USB Stick

[mwsing]

I have always saved projects to DVDs in the past, but now so many of my family do not have DVD drives, so it would be better to save to a USB stick. What is the best way to do this?

In previous versions of Video studio one was often advised to made a videofile rather than going straight to "Create Disc". Is this still the wisest thing to do? If so, why?

[BrianCee]

You first need to do a bit of research around your family - how will they be using the USB stick to view your videos.

If they are going to watch them on a computer - or on a TV connected to a computer then the easiest way is to just copy the Video_TS folder produced by VideoStudio onto the USB stick and install a software DVD player on the computer - that way you can still have menus and chapters etc and it will function just as a DVD player.

BUT

if they are wanting to plug the USB stick straight into the TV then what formats can the TV accept - for instance mine will only play mpeg2 and mp4 videos - but it is a few years old and newer TV's may accept newer and different formats.

My TV will also not recognise a Video_TS folder so I cannot have videos with menus or chapters on a USB stick - only straight videos - I can put numerous videos on a stick ( in fact for my own personal use I am now using a small portable hard drive to carry my videos about with numerous videos on it) My TV then produces a menu - see image below - to allow me to select which video to watch.

so a little experimentation may be required to get the options right for all members of your family - but having sorted it out it is just a matter of copying the files from your computer to the USB stick.

As regards making a video file first before burning a DVD - I still do that and continue to recommend that others do it for two main reasons. One is that we still quite often get users who have problems going straight from timeline to DVD it seems that the computer/videostudio trip over themselves while rendering/authoring and throw up an error and abort the process, which is very often cured by using the two stage approach. The second reason - and the main reason I do it is so that I can play the video file through after rendering and check that it has rendered correctly and looks the way I want it to before burning a DVD and maybe wasting the actual disc.

[mwsing]

Thanks Brian for such useful information. When you put your Videos onto the hard drive, what format do you use and what do you then play them on?

Re your last point I often found in the past that, although the videos looked OK in preview mode, either I missed something or the DVD did not turn out to be exactly the same. I overcame this by always burning the first DVD to a re-useable DVD (DVD + RW) (which I just keep for this purpose

[BrianCee]

When I put the videos on my hard drive they are mpeg-2 or mp4 because that is what my TV plays - I plug it into my TV select the USB input and get the menu I posted above - select the video and it plays on my TV screen

If you want to view it on a computer you can use the supplied Windows Media player already on most computers but I find the free VLC player to be satisfactory for my use - but there are many other players both free and paid for - like Corels own WinDVD for instance.

if you have a Video_TS folder on the hard drive and want to view that on a computer then the VLC player will play it complete with menus and chapters


When it comes to burning the DVD there are no hard and fast rules as to the method used - whatever works for you is best - if you are happy continuing to burn a RW disc first then you should continue with that.

[Davidk]

As advised, the device doing the playing is the main factor. And note that a computer is not the same as a TV as the display device: computers can run intelligent software, like the VLC app that has been mentioned, that will read just about anything, whereas the TV can be as dumb as a thick piece of wood, or a bit smarter with built in and unchangeable limited ability to play specific file types on auxiliary inputs.

If your intended audience has a TV that is capable of playing files from a USB stick or an external hard drive, then render to an mpeg2 format on either device. Make sure you use a recognisable filename. Those smart TV's have options to input from alternative audio-visual sources (selected manually with the remote control) and these devices when plugged in would be attached to one of the TV's AV inputs. To play them, you need to change the input source to whichever AV it is connected to, and then scan thru the available detected files and select the one for playing. Having your TV manual handy for the first few times you do this is generally a really good idea. A note of warning - not all TV's will recognise allegedly standard mpg files - that descriptor is one of many "coversheets" and the TV manufacturer will only build in support (meaning the technics to play/display the file) for the most popular ones. Generally I find that the VS mpeg2 format plays on the devices I attach to.

Filetypes like VIDEO_TS were designed for CD/DVD players and either CD or DVD disks therein, at a time when the max file size was 2gb, and HD was a figment of someones imagination. Thus this method breaks a rendered video in to parts which the player knows how to knit together. The player is still attached to an AV input on the TV, but the file data is sorted by the player before its sent on to the TV. These older filetypes can be rendered to USB - a memory disk - but how they would play when plugged in to the TV and are just read directly is anyone's guess. I suggest, it probably wouldn't (play).

Davidk

[lata]

Hi

My TV does not have USB, although HD tv flat screen its just a little old.
My DVD Player and Bluray Player both have USB port

I work with AVCHD . MTS files, the Bluray Player will play this format.
Rename the file to use MPG extension and the DVD Player will recognise and play the same file.

Non or the USB’s will play menu structures only the raw files. I am sure the manufacturers could make that happen?

How your files play depends on your own hardware. Try different types, I would have thought MPG would play on everything.

