a one hour DV-AVI to a format that won’t show a loss of  pictrure quality, then don’t give people such facile advice.

WD marketed the device as something that will play “virtually everything you can throw at it.”  Yet they knew it wouldn’t play the most common, most prevalent material that people were buying the bleep thing for: home video.  And it was misleading to people not familiar with WD’s brand of deception, to put “AVI” on the box as supported. Most people understand their DV-AVI to be just that: AVI.  At the very least the company should have been upfront and specifically warned that the device would not play most home video recorded in the DV-AVI format popular with the most widely used home video cameras.

But we know why they didn’t.

Instead they shipped out a buggy piece of hardware, and now they’re fooling around with the way You Tube looks on the thing. You Tube. For Pete’s sake, most of the video on You Tube looks like ■■■■ on my PC Monitor. Why the hell would I want it in my living room on a 40" screen? 

The priority should be making this thing work as advertised.

Costly for WD? Man, give your head a shake. Who’s paying who to buy the bleep thing?

If you’re working for the company then be honest and admit it. If you’re not, then stop giving people useless advice.

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RetroCanada wrote:

“Adding new codecs can be costly for WD.”  First of all, virtually every windows based video player I have somehow manages to play my DV-AVI files. Even the free ones like VLC.  But why are you an apologist for WD?  

 

Convert my DV files? I have 30 Gigs of DV.  If you’re that ignorant about the time and diskspace required to convert even a one hour DV-AVI to a format that won’t show a loss of  pictrure quality, then don’t give people such facile advice.

 

WD marketed the device as something that will play “virtually everything you can throw at it.”  Yet they knew it wouldn’t play the most common, most prevalent material that people were buying the bleep thing for: home video.  And it was misleading to people not familiar with WD’s brand of deception, to put “AVI” on the box as supported. Most people understand their DV-AVI to be just that: AVI.  At the very least the company should have been upfront and specifically warned that the device would not play most home video recorded in the DV-AVI format popular with the most widely used home video cameras.

But we know why they didn’t.

Instead they shipped out a buggy piece of hardware, and now they’re fooling around with the way You Tube looks on the thing. You Tube. For Pete’s sake, most of the video on You Tube looks like ■■■■ on my PC Monitor. Why the hell would I want it in my living room on a 40" screen? 

The priority should be making this thing work as advertised.

Costly for WD? Man, give your head a shake. Who’s paying who to buy the bleep thing?

If you’re working for the company then be honest and admit it. If you’re not, then stop giving people useless advice.

 

Perhaps you should look into the difference between software based players and hardware based.

If you have any practical advice perhaps you could share. Your rant achieves nothing.

It isn’t WD’s fault the media player can’t play DV files. The media chipset in the player sets the playable file types, not the software in these devices. These arent computers but dedicated devices.  There are two big media player chipsets–Sigma and Intel.  NONE of the media players based on these chipsets (Popcorn, Asus, Iomega, etc) can play the formats mentioned.  These chipsets were designed to play distribution codecs …they can play acquisition codecs AVC/AVCHD becuase those codecs are MP4/H264 variants. But as far as playing stand alone acquisition codecs like DV (or Avi/DV), the chips were never designed to do that.  If WD had to design their own chips these devices would cost more than a laptop and then there wouldnt be any need for the player.  

WD lists the codecs the WD HD Live player can play on their website and in product specs.  I got what I paid for and there really was truth in advertising. 

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DV Video Format

Are you surely that the rendition of digital video format / DV.avi dependently from the chip set are?

I cannot understand that the sigma chip about WDTVlive the newer HD video / avchd / m2ts

can play but not the older DV Video format.


Unfortunately one of the WD-team anything concrete experienced whether with the firmware (software) is possible.

It is like here so often and in detail descriptive very very unfortunate, and time-consuming lossy converting of 100 grant digital video in mpg2 are applicable not.

Dear WD-team please give us an answer to all these questions!

and if I am already thereby also 480i / 576i interlace video quality from

component out!!!

Thank you!

I closed this thread because I found out the codecs supported by WD HD TV Live and in that list the DV codecs are not included. I really don’t need a lecture on what you think it’s not a problem (transferring DV into DVD as most people do!?!). For me it is, considering the volume of the AVI files, their size (one AVI won’t fit on a single DVD), quality and the inconvenience of using a highly degradable media support ((re)writable discs).

The problem is that the list of supported codecs is not available on the “buying websites” (tigerdirect or bestbuy). The (unopened) box is not specific either. Unless you buy it (and get to the manual) or you start subscribing to WD forums, the supported codecs info is not available. WD claims it plays AVI and MOV files, however some of the oldest and very popular formats are not supported.

So, it’s actually the WD misleading and lack of info that got me here…

In the meantime I’ve learnt to use this media player for what it is and not what I have hoped when I purchased it (according to the info at hand at that time).

Finally, why do you think that adding more codecs is something less important than other “new features”? Other than YouTube enhancements and Windows 7 support, WD didn’t bring anything new on the table (except of course the dozens of "resolved issues). Btw, do you know what “European language” means? They claim that now they have an input from it…

As for your advises… well, you need to bring them up a notch.

Alex_WD wrote:

I closed this thread because I found out the codecs supported by WD HD TV Live and in that list the DV codecs are not included. I really don’t need a lecture on what you think it’s not a problem (transferring DV into DVD as most people do!?!). For me it is, considering the volume of the AVI files, their size (one AVI won’t fit on a single DVD), quality and the inconvenience of using a highly degradable media support ((re)writable discs).

The problem is that the list of supported codecs is not available on the “buying websites” (tigerdirect or bestbuy). The (unopened) box is not specific either. Unless you buy it (and get to the manual) or you start subscribing to WD forums, the supported codecs info is not available. WD claims it plays AVI and MOV files, however some of the oldest and very popular formats are not supported.

So, it’s actually the WD misleading and lack of info that got me here…

In the meantime I’ve learnt to use this media player for what it is and not what I have hoped when I purchased it (according to the info at hand at that time).

Finally, why do you think that adding more codecs is something less important than other “new features”? Other than YouTube enhancements and Windows 7 support, WD didn’t bring anything new on the table (except of course the dozens of "resolved issues). Btw, do you know what “European language” means? They claim that now they have an input from it…

As for your advises… well, you need to bring them up a notch.

Out of interest to other buyers the WDTV Live manual is readily available on the web and you don’t need to buy a unit to read it.

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdfwdtv_live