Is there anything to be aware of trying to play video from USB?

currently I have USB2 for android phone cable, USB1 has female adapter.  Only views music, other files get greyed out...

playback only available from USB2 ?

you should be using android device on USB2. thats the designated port for your device. USB1 are for apple products. i have my iphone on usb 1 and a 32gb flash drive on usb2 and my video files work fine. what file format are the movies??

looks like it appears it just cannot read video files from my PNY 128GB USB Drive... it says FAT32....   I put same videos on a Sandisk 4GB usb drive and played fine... bah!

ok I figured it out.....  it appears the headunit will NOT let you have MUSIC and VIDEO files on same USB to switch between.... once you add music files, video files get inaccessible....  

hmmm.... now it appears this drive likes to crash the nex8000... very odd....   basically what it does now is tries to read then shortly after the unit reboots.... then says LOADING...........  and gets stuck....   no way to get out of it until USB remove and power cycle....

ok I figured it out..... it appears the headunit will NOT let you have MUSIC and VIDEO files on same USB to switch between.... once you add music files, video files get inaccessible....

That's not true. There's a button on the music timer on the left. A folder icon and you will see three options. MUSIC>VIDEO>PHOTOS. The HU automatically defaults to music the first time you put the SD card in.

ok I figured it out.....  it appears the headunit will NOT let you have MUSIC and VIDEO files on same USB to switch between.... once you add music files, video files get inaccessible....  

No, it definitely is fine with multiple types of files on one device, and USB1 and 2 are interchangeable. 

I have a 120GB NTFS-formatted SSD on USB1.  Works fine.

Note that the NEX units are fairly restricted on what video formats they will play.  Specifically, WMV/H.264 and DivX are listed as "compatible", as is MKV/FLV (!)

Although not explicitly listed at least some some AVI files also work.

Specifically, AVI files encoded for XviD video with MPEG-1 audio appear to work; I've played those.

High-def MP4 video files will not play despite MP4 being listed as a valid format for audio and the subtype being listed (MPEG-4) by Pioneer as a valid decoding option.

No, it definitely is fine with multiple types of files on one device, and USB1 and 2 are interchangeable. 

 

I have a 120GB NTFS-formatted SSD on USB1.  Works fine.

 

Note that the NEX units are fairly restricted on what video formats they will play.  Specifically, WMV/H.264 and DivX are listed as "compatible", as is MKV/FLV (!)

 

Although not explicitly listed at least some some AVI files also work.

 

Specifically, AVI files encoded for XviD video with MPEG-1 audio appear to work; I've played those.

 

High-def MP4 video files will not play despite MP4 being listed as a valid format for audio and the subtype being listed (MPEG-4) by Pioneer as a valid decoding option.

I have MPEG 4 movies on my sd card and they have no problem playing, they look fantastic.

Playable file types (USB\SD) MP3, WMA, AAC, WAVE, FLAC, H.264, MPEG4, WMV, FLV, MKV

The manual also says that Divx files won't play via USB\SD

I have MPEG 4 movies on my sd card and they have no problem playing, they look fantastic.

May be a bitrate problem then.  They're VERY high bitrate in the cases I've tried, and they don't work.  They're also more than 2G in size.

May be a bitrate problem then.  They're VERY high bitrate in the cases I've tried, and they don't work.  They're also more than 2G in size.

Are yours on and sd card or a USB drive? That could be the difference mine are all on sd card and just about 1.8 gig

I haven't had any issues with sd card playback, just USB drive so far

Are yours on and sd card or a USB drive? That could be the difference mine are all on sd card and just about 1.8 gig

I checked format compatibility with an SD card.  I've not seen any difference between the two; if it will play on the SD card it will also on the USB-attached SSD in my experience.

If the mpeg4 files were purchased in itunes store, they are protected. I got a program that removes the protection and now they all play on sd card and usb thumbnail, and ssd.

No, they're not protected.

I'll do some more digging around on this, as I have a video production system here and can set up virtually any bit rate and encoding options that I want.

Turns out it was (bitrate problem)

I took Handbrake to the original source and cut a MP4 with H.264 for the video codec at a size compatible with the head unit's display, and they play fine off my SSD.

Of course this means downconverting a lot of my stuff if I want to play it in the car.  Fortunately, most of the time I don't, and the few things I do (e.g. concerts and music videos) I'm as much interested in the music part as the video part if not more-so.