micro SD playback

[Jerry Reding]

I'm trying to play video from my car dashcam that I just got, to check video quality. I'm showing that there are 5 files available, but when I try to play them, even though the counter is running on the bottom of the screen, my screen remains black. Any ideas? Formatting, or something else? (And before anyone gets too technical, please be aware you're dealing with a computer *****!)

 

[Rukbat]

It's probably a technical issue - the phone doesn't have the codec the cam is using to encode the video, the files are in a format the phone can't play, etc.

Solution, if you're not a geek? Find a geek. Someone has to look at the file formats, try playing the files with different codecs, etc., to figure out what's going on.

You could try different players in your phone (Video, MX Player, etc.) but you may or may not find one that will play those files.

 

[Jerry Reding]

Thanks, I must have ended up on a wrong forum, though... I thought I was on the Acer chromebook forum. Since I'm here though, any ideas on that?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! You are on the Acer Chromebook forum--I think Rukbat was just thinking of something else. But he raises a good question--what file format are the videos in? Have you tried playing the videos on Windows or Mac laptop/desktop? Are you certain the videos recorded correctly?

 

[Jerry Reding]

Thanks, B. Diddy...
Not sure what format it's recorded on, I can't pull the info from the camera menu now, but I could previously. The menu on this thing is pretty fickle ( it's a Pilot dashcam I got at Wal-Mart for $40, and the instructions are pretty useless).
I haven't had a chance to try it on a PC yet, but that will be my next move.
And, since the instructions are pretty vague, I have no way of knowing if it's recording properly.

 

[B. Diddy]

I'm a bit confused--the videos were taken by the dashcam, right? And you're trying to play them on your Chromebook? How did you get the files to the Chromebook--by moving the microSD card from the dashcam to the Chromebook? If so, you should be able to use the Files app on the Chromebook to look at the microSD card, and the files there should have a "Type" associated with them.

 

[Jerry Reding]

Sorry I've been away, too much stuff going on, and I had to prioritize... The files are in AVI: is there anything I can do with them? Thanks again...

 

[B. Diddy]

Strange, Chrome OS should be able to play an .avi file. You didn't mention how you got the files to the Chromebook--did you just move a microSD card from the dashcam to the Chromebook?

 

[Jerry Reding]

Yes, I just plugged it in, and in the lower right corner, it said there was an external device detected. It directed me to open the file, I clicked on it, and when I highlighted it, my video player popped up, but no video camera through.
Update: A friend tried it on his PC as well, with no result, except he got a message saying the card needed to be formatted (or something like that). I looked up "formatting micro sd chromebook", and found out about right clicking on the sd file to format the card. After that, I loooked for something to be able to read it after recording more video, and found what I needed: I went to the playstore, and got an app called Cloudconvert. I've been able to convert the avi file to mp4, and it works just fine...

 

[B. Diddy]

Thanks for your solution! Although it's too bad it has to be so convoluted. Now that I think of it, I recall always having some compatibility issues with avi videos on PCs as well.