Problems playing MP4 h264 files

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

Hello, I’m new to the forums and to WD TV Live PLus. I’m really enjoying the WD TV Live + and have started doing backups of my DVD’s using handbrake into matroska files and the higher profile with good results.

However, with mp4 videos, its been a hit or miss. I’m sticking to h264 as I think it provides the best results so far. But for some reason there are some MP4 H264 files that I can play without issues, but there are also some that the WD does not recognize at all. It will display “Unable to play the selected file. PLease refer to the user manual for a list of supported formats.”

Its weird because I can open them in VLC without problems. I’ve tried to check codec details of these files in VLC and compare with details from files I CAN open on the WD TV live plus there’s no difference, at least in the information that VLC displays.

Has anybody experience this? What can I do?

Can I convert these MP4 files into something that can be opened on the WD Live TV without re-encoding (and such loosing more quality)? Is there going to be a firmware update to address this?

Thanks in advance!

2

I can’t stand that error…  Because more often than not, it’s just wrong.

It’ll display that error if there’s ANYTHING wrong accessing the file; network issues, bad filename, etc.  There’s unfortunately no way to know for sure what’s going wrong when all you have is that message.

Use MEDIAINFO (not VLC) to pull the technical details out of the files.  Post the TEXT output of MediaInfo here for both a WORKING and a NON-WORKING file.

3

as above

4

Yes, I was about to do that.

Here’s what I’ve found so far. It seems Mp4 h264 files I can’t play all have a coincidence so far. They have the following details:

Format                           : MPEG-4
Format profile                   : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID                         : mp42
File size                        : 1.75 GiB
Duration                         : 2h 22mn
Overall bit rate                 : 1 758 Kbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2010-06-03 19:15:47
Tagged date                      : UTC 2010-06-03 19:15:47

I’m still checking, but so far from the mp4 i’ve found I can’t play, they appear to have been made with this codec.

Most of the H264 Mp4 I’ve checkec so far that I’m able to play show the following:

Format                           : MPEG-4
Format profile                   : Base Media
Codec ID                         : isom
File size                        : 2.50 GiB
Duration                         : 2h 41mn
Overall bit rate                 : 2 214 Kbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2010-04-28 05:16:40
Tagged date                      : UTC 2010-04-28 05:16:40

Could this be a codec issue?

5

btw, I did make sure filenames were kept simple, so I do not think that is an issue.

Also, all these play back perfectly on VLC. I got the WD TV Live +, because I tought If I was going to do this (built a personal HD movie library), I would want to keep it simple without having to use my laptop. I tought this one was able to pay if not all, but most significant formats :S

Why can’t anybody built a box with VLC “poured” in hardware…?

6

It’s a bit unfair to compare a PC software-based player like VLC with a hardware player like the Live.

On a PC, you can install any and every codec available, regardless of how obscure (and VLC aims to support almost everything).  Your PC can compensate for many bad or esoteric encodes.

A hardware player expects to be fed a “good” file, one that was encoded according to the spec of its container, using appropriate modern codecs and a commonly used profile.  It can’t support every obscure or old codec.  It can’t always handle poorly encoded files.

The only files I’ve ever failed to play have been those I KNOW were encoded using settings inappropriate for a hardware media player (e.g. old XviD encodes using 3 GMC warppoints, which NO current hardware media player can handle).

If you’re building an HD movie library, it’s crucial to get the encoding right first.

Personally, I stick with the MKV container (x264 video / AC-3 audio) and have zero compatibility issues.  Handbrake outputs reliable encodes, it’s the only encoder I use.

If you have a library full of sloppy encodes (if you downloaded them, it’s a likely risk!), you may be better off looking for a media player that’s based on PC hardware (e.g. an HTPC or perhaps the upcoming Boxee Box, tho I’d wait for reviews on that one).

If you’re willing to re-encode some non-working files (can usually run a batch overnight if you have more than a few), try running one through Handbrake and see if it’ll play any better.  Then you know you have that option.  :)

7

Thanks for replying. That its what I’m doing with my DVD collection. Use handbrake, high profile and generating mkv files. The WD TV Live + works awesome with these. Now with the 3 or 4 files I’m unable to play, how can I convert them into something “chewable” for the WD TV, without having to re-encode them? I’ve read something about mkvmerge been able to convert these to mkv files that seems to work fine with WD TV,   without re-encoding. However I’m clueless about how to proceed with mkvmerge…

8

You can try with MKVMerge – but only use version 4.0 or earlier (there are links to it on this forum if you search).  If you use a later version you will need to uncheck header compression on both the audio and video tracks (with the earlier versions all you need do is hit “remux” and you’re done).

Now because these won’t re-encode this won’t solve any problems with codecs – it only changes the container.  It’s worth a try, but for the best bet use the original source (NOT the MP4 file but the DVD/blu-ray it came from) and run it through Handbrake.  If you only have a handful of files that’s no problem at all (since you can queue them up to run overnight or while you’re at work).

9

That is what I mean, I read in some other forum, some guy had the same problem, he said he was able to play the file on the WD by changing the container to mkv…suposedly… I don’t know if he missed something out. I obviously do not have the original source otherwise I would have done that. I’m going to try handbrake with the high setting profile and see what I can get.

10

Sorry if I’m misunderstanding you but you can download MKVtoolnix from here:

http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/win32/

As Mike says, get version 4.0.0 (or earlier - I still use v3.1.0, although I might update to 4.0.0 now…).  

MKVmerge GUI is included.

Open MKVmerge.  Add your MP4 to the Input files.  It should list all the tracks.  

You can re-order, label and specify language for the audio / subtitle tracks if you want but otherwise just hit the Start Muxing button.

After less than a minute you’ll have an MKV that may or may not work.  Like Mike says, if the codec is unsupported, it won’t work regardless of container.  If it doesn’t work, try re-encoding with Handbrake.

Apologies if you’ve already tried this, it wasn’t 100% clear from your previous posts.  :)

11

Thanks for the help. I’m going try that and if not, I’ll do handbrake and recoding.

12

Ok I tried this, using mkvmerge to convert without re-encoding, and it worked! However, I’m only getting noise as audio on the resulting matroska file. Am I missing something?

13

Weird… what version of MKVtoolnix did you end up downloading?

Can you paste the MediaInfo for the original MP4 and also for the resulting MKV?  There will be a clue within those (paste the full text output for both).

14

I left my HD at the office but will check tomorrow. I used V3.4.

15

MrGrooves wrote:

Ok I tried this, using mkvmerge to convert without re-encoding, and it worked! However, I’m only getting noise as audio on the resulting matroska file. Am I missing something?

I think it’s clear the audio encoding on that file isn’t good.  Just putting it in another container won’t change that, so you’ll need to go back to Handbrake and re-encode.

However, if the video is good and you want to save time one possibility would be to take the original and strip out the audio track and use the version of MKVMerge you have (which is a “good” one) and just combine the video with the first file and the audio you just stripped.  It’s not at all hard and will only take a minute or two, as opposed to re-encoding the video which could take hours.

(But if it were me I’d just do the whole thing properly with Handbrake and be done with it).

16

Ok, here’s the nfo. So what happened here…?

General

Complete name                    : F:\Pelis\A cada cerdo.mp4

Format                           : MPEG-4

Format profile                   : Base Media

Codec ID                         : isom

File size                        : 3.03 GiB

Duration                         : 3h 25mn

Overall bit rate                 : 2 106 Kbps

Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-11-22 21:06:12

Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-11-22 21:06:12

Video

ID                               : 1

Format                           : AVC

Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile                   : High@L4.1

Format settings, CABAC           : Yes

Format settings, ReFrames        : 4 frames

Codec ID                         : avc1

Codec ID/Info                    : Advanced Video Coding

Duration                         : 3h 25mn

Bit rate mode                    : Variable

Bit rate                         : 1 800 Kbps

Maximum bit rate                 : 6 014 Kbps

Width                            : 1 280 pixels

Height                           : 528 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)               : 0.111

Stream size                      : 2.59 GiB (85%)

Writing library                  : x264 core 68 r1183M f21daff

Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=1 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / rc=2pass / bitrate=1800 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=50000 / vbv_bufsize=50000 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00

Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-11-21 01:25:35

Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-11-22 21:09:00

Audio

ID                               : 2

Format                           : AAC

Format/Info                      : Advanced Audio Codec

Format version                   : Version 4

Format profile                   : LC

Format settings, SBR             : No

Codec ID                         : 40

Duration                         : 3h 25mn

Bit rate mode                    : Variable

Bit rate                         : 303 Kbps

Maximum bit rate                 : 406 Kbps

Channel(s)                       : 6 channels

Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE

Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz

Stream size                      : 445 MiB (14%)

Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-11-22 21:08:39

Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-11-22 21:09:00

General

Complete name                    : F:\Pelis\A cada cerdo.mkv

Format                           : Matroska

File size                        : 3.03 GiB

Duration                         : 3h 25mn

Overall bit rate                 : 2 105 Kbps

Encoded date                     : UTC 2010-09-17 01:04:50

Writing application              : mkvmerge v3.4.0 (‘Rapunzel’) built on May 15 2010 09:38:20

Writing library                  : libebml v0.8.0 + libmatroska v0.9.0

Video

ID                               : 1

Format                           : AVC

Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile                   : High@L4.1

Format settings, CABAC           : Yes

Format settings, ReFrames        : 4 frames

Muxing mode                      : Container profile=Unknown@4.1

Codec ID                         : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC

Duration                         : 3h 25mn

Nominal bit rate                 : 1 800 Kbps

Width                            : 1 280 pixels

Height                           : 528 pixels

Display aspect ratio             : 2.40:1

Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps

Color space                      : YUV

Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0

Bit depth                        : 8 bits

Scan type                        : Progressive

Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.111

Writing library                  : x264 core 68 r1183M f21daff

Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=1 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / rc=2pass / bitrate=1800 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=50000 / vbv_bufsize=50000 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00

Audio

ID                               : 2

Format                           : AAC

Format/Info                      : Advanced Audio Codec

Format version                   : Version 4

Format profile                   : LC

Format settings, SBR             : No

Codec ID                         : A_AAC

Duration                         : 3h 25mn

Channel(s)                       : 6 channels

Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE

Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz

The audio of the original file is good, well, at least it sounds as it should on VLC…?

Gotta be something I missed on mkvmerge perhaps?

17

Weird, the audio on the mkv file also plays well on VLC…?

18

I’m still wondering if Multichannel AAC is supposedly “Supported” or not.

For giggles, try converting the audio track from AAC to AC3.

19

I don’t think it is, Tony – I well remember many folks having trouble with 5.1 AAC.

Try ffmpeg and convert to AC3.

20

I’m using Super, wich I think uses ffmpeg internally, to convert the 5.1 AAC to AC3 in the mkv file, and using stream video option to just pass through the video, however I’m getting an error.

I’m very confused now. Yesterday I watched a video with the WD TV.  My reciever is connected through optical to the WD. However, it is rather old. It supports AC3 and DTS, dunno about AAC. However this video played and the reciever recognized it as a stereo stream and played it back. However, I just checked media info on that video and the audio is AAC 5.1…I’m clueless…??