VHS digital AVI files not working on Blu-ray player?

[miyaa]

Hello everyone. I have copied a number of vhs family recordings on old vhs cassette to pc and worked well, video files being avi. I purchased a Laser blu ray player, as it had best reviews for playing most video file formats (actually many stated it plays all known file formats including avi) but after copying video files to external hdd and plugging that to the blu ray player and playing the files, the sound works but the image does not show. Not happy and expected it to work.

What do I do? Do I convert the files to other video format, like mp4? Will there be loss to video image and/or sound quality?


Obviously the vhs quality wasn't great ie. not 4k quality, but the digital files produced after conversion look like no quality was lost from the cassette version. Used lossless codec etc.


Aprreciate any help.

[mts1]

What encoder was used to digitize the tapes? Huffyuv?

[Aya_Rei]

You need to use software that can take those files and convert them to a standard that the blu ray format, and therefore the player, accepts.

Check out this VideoHelp thread or similar ones like it.

[miyaa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mts1

What encoder was used to digitize the tapes? Huffyuv?

Codec - Lagarith Lossless (LAGS)

Decoded Format - Planar 4:2:2 YUV


My Blu ray Player is Laser BLU-BD4000, which is supposed to play everything, all video formats. Obviously doesn't.


There must be a program to faithfully change the video format while not losing quality.

[Aya_Rei]

Play blu-rays and DVDs from any region you mean, it's a multi region device.

Blu Rays and DVDs must made within specific standards using specific codecs, ie MPEG2 for DVDs, you can't just slap any video file onto a disc and expect it to play correctly.

As an example, I use DVDStyler to put video files onto a DVD that can play backed properly on any player.

[miyaa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aya_Rei

Play blu-rays and DVDs from any region you mean, it's a multi region device.

Blu Rays and DVDs must made within specific standards using specific codecs, ie MPEG2 for DVDs, you can't just slap any video file onto a disc and expect it to play correctly.

As an example, I use DVDStyler to put video files onto a DVD that can play backed properly on any player.

I've got the vhs digitised video files on external hdd and connecting by usb to the mentioned blu-ray player. It is supposed to play any tiype of video file format but doesn't play these which are avi.

[Acros_13]

it sounds like you're trying to use that player as your media player, which it seems to support by using that USB connection on the front. However, it is only compatible with certain media file types. I did a quick google search and it seems to be compatible with H.264, MPEG2, among others. it's compatible with .AVI as a container but the video still needs to be in a supported format which Lagarith isn't. If keeping quality is a priority than I'm sure all the experienced pros around here would tell you how to do that... but if you just need to look into how to convert file types anything like hybrid, handbrake, or ffmpeg would probably be options... again if you want specifics on the settings etc ask the others but thats what you need to do essentially, encode your lagarith files into something your device supports, probably H.264 is a reasonable option.

but if quick and easy playback is the priority, simplest thing is probably to just take a laptop and connect to the tv via hdmi and use a media player that supports lagarith playback.

[miyaa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acros_13

it sounds like you're trying to use that player as your media player, which it seems to support by using that USB connection on the front. However, it is only compatible with certain media file types. I did a quick google search and it seems to be compatible with H.264, MPEG2, among others. it's compatible with .AVI as a container but the video still needs to be in a supported format which Lagarith isn't. If keeping quality is a priority than I'm sure all the experienced pros around here would tell you how to do that... but if you just need to look into how to convert file types anything like hybrid, handbrake, or ffmpeg would probably be options... again if you want specifics on the settings etc ask the others but thats what you need to do essentially, encode your lagarith files into something your device supports, probably H.264 is a reasonable option.

but if quick and easy playback is the priority, simplest thing is probably to just take a laptop and connect to the tv via hdmi and use a media player that supports lagarith playback.

This is for my parents who are over 70 years old. They don't know how to use computers much so a blu-ray player that has usb connection for external hdd was ideal and the Laser BLU-BD4000 was cheap and stated it plays all video format types. I have experienced a Laser brand blu-ray player in the past and it did play many different types of video file formats that other players didn't play, so was surprised when these vhs files didn't work.


What I need then is to find out how to convert the Lagarith encoded files to another format without losing quality. Being vhs derived, the quality already isn't great so don't want to lose anymore. A free program for pc to do this, with instructions by someone experienced, would be great if anyone here can help me with that.

Much appreciated and thanks to those who have already answered in my thread.

[Acros_13]

if it comes down to de-interlacing, de-noising, sharpening, avisynth filters, upscaling and all that, do indeed wait for an experienced answer.

but I can say that if you don't need all that. Use Handbrake (which is free) to encode H.264 with CRF setting of 15-17 (lower is better quality but bigger file size) and that should be just about visually lossless while still providing compression. and for simplicity sake you can just keep all the aspect ratio, dimensions, frame rate all unchanged from the original. turn all filters off. I guess you could deinterlace if you want, but people here would yell at you to either use qtgmc or let your tv handle it. pass thru audio without processing and that should be simple enough.

**edit**: im not actually sure Handbrake can work on Lagarith. I think you need to process to a high quality intermediate codec first. (?)

[vwestlife]

Handbrake does support Lagarith as long as you have the codec installed... at least in Windows. Not sure about Mac.

[mts1]

If you're on Windows, you can use VirtualDub2.

[miyaa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mts1

If you're on Windows, you can use VirtualDub2.

But is the conversion to another codec lossless? Is there any loss in quality? That's the whole point, to not lose quality and just have the videos play on the media player.

[mts1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by miyaa

But is the conversion to another codec lossless? Is there any loss in quality? That's the whole point, to not lose quality and just have the videos play on the media player.

If your original encoder was lossless and your new encoder will be lossless too, then your video still will be lossless, no matter how many re-encoding cycles you will have.

[Acros_13]

lossless to another lossless codec is lossless, but what I described (convert to h.264) is not lossless as it compresses the video, but there's going to be some fine line where it will essentially be visually lossless ie no discernible difference to the eyes though mathematically not lossless. you just need to find the right settings, usually CRF of around 15 I'd say. You just have to judge yourself.

technically i think theres a version/setting to make h.264 lossless but I'd imagine the processing needed to decode would make playback not very good.

also obviously, you don't throw out your original file, that's for archival. but for your parents to just watch the videos.... I think the above should suffice? but up to you.

[mts1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acros_13

lossless to another lossless codec is lossless, but what I described (convert to h.264) is not lossless as it compresses the video, but there's going to be some fine line where it will essentially be visually lossless ie no discernible difference to the eyes though mathematically not lossless. you just need to find the right settings, usually CRF of around 15 I'd say. You just have to judge yourself.

technically i think theres a version/setting to make h.264 lossless but I'd imagine the processing needed to decode would make playback not very good.

also obviously, you don't throw out your original file, that's for archival. but for your parents to just watch the videos.... I think the above should suffice? but up to you.

h.264 has lossless mode too.
On the other hand to notice a difference, you have set the quality in lossless mode really low.
For archiving purpose I keep my videos in lossless format.
However, if I want to send it to someone, I re-encode it using lossy compression.

miyaa, please also keep in mind, the power of your player is not unlimited. If you compress your video too heavy, your player won't play it.

[radiokom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by miyaa

This is for my parents who are over 70 years old. They don't know how to use computers much so a blu-ray player that has usb connection for external hdd was ideal and the Laser BLU-BD4000 was cheap and stated it plays all video format types.

I am sure you can explain your parents how to use USB flash in TV instead of blu ray player. All TV manufactured within last 20 years has USB ports and accept H.264 Mpeg4 and Mpeg1 and 2 of course. Convert your original file to H.264 Mpeg4, record on flash and tell your parents it is modern DVD Keep original file of course.

[miyaa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by radiokom

I am sure you can explain your parents how to use USB flash in TV instead of blu ray player. All TV manufactured within last 20 years has USB ports and accept H.264 Mpeg4 and Mpeg1 and 2 of course. Convert your original file to H.264 Mpeg4, record on flash and tell your parents it is modern DVD Keep original file of course.

The tv they have is about ten years old and isn't a smart tv. I didn't know you could play directly through usb, only through hdmi connected media player?

It might be that the blu-ray player may only play certain codecs and Lagarith isn't one of them. I'll therefore have to convert to a codec it does read, don't know how to find that out. I guess some compression is alright if there is no visible difference but I don't know much about that and assume it might require changing settings on a program used to convert the vids. Much rather it be more straight forward ofcourse as time is somewhat limited.

[radiokom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by miyaa

The tv they have is about ten years old and isn't a smart tv. I didn't know you could play directly through usb, only through hdmi connected media player?

It might be that the blu-ray player may only play certain codecs and Lagarith isn't one of them. I'll therefore have to convert to a codec it does read, don't know how to find that out. I guess some compression is alright if there is no visible difference but I don't know much about that and assume it might require changing settings on a program used to convert the vids. Much rather it be more straight forward ofcourse as time is somewhat limited.

From USB you can play files directly, simply select USB input instead of HDMI and choose file. You do not need smart TV. Just try.

H.264 MPEG4 is most common format and all TV accept (or should accept) it. I have Philips TV from 2008 in my summer house and it read MP4 PAL/NTSC without problems. Info how to convert files to mp4 you can find in this forum.

Blu ray player you need only for blu ray discs.

[Acros_13]

Quote:

Originally Posted by radiokom

Blu ray player you need only for blu ray discs.

his player has a USB interface that he hookes up to a HDD though.

But same difference. unfortunately neither will play Lagarith thats for sure so he'll have to do some encoding no matter what. but perhaps the tv will be a smoother navigating experience for the parents.

[radiokom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acros_13

his player has a USB interface that he hookes up to a HDD though.

But same difference. unfortunately neither will play Lagarith thats for sure so he'll have to do some encoding no matter what. but perhaps the tv will be a smoother navigating experience for the parents.

Yes, many blu ray and DVD players has USB interface and it was useful before USB ports in TV became common. So you was able to use it instead of buying new TV. But now there is no point for it. And of course they do not read Lagarith, huffyuv etc.