Standalone Pioneer DVD player can't play WMV files (recorded WMV streaming videos)

I record archived WMV streaming video (25-minute newscasts) from the web using Applian's WM Recorder and it works great.

I have been able to transfer and play these WMV videos onto my creative Zen portable media player -- also great.

However, now I have encountered a problem, hence my question. I bought a Pioneer DVD player that says it will play WMV. The player recognizes my files as WMV but won't play them. (Note: If I convert the files to Divx they will play just fine but conversion takes time and computer resources). Pioneer Manual says it will play WMV files that have been encoded by Microsoft Windows Media Encoder Series 9.

So my question is can I use the freeware Encoder to capture i.e., save the streaming video or is the encoder a separate process I have to do after I have recorded the stream using WM Recorder (which already takes about 20 minutes for a 25 min stream)? The reason I ask is if I have to do a second step (encode with Microsoft's freeware) (which may take alot of time too) then perhaps I might just as well convert each WMV into Divx. Any suggestions??

Originally Posted by www.pioneer.eu

If a disc contains a mixture of movie (DivX video/WMV) and other media file types (MP3, for example), first select whether to play the movie files (DivX/WMV) or the other media file types (MP3/WMA/MPEG-4 AAC/JPEG) from the on-screen display.

About WMV
WMV is an acronym for Windows Media Video and refers to a video compression technology developed by Microsoft Corporation. WMV content can be encoded by using Windows Media® Encoder.

• This player is compatible with WMV9 files that are encoded by using the Windows Media® Encoder 9 Series, with .wmv as an extension.
• Compatible with size under 720 x 576 pixels/720 x 480 pixels.
• Advanced Profile is not supported.
• DRM-protected video files will not play in this player.

The problem might be that your recorded WMV files were encoded using Windows Media Video 9 Advanced profile.

There are lots of video converters you can use to convert your WMV files. Try converting WMV files in batches with freeware MediaCoder. You can try to convert to WMV using Windows Media Video Main or Simple profile.

Thanks for your reply Stream Recorder.

Actually my files are already in WMV, but not in WMV9 (which is what the Pioneer DVD Player requires). I was able to figure out thru a freeware (any video converter) that these news casts are streamed in WMV3 so my captured newscasts are all in WMV3!! (I have been spoiled because my creative zen portable media player has no trouble with these WMV3 videos they play without conversion or any extra effort -- just drag and drop -- but the Pioneer DVD player is much more finicky.

So, armed with that knowledge, I was trying to ascertain what would be more efficient time wise -- to "encode" from WMV3 into WMV9 or "convert" into Divx which I already knew the player would accept. Using any video converter it took 100 minutes to "encode" the 25 minute news cast into WMV9 (three times as long as it took to capture the stream -- yikes not a great outcome). The "conversion" into Divx was somewhat faster (but by no means fast) so my conclusion is that converting to Divx is better than trying to encode into WMV9 if a device can accept either.

That being said between the stream capture time and the file conversion time it's still a long process. Is there a way to capture the WMV3 stream and as it is being captured to be able to save it as Divx (.avi). In other words capture in WMV and convert into Divx at the same time in a time efficient manner?? Maybe that is too much to hope for?

Actually WMV3 is the same as WMV9:

WMV1: Windows Media Video 7
WMV2: Windows Media Video 8
WMV3: Windows Media Video 9
WMVA: Windows Media Video Advanced Profile, non-VC-1
WMVC1: Windows Media Video Advanced Profile, VC-1

The only stream recorder I know that can convert audio/video files after capturing them is Replay AV. It can automate the process slightly, but you will need a comparable amount of time to implement the task anyway.

DivX gives high quality only if you use a 2-pass encoding. Besides when using many options of DivX that increase the quality, it is usually faster to convert to WMV.

And IMHO it is always a good idea to try to convert WMV to WMV, WMA to WMA, DivX to DivX first.


You can also use screen video capture software instead of stream capturing. I don't really like this method. It has many disadvantages. But if you plan to convert your files after capturing anyway, then it might be a good idea to capture from screen instead of stream ripping.

You own WM Recorder, so you may upgrade to the suite that includes WM Capture screen recorder.