Sony BDP-S580 Error - Corrupt or unsupported file

[North Freo]

I recently upgraded to a Sony BDP-S580 that comes up with the error message - "Corrupt or unsupported file." when I try and play certain movies. It seems to be random and I can't work out why?

I have a WD My Book Essential 2TB hooked up to the blu-ray player via the front usb port. All of my movies are AVI format. It's hooked up to my Sony LED via HDMI.

All of my TV Shows are fine, I have not had any error msg come up when trying to play them. It is only movies that are affected and I can't work out why?

Is there something in the format, or the way they have been coded that could be the reason for the error msg? Or do I need to reformat all of my movies......I hope not! Does anyone know why this error msg comes up for a file format that is supported? If anyone has any idea on what I can try I would very much appreciate it. As I would really like to try and understand the problem so I don't do it again. It is extremely frustrating! Thanks alot guys.

[admin]

I recommend that you first download a software called GSpot, which you can use to analyse your AVI files.

Open up one that doesn't work on your Blu-ray player, and see if GMC or QPEL is detected (under the "Video" section). If they are, that's most likely where your problem is. Also, take a note of the audio, and if it's something like AC3 or DTS, instead of MPEG-1 Layer 3, then that could also cause compatibility problems (Blu-ray players are not as good as PCs or even dedicated media players when it comes to playing every kind of video file).

Long story short, you probably need to re-encode the AVI files that doesn't work using AVI Recomp, which has been designed to get non compatible AVI files to be more compartible. Here a guide for the software.

[North Freo]

You are a legend!

Thanks so much for taking the time. I'll give it a try and post whether it managed to sort out the problem I've been having.

Thanks again mate.

[North Freo]

I apologise, but I had forgotten to add that I use a Mac. I'm really sorry I forgot to add that in my initial post.

Can you suggest Mac equivalents for GSpot and AVI Recomp? I took a look around and found MediaInfo as a Mac alternative to GSpot. Is MediaInfo any good or not worth it? I couldn't find a Mac equivalent for AVI Recomp though. Any suggestions?

Thanks again for your help. I really appreciate it.

[admin]

Yes, you can use MediaInfo in place of GSpot - just open up the AVI file in MediaInfo, from "view" select "Text", and it should list whether the files has QPel/GMC, and what kind of audio the file has.

For a replacement for AviRecomp, then maybe AviDemux could do the job, I haven't used it personally (and haven't written a guide for it though):

AviDemux 2.5.6 | Software - (DivX/Xvid) Digital Digest