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Uconnect movies via USB, what format?

286K views 265 replies 77 participants last post by  mblazer78 
#1 ·
Hi, I have a friend that can download couple of hundred movies into a USB stick 256gb. My question is what format does it need be in? Can it still be in its original 1080p file? Thanks
 
#2 ·
It has to be in mp4 format and in 720p. At least that's what's been working for most of us here. Once quick tip, if using handbrake to compress your movie, you must deselect chapters for handbrake to make mp4's, if not, it'll output m4v which won't play.
 
#112 ·
It can be MKV or AVI too. I have all my MKVs with chapters and they play without any problems but there is not any way to skip chapters or select them.
 
#3 ·
Like Norbert said, most success is with 720p, in MP4 format. I have found this to be the most frustrating part of the Uconnect theater.

I use avi's for home but they don't seem to work in the van. I wish there was an official guide on the format, but so far it seems to be just trial and error. Not all usb sticks work, so I would make sure your van sees what media you put in before filling up a USB stick that may or may not work.

It is my mission to one day to get to the bottom of this. I just download them from a respectable site for only the movies I own. :) Right now the kids just want to watch Trolls over and over and over and over.
 
#4 ·
I haven't had any issues playing mp4, mkv, or avi files. Both 720p and 1080p have also worked fine for me. Just make sure the flash drive is formatted with NTFS or FAT32 (not exFAT). If you go with FAT32, keep in mind that the maximum file size is 4GB.
 
#5 ·
I haven't messed with the USB video files too much yet but I threw a couple movies on a stick and did have an issue with one of them. One played fine. The other played but no sound. I think that was due to the fact that Uconnect doesn't like DD 5.1 audio encoding. I think it only will accept stereo.
 
#6 ·
USB Drives with UConnect 8.4

I've been looking at this as well since i have a 20TB home media server. You can find details in the following link but i'll outline it below:

pacificaforums.com/forum/401-electronics/1929-uconnect-max-file-size-video-files-2.html#post35162

- Convert all movies to maximum width of 1200 (height is automatically scaled within Handbrake)
- Keep file sizes at or around 2GB (thread shows it working with a 2.99GB file)
- When first connecting drive, may take a few minutes ti initialize
- Not all USB ports will accept media since most will only charge your device
- If you use chapters in your movie the movie will be named the first chapter (so by default, movies would be named "Chapter 1)
- You can disable chapter markers
- You can rename Chapter 1 to the name of the movie

The thread has a good amount of info on uConnect 8.4 and external hdd movie playing

Hope this helps.
 
#9 ·
Another fyi. If you're a mac user, download MetaMovie from the App store. Its all of $4! It will automatically get all the meta data for your movies. I set the artwork to "small" as I've read UConnect has problems with big artwork. I've tagged all my movies and they are read perfectly. As noted though, the artwork is cut off as its made to be horizontal, but most artwork MetaMovie finds are vertical. It inserts chapters too so that's not a problem for UConnect.

The best thing about MetaMovie is it does all the tagging instantly. I was using another app that was free but it re-writes the whole file and takes 4-5 minutes per movie. And doesn't fill all the tags like MetaMovie does.
 
#10 ·
So far this is working great. I used Handbrake to convert 7 movies so far and I've removed the chapter markers. I set the quality a little low and ended up with files around 600MB. Also, since the screens are so small I use 1280 as the width. For the next set I may try to boost the quality to see if it is noticeable.

Also I was able to then select and play different movies on the two screens and have them play at the same time. That is really cool. The only problem is the wireless headsets will only work with the first movie selected. I have a spare wired set that works with the 2nd screen though.
I am using a 32GB USB 2.0 memeory stick. It is fairly small and will hold 40 movies at least. I'll probably get a 2nd one as a "backup" and put different movies on it.

Does anyone know how to get the one wireless headset to work with the 2nd screen? And (I have not tried this), is it possible to get the same movie to play on both screens without both having to start it (and the screens being out of sync)?
 
#12 ·
Yes there is a physical switch on the headphones to select which screen you want to listen to.
 
#16 ·
The rear entertainment system is amazing, kids love it. And rest assured, the headphones can be instructed to select screen 1 vs screen 2. We ordered an extra kit from ebay and all 4 are working great together. Just need to keep an eye out on the volume levels, as the headsets can play pretty loud and need to have the kids hearing past age 10. So some occasional reminders in force.
 
#17 ·
Thanks to everyone.
I found were each screen has the option to view whatever is playing on the other. It is the first option! I had already scrolled to the right and could not see it.

It really could not be easier.

I put 20 music albums (are they still called that?) and 15 movies on my 32GB USB memory stick and still have 16GB free.

