Openbox S9 and Movies?

[Lone Gunman]

OK so I got an SATA WD 320GB hard drive and a USB adapter for my Openbox S9. Formatted that drive then connected it to my receiver and all is well as it recognized it right away and I can record to it using the remote. So I pulled it back off and copied a bunch of movies to it with each .avi file in it's own folder. When I navigate to that drive I can see the folders with the movies in them but when I click on those folders they open and there's nothing in there? Just connected that drive back to the computer I used to put those movies on it and they are there??

So I was wondering if the movies being in a folder instead of directly on the drive is the problems? They play back fine on my AZBoxes like that but this S9 doesn't want to work that way.

Any help?

 

[Anole]

The S9 is not a media-player.
The .AVI format is not what it records.
I'd have been surprised if it played 'em back.

I haven't been following the threads...
Is there some discussion that this might work?
The AZbox on the other hand, specifically claims to be a multi-media-capable device. :up

 

[FaT Air]

I can't remember for sure, but think it was posted somewhere that it will(may) play mpg files.

 

[Santa Clause]

I have played .mp4 and .avi files on my S9 copied from my PC to USB drive.

 

[Lone Gunman]

I have played .mp4 and .avi files on my S9 copied from my PC to USB drive.

All the movies I have are in .avi format. Maybe I'll try one of them without the movie in it's own folder. I've got a flash drive I can test it with and if it works off that then it should work off that USB hard drive.

Thanks everyone, and Santa! ;-)

 

[Santa Clause]

Some of the files I tried played, some didn't (a few only played the audio part of the movie or didn't play at all), probably my fault in the encoding process. I don't recall having the files in folders or not.

 

[Santa Clause]

I probably should mention I am using the mid August firmware release, I don't know if playback of these file types has always been available on the S9.

 

[Jim S.]

It originally didn't play any video formats other than what it recorded, period. I think it had an MP3 player and an image viewer. It now plays more formats (I don't remember exactly what ones), but it's still very limited compared to a real media player.

 

[Anole]

AVI is actually a container , not a codec.
An AVI file can contain any of several video formats (codecs), audio formats (codecs), combinations of video+audio, and at many different resolutions.
What you might do, is look at working audio/video formats in AVI files with MediaInfo, and build a list of supported vs unsupported formats.


Another thing to consider:
I have a Philips DVD player that handles many formats.
But, it's a little cranky on what mp4 video it'll play, saying it'll do something output by Nero.
Is that even the current standard? I never did figure it out.

AND, it won't play anything higher than 720 x 480 video (it may do Euro 720 x 576, I don't recall)
But this is a hardware limitation - it won't play 720p shows, no way at all.
Also doesn't do .MKV (which is more common with higher resolution files).
There's no telling what hardware or software limitations the FTA receiver has.


Mediainfo ((it's free)):
MediaInfo
download page:
MediaInfo - Download

 

[wallyhts]

I wonder if you convert them to a .ts if that would work?

 

[Lone Gunman]

I wonder if you convert them to a .ts if that would work?

Seems that is what is uses when it records as I can see a TS file on that drive from where I recorded some TV shows but when I go to play them back I can't get to them from any menu that I've previously tried, and I've tried them all! I'm beginning to think that the firmware that I'm running is the reason that some of this stuff isn't working as I've read where others have had problems with the Skybox firmware on the Openbox as well.

On another note, my AZBox Elite uses that same TS format and I recorded a 30 minute TV program on that last night and I've not been able to get that to play back either?? Maybe it's the dumbass behind the remote, hey!! ;-)

I may have to try some different firmware.

 

[wallyhts]

Maybe it's the dumbass behind the remote, hey!! ;-)

LOL

I will try on my openbox this weekend and see what happens.

What firmware are running #?

 

[Anony55]

I seem to recall an S9 firmware being discussed somewhere that included media player functions. But it also seems like it wasn't a North American version. I have no idea if you had to give up other features to get the media player firmware.

I didn't pursue it (or study the details) because I have media files covered another way. But I'm pretty sure there's one out there.

