Help with playing movies?

Hullo....

So I recently downloaded some episodes from Friends, they seem to be in the right format (aka playable with Winamp), but they don't play.

I am suspecting they were compressed by a codec that's not supported by the player. Can you guys tell me how to play them? Is there a way?

They are all in AVI format, I understand that there are many codec that could have been used to compress the files.

Please help!

D

Install ffdshow (bunch of codecs) and play them with windows media player.
http//sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=53761[]http//sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=53761

Or install VLC media player, it plays almost anything
http//www.videolan.org/[]http//www.videolan.org/

[quoteb53f0c0dba="hehehhehe"]Or install VLC media player, it plays almost anything
http//www.videolan.org/[]http//www.videolan.org/[/quoteb53f0c0dba]

[quote1da4785b15="theysayjump"][quote1da4785b15="hehehhehe"]Or install VLC media player, it plays almost anything
http//www.videolan.org/[]http//www.videolan.org/[/quote1da4785b15][/quote1da4785b15]
I third the VLC recommendation. VLC is a whole lot better than installing a gazillion codecs from the big codec packs, some of which have been known to cause system stability issues and conflicts. With VLC all the codecs are self-contained and independent of the operating system files.

4th VLC. It plays everything, seemingly.

5th for VLC. I swear by it!

Thanks a million! )

Another question now I can play the VOB files I couldn't before, but if I want to burn a DVD with them, will it work? Do I need to do anything special?

[quote785d92a221="condra"]Thanks a million! )

Another question now I can play the VOB files I couldn't before, but if I want to burn a DVD with them, will it work? Do I need to do anything special?[/quote785d92a221]

User nero and burn a DVD-Video i believe, you put your VOB files in the video folder and burn and it will rock like a retail dvd would in a dvd player

i discovered dvdflick (free) last week. i was able to burn some shows and movies i downloaded onto dvd which look great on my 50" tv. i burned the pats/giants super bowl for my dad and previewed the first half this morning.

i was hoping to use my xbox360 to stream from my laptop/desktop to my tv but they wouldn't play.

i did find lithisli[=http//www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8993217&st=western+digital&type=product&id=1218008588808]lithisli on bestbuy.com this morning. i have gift cards and might take the plunge.

-dan

[quotebc990e66a1="DRay9911"]i discovered dvdflick (free) last week. i was able to burn some shows and movies i downloaded onto dvd which look great on my 50" tv. i burned the pats/giants super bowl for my dad and previewed the first half this morning.[/quotebc990e66a1]
Yeah, there are several tools like this. I use Nero Vision Express to do the same thing, since I'm a long-time Nero customer.

[quotebc990e66a1="DRay9911"]i was hoping to use my xbox360 to stream from my laptop/desktop to my tv but they wouldn't play.[/quotebc990e66a1]
I've never bothered with MCE or trying to stream to my 360, but it should play the VOB's directly since they're just MPEG2 containers. I know my PS3 will play VOB files streamed from my MediaTomb server.

[quotebc990e66a1="DRay9911"]i did find lithisli[=http//www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8993217&st=western+digital&type=product&id=1218008588808]lithisli on bestbuy.com this morning. i have gift cards and might take the plunge.[/quotebc990e66a1]
While I generally like WD stuff, keep in mind this product only plays media files from physically attached USB drives, and does not stream anything across the network. So you have to move the drives back and forth between your PC and WD box to add media files.

i was looking at a few devices (popcorn hour) that stream (ethernet/wifi) or have a built in hard drive, they were more expensive and i don't think i actually need something like that.

in a few reviews i read, you can connect to the WD with a flash drive. i'd be happy downloading AVIs, moving them to a 4gb flashdrive and plugging it into the WD.

-dan

[quote5f76007af0="DRay9911"]i was looking at a few devices (popcorn hour) that stream (ethernet/wifi) or have a built in hard drive, they were more expensive and i don't think i actually need something like that.[/quote5f76007af0]
Yeah, but you have a 360 that can already stream over the network. I know it's capable, it just may be a configuration issue, or a DRM thing between MCE/WMP and the 360 -- like I said, I've not tried the 360, but I do it with the PS3. I'd suggest using something like TVersity as your server instead, I think you'll find it more flexible and less restrictive than a MS server solution. I'm pretty sure the 360 is a DLNA client same as the PS3, and so would work with any DLNA-compliant streaming server. And if you try to stream something the 360 can't decode, apps like TVersity can be configured to transcode on the fly.

[quote5f76007af0="DRay9911"]in a few reviews i read, you can connect to the WD with a flash drive. i'd be happy downloading AVIs, moving them to a 4gb flashdrive and plugging it into the WD.[/quote5f76007af0]
True, a USB flashdrive will appear to the OS same as a USB HDD, but you won't get an awful lot on there. My media server currently has almost 1TB of ripped DVD's and BluRay disc images on it, I'd hate to think of having to transcode then copy them back & forth to a small flash drive when I wanted to watch something. If I couldn't possibly have a network streaming solution and were forced to consider that WD device, I'd have no choice but to buy 1 or 2 TB sized USB drives, and shuffle them back and forth to load new movies. Yuck. If they would network-enable it, it would be nice, but then it probably wouldn't be that cheap either.

I have another question

I am trying to make a DVD with a movie and the subtitles - only the subtitles are on a separate file (same folder of course), and i cannot add them together when I burn the dvd.

If I add them separately the subtitles don't work.

Any way to work this out?

[quotee3b5cde49e="DRay9911"]i was looking at a few devices (popcorn hour) that stream (ethernet/wifi) or have a built in hard drive, they were more expensive and i don't think i actually need something like that.

in a few reviews i read, you can connect to the WD with a flash drive. i'd be happy downloading AVIs, moving them to a 4gb flashdrive and plugging it into the WD.

-dan[/quotee3b5cde49e]

popcorn hour is sick, my coworker just bought it

i e-mailed myself lithisli[=http//gizmodo.com/5096103/a-complete-guide-to-playing-video-files-on-your-ps3-xbox-360-or-wii]lithisli link almost 2 months ago and found it going through my old e-mails last week.

i downloaded/installed tversity on friday and it worked GREAT on my living room TV...the downloaded shows aren't A+ quality on the 50", but i'm happy i got it to work.

i'm going to have to buy the xbox360 wireless adapter and use that for the bedroom.

-dan

Yeah, I couldn't get Pirates(XXX) to play because it was .aviurl==http://=http:///url or something until my friend recommended VLC... works wonders ha