.AVI & .MKV files list as unknown format on BD Player

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:17 pm

Please help.
I have many .avi and .mkv files that played fine on my old Philips DVD player but having replaced it with a LG BD570 I have had loads of the files reported as 'unknown file type'. I have tried a couple of media players like 'EGREAT R6A-II' with the same result. These files play fine through windows media player 9, DivX player and the embedded player in Vuze/Azureus but incidentally not directly through the usb port on my Samsung HD TV. All if not most have come as torrent downloads from ISOhunt. I am now reduced to having to stream through the BD player to the TV on DNLA which is ok until someone in the neighbourhood turns on their microwave and interupts the signal.
I don't know what the problem is anymore. anyone have any ideas ???
Thanks

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:29 pm

Found this quote online: LG dont support MPEG2 in MKV so all DVD rips and some Bluray rips wont work. Try complaining to LG; if enough people complain they might get the message.

Same forum says to convert the files to H264 then they will play.

edit: You have two identical threads running, would be an idea to delete one .....

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:32 pm

hook your pc (hdmi,dvi,vga) to the tv and toss the lg.

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 4:56 am

Thanks for the quick answers. I will try converting to h264 to see if that works but its not just the LG that had the problem, why won't they play in the media players I mentioned or directly through the usb port to the tv. I really didn't want to start messing around with formats having downloaded them or is that just the way things have gone. Maybe I should just get the old PHILIPS back out of the bedroom and burn everything on to discs again. I just preferred being able to plug in a remote drive for convenience.[/img]

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:05 am

jscott0965 wrote:

. These files play fine through windows media player 9, DivX player and the embedded player in Vuze/Azureus but incidentally not directly through the usb port on my Samsung HD TV.

jscott0965 wrote:

Maybe I should just get the old PHILIPS back out of the bedroom and burn everything on to discs again.

Must be a combination of your tv and file format, when you burn them to disc (assuming you are converting to dvd) it makes them playable. What files have you been downloading.

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 1:35 pm

I don't convert any files to DVD format I'm just trying to play the .AVI & .MKV files as downloaded. They work fine if played on my old PHILIPS dvd player (just burned to a disc but not converted to dvd format) but not on either the Samsung TV directly through the USB port, the LG BD570 or the EGREAT R6A-II and another media player I tried with the same result.

There seem to be loads of tools out there to convert .AVI into H264. Can anyone suggest a good (ideally free) one to do the job ? how long would the conversion normally take on a well spec'd PC ?

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:00 pm

http://ca.isohunt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=740105

Its not free but it is the only thing that will do it decent, free ones will screw the file quality.

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 4:00 pm

Thanks all for the suggestions. Finally found out what the problem was. All the files I was having trouble with were perfectly valid files on the DVDs I have and on the PC HDD. I had been stupid enough to assume that they were all still fine having copied them to a removable USB drive... My mistake, most of them had corrupted for some reason and wouldn't pay on anything, even the PC. Formatted the USB, recopied them and now they all play perfectly through the TV, the media player and even the LG BD570. 'Never assume anything'. Doh !! Embarassed