WD should truly address issues related to MP4 H.264 playback.
I use HandBrake.
With B-Frames setting set to 2: audio is getting dropped after a minute or so of play time regardless of number of audio tracks included.
With B-Frames set to something other than 2: Audio is getting out of sync with video when you switch from one audio track to another. File plays fine with one audio track.
Add to it lack of support for Chapter Markers. If markers are included, the name of the last chapter is shown as a subtitle.
If I H264 encode using MKV container, all these issues disappear and playback is perfect regardles of B-Frame setting.
I personally prefer MKV’s BUT sometimes I need to encode with MP4 container.
Are other people running into such issues with what appears a B-Frame bug in the way WD TV Live handles MP4 container?
Yes, I’ve had similar issues (and for the same reasons I’ve switched to outputting to an MKV container using Handbrake).
I’ve also been able to repair my MP4 files by using mkvmerge and repackaging them in an MKV container (and also checking AAC sound on the sound track in the track specific options). This is a good alternative to re-encoding (since it’s lightning fast) but, of course, doesn’t help if you need to keep the MP4 file (unless you want to keep two separate copies in different containers).
Do you know if this has been reported as a confirmed bug to WD? Is there a ‘Bug’ forum?
WD had nailed down the MKV playback. Maybe they can do same with MP4s
So I see you are a fellow HandBrake and MKVTOOLNIX user. Excellent tools.
WD has certainly heard of enough issues with MP4 files – whether they are actively working on fixing them I don’t know (but I can find out).
There are a lot of great freeware tools out there – I’d also add txMuxer into the mix (so to speak :>) and, for sub title work, BDSup2Sub. And without such behind the scenes tools as ffmpeg we’d be in big trouble. While it’s unfortunate that the Live can’t handle all file types, at least there are ways of handling almost any file problem we encounter.