Brian

I cannot set up VLC player to play AVCHD or Bluray folders including Menus, am I just pushing the wrong buttons, I can of course play most video formats MTS etc but no menu’s

[Ken Berry]

FWIW, like Trevor, my "old" Samsung 46" HDTV won't play videos from its USB ports. But I almost exclusively these days make either AVCHD (.m2ts/mts) or HDV (.m2t) clips, or even, more recently, mpeg-4 HD files called either .mpg or.mp4, and all of them play from either my USB stick or external hard dives when plugged into either my Blu-Ray player (in fact a Sony PlayStation 3) or else my absolutely excellent Western Digital media player. Both the PS3 and WD plug into my HDTV via one of its HDMI ports. The PS3 is a bit more fiddly about what it will play and how it is described both in the containing folder on the disc and its extension. But the WD is a hardware equivalent of the VLC media player described above, and will play absolutely every format I have yet thrown at it. Obviously, it's not freeware, but costs a good deal less than the PS3. IIRC I paid around NZ$150 for the WD about a year ago, which means it will a damn sight less elsewhere in the world...

[BrianCee]

Hi Trevor

The VLC player and AVCHD and Blu-ray folders is a bit of a black art

I cannot get VLC to play either an AVCHD or Blu-ray folder with a working and selectable menu - just does not happen

It does work perfectly on 'standard' DVD Video_TS folders - giving a fully selectable menu

BUT

I have found in the VLC player that by going "Media >> open folder" and browsing to the folder containing the BDMV folder - NOT the actual BDMV folder - it will play everything in the folder including the menu (but not as a selectable item) plus a couple of crossfades presumably generated by VS going from the menu to the video - keep your eyes on the blue line going across the bottom of the VLC player - if it's still there and moving something else is going to happen.

Additionally you can browse to the BDMV folder in Windows Explorer - RIGHT click over it and choose "play with VLC player" and get the same effect.

using AVCHD folders is very very similar - as far as I can see the AVCHD folder is simply a container for a standard BDMV folder - so you can just select the AVCHD folder (as it is a folder holding a BDMV folder) and the same thing occurs - VLC plays everything.

but as I say no working menu for HD videos - which for me personally is not a problem since so far I have never needed a working menu for HD videos - it is not something I tend to do for HD.

So Michael - if your still with us - you can see that many things are possible - but like many thing you need to do some investigation and experimentation on all of your families equipment in order to make sure you keep them all happy.

[Davidk]

Trevor, Brian, Ken and any others with VLC issues with AVCHD and mp4 files .. . .

review this link and similar others on the videoLAN forum (support for VLC) on this topic
https://forum.videolan.org/viewforum.ph ... ee855dbdf1

Davidk

[Ken Berry]

I may be being a bit thick, but that link merely takes me to the general Index page of that forum (though it looks similar since it uses the same software as our own!!) But did you mean to provide a link to a specific thread in it? I confess I could not immediately see a link to the topic here, and I am afraid that my own experience with our own Search function makes me not particularly hopeful of find what you wanted to point out using the Search function of that forum!!!

Mind you, regarding your message, I am not one who has ever had any problem with VLC, so am even less sure what you are getting at...

[Davidk]

Ken,

Yes, it looks familiar: uses the same software mechanism. And yes, there should have been a specific thread displayed - about how to configure VLC to play AVCHD and mp4 files, which a number of posters on the thread seemed to be having issues with when using VLC (issues using VLC to play those sort of files seemed odd, so I went looking on the VideoLAN forum, and having found a thread that seemed applicable, I just copied the webaddress in the address bar and pasted it here).

Davidk

[canuck]

The link you posted does not go to any particular thread in the forum but only the index page just as Ken stated. Why not post the actual link you are talking about?

[Ken Berry]

If you find the specific thread or post you want the link for, then to the immediate left of your name as it appears in the post itself (not the Profile under your pic but in the top left corner of the post itself), you should see a tiny icon which looks like a blank page with the top right corner turned down. Right click on it and select 'Copy link address'. Then post it here...

I did a quick search on that website for 'configure VLC to play AVCHD and mp4 files' which returned one find, which didn't seem to given any of the sort of information you suggested. So I then searched more generally for 'configure VLC' but given that it's Videolan forum and Videolan developed VLC, I got far too many hits to be able to tell which one you were referring to.

[canuck]

As far as I know there is not any need to configure VLC to play AVCHD or pm4 files - at least I have never had to configure anything in VLC to play any video file.

[lata]

Hi Canuck

I think you may misunderstand my problem.

Its actually playing a Bluray or Avchd Folder that has menus applied.
It’s the menu structure I wish to play.

When I burned Standard DVD Discs I could create an ISO, play that including Menus, all ok burn the disc.

For Bluray and Avchd, I can create a Folder again having the menu, but I cannot play the menu, that's all I wish to do.

Yes VLC will locate the MTS Video and play ok, it’s the menu I wish to check.

I don’t know of a media player that will do that, not that you can purchase now, Arcsoft Total Media Player used to do, but no longer available.
Corel WinDVD Trial used to play Menus but no longer, the purchased version did not play menus?
Maybe I should have started a new thread, seems I have hijacked this post apologies.