Pilot, V-Mate and MP4/WMV Movie Compatibility

[myet01]

Hello,

I will probably be purchasing two Insignia Pilots during the holidays (don't have them now) but I have a couple of questions. Your help is appreciated!

1 - Numerous places throughout the manual, it says:
a - "Plays WMV and MPEG-4 video file format".
b - But then, on page 23 it says, "Your player can show MPEG-4 videos. No other video formats are supported."?

This appears to be contradictory? Which is it; does it play both WMV and MPEG-4, or just MPEG-4?

2 - I purchased a Sandisk V-Mate (Product Link below). It is really neat, it automatically records to a SDHC Card in MPEG-4 format from your VCR, DVD, Cable Box, or any video source using the RCA jacks. The primary reason I bought it was because it recorded directly to MPEG-4, I could then eject the SDHC card and slide it into a Pilot without having to convert it using the ArcSoft software on my computer.

Well, I recorded something last night (just got the v-mate yesterday) and took the SDHC with the recording to my local best buy store, slipped it into the display pilot and the pilot didn't recognize the movie!!!! It navigated through the directories on the card no problem, but didn't recognize or see any ".MP4" files?

I have listed the sample moving settings below that I used, the V-Mates Product specification and the Product link at Sandisk. If someone would like, I can send them the 30 second snipped I recorded to try (forum would not let me upload it).


SAMPLE MOVIE SETTINGS
Quality: Best
Format: MP4(PSP)
Resolution: 320 x 240
Frame Rate (fps): 30 fps

PRODUCT SPECICIFICATIONS
Codecs: MPEG-4 Simple Profile, H.263
Formats: MP4, 3GP, 3G2
Resolution: Up to 640x480 pixels
Frame Rate: Up to 30fps
TV Formats: NTSC & PAL
Record up to 3.5 hours of high quality video per gigabyte**

PRODUCT LINK
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1209)-SanDisk_VMate_Video_Memory_Card_Recorder.aspx

Thanks,


Tony

[CrowdAds]

[MattJamesNC]

The original NS-DV played both mpeg-4 and wmv, so I highly doubt they took away one format, if anything they should have added a couple more.
I would say quite safely that it plays both.

[myet01]

Get this. I made a couple more MP4 movies and went down to my local Best Buy and tried them in the pilot and they didn't work either. So, I started looking at the demo videos they had on the Pilot and they were ".AVI" format? Whats up? The manual I downloaded doesn't even say anything about .avi files?

So, is it .avi, .mp4 or .wmv. Does anyone know or has anyone even tried videos on the Pilot?

Any information would be appreciated.

Tony

[Slydini]

The mp4 format can be disguised in a variety of ways. Judging by this link http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...98&postcount=1 the Pilot most likely uses an AVI container for the mp4 format. The Sandisk V Mate and the Neuros MPEG 4 Recorder (which I own) are generally designed to support the codecs used by the iPod and PSP (mp4, H.264). The only other DAP's that support this codec are:

• Sansa View
• Sony Video Walkman (610/810)
• Archos Generation 4 and 5 players (you have to pay extra though)

In short, I don't think that the Pilot is compatible with the V-Mate or the Neuros.



Notes:

Agent017 (an ABI member) owns the V-Mate and he has confirmed compatbility with the View.

I own the Neuros MPEG 4 Plus Recorder and I can confirm compatibility with the Sansa View and the Sony 810. The View is more strict on the specific mp4 format whereas the Sony 810 works with various types of mp4's.

[myet01]

Well, that's a bummer! I wonder if I should consider the Sandisk View instead of the Pilot then? As I had indicated, I stopped by BB yesterday. While I was there I listened to both of them and the audio on the View sounded better than the Pilot (although the view is larger). Especially since BB has the 8 GB view for $149.00! Is the 8GB Pilot going on sale before Xmas?

Any opinions?

Tony

[myet01]

Ok, not that I am an expert on containers, but isn't it a little misleading to say MP4 / WMV if it puts out an AVI file?

Thanks,

Tony

[Zeus47]

I own a vmate and all it did was show lines going up and down and it wouldnt let me record anything.

any help on making it work would be greatly appreciated.

[jimgb]

does this mean the Pilot does NOT support WMV ?

[CPav]

The Pilot DOES support wmv. I have a number of sample videos that came on my Vista laptop, and they all work just fine on my Pilot.

[digitalq]

Originally Posted by myet01

Ok, not that I am an expert on containers, but isn't it a little misleading to say MP4 / WMV if it puts out an AVI file?

Thanks,

Tony

AVI is a container. To say a player supports AVI is not very informative at all. Orange juice and Milk both come in cardboard cartons, but some people are lactose intolerant.

[digitalq]

Oh, and file extension is an issue too. It might be correct for the same file to have either .avi or .mp4 as an extension, but the Pilot will only play the .avi file.