[ShaunB]

Thanks this worked, i'm a little bummed I cannot take advantage of the whole screen resolution.

Now unfortunately I'm having some audio format issues, apparently going from 7.1 or 5.1 down to Stereo I am loosing the voices of the movie. Music, backgrounds, sound effects all exported.

I did not see PCM listed anywhere as supported audio, I am going to try that now and see if it works.

I would really like to just make the Dolby II if possible.

 

[jbebel]

Thanks this worked, i'm a little bummed I cannot take advantage of the whole screen resolution.

Now unfortunately I'm having some audio format issues, apparently going from 7.1 or 5.1 down to Stereo I am loosing the voices of the movie. Music, backgrounds, sound effects all exported.

I did not see PCM listed anywhere as supported audio, I am going to try that now and see if it works.

I would really like to just make the Dolby II if possible.

I was bummed too, for the 4:3 movies I have. But I think you can encode them anamorphically at 1067x720 with a pixel aspect ratio of 720x800 so the output resolution is 1067x800 and you don't lost any horizontal resolution. It's been a while since I set it up though. I might be wrong.

I encode everything with AAC Dolby Pro Logic II. If you listen in on the stereo and put it in surround mode, then it seems to decode PLII. But most of the time it's just my kids listening on headphones, so stereo is fine. PCM probably won't work at 5.1 either, and will just take up too much space. If you are losing the center channel, there's probably something wrong with the downmix settings. You're only getting the left and right channels, not downmixing the center and surrounds into the left and right.

 

[ShaunB]

I was bummed too, for the 4:3 movies I have. But I think you can encode them anamorphically at 1067x720 with a pixel aspect ratio of 720x800 so the output resolution is 1067x800 and you don't lost any horizontal resolution. It's been a while since I set it up though. I might be wrong.

I encode everything with AAC Dolby Pro Logic II. If you listen in on the stereo and put it in surround mode, then it seems to decode PLII. But most of the time it's just my kids listening on headphones, so stereo is fine. PCM probably won't work at 5.1 either, and will just take up too much space. If you are losing the center channel, there's probably something wrong with the downmix settings. You're only getting the left and right channels, not downmixing the center and surrounds into the left and right.

Yea PCM failed as well, if I leave it 5.1 it works but the file size goes from 1.5 Gb to 2 Gb which is ok I guess for some of the kid movies that get watched often.

My issue now appears to be bandwith settings, all the encoding I did last night stutters when playing through the uConnect.

I came here to look for suggestions on resolution:bandwith options. Just did downscaled 1080p video to 720p data bitrate of 1.9 Mbs and total bitrate 2.6 Mbs not sure if I need to make it higher or lower.

I'm debating for the TV Shows just making them 640x360 around 1 Mbs the episodes I haven't touched playback fine at this lower quality.

edit: I dont think Adobe Premier does Dolby II in MP4, I read that I would have to extract the audio first then convert it separate or Mux it.

 

[jbebel]

Yea PCM failed as well, if I leave it 5.1 it works but the file size goes from 1.5 Gb to 2 Gb which is ok I guess for some of the kid movies that get watched often.

My issue now appears to be bandwith settings, all the encoding I did last night stutters when playing through the uConnect.

I came here to look for suggestions on resolution:bandwith options. Just did downscaled 1080p video to 720p data bitrate of 1.9 Mbs and total bitrate 2.6 Mbs not sure if I need to make it higher or lower.

I'm debating for the TV Shows just making them 640x360 around 1 Mbs the episodes I haven't touched playback fine at this lower quality.

edit: I dont think Adobe Premier does Dolby II in MP4, I read that I would have to extract the audio first then convert it separate or Mux it.

The biggest cause for stuttering I saw was h.264 if you didn't use the baseline profile. baseline makes the files a little bigger, but they are easier to decode.

If you have a working 5.1 PCM file, you could use handbrake to do the downmixing for you.

 

[bhavinjo]

I spent the weekend converting a bunch of movies to suit uconnect theater. Here is a small how to on handbrake. Thanks to all the posts on here that helped me get started.

