Hello all,

I thought I'd just post this message because I had a heap of trouble trying to get my Panasonic Blu-ray player (SC-BT105) to recognise discs with DivX videos on them, and have only just figured out the solution (after a few days messing around).

The manual says (pg 44) that is plays DivX files on CD-R/RW, DVD-R, and DVD-R DL. The last two aren't really practical for daily use, unless you are filling a DVD in a single session (it isn't compatible with multi-session on DVD) and plan to keep it (annoyingly there's no RW support!). So that leaves us with the CD-R/RW, which, according to the manual, must be burnt with "ISO 9660 level 1 or 2 (except for extended formats), Joliet." Sounds good - it's limited to 700MB and takes longer to burn, but can be re-written, and supports multisession.

HOWEVER, using Nero as my CD burner, I tried every combination of this that I could think of, but still couldn't get it to work! After reading a post elsewhere, it seems the trick is:

i) the disc MUST be burnt in a UDF mode. The manual only mentions Joliet, but ISO alone won't do it. On Nero, choose "CD-ROM (UDF/ISO). On the excellent and free ImgBurn software use either "ISO9660 + UDF" or "ISO9660 + Joliet + UDF" as the file system.
ii) Prior to burning, use MPEG4 Modifier to manually set the pixel aspect ratio of your AVI/DivX/Xvid file (usually to 16:9 NTSC for US content), otherwise the player will display it 4:3 with grey side-bars and you'll have to use the remote (Option->Screen Aspect->Side-cut) to change it so it fills your widescreen telly.

Works really well now and I'm happy with the unit. Message to Panasonic - the lack of DVD-RW support is a pain, and PLEASE mention the UDF necessity for CDs in the next printing of your manual!

Cheers,

Greg.