link referal please

I know I have read post addressing the issue of video not working, but cant find them right now. Could someone direct me to a thread addressing video not working? I have an SP 4gb and succeed with winmenc to convert playable divx of 70's show episodes, but if I try and convert a full movie and play it on the miniplayer I get kicked out of the video before it even starts playing. I would seem to be a length issue, but I remember reading otherwise. Just a note, all my divx were ripped from dvd using the same settings and fairuse wizard.
thanks

note: firmware s 1.010

the problem you encountered is definitely not related to the length of the video, as i have various video lengths (some ranging from 2 mins to 2 hours). likewise, some of mine do not play and some of them do. the long ones do play, but some of them dont. i believe it is something to do with the actual original video in the first place.

i have tried various programs to encode the same video, but it just doesnt work. i downloaded the same encoded version of the same video (the simpsons, just different episodes, but the same distributer), and they do not work - this shows a pattern in the videos that do not work.

therefore i believe that the videos that we were not able to play, may fall into that "unplayable" video category. furthermore, i have no idea why they do not play.

hmm... very strange. I think the one difference between the videos that do and dont work was that it was the "field combination" was set to "IVTC mode". I am not sure exactly what that means, but it is the only difference other than the orginal publisher.

I've attempted to encode several videos with the Meizu conversion software; some worked, some didn't. Those that didn't, I recently tried converting with VirtualDub, following the instructions in the Meizu forums, and they then played properly. Give VirtualDub a try.

Video length does affect playability--but it is not absolute or consistent. In other words, often times, longer videos will simply not play, even though you have encoded them the same way. Other times, they will play just fine.

I had faced the same issues in the past. I am sure there may be more efficient ways to counteract the problem, but I know one way that works:

Run the video through 2 passes of encoding with 2 different encoders. For example, I would convert two videos through Winmenc -- one 22 minutes and the other 2 hours. (The video that was 2 hours would simply not play on the Meizu.)

I would take the resulting video files and run it again through Virtual Dub MPEG-2. And ever since I've done that, it has worked every single time - without fail. Running 2 passes, particularly with these two converters, in this order, also alleviates almost all audio/video sync issues. (I got the tip from kennyboy).

hm well is this a bloody bug or what kinda sh*t?

My assumption - though I may completely off base - is that it is an issue with the encoder. This is not a bug/issue with the player itself. Someone that knows more about video encoding could probably shed light on the subject.

Doesn't it hurt the quality, when doing this double encoding?

Originally Posted by eriktous

Doesn't it hurt the quality, when doing this double encoding?

not that we can see so far. it's just an additional trouble, but in this case, it's an necessary evil for peace of mind.

have said many time, for videos that vdub does not support directly, put it through winmenc or any of the derivatives of mencoder, then put the resultant video in vdub.

for videos that vdub supports just run it through vdub. of course, you'll still need to fiddle around the audio interleaving to get the audio sync correct.

a bit troublesome i know, but i rather that i have to software required to tweak to my liking than have a player like zune which only supports wmv and if there's audio sync problems, and in the end there is no software to achieve what is needed. That will be more frustrating imho.

Can you tell us a little bit more about your conversion attempts. I ask this as I've been experimenting at some length with easy conversion techniques, and I'd like to understand origin format and stages of conversion.

1. Is your original a VOB/DivX?
2. What parameters does your DivX file have (25fps? 700x480?)
3. Are you copying the DivX file to the MP6 or a converted DivX file that is now XviD?

I've been converting VOB's and DivX files to XviD avi's over the last few weeks, and can comment as follows:

1. VOB's straight to XviD's I am having a lot of problems with even when my conversion software seems to match Meizu's requirements (I have used various programs including 'Convert Video')
2. I tend to conver to DivX first using a high res final file (Home Theatre settings)
3. I then use Bodak or VirtualDub to covert for the Meizu (changing the fps and resolution)

This seems to work pretty well, however I still experience some audio syncing problems ocassionaly.

I have found that converting VOB's directly to XviD seems to cause a lot of problems (meizu will not play it)

I have successfully made and played videos of durations from several minutes up to over 3 hours (entire Spaced series one as a single file).

The most common problem of unsucessful playback seems to be FPS. If I have a file of above 20fps and use conversion software to change the FPS rate down to 18-20, but keep the SAME file format, I get playback problems. This is why I switch between DivX and XviD codecs.

I have converted a number of VOB's and AVI's (both DivX and XviD) and haven't encountered any real problems.
I use VirtualDub directly for the AVI's and frameserving software to make it possible to feed the VOB's into VirtualDub.
With the suggested settings (320x240, 20 fps, rotate right) I have been able to succesfully convert all videos so far. Sometimes I have to tweak the bitrate a little, because the Miniplayer may stutter on scenes with a lot of fast movement (action scenes), and set a proper audio delay (I use a delay of 250 ms, which seems to work alright).