On audio tab select aac and dolby digital pro.
On dimensions tab, select anamorphic to none and check keep aspect ratio. Now let's say you have a 1080p file, change width to 1280, height will change, make note of the height. Now set anamorphic to custom and change pixel aspect ratio to number you just found x 800. This give perfect edge to edge movies without any aspect changes

Also use 2 pass encoding with bit rate of 2000 and for audio use aac 192 kbps and dolby digital pro II.

 

[jbebel]

I spent the weekend converting a bunch of movies to suit uconnect theater. Here is a small how to on handbrake. Thanks to all the posts on here that helped me get started.

On audio tab select aac and dolby digital pro.
On dimensions tab, select anamorphic to none and check keep aspect ratio. Now let's say you have a 1080p file, change width to 1280, height will change, make note of the height. Now set anamorphic to custom and change pixel aspect ratio to number you just found x 800. This give perfect edge to edge movies without any aspect changes

Also use 2 pass encoding with bit rate of 2000 and for audio use aac 192 kbps and dolby digital pro II.

Be careful. Even though the screen is 800 pixels tall, it will refuse to decode anything taller than 720.

 

[bhavinjo]

Thanks, that's what I started with but then it left black bars on top and bottom. So I tried with 800 and it works fine with full screen coverage on rear seats with aspect left to auto in the settings.

 

[jbebel]

Thanks, that's what I started with but then it left black bars on top and bottom. So I tried with 800 and it works fine with full screen coverage on rear seats with aspect left to auto in the settings.

Since most movies are stored 16:9 and may have a video aspect ratio that's even wider, you should have black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. If you fill the screen, everything will appear taller than it should. I don't see much of a reason to use anamorphic for widescreen content. For anything less than 16:9 you might get some increased horizontal resolution by using anamorphic. As in, if the original is 1280x800, you can't store it at bigger than 1280x720, so you store at that, but make the pixel aspect ratio 9:10 so it fills the screen and keeps the maximum horizontal resolution. But in any case, the only case where you should actually fill the rear screens is if the original content was 16:10, which is fairly rare. If it's more, you'll have black bars on the top and bottom. If it's less, you'll have them on the left and right.

 

[hephalumph]

I have a 2016 Town and Country Touring, which I believe means I have the 430N/RHB media system. I have a DVD but not a BluRay. When I use a USB thumb drive, it will not recognize videos at all, only music and images. I have had mixed success with DVD videos. Using the same blank media, I have had several videos I ripped using DVD Fab and then burned the ISO files using windows DVD maker. They all play fine. But I have tried using Windows DVD maker, DVD Fab, DVD Link, and Daemon Tools Pro, (again, all using the same blank media) to burn various mp4, mov, mkv, and avi encoded music videos to a disc, to make assorted music video DVDs. Nothing I have done will work. Some are in 4:3 format, some are 16:9 and some are 16:10. I tried making sure all were max 1200 pixels wide, and all of them are in the tens of MB size, yet nothing I have done has worked to let me use either a thumb drive or DVD to play ANY of these music videos. I would love some suggestions, if anyone has any!

 

[Caseymi]

. Here is what has worked for my UConnect setup.

1 TB Hard Drive - I used a Western Digital My Passport drive. Nice slim format that slides into the pocket of the dash. Formatted NTFS. Currently about 1/2 filled.

Were you using the "My passport HDD" (spinning disk drive) or the "My Passport Go SSD" (solid state drive)? I tried a My Passport 2TB HDD, and everyone I try to use it, uconnect says "USB Error. Reconnect" . Can seem to figure it out as like most here, I can get a 64 GB memory stick formatted to NTFS to work fine.

 

[NYSHAI]

Hey guys, little guidance appreciated. I'm also disappointed at how limited the functionality is built into the Uconnect Theater system. It seems they went cheap or lazy.