I especially like that there are several ways to sort movies including an easy to use alphebetical selection. Touch a letter on the screen and all movies begining with that letter are listed. This will help once I get 50 or more movies loaded.

I also plan on getting some better wired over the ear head phones for anyone who wants to listen to music and not listen to whatever is playing. I can still (barely) hear the car speakers with the wireless headsets.
 
#19 ·
NTFS, 128GB. My videos are MP4, less than 3GB each, and width is 1200 or less.

I've found that if it is refusing to read the flash drive it may read it the next time the car is completely turned off and on. Turn car off, open driver door, close door, wait for parking light and e-brake light turn off, turn back on and try again. Once it reads my drive it continues to work without issues until the drive is removed then it can be stubborn reading it again next time.
 
#23 ·
Working well now



Appreciate the input, I bought a Sandisk 256 gb on amazon - formatted to NTFS on a mac and added the movies after changing to 720p (1280 or less) and it works flawlessly. Kids super happy. Works great, appreciate the help. I did have the issue of having to turn it off completely and starting again to make it work, but now no problems.
 
#20 ·
Try unplugging the quickly replug the USB drive. Works for me and a few others.
 
#24 · (Edited)
I have a 128 GB MicroSD card in an Elago USB drive, and the Pacifica couldn't read it. I also tried a cheap 8GB regular thumb drive, both formatted as fat32 and again as NTFS, the Pacifica never read either of them. But my phone? It read that fine. Just the internal memory though, not the MicroSD card (probably the fault of how Android was exporting itself).

I'll try buying a thumb drive and see if a regular one works, but so far UConnect has been disappointing for trying to get it to recognize media.

EDIT:
Per comments above and my one desperation, I tried again with the 128 GB MicroSD card in the Elago reader and crammed it in all the way that I could. The blue LED on the reader lit up, like it did in the past. But this time, when I turned on the car, the LED started flashing! After a moment, I could browse the directories! Only 2 of the 6 movies I copied to the drive played, and those were without audio, but all of my YouTube downloads played fine. So now I have to play with handbrake. I tried using Plex to "sync" my movies to the SD Card so I could play them, and the conversion process was automatic, but every file ends up deep in a directory and named key.mp4. They play, with audio, but I'd have to move and rename all of them. I'm debating if that's still easier. I was going to try some TV shows, but there's no way I'm going to transcode directories of hundreds of videos, so we may stick with movies for roadtrips.
 
#26 · (Edited)
Audio formats

Hi guys, I did a test in my new Pacifica Hybrid of audio formats. Using FFMPEG to create a bunch of different formats.

The biggest curiousity I have is that I put the files on four different USB drives using both FAT32 and NTFS, but only one USB drive worked (my oldest). The other drives it would show the drive label (name) and it said searching for 5+ minutes until I pulled it out. I'll let you know if I can figure that part out. The old one always works and the other 3 never work with multiple tries.

Using three different containers files MKV, AVI, and MP4 all containers played fine, but only certain audio codecs work.

Audio codecs that work:

  • ACC
  • FLAC
  • MP3 (lame VBR)
  • 16bit PCM (WAV format)
  • 24bit PCM (WAV format)
No idea why you would want WAV, but it works. Note I did not try FLAC in a flac file, just in a MKV and AVI file. Both 96kHz and 24bit work as well. I did not have a HE-AAC encoder, so that is still unknown.

Audio codecs that do NOT work:

  • AC3
  • DTS/DCA
  • Enhanced AC3
  • Vorbis
  • MPEG1 layer 2 (mp2)
  • Opus
  • Speex
The biggest disappointments were the AC3 and Opus format. Opus is the best available commonly found on Youtube and AC3 is the default DVD audio format.

My next step is video formats. I found that it does not support 10bit color in h.264, but it does support high profile level 4.2. Though I want to do a more extensive tests on the video side.
 
#27 ·
What is handbrake? Anyone have a link of where to get it?

Also, Anyone have a link to the right product to get an extra set of headphones that will work (ebay or anywhere).
We have 4 kids.

Thanks!
 
#29 · (Edited)
#30 ·
For those experiencing read issues try unplugging the flash drive then lightly push in with your fingertips on the edges of the drive. In this area..



I've always had read issues after inserting the flash drive however it will read the drive every single time if it's lightly inserted using the edges of the flash drive. I'm wondering if this would work for others too.
 
#31 · (Edited)
USB drives

I tested 15 of my USB drives, all formatted FAT32 and only three did not work.

