How Can I Use My Canon SD30 as a Movie Player

I have a Canon SD30 which records and plays AVI files. I tried to
load an AVI file onto the memory chip and play it but the Canon didn't
recognize it because the camera requires a filename.THM file.

Here is what doesn't work:

Create a movie with the camera. Rename the movie.avi to match the
camera.avi naming format. Copy the created camera.thm to movie.thm.
No joy.

Create a movie.thm using the first frame of movie.avi which is a
renamed movie.jpg. No joy.

There must be a way to change a camera.thm to a movie.thm or create a
movie.thm and play it on the camera.

How do I modify a copy of the camera.thm file to make it point to the
movie.avi I want to play?

Thanks!

Mike Jarrells

jarrells@jarrells.cjb.net wrote:
: I have a Canon SD30 which records and plays AVI files. I tried to
: load an AVI file onto the memory chip and play it but the Canon didn't
: recognize it because the camera requires a filename.THM file.

: Here is what doesn't work:

: Create a movie with the camera. Rename the movie.avi to match the
: camera.avi naming format. Copy the created camera.thm to movie.thm.
: No joy.

: Create a movie.thm using the first frame of movie.avi which is a
: renamed movie.jpg. No joy.

: There must be a way to change a camera.thm to a movie.thm or create a
: movie.thm and play it on the camera.

: How do I modify a copy of the camera.thm file to make it point to the
: movie.avi I want to play?

: Thanks!

I can't speak about your particular camera but I suspect what the problem
is. Most digital cameras are unable to show a movie or even display a
still image that was not taken in that camera. Some won't even allow you
to shoot a file, offload the file and then copy the file back to the
camera. There seems to be a proprietary tag that we normally don't see
that the camera looks for. Without that tag, it is hopeless. Now I do know
that in still images some cameras will allow an unedited image to be
returned to the memory card as long as the file name is properly named,
the file is in the correct directory and the image is exactly as it was
when it was taken in that camera, but any change other than file name
makes the image unviewable. I suspect the same also goes for video.

Unfortunately a camera makes a poor video viewer. One possibility, if you
are determined to watch videos in digital formats is to purchase either
one of the digital storage devices. Some have a built in screen and some
also play video files. You will have to find one that can play an avi
file, as the ones I have looked at don't seem to accept avi, tho they will
play mpeg and other digital file formats.

Another possible idea. You might look into some of the small portable DVD
players. It seems to me that some of them I have looked at in the past
would play avi files from a cd.

Good luck

Randy

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Randy Berbaum
Champaign, IL