Cheers

 

[chaskuchar]

tried recording on the s9 with 11-08-15 firmware. recorded in ps mode but media player crashes when i try to play the recording. i will try ts files next. charlie

 

[Lone Gunman]

Well, after upgrading to the 8_30_11 firmware on both my S9s I've been able to record and playback TV after I finally figured out how to get into playback mode!! The menu isn't very clear on this and it took some "accidental" button pushing before I finally stumbled on how to do it. Haven't tried to play an .avi file yet so don't know if that will work or not but the recorded TV playback in TS mode is working great.

As soon as I try some movie formats I'll post the results.

 

[Lone Gunman]

OK so I've tested this Openbox S9 with three types of movie video files. It will play .MKV and .MPG but it says there's no codec for .avi files. These files also need to be out in the open on the drive with no folder or anything else around them. The Openbox puts it's own folder on the hard drive but movie files put in there do not show up in the menu and I believe the reason for this is that they use only TS or PS format for recorded TV and the box uses that folder to store those for replay.

Would be really nice if they would include a codec for .avi files as that's the format I used for 90% of my movies? :-( But on the other side of the coin, I'm glad to finally get this part working!!

And a final note, wonder if an external USB DVD drive for a computer would work with this Openbox?.........Hummmm

 

[Lone Gunman]

OOPS! With the hard drive formatted in NTFS the AZBox will not record TV so I deleted the contents of this post.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Lone Gunman,

Interesting. The AZBox was able to identify and playback items stored on a HDD formatted in NTFS? I wasn't sure that it would allow this.

One thing for certain. Do NOT upgrade your firmware on the AZBox or format and restore the AZBox while a NTFS formatted drive is connected. Disconnect that drive, do the upgrade or formatting, then reconnect the drive afterwards. I read somewhere that it has been known to lock up the AZBox.

If the programs you have trouble with on the S9 are recorded from the satellite (not a file that you sent to the HDD) that sounds akin to the AZBox. It records and plays back programs from the satellite reception in a different location and in a different format than it does files that are FTP'd to the HDD from your PC (like say a DVD for instance). I recorded a movie from satellite and thought it would be nice to put it in one of my "movie" folders with the DVD stuff that I transferred over. That file basically evaporated.

I am thinking that the S9 is probably similar in this way, but not quite as functional as the AZBox for being a Multi-media device.

RADAR

 

[Lone Gunman]

The AZBox Ultra and Elite create two folders on a hard drive whether it's formatted in FAT32 or NTFS. Those two folders are "pvrfile" and "recordfile". The S9 creates only one folder on a drive and it too will read either FAT32 or NTFS. That folder the S9 creates is called "ALDVRS2". Anything that is recorded using the S9, ie, satellite TV will be put in that folder and the ones generated on mine are in TS format. The movies I put on that drive are not in that S9 generated folder but they are easy to get to in the media playback menu.

The AZBoxes also use TS format when recording satellite TV and those seem to be stored into the "recordfile" folder. Since I've never used the timer function on either box I'm going to take a wild guess that the AZ will store timed recordings in the "pvrfile" folder on that hard drive. While the AZBox will play anything I've put in it so far, the S9 however will not. S9s will only play .mpg or .mkv files. There may be others that it will play but the only other format that I use is .avi and the S9 WILL NOT play those.

When I put movies on that external drive I usually disconnect it from the receiver and then connect it up to the computer that has the movies on it because file transfers are way faster that way. I've got over 120GB of stuff so it would take way too long to do that transfer via FTP.

Anyway, I was amazed that since neither of the receivers would recognize a FAT32 drive that had been connected to the other that both would see and play files off that same drive formatted in NTFS regardless of which receiver it had been connected to previously? The one hitch that I mentioned up the page though is the fact that the AZBox will NOT record TV to an NTFS formatted drive. :-(

So now I guess I'll have to go back and convert all my .avi files to either .mpg or .mkv format so they will play back on either receiver! Good thing I'm retired, hey!

 

[Santa Clause]

My favorite conversion tool is Handbrake, It can convert most any video to .mp4 or .mkv, I just tried a few .flv files and they play on the S9 too.