I’ve got MKV file which is easly played by players on PC (Linux and Windws) but WD TV Live says it is unsupported.
Below is what MPlayer says about it and it seems from the spec that WD TV Live should play it. What’s wrong with this file?
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg’s libavcodec codec family
libavcodec version 54.23.100 (internal)
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 6 ch, s16le, 0.0 kbit/0.00% (ratio: 0->576000)
Selected audio codec: [ffflac] afm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg FLAC audio)
Regards
Michał
I’ve been trying to reencode this file to make it viewable on WD TV, without success. Tried several codecs with mencoder on Linux. I’m still not sure wheter it is a problem with audio or video track. Or a container.
Maybe you could suggest how to recode file to make it viewable?
Please post the full TEXT output of MEDIAINFO for that file.
This is what mediainfo says:
General
Unique ID : 245820825192919545699485725557955544765 (0xB8EF5E6AF119ED618EF6D89683F0C6BD)
Complete name : Mystic.River.2003.720p.BluRay.x264.10bit-WiKi.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 1
File size : 5.00 GiB
Duration : 2h 17mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 5 187 Kbps
Movie name : YiFan @ WiKi
Encoded date : UTC 2012-06-09 09:44:30
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.2.0 (‘Turn It On Again’) built on Mar 4 2008 12:58:26
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High 10@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 16 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 17mn
Nominal bit rate : 3 980 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 532 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 : 10 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.244
Writing library : x264 core 124 r2197 69a0443
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=16 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=tesa / subme=11 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.05:0.05 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=64 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-5 / threads=36 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=14 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=250 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=3980 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=81 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=2:0.85
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Codec ID : A_FLAC
Duration : 2h 17mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Writing library : libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 2h 17mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 253 MiB (5%)
Title : ??? AC3 DD5.1-256kbps
Language : Chinese
Default : No
Forced : No
Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Chapter 01
00:03:18.489 : en:Chapter 02
00:06:07.784 : en:Chapter 03
00:08:05.902 : en:Chapter 04
00:12:21.615 : en:Chapter 05
00:14:36.542 : en:Chapter 06
00:18:38.408 : en:Chapter 07
00:23:32.077 : en:Chapter 08
00:28:04.849 : en:Chapter 09
00:32:45.630 : en:Chapter 10
00:35:03.851 : en:Chapter 11
00:40:37.226 : en:Chapter 12
00:42:41.600 : en:Chapter 13
00:47:00.943 : en:Chapter 14
00:51:26.792 : en:Chapter 15
00:53:58.276 : en:Chapter 16
01:00:09.480 : en:Chapter 17
01:05:17.371 : en:Chapter 18
01:07:59.492 : en:Chapter 19
01:10:52.873 : en:Chapter 20
01:15:30.901 : en:Chapter 21
01:17:22.554 : en:Chapter 22
01:23:14.990 : en:Chapter 23
01:26:24.262 : en:Chapter 24
01:30:53.573 : en:Chapter 25
01:36:32.536 : en:Chapter 26
01:40:12.089 : en:Chapter 27
01:42:46.118 : en:Chapter 28
01:45:33.452 : en:Chapter 29
01:49:29.688 : en:Chapter 30
01:55:41.309 : en:Chapter 31
01:57:36.674 : en:Chapter 32
02:00:10.786 : en:Chapter 33
02:05:49.500 : en:Chapter 34
02:10:15.891 : en:Chapter 35
02:12:52.839 : en:Chapter 36
02:17:56.559 : en:Chapter 37
High 10@L5.1
…that’s the problem. The WDTV doesn’t support that profile. No hardware player that I know of does.
There is something more… I’ve reencoded video to new file. This new file (AVI, no audio) is playable by WD TV. But when I merge it with original audio tracks into MKV file, it’s not playable. This is that new file:
General
Unique ID : 170358371303950132053306927460737972115 (0x8029D42FFB219A2B830BD71F7D4D7793)
Complete name : mymovie5.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 5.10 GiB
Duration : 2h 17mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 5 295 Kbps
Movie name : YiFan @ WiKi
Encoded date : UTC 2013-07-15 09:03:20
Writing application : mkvmerge v5.8.0 ('No Sleep / Pillow') built on Sep 20 2012 03:31:25
Writing library : libebml v1.2.2 + libmatroska v1.3.0
Video
ID : 3
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Simple@L1
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : V_MS/VFW/FOURCC / FMP4
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 532 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Variable
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Writing library : Lavc54.23.100
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Audio #1
ID : 1
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Codec ID : A_FLAC
Duration : 2h 17mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Writing library : libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Audio #2
ID : 2
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Muxing mode : Header stripping
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 2h 17mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 253 MiB (5%)
Title : ???? AC3 DD5.1-256kbps
Language : Chinese
Default : No
Forced : No
Even more strange thing. I’ve converted video (no audio) to H263 in AVI:
General
Complete name : video1 (H.263).avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Format profile : OpenDML
File size : 3.94 GiB
Duration : 2h 17mn
Overall bit rate : 4 093 Kbps
Writing application : MEncoder 1.1-4.7.3
Writing library : MPlayer
Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Simple@L1
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : FMP4
Duration : 2h 17mn
Bit rate : 4 089 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 532 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
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.250
Stream size : 3.94 GiB (100%)
Writing library : Lavc54.23.100
It’s playable.
Then I’ve merged it into MKV with:
mkvmerge -A video1\ (H.263).avi -o ‘mymovie11 (h623 video, no audio).mkv’
General
Unique ID : 218225793418988748134120848975777330201 (0xA42CC24F0675969683B0724756857419)
Complete name : mymovie11 (h623 video, no audio).mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 3.94 GiB
Duration : 2h 17mn
Overall bit rate : 4 090 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2013-07-15 10:57:39
Writing application : mkvmerge v5.8.0 ('No Sleep / Pillow') built on Sep 20 2012 03:31:25
Writing library : libebml v1.2.2 + libmatroska v1.3.0
Video
ID : 1
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Simple@L1
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : V_MS/VFW/FOURCC / FMP4
Bit rate : 4 009 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 532 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Variable
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Writing library : Lavc54.23.100
Default : Yes
Forced : No
It’s not playable (!!).
Are there any limits for the MKV container I must obey to make files playable on WD TV?
Then I’ve merged it into MKV with:
mkvmerge -A video1\ (H.263).avi -o ‘mymovie11 (h623 video, no audio).mkv’
GUI for mkvmerge.exe (mmg.exe) helps to avoid user command-line output errors
Why encode to xvid when you can use x.264. Use XMediaRecode and stop fiddling with command lines.
I need commad line (to run it on Linux server). I care for speed (server is low-end) and quality and don’t care for size. X264 is very slow.
As for now I try to convert it with different codecs and can’t get sound. This is why I try different codecs.
mencoder \
“$SOURCE” \
-aid 0 \
-ovc lavc \
-oac mp2 \
-lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:acodec=mp2:vbitrate=6000 \
-channels 2 \
-endpos 00:02:05 \
-o “mymovie18 (mpeg4 video, mp2 audio).avi”
XMediaRecode did it’s job - thanks. Still I’d prefer command line, to run it on the server 