Working USB drives:

  • Kingston DataTraveler 2.0, 4GB
  • Kingston Black Flip, 2GB
  • Lexar JumpDrive Flip, 8GB
  • Lexar JumpDrive Slide, 4GB
  • Generic CBM USB 2.0, 4GB
  • SanDisk Cruzer Blade, 8GB
  • SanDisk Cruzer Micro, USB1, 2GB
  • SanDisk Extreme, USB3, 16GB
  • SanDisk Ultra Fit, USB3, 16GB
  • Transcend JetFlash, 32GB
  • Verbatim STORE N GO, 2GB
Non-working USB drives:

Only three did not work; same three as yesterday. Note the three that did not work all contained a Silicon Motion, Inc. (SMI) chip set. The drive name will show up, but Uconnect will never bring up a file list.



In summary, if your USB drive does not read, try another one.
 
#32 ·
I tested 15 of my USB drives, all formatted FAT32 and only three did not work.

Working USB drives:

  • Kingston DataTraveler 2.0, 4GB
  • Kingston Black Flip, 2GB
  • Lexar JumpDrive Flip, 8GB
  • Lexar JumpDrive Slide, 4GB
  • Generic CBM USB 2.0, 4GB
  • SanDisk Cruzer Blade, 8GB
  • SanDisk Cruzer Micro, USB1, 2GB
  • SanDisk Extreme, USB3, 16GB
  • SanDisk Ultra Fit, USB3, 16GB
  • Transcend JetFlash, 32GB
  • Verbatim STORE N GO, 2GB
Non-working USB drives:

Only three did not work; same three as yesterday. Note the three that did not work all contained a Silicon Motion, Inc. (SMI) chip set. The drive name will show up, but Uconnect will never bring up a file list.



In summary, if your USB drive does not read try a different one.
I bought the cheapest 32GB USB drive I could find. I am not sure of the "brand" but I will check. I formated it FAT32 and put files created by Handbrake on it. It has always worked perfectly and even though it is only USB 2.0, the kids can watch 2 movies at a time from the drive.
 
#33 · (Edited)
I got my Pacifica Hybrid to play a 720p video from a file that was 5.3GB and had chapters. h.264 and AAC, plays great. Obviously using NTFS due FAT32 filesize limit.

Here is the mediainfo for the file.

Code:
General
Unique ID                                : 27399723980700882522553868765164155756 
(0x149CFEB0FEDC09AFD2F2D58688F3336C)
Complete name                            : XXXXX
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4 / Version 2
File size                                : 5.28 GiB
Duration                                 : 2h 17mn
Overall bit rate                         : 5 492 Kbps
Writing application                      : Lavf57.56.101
Writing library                          : Lavf57.56.101

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Baseline@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : No
Format settings, ReFrames                : 1 frame
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 2h 17mn
Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
Height                                   : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Title                                    : XXXXX
Writing library                          : x264 core 148
Encoding settings                        : cabac=0 / ref=1 / 
deblock=0:0:0 / analyse=0:0 / me=dia / subme=0 / psy=1 / 
psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / 
trellis=0 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / 
chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / 
sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / 
bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=0 / weightp=0 / 
keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=0 / intra_refresh=0 / rc=crf /
mbtree=0 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / 
qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=0
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
DURATION                                 : 02:17:45.237000000

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC
Duration                                 : 2h 17mn
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -63ms
Title                                    : XXXXX
Writing library                          : Lavc57.64.101 aac
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
DURATION                                 : 02:17:23.221000000

Text
ID                                       : 3
Format                                   : ASS
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Writing library                          : Lavc57.64.101 ssa
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
DURATION                                 : 02:17:19.951000000

Menu
00:00:00.000                             : :Chapter 01
00:05:33.958                             : :Chapter 02
...
02:11:06.679                             : :Chapter 40
 
#34 ·
*** POSTED THIS IN ANOTHER TOPIC, BUT ADDING HERE AS WELL ***

I am using the Lexar JumpDrive S45 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive which I got from Amazon for $44.99 CAD and haven't had a single issue with it. There is no issue of "pushing in to far" it just fits perfectly.

I have also created a HandBrake Preset that you can use to convert your movies to a perfectly working version meant for the UConnect. I have attached the preset here. Prior to improting this in to HandBrake remove the .txt portion of the filename as HandBrake requires a .json file.

After HandBrake does the conversion I use a program called MKVToolNix to add a "Title" to every movie. The title is easily added in the Header Editor section of the GUI app and instantly saves the new Title to the file.

I currently have about 18GB used in Movies and everyone works perfectly.

All in all I find it super easy to convert movies now and I literally just queue a bunch, go to bed and the next morning they are ready to go. Couldn't be easier.
 

Attachments

#36 ·
insert it then wait for error, then pull out then quickly plug back in. Works for me.
 
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