Written by How to freely enjoy your own Divx, Xvid or AVI movies on Roku? I get a lot of conflicting reports on what the Roku 3 is capable of doing. What I have found is not all the video formats can be easily added into Roku such as Divx, Xvid or AVI codec files. Let’s follow this guide to learn more on how to stream videos to Roku for nice watching.
Further learning of Roku Media Player?
The Roku Media Player channel enables you to play back personal video, music and photo files from a DLNA server on your local network or a USB drive attached to a USB equipped Roku. I’ve checked many files with MediaInfo and they all show that there is only video stream and one audio stream. So after digging deeper into technical specs of the Roku 3, I found different conflicting answers there so we need to transcode the mentioned Divx, Xvid or AVI files to those suitable ones for Roku.
What are supported video and audio formats for Roku Media Player?
- Video — MKV (H.264), MP4 (H.264), MOV (H.264), WMV (VC-1, firmware 3.1 only)
- Music — AAC, MP3, WMA, FLAC (firmware 5.3 and later), WAV (firmware 5.3 and later)
- Photo — JPG, PNG, GIF (non-animated)
Only supported file types are shown in the Roku Media Player channel. The channel hides unsupported file types. Dolby Digital audio in MKV and MP4 movies is only supported via pass through. DTS in MKV movies is also only supported via pass through. You must connect your Roku player via HDMI to a TV or receiver capable of decoding Dolby Digital or DTS in order to hear videos with audio tracks in those formats.
Notes: DRM-protected content is not supported for Roku Media Player.
Any third-party assistants to play Divx, Xvid or AVI files on Roku?
Since Divx, Xvid or AVI files are not in the list of the Roku supported videos, in this case, we are considering if we can seek the third-party converting tool to transcode the incompatible video codec. Fortunately, we find it! Pavtube Video Converter for Windows/Mac we all think can be the professional Roku video converter for all users. With the easy operation and fast conversion speed, this program has a codec pack that enables conversion between different video and audio file formats, it can convert AVI, Divx or Xvid, etc to Roku 3 supported file format such as mp4 with the best quality.
Brief guide on Transcoding Divx, Xvid or AVI to suitable ones for playback on Roku:
Step 1. Start this Roku converter and add your original file in with “Add files” button on the main interface or you can directly drag them in.
Step 2. After the files are added, click “Format” -> “HD Video” and set output video format as mp4. The reason mp4 is the target format is that by packing the videos in mp4, the file size will be reasonable small and the video quality remains.
Tip: There are also some optional tinkerings you can take to make the videos look better on a HDTV screen, such as changing the aspect ratio or specifying the video resolution. Just click the “Settings” icon to do it.
Go back to the main interface and hit the “Convert” icon to get the work start. After the conversion is completed, transfer the converted videos to Roku‘s SD card or to a USB stick that can be attached to Roku 3 streaming player. Now you can enjoy your movies with Roku freely.
