WD HD Media Player (with HDMI out etc.)

Greg Harris · January 15th, 2009, 09:42 AM

Yes, but I want to be able to just play and play, you know what i mean? Having to convert these files that play fantastic on my computer is annoying. I tried to play a window media file a few days ago and it wouldn't. This means I have LOTS of files to convert. It should play AVI and WM files with no problem. Also another question is, when i convert these files with the given software does it take away some quality? I noticed a file went from 500mb to 430mb.

Sean Woods · January 15th, 2009, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg Harris

Yes, but I want to be able to just play and play, you know what i mean? Having to convert these files that play fantastic on my computer is annoying. I tried to play a window media file a few days ago and it wouldn't. This means I have LOTS of files to convert. It should play AVI and WM files with no problem. Also another question is, when i convert these files with the given software does it take away some quality? I noticed a file went from 500mb to 430mb.

I've been playing AVIs with no issues. Have you updated the firmware to 1.01? That might be the issue.

Greg Harris · January 15th, 2009, 11:11 AM

Yeah I thought i did. I put the update on the harddrive and it updated when i played it. Should I do it again? I hope I didn't do it wrong but it seems like I have.

Tyler Franco · January 15th, 2009, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Koehler

Has anyone fed this thing footage from a Canon 5D Mark II?
That would seem to be a great way of testing its ability to handle high bit rate footage.

Yes, the video plays back fine, looks great. However, it says the audio is unsupported and you get no sound.

Roger Shore · January 15th, 2009, 03:55 PM

I have found that my WD player will not play what you might define as 'intraframe' AVIs -like standard DV, or Canopus HQ files for example - although it's quite happy to play Xvid or Divx 'AVIs'.
It also plays DVD ISO files fine.

Johann D.K. Cerecke · January 15th, 2009, 05:48 PM

My WD is loaded up with a bunch of different AVIs and they all play fine with the exception of 1 TV show where I get a message "Audio channel 1 not supported" although the video still plays, just without sound.
I usually encode my DVD collection to h.264 with mp3 audio in an AVI file, plays fine and looks great. Most of the TV series I have downloaded are a combination of divx, xvid aac mp3 etc, and they all work fine.
I can confirm the unit won't play ISO image files, but when you can have the same quality in a smaller h.264 file why fill your hard drive unnecessarily? Also this means all my movies are under 4Gb so I can leave my hard drive formatted as Fat32 and can plug it into Mac and PC (unlike NTFS where a Mac can only read data, not write)
For blueray or HD I would recommend encoding to a HD h.264 file (which is one of the blueray standard formats anyway). The WD supports HD.

Sean Woods · January 15th, 2009, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg Harris

Yeah I thought i did. I put the update on the harddrive and it updated when i played it. Should I do it again? I hope I didn't do it wrong but it seems like I have.

Hmm, if you did it already then it should be fine. I agree with Roger now that I think about it, the AVIs I have downloaded and worked have been xvid and divx.

Marty Hudzik · January 15th, 2009, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johann D.K. Cerecke

For blueray or HD I would recommend encoding to a HD h.264 file (which is one of the blueray standard formats anyway). The WD supports HD.

So how does one get their blu-ray disk image into an h,264 file? I have a blu-ray burner, and AnyDVD HD and have ripped entire Blu-ray disks to my PC hard drive. It is stored in a folder using the same exact directory structure as a bluray. I can use PowerDVD to point to this directory and it plays, but exploring the directory leads to no specific movie file, just hundred of .mkv files. I assume these contain the movie but how do I know what to do with them?

People have posted that it works and plays blu-ray files but nobody has answered how or what exactly that are doing to achieve this.

Thanks.

Greg Harris · January 16th, 2009, 10:47 AM

I don't know what kind of AVI's I have. Most are clips I have capture onto my computer from my DVX100 and others are movie movie files from Premier.

Should I redo my update?

What I did is download the update, extracted the Zipped folder and plugged it in.