Either way, I bought a 128GB Sandisk USB stick. I formatted to NTFS. I have a few cartoons saved to it. The Uconnect System will not read the thumb drive. Says HUB UNSUPPORTED.

I tried a much older USB that's 2GB with these same shows, and they all played with no problems.(I Still have to figure out how to fix the metadata so it shows the actual titles versus chapter 1)

It doesn't appear to be the files themselves, but the new USB stick I bought. anyone got any tricks I ought to try?

Hard to say for sure, but there's likely a USB Drive size limit, and i think the 128GB is over it. Try this with a 32GB or a 64GB and see if they work. I'm using a 32GB and it works fine, my other car has a similar memory card player on board, and it's limited to 128GB. Hope this helps.

 

[pleckerling]

I’ve got a 2TB drive plugged into mine, runs with no problems.

 

[dogfan1980]

Hard to say for sure, but there's likely a USB Drive size limit, and i think the 128GB is over it. Try this with a 32GB or a 64GB and see if they work. I'm using a 32GB and it works fine, my other car has a similar memory card player on board, and it's limited to 128GB. Hope this helps.

128GB thumb drive works. I've got a 3.0 from a few years back that works great. This system still isn't nearly as intuitive as it could be, but so long as I set the sizing properly, I've had no issues with the movies and shows I've ripped.

For new Pacifica owners, to rip DVD drives, use Handbrake. For BluRay, use MakeMKV. Both are free and relatively easy to use. To change metadata, I use Openshot Video editor. there are other options for this, but this one works. Make sure you save as a .MP4 file. File size has not been an issue for me.

 

[ZMR]

I have a 2017 Pacifica. The Uconnect system has been great until about a week ago. Since them, anytime we attempt to play an audio CD or a movie the screen just says "File Reading Error". Doesn't matter how many different Cd/DVDs we use it always says the same thing. I have tried resetting the system, but it has not helped. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[ThisSuckersElectrical]

I have a 2017 Pacifica. The Uconnect system has been great until about a week ago. Since them, anytime we attempt to play an audio CD or a movie the screen just says "File Reading Error". Doesn't matter how many different Cd/DVDs we use it always says the same thing. I have tried resetting the system, but it has not helped. Anyone have any suggestions?

You could try getting a lens cleaner disc. Maybe the laser lens has accumulated dust on it over time and is having trouble.

These have little duster brushes that spin across the lens when inserted. Have used them off and on for years, they work great.

Digital Innovations CleanDr for Car Audio & Video Laser Lens Cleaner 4190500: Home Audio & Theater

 

[Twonantman]

I have a 2017 Pacifica. The Uconnect system has been great until about a week ago. Since them, anytime we attempt to play an audio CD or a movie the screen just says "File Reading Error". Doesn't matter how many different Cd/DVDs we use it always says the same thing. I have tried resetting the system, but it has not helped. Anyone have any suggestions?

Did you ever figure out what was wrong? I bought a 2018 pacifica and currently having the same problem.

 

[triggerhappy007]

Did you ever figure out what was wrong? I bought a 2018 pacifica and currently having the same problem.

Lol, my van started having the same problem. Did you figure it out?

 

[ThorSPL]

2021 Hybrid - Can confirm that USB 2.0 works but 3.x does NOT read in the car with any file system.

USB 2.0 with NTFS worked great.

 

[guillo5555]

Handbrake Question Do you have any tips for using Handbrake? I have unsuccessfully tried to copy a couple DVDs to hard drive using Handbrake and I'm not sure why it won't work. I select the source DVD drive and it begins to scan / prep the job but I have yet to successfully complete a full copy to hard drive. Thanks, KW

I had similar issues with the naming of files for the UConnect display. I realized (at least in my case) that it had to do with the metadata associated with the file. As in, I could name the file whatever I want, but the title that was in the metadata was the one being displayed on UConnect. In the case of some files where there was no title in the metadata, it showed up as "title 01" or "Chapter 1." Once I edited the metadata, everything showed up exactly like I wanted on the UConnect movie selection window.

you can dowload the full movie or episode by torrents and then convert