HomeYou have downloaded some AVI file and wish to play them on your new Roku 4 with an external USB drive, when you plug the external USB drive into the USB port on your Roku 4 and launch the Roku Media Player channel, you will be disappointed to find your Roku Media Player channel can't even recognize the files.
Can Roku supports to play USB AVI video?
Thanks to the Roku Media Player channel, you can watch your own personal video files, listen to music files right on your TV via Roku's USB port. To play video with Roku from USB drive, media files must be included in Roku Media Player channel supported formats listed as below:
Video - H.264/AVC (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV), on Roku 4 only: H.265/HEVC (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV); VP9 (.MKV)
Audio - AAC (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV); MP3(.MP3, .MKV); WMA (.ASF, .WMA, .MKV), FLAC (.FLAC, .MKV), PCM (.WAV, .MKV, .MP4, .MOV), AC3/EAC3 (.MKV,.MP4. .MOV, .AC3), DTS (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV), ALAC (.MKV, .MP4, .MOV, .M4A)
From above lists, we can see that AVI is the unsupported file formats for Roku 4/3/2, you will need to perform a format transcoding process with a third-party video conversion app, here, we recommend you to use Pavtube Video Converter for Windows/Mac (best Mac Video Converter Review), which can decode AVI files encoded with various different codec such as Xvid, Divx, DV, etc to Roku 4/3/2 Media Player channel playable formats listed above. The program features batching conversion function, you can convert not only AVI files but also other files with different formats and codecs at one time to save a lot time.
For playing Blu-ray/DVD disc on Roku via USB drive, you can download Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate for Windows/Mac to rip commercial Blu-ray/DVD disc to Roku compatible digital file formats for playing on via external USB drive.
How to Convert and Play AVI Files on Roku 4 via External USB Drive?
Step 1: Load AVI files into the program.
Start the program on your computer, on the main interface, click "File"> "Add Video/Audio"or "Add from Folder" to load unsupported AVI files into the program. You can also directly drag the files to the program's main panel.
Step 2: Output Roku supported formats.
Click "Format" bar, from its drop-down option list, select Roku media player channel best supported format codec MPEG 4 Part 2 from "HD Video"> "H.264 HD Video(*.mp4)" as the output file format.
Step 3: Begin the conversion.
Go back to the main interface, hit right-bottom convert button to start AVI to Roku 4/3/2 supported format conversion process.
When the conversion is completed, transfer the converted files on your computer to an external USB drive, plug the USB drive into the USB port on your Roku, and launch the Roku Media Player channel, which can be in the store on your Roku. Select the conncted USB device, select a media file, and play it.
For detailed information about playing and streaming local video on Roku, please visit: 3 ways to stream/play local video on Roku.
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