Greg Harris · January 16th, 2009, 10:54 AM

something strange I noticed yesterday. I got an HDMI cable and watched some HD files I had. I set all the settings correct but when i tried to watch an SD movie it stretches the image out and I didn't want it in the "full screen" mode. I think you should be able to choose what format you want it in without switching from video 1 to video 6 like on my tv now.

Graham Hickling · January 16th, 2009, 10:57 AM

> I don't know what kind of AVI's I have.

Yeah, well, that what GSpot can do for you. See my earlier post.

Greg Harris · January 16th, 2009, 01:54 PM

If I downloaded HD movies from XBOX live and saved them onto my external HD, would i be able to play them on my tv?

I'm just trying to find ways for getting HD movies I purchase onto it. I know itunes is a no go and I dont want to go out and buy a blueray burner.

Noa Put · January 16th, 2009, 04:58 PM

I just love this Little device, I recently jumped into the HD arena and bought the WD mediaplayer to show my clients what a wedding could look like on their lcd.
Today was my first wedding client who had a very large lcd and I connected the WD player with hdmi to their tv and used a usb stick that contained a 10 min mpg2 file (1440x1080 -18mbs) and it looked sharp as a razorblade and put my regular dvd to shame. (showed that as well to them on their dvd player)

They were well aware about the limitations of their lcd with a normal signal, their non HD tv channels also looked like crap on their lcd. They did not have a BR player yet so I will have to supply regular dvd's (also for family and friends) but I will supply them with a mpg2 file with the same quality I showed them, probably with a higher bitrate on a usb or external harddrive which they supply me. in that way they can play it on their pc of mediaplayer if they have one or just safekeep it to have it transfered to BR when they buy one later.

being able to show my clients HD on their lcd, if they don't have a BR player yet is a big advantage for me, other videographers can also say they deliver in HD but I'm sure that I"m one of the few that is able to also show it to my clients that don't have HD players yet.

This is one of my best and cheapest investments yet.

Marty Hudzik · January 17th, 2009, 07:57 PM

Well my initial tests with blu-ray files didn't work. I grabbed the main m2ts files from the blu-ray image and copied to my portable drive. The WD unit sees the files and plays the video portion but tells me that the audio stream is not supported. I am going to try a different blu-ray since this one has DOlby True-HD.

Greg Harris · January 20th, 2009, 12:50 PM

So ripping blue ray movies and playing them on the unit doesn't work? I almost bought a blueray external player for my computer just for this purpose but I will hold off and wait for other to figure out way to gets HD on it.

thanks

January 15th, 2009, 05:48 PM	#51
Johann D.K. Cerecke New Boot Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Broome, WA Posts: 14	My WD is loaded up with a bunch of different AVIs and they all play fine with the exception of 1 TV show where I get a message "Audio channel 1 not supported" although the video still plays, just without sound. I usually encode my DVD collection to h.264 with mp3 audio in an AVI file, plays fine and looks great. Most of the TV series I have downloaded are a combination of divx, xvid aac mp3 etc, and they all work fine. I can confirm the unit won't play ISO image files, but when you can have the same quality in a smaller h.264 file why fill your hard drive unnecessarily? Also this means all my movies are under 4Gb so I can leave my hard drive formatted as Fat32 and can plug it into Mac and PC (unlike NTFS where a Mac can only read data, not write) For blueray or HD I would recommend encoding to a HD h.264 file (which is one of the blueray standard formats anyway). The WD supports HD. __________________ www.broomevideo.com

January 15th, 2009, 09:42 AM	#46
Greg Harris Major Player Join Date: May 2004 Location: Fairfax, VA Posts: 356	Yes, but I want to be able to just play and play, you know what i mean? Having to convert these files that play fantastic on my computer is annoying. I tried to play a window media file a few days ago and it wouldn't. This means I have LOTS of files to convert. It should play AVI and WM files with no problem. Also another question is, when i convert these files with the given software does it take away some quality? I noticed a file went from 500mb to 430mb.

January 15th, 2009, 11:11 AM	#48
Greg Harris Major Player Join Date: May 2004 Location: Fairfax, VA Posts: 356	Yeah I thought i did. I put the update on the harddrive and it updated when i played it. Should I do it again? I hope I didn't do it wrong but it seems like I have.

January 15th, 2009, 03:55 PM	#50
Roger Shore Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: UK Posts: 113	I have found that my WD player will not play what you might define as 'intraframe' AVIs -like standard DV, or Canopus HQ files for example - although it's quite happy to play Xvid or Divx 'AVIs'. It also plays DVD ISO files fine.

January 16th, 2009, 10:47 AM	#54
Greg Harris Major Player Join Date: May 2004 Location: Fairfax, VA Posts: 356	I don't know what kind of AVI's I have. Most are clips I have capture onto my computer from my DVX100 and others are movie movie files from Premier. Should I redo my update? What I did is download the update, extracted the Zipped folder and plugged it in.

January 16th, 2009, 10:54 AM	#55
Greg Harris Major Player Join Date: May 2004 Location: Fairfax, VA Posts: 356	something strange I noticed yesterday. I got an HDMI cable and watched some HD files I had. I set all the settings correct but when i tried to watch an SD movie it stretches the image out and I didn't want it in the "full screen" mode. I think you should be able to choose what format you want it in without switching from video 1 to video 6 like on my tv now.

January 16th, 2009, 10:57 AM	#56
Graham Hickling Trustee Join Date: May 2004 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 1,669	> I don't know what kind of AVI's I have. Yeah, well, that what GSpot can do for you. See my earlier post.

January 16th, 2009, 01:54 PM	#57
Greg Harris Major Player Join Date: May 2004 Location: Fairfax, VA Posts: 356	If I downloaded HD movies from XBOX live and saved them onto my external HD, would i be able to play them on my tv? I'm just trying to find ways for getting HD movies I purchase onto it. I know itunes is a no go and I dont want to go out and buy a blueray burner.

January 16th, 2009, 04:58 PM	#58
Noa Put Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 9,510	I just love this Little device, I recently jumped into the HD arena and bought the WD mediaplayer to show my clients what a wedding could look like on their lcd. Today was my first wedding client who had a very large lcd and I connected the WD player with hdmi to their tv and used a usb stick that contained a 10 min mpg2 file (1440x1080 -18mbs) and it looked sharp as a razorblade and put my regular dvd to shame. (showed that as well to them on their dvd player) They were well aware about the limitations of their lcd with a normal signal, their non HD tv channels also looked like crap on their lcd. They did not have a BR player yet so I will have to supply regular dvd's (also for family and friends) but I will supply them with a mpg2 file with the same quality I showed them, probably with a higher bitrate on a usb or external harddrive which they supply me. in that way they can play it on their pc of mediaplayer if they have one or just safekeep it to have it transfered to BR when they buy one later. being able to show my clients HD on their lcd, if they don't have a BR player yet is a big advantage for me, other videographers can also say they deliver in HD but I'm sure that I"m one of the few that is able to also show it to my clients that don't have HD players yet. This is one of my best and cheapest investments yet.

January 17th, 2009, 07:57 PM	#59
Marty Hudzik Trustee Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canton, Ohio Posts: 1,771	Well my initial tests with blu-ray files didn't work. I grabbed the main m2ts files from the blu-ray image and copied to my portable drive. The WD unit sees the files and plays the video portion but tells me that the audio stream is not supported. I am going to try a different blu-ray since this one has DOlby True-HD.

January 20th, 2009, 12:50 PM	#60
Greg Harris Major Player Join Date: May 2004 Location: Fairfax, VA Posts: 356	So ripping blue ray movies and playing them on the unit doesn't work? I almost bought a blueray external player for my computer just for this purpose but I will hold off and wait for other to figure out way to gets HD on it. thanks