i own a Panasonic DMP-BD75 Blu-ray Player which ive been impressed with so far.
However i downloaded a movie and it wont play it... Its an MP4.
The player plays DivX, Xvid and MKV as i know of, but MP4 is becoming more popular it seems.

My question is kinda 2 parts?
Firstly ive heard of remuxing? changing containers.... can someone explain this and what software is best?

If not... then whats the fastest software method for converting MP4 to AVI/Divx/Xvid
Cheers guys

A container is a structure that can hold different video formats, depending on the type the actual/video it can contain may be restricted.

AVI (Audio/Video Interleave) is a container that can hold pretty well any video/audio content including mpeg4 video (MP4).

DIVx is another variant on Mpeg4 usually contained in a .AVI format.

HD broadcasting uses an advanced form of mpeg4 compression known as H264/AVC. Pvrs normally store this content in a transport stream container (.ts), they do similar for SD content (mpeg2 compressed).

A MKV (Matroska) container can be used for the above.

If you are merely changing a container for another and the video/audio it contains is compliant than it's a very fast process. (In some cases simply changing the container type will work).

In your case what is needed is the video/audio information that your .avi contains.

Download this utility

http://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo

Open your file with it and select Treeview. If you export the data to a textfile and paste the text into a reply, there's a lot higher chance of getting the info you want.

Remuxing will recompress the existing video into a new file. Either convert the compression system (eg mpeg4 to mpeg2), or change the basic parameters (eg reduce the bitrate and/or resolution to make the resulting file smaller).

General
Complete name : D:\TV and Movies\New Films\Star Trek - Into Darkness 2013.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 1.95 GiB
Duration : 2h 12mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 110 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2013-08-26 12:03:02
Tagged date : UTC 2013-08-26 12:03:02
Xtra : WM/MediaClassPrimaryID

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 2h 12mn
Bit rate : 2 012 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 16.4 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 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
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.055
Stream size : 1.86 GiB (95%)
Writing library : x264 core 132 r2 76a5c3a
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=36 / lookahead_threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=2012 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=31250 / vbv_bufsize=31250 / nal_hrd=none / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date : UTC 2013-08-26 12:03:02
Tagged date : UTC 2013-08-26 12:03:17
Color primaries : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 2h 12mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 93.7 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 104 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 88.5 MiB (4%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2013-08-26 12:03:15
Tagged date : UTC 2013-08-26 12:03:17

Are you trying to play the mp4 file via a USB, or stream it through a network? If its through a network, I'd recommend a program called PS3 Media Server. That will automatically transcode (convert) a video file on the fly then send it over the network for your telly to play.

Strangely enough i just tried streaming it from my PC as the Blueray is on the network DLNA and it plays???
Albeit the quality goes downhill alot, obviously converting on the fly lol
Its a workaround but shame to lose the 1080HD quality :/

That simply needs remuxing in to mkv for it to play on your mkv player. (it is boob-ray compliant h264 which is what makes me think it will play in the right container.)

there's a lot of ways to do it. and it will probably take you a few goes to get it right because they keep dicking about with the mkv spec and whilst software player can keep up. hardware player get left behind a bit.

for starters lets get it in to mkv and worry about the compatibility later. most conventional way is probably with mkvmerge gui. part of the official mkvtoolnix.

http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkv...s.html#windows

it's pretty simple once it's installed open 'mkvmerge gui' drag in your mp4 and click start muxing. a couple of minutes later you will have an mkv.

see if that plays and report back.

Technically it's not 1080HD it's actually 800P24. It's down to the wider than 16:9 format. (1920 x 1080 is 16:9 with square pixels). Not a clue how the player will handle this, maybe the frame needs padding with black pixels to create an undistorted image. Others will have a much better idea than I do whether this is required.

It is 1080p. it's confusing. i suppose it depends on you're nomenclature.

but 1920x800 is the resolution for 1080p with an aspect ratio of 2.4:1. so the with of 1920 tell us it's 1080p. (unless of course something has an aspect ratio of less than 16:9. if something were 4:3 and 1080p then the res would be 1440x1080)

the original boob ray would i believe be 1920x1080 with black bars. but it's the same picture and is always referred to as 1080p

as for how the player will handle it. my LG-BD handles it fine. the PAR is specified in the stream. but my humax pvr ignore it.

It played.... with black bars top and bottom though.
But at least its watchable
Thanks to both of you

it's meant to have black bars top and bottom.

it's wider than your tv.

Agree it's a bit of a moot point. However without the extra pixels (albeit black) not certain if the actual file can be said to be 1080p. Certainly the Wiki here says it's not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080p

1440 x 1080 is a common 16:9 format for 1080i, formerly used by PSB broadcasters and offered as a lower storage option on most HD camcorders (just a different PAR).

it is also a common format for 1080i. BBC HD on freeview uses it.

but like the latest boob ray release of star trek next generation which was made in 4:3 is 1440x1080p

the argument is a bit daft. but if you ask me if the video in 1920x800 plus black bars is identical to the 1080p boob ray then it's 1080p.

if it was a bit wider it might be 1920x720 and that certainly is not 720p.

in the context of scene releases, which i might know something about, it is definitely said to be 1080p.

if i were writing the logic i would say 1080p refers to the frame height of a video with an AR of 16:9

All Freeview-HD channels are now 1920x1080 and a mixture of 1080i50 and 1080p25 with aac audio. BBC-HD doesn't exist anymore BBC-HD was replaced with BBC2-HD on 26th March this year.

Said uses meant used.

Pretty well all the older free HD channels used 1440 x 1080 at some time.

Channel 4-HD though if i remember rightly was always 1920 x 1080.

Why call it boob ray?