Playing movies from external HD on TV

[Deleted]

Hi there

I've got an external harddrive (western digital elements 1,5tb) with a bunch of movies on. I'd like to watch my movies on my tv instead of my computer but when I try the quality sucks bigtime (pixelated picture, sound not synchronous, sometimes odd colours that sort of thing) but it works just fine when the harddrive is connected to my computer.
I've got a feeling it's because of the file format. All the movies are .avi and I might need to change that. What would I need to change it to and what kind of programs can do that well? If the problem is unrelated and caused by something else then by all means help me!

[Fooliecoolie]

You would need a decent codex pack, CCCP is a good choice since it covers several different codex.

[ispano]

It's not as simple as "it's an avi file and needs to be an mkv file" You need to know what device you're using to play back said files on your TV, ie your computer, a media box, something else?

---------- Post added 2011-05-23 at 09:16 PM ----------

You would need a decent codex pack, CCCP is a good choice since it covers several different codex.

If you use MPC HomeCinema in Windows, you really don't need ANY codecs, only that player and Haali Media Splitter. For some really ancient encodes, you might need something, but not for anything recent.

[Deleted]

Sorry for the late reply. I just connect the external hd to the tv directly through the usb port and then I access the files from the tv.

[Wries]

Sorry for the late reply. I just connect the external hd to the tv directly through the usb port and then I access the files from the tv.

The TV got some internal decoding software/hardware then meant to handle files, but is obviously not good enough. It's possible that it can handle another format better, but the hassle to convert things might not be worth it.

Frame after frame needs to be converted, it's a resource intensive process and requires some time to gain knowledge if you want to keep as much quality as possible after transcoding. See what your TV-manual says it supports as well, and if it has any bitrate limit to what is supported.

Also: AVI = container. Codec can vary. It's very common to have XviD or DivX (derivatives of MPEG4 part 2) as a codec in these files. When reading what your TV supports, knowing the codec of your files is important. Media Player Classic Home Cinema should be able to tell when playing a video. Press Shift+F10 and find out what it says about the video stream.

Easiest thing, though costly, would be to get a dedicated HTPC beside your TV. An AMD fusion based Mini-ITX in a box would be darn excellent for this purpose, but an extra expense no doubt.

[Djinni]

Most TV's and HuMax boxes support DivX playback, very few support Xvid