Cannot play NASA's mov files

Hi, my WDTV Live with .17 can’t play the .mov file that NASA make available to download from here :

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/hd/index.html

It happily played the 1080i wmv, but I get “Unable to play the selected file” on the next one down (the shuttle launch one)

I also can’t play any downloaded trailers from Apple’s movie trailers plage either, sometimes I get smooth video, but no audio, and sometimes nothing at all.

The WDTV live has managed to play pretty much everything else I’ve thrown it’s way, and I was just wondering if it’s something I’m doing.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

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Unfortunately that video uses a codec not supported by the WDTV live, the Sorenson Video 3, you would need to reencode it to any other compatible format I guess.

You can check the codec used by most videos with media players like MPC-home cinema (in properties) or VLC (clicking ctrl-i to access file information).

You can also download the program MediaInfo Media Info

If will analyze media files so you can see if the wdtv should be able to play them (and possibly find programs to convert it)

As has been pointed out these videos use a proprietary codec, Sorenson Video 3 which the WDTV Live does not recognise. You could use the following (free) program to recode the videos to mp4.

MPEG Streamclip: video converter for Mac & Windows

MPEG Streamclip is a powerful free video converter, player, editor for Mac and Windows. It can play many movie files, not only MPEGs; it can convert MPEG files between muxed/demuxed formats for authoring; it can encode movies to many formats, including iPod; it can cut, trim and join movies. 

http://www.squared5.com/

I have re-coded the .mov videos using the program above and they play perfectly via network shares on a wireless network. As they are short it does not take too long.

Thanks RichUK!

Thanks for all you help everyone!  I’ve tried that squared5, and it looks just the ticket.  May I ask what format you exported the mov as? 

I’ve tried mp4 and avi, and neither of them work on the WDTV live here…

Open MPEG Streamclip. File, Open Files, click on nasa .mov file. File, Export to MPEG-4, Click Make MP4 button at bottom right corner of the window that pops up. No need to touch anything on the screen. Wait for re-coding. Play new MP4 file.

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That works great!  Thanks for all your help.