Sound Skips

Hi, I’m not very tech-savy but i’ll try my best.

First, my files are stored on a WD ‘My Book’ External HD connected via USB to my ‘WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player’ connected to my TV via HDMI cable.

  • current firmware - 1.06.16

  • The audio is set to Stereo on both the media player and the TV

  • The problem is all my video files with FLAC audio, the sound skips. I have only owned the media player for a week or so and this problem has left me disappointed.

  • Yes I have tried remuxing the file with MKVtoolnix

  • Ive tried the other audio settings but nothing changed

  • Also the first thing I did when I bought it was update the firmware, would rolling back to a previous version fix anything? if so what version?

here is the info on one of the problem files with flac audio that skip:

General
Unique ID                        : 231547727415062431442782628665390156887 (0xAE32785D9BB4D24582EAAD438FA64C57)
Complete name                    : C:\Fractale  [BluRay 720p]\Fractale 01.mkv
Format                           : Matroska
Format version                   : Version