Frustrating: Video playback not possible at all USB/SD

[CatalinT]

Hi all ,

 

I am about to go out of my mind , and tried to sort this problem a while now, and i did my best to search and try , but i am stuck at the same point: Unable to playback file. And after it does this on every file, it ends with Cannot play files.

 

My unit F950DAB , is not hacked, only parkbrake grounded. I can use GPS functions while driving, DVD play also while driving. But i cannot get any video file play at all. I want music video files for my unit. I have tried USB and SD card (micro) , and all i get is Unable to playback , check user manual . I tried to update my unit with the latest firmware, still no go.

I tried checking the video files , convert them for ipod, or less resolution, even used Handbrake software as mentioned in another thread, still no change. Most of the videofiles are like 640x380 or 480 og less. I tried to avvoind higher resolution since i do not know if the unit have any issues with HD material. So i am guessing this is nothing to do with the files. Been trying , divx, avi , mpeg, mp4 , all the same. But DVD works as i said.

 

Any thought about this?

 

I really have to mention this one more time since no one reacted on my previous attempt. My unit is brand new from shop. When it came the green handbrake wire was not grounded. This caused my unit to believe that it was in motion all the time so i could not change GPS address , or of course play dvd. I have ONLY grounded the brake wire, which solved the issue with grayed manu items. I haven't done anything to my yellow wire (Mute) it is in it's original place. All the bypass guides refer to moving this one also one spot to left. In my case i have not done that since it was just working. Can this be the cause of why i cant play any video files from USB/SD ? Besides this everything is fine. Just for the note, all my tests have been done while parked.

 

fyi: My unit uses the the same firmware as F50 , and AvicX850 series.. For now i do not dare to hack my unit since i have not found one thread if my unit is supported or not for this.

 

 

[CatalinT]

Hi again , thought i give a little heads up.

Of course i dont post and wait for an answer , so i went further and involved my dealer as well. Upon request to test my files i sent them two of my files. I can see from the conversation they had that they talk directly to Pioneer. Today i received an update: Pioneer has seen the problem and they are working on it to figure it out.

 

There was no explication or any other information , and since "they are working on it" tells me there is an issues somewhere with my F950DAB. Otherwise they would have told me "it works fine on our unit" and a standard troubleshooting message would be sent.

 

I will keep informed when i have more news.

[CatalinT]

I thought I had a good response and there was the solution, but i only wish.

PEE sent a reply my case. Since they also had one of the files i tried to play, they just saw that the size of the video was 460x380 pixels. So they presented me with the table of supported video formats. Which states that from USB or SD storage it can only play video files of 400x240 pixel. Wonder why ? DVD format if much more and it plays.

 

So i tried , i converted a bunch of files, to a maximum resolution of 320x240 pixels. I thought that should solve everything.  To my surprise , same problem again. unable to play media file, check manual for supported files ... or something like that. I tried converting to MP4, AVI and WMV (which are the only formats allowed from USB/SD storage) , and nothing.

So now i sent one avi sample , of 320x240pixels  and asked them to fucking try it. If it works ok , then my unit has some issues. If not , then I requested that they convert my file, to whatever PE requieres, and send it to me to have a template. Just for fun, i tried to put a DVD movie in the player, and that worked flawless. And then I tried burning the video files onto a dvd . That didnt work either. I am 100% sure, if i create a DVD from all the video files, it will work, but that is not my goal.

I payed a lot for this high end unit, and I do not want to spent time and use lots of dvd for this matter. If so , they cant take it back and give me another one cheaper.

 

News will be updated on next session.

 

C.

 

PS: I refuse to resample all the videos to a fix size of 400x240 pixels for all files. The point is this unit should be able to play video files. My old F900BT was a killer on this subject. I ate pretty much everything without any changes to the files.

[CatalinT]

My final update on this subject.

 

So i received an answer to my problem. This is from their reply :

 

"Designer confirmed that all other parameters except resolution are within specification. So in case customer can reduce the resolution properly, it should work We have tried
"MovaviVideoConverter" and succeeded to downsize the file (320x180). Unfortunately, this is a trial version, so there is a "trial message' hardcoded over the screen."

 

At first I was pissed. Because they used the first file i sent them, before I knew about the limitation. My second mail had a file converted to 320x240 pixel , and it was an AVI. Second i have a feeling they did even look for any freeware converters, but they did said that "all other program adapted parameters and playback was not possible". Which other parameters they did not tell even after two more emails. So i went a little further , and tried this movaviconverter myself. At first I just wanted a standard resolution 320x240pixels and chose avi profile. And it it not work. From here i was just pissed off. I could not bear to try like this. After almost one month i could not believe it was so freaking hard to just play a video file from usb or sd card.

 

I sent an email demanding a proper test and solution , or just a refund. At this point i have to mention that my daily work is IT-Administrator and consultant i many areas. So I had to make it clear i know my stuff around and could not accept that this is normal procedure on a unit like this, coz it is not that easy to play a file even for me. Even if it worked in their convertion of 380x180 the unit states it supports a max resolution of 400x240 MPEG-4 AVI like i tried. In between i had to try the same resolution. But i also noticed the codec the avi convertion was using. and it was h.264.Original file was an MP4 hi-res 380p Meaning this is not supported in AVI file format. Only Mpeg4. Looking at the table the MP4 format is supported in h.264. So I changed to MPEG , and IT WORKED. but of course it was converted in s smaller window with large black sides. Like it does not scale up to the screen. So i tried a couple of more resolutions all under 400x240. They worked , and you could see the the window of video was bigger the more I increased. Of course i did some streching as well. So all the big fuss was this codec setting in AVI profiles. Mpeg and H264. This was automatically preserved from the original file for hires i guess.

AVI : Only MPEG

MP4: Both MPEG and H.264

Keep it under 400x200pixels

 

So from here it starts to clear a little .

 

My opinion is that PEE did a bad work on this codec stuff. They cant possibly expect that baseline users must put so much work and so complex tasks to be able to play a video file.

Another problem is, the screen resolution is max 400x200. Meaning it should be able to scale up to the screen.area when playing a video file under the maximum support. Larger of course problem of course it does not scale down. The lack of the codec support, and various differences between them, it makes it easy to convert wrong for the unit. I my opinion this is to much to teach somebody with standard use of a computer. Changing parameters from HI resolution to lower , different type of codecs and sound compression, is not something i would see myself doing on a car unit from the dealershop for the mass marked.

 

Now i know there is nothing wrong with the unit. Now i can finally convert and play files. But i will not buy a software to make this work. I will use different programs and try convertion with the details i know.

Using the suggested program movaviconverter, helped me understand where the problem was and the limitation of such hi-end unit. Looking at the brochure, you can jump of joy with so many goodies and others. Just to find limitation like this which makes it hard to just enjoy the digital world of entertainment.

 

Must add, Like always, I can be very pushy when i look after solutions and results. I have this from my line of work, but i also can admit when i am wrong. In this case i do not feel i was off topic at all. I may have been a little to strict and demanding, but i also had patience and did a lot of research ,plus lots of try and fail. I did wrote back right after finding out the problem. And i did also apologized for pressing on their buttons. Still , they need to look into this and make something about it, cause from stock , this unit cannot just play a video file from SD or USB storage, which makes this function useless. 

 

I also received a link to this program from them. http://www.xmedia-recode.de/download.html in their last aproach before my email. Which looks to be a cool fereware prog. It has profiles for different devices that can playback video files. including Pioneer Avic and AVH series. I need to have a closer look at this prog coz it looks like a good tool and free and this will be my main tool for the job until a new firmware release with hopefully a fix for this, or I just MOD my unit when i feel safe to do it

 

If any of you read my post, thank you very much. I know this is not the most informative post in here, but since i have been a member here, i never posted anything useful to call, but found lots of answers. My old F900BT was modded and it rocked. Hope this little experience of mine may be helpful for lost souls out there waving similar problems. I know i spent many hours on the net, and posting, without finding anything to help.

 

Have a cool evening. Now i tank my SD-cards and USB stick with music and videos

[bompa]

Hello,

My Unit is F9220BT

I have done many tests to see the best playable format via SD.

These are my current conclusions.

I use the free software "MediaCoder" with the following settings:

• Container: mp4
  
• Video bit rate: 512 Kbps CBR
  
• Format: H264
  
• Resolution: 640x360
  
• Frame rate: 24 fps
  
• Coder: x264 (Baseline Profile - Level3.0)
  

[giblets46]

This topic was posted in the 'Z' section ( the American model, same hardware etc though), having the same issue

http://avic411.com/index.php?/topic/34825-z140bh-unable-to-play-moviesvideos-from-sd-or-usb/

[CatalinT]

 

Hello,

My Unit is F9220BT

I have done many tests to see the best playable format via SD.

These are my current conclusions.

I use the free software "MediaCoder" with the following settings:

• Container: mp4
• Video bit rate: 512 Kbps CBR
• Format: H264
• Resolution: 640x360
• Frame rate: 24 fps
• Coder: x264 (Baseline Profile - Level3.0)

 

It seems like your unit supports higher resolution. 640x360. On my unit is lower 400x200. PEE had some bad conscience or something coz they replied once more time to announce how satisfied they were using Xmedia Record software. In other words they advised me to use this software since it's working. This software seems to be made especially for this kind of stuff, and it also has profiles for Pioneer Avic units. This answer was to my case with them. I guess i should ask them to put a credits and a link to this software in the manuals.

[giblets46]

I finally got my F30bt to play video (off SD card ), ignored the booklet and encoded with Xvid... go figure!