When you have a car DVD player, it's important to be aware of audio and video formats. Plenty a time has it happened that people who slapped in a USB or a DVD only to be met with disappointment- you'll see a message on the screen that says "file format is not supported".
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And then you're left there scratching your head over what happened. We all know how that feels.
If this hasn't happened to you yet, or if you don't want it to happen again, here are some pointers from us here at Elinz.
Video formats
There are tons of video formats out there, and it's hard to keep track of all them.
To find out which format your video is in, look at the file name for the video from any device- it should be there, right after the actual filename and should look like this:
Now that you know which format your video is in, let's make better sense of things- here are some of the most important and widely used ones that you can run on car DVD players:
.mp4 is a very recognizable video format, and if you regularly interact with technology (which most of us do), you'll have come across these videos. They're very compact and well-encoded for the most part, and are usually compatible with most car DVD players. If you have a video in the .mp4 format, you can rest assured that it will play on your car DVD player, especially the ones that we have here at Elinz.
.mov is also a quite recognizable format, and is usually associated with Apple devices. Like .mp4, it's a mainstream video format, it's encoded and compressed well enough, and should work with most of our car DVD players.
.divx is also quite the popular video format, but isn't really as popular as the well-compressed .mp4 format. Nevertheless, most car DVD players do play it, and is completely support by Elinz's players. Should you find some videos that are in this format, they will play without fail.
.mkv is quite widespread too, but is a tricky video format. It all boils down to how the video was encoded and rendered; sometimes, even if a player supports .mkv, some other types of .mkv videos will refuse to play and will prompt the "not supported" error. If you do have videos that are in this format, it would be best to have it converted prior to using it with our DVD players.
However, we have a couple of products that are compatible with this format, and they can be found here.
That should cover most of the known formats out there- if you do see an odd one, make sure to convert your videos to the more recognizable formats. Handbrake is a good free option for most video formats, but feel free to explore and find the best fit for your video conversion needs.
Most of our players are also region free, which means that you should be able to play content from DVDs from all over world, regardless of region.
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Audio formats
Audio, contrary to popular belief, is as complicated as video compression and formats. There are tons of ways to compress and convert audio, and so you'll have different options when it comes to using audio and listening to it.
As there are multiple formats, these should be taken note of. You need to know which ones work best with your car dvd player, and which ones sound the best when played in your vehicle.
Below are some of the most popular audio formats that you might come across:
.mp3 is quite possibly, the audio format that's been around for the longest, and is also one of the most used formats out there. It delivers great sound quality when compressed well, and can be quite the space saver (again, if compressed well and thoughfully).
Take note that while it is the most popular format, it has lossy compression- meaning that .mp3 files might vary in quality depending on their compression.
.wav is one of the most popular audio formats, and is usually the output of most audio recording hardware out there. It is not compressed and is usually one of the most demanding when it comes to storage space; make sure that you have a wide space on your USB or any kind of CD if you want to listen to .wav files.
Better yet, it would be best to convert it to a smaller file size or a better compressed format, which we will go over near the end of this article.
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.wma is also one more audio that comes from Windows development. However, this is more well compressed, and is comparable to .mp3 audio files when it comes to compression. There's almost no difference, but like .mp3 files this is lossy but you won't be able to tell the difference unless you're a hardcore audiophile that demands the best sound quality.
The .flac sound format is definitely sure to come up in any debate among audiophiles for the best sound quality anywhere. than any other format out there. It's one of the best compressed audio formats out there, boasting of almost non-lossy compression.
Its great for those hardcore audiophiles that want to listen to music at the best possible quality. Take note however that this is a bit of a storage hog, too- a few mb in the tens for a single track might not seem much, but it will quickly take up space if you have quite the massive music library, and you want to listen to it in the car.
You'd be glad to know that all of these file formats are supported by our car dvd players here at Elinz, and play perfectly with our head units to make your trips as enjoyable as possible.
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Should you wish to convert your audio files for different purposes such as making space on your storage device, or just wanting a better and smoother sound quality, you can try out fre:ac, a completely free audio compression program. Of course, you can try out any compression/conversion device out there, and it's guaranteed to run on all our car dvd players as we've tested.
Stay safe out there, and have fun on the road!
