How To: Playing Video From USB
#1
06-07-2017, 04:03 PM
How To: Playing Video From USB
I spent a few hours yesterday figuring out how to get video to play from a USB since I don't use DVD's anymore. My car is a MY15 so this should work on all F-Types and probably isn't such a PITA on the newer ones due to a higher resolution screen and updated system software. You can watch videos while stopped or going verrrrrrrry slowly.
I thought it would be as easy as throwing my video files on a USB but the F-Type is pretty picky. It would either not play the file and/or would cause a USB "Device Error" if I had a even one mkv, avi, mp4 or even a DivX file that was not the proper size on the device. So I hope I save some of you a little bit of time with this post.
1. Go to DivX Video Software | Free Video Software | DivX Format | DivX.com and download their "Free Software" which is a pretty small & light program. You can choose to install their "Web Player" and "Media Player" during setup but you really only need the "DivX Converter" to make this work.
2. After the install, run the app and drag whichever movies you'd like to watch into the conversion area/box/list.
3. VERY IMPORTANT: Next to the "Start" & "Add Files" buttons, there is a dropdown to "Select output profile" - you MUST change that setting to "DIVX HOME THEATER" for the files to play in the F-Type.
I tried the other settings and either the file(s) would not play and/or it would give me the "Device Error" message for the entire USB and I couldn't play movies that worked previously or access any music on the USB.
You can lower the video bitrate in the "DIVX HOME THEATER" profile by adding a video to the conversion list and clicking the video drop-down next to the video image. It makes the file smaller but you do lose a little quality. I found the sweet spot to be around 1200kbps for file size and quality.
4. Press the "Start" button and the files begin to convert. Music videos around 75~100mb take about 30 seconds to convert on my computer.
5. Throw your converted files on a USB formatted to FAT or FAT32, plug it in the under the armrest and you are good to go.
I thought it would be as easy as throwing my video files on a USB but the F-Type is pretty picky. It would either not play the file and/or would cause a USB "Device Error" if I had a even one mkv, avi, mp4 or even a DivX file that was not the proper size on the device. So I hope I save some of you a little bit of time with this post.
1. Go to DivX Video Software | Free Video Software | DivX Format | DivX.com and download their "Free Software" which is a pretty small & light program. You can choose to install their "Web Player" and "Media Player" during setup but you really only need the "DivX Converter" to make this work.
2. After the install, run the app and drag whichever movies you'd like to watch into the conversion area/box/list.
3. VERY IMPORTANT: Next to the "Start" & "Add Files" buttons, there is a dropdown to "Select output profile" - you MUST change that setting to "DIVX HOME THEATER" for the files to play in the F-Type.
I tried the other settings and either the file(s) would not play and/or it would give me the "Device Error" message for the entire USB and I couldn't play movies that worked previously or access any music on the USB.
You can lower the video bitrate in the "DIVX HOME THEATER" profile by adding a video to the conversion list and clicking the video drop-down next to the video image. It makes the file smaller but you do lose a little quality. I found the sweet spot to be around 1200kbps for file size and quality.
4. Press the "Start" button and the files begin to convert. Music videos around 75~100mb take about 30 seconds to convert on my computer.
5. Throw your converted files on a USB formatted to FAT or FAT32, plug it in the under the armrest and you are good to go.
The following 8 users liked this post by dragonfire6:
DJS (06-08-2017),
Dremorg (06-07-2017),
DuhCar (06-09-2017),
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and 3 others liked this post.
#2
06-07-2017, 08:43 PM
Senior Member
Parked, the car goes to sleep after 15 minutes and you need to press start again to wake up the system. So watching anything longer than 15 minutes is a pain.
I have a DVD of 2001 Space Odysey on board, the few times I've played it it's been fun. I skip to the space station scene with beautiful music by Straus and I tell my passenger when they arrive that I'm on hold with JLR satellite customer service.
It's good to be bad...
I have a DVD of 2001 Space Odysey on board, the few times I've played it it's been fun. I skip to the space station scene with beautiful music by Straus and I tell my passenger when they arrive that I'm on hold with JLR satellite customer service.
It's good to be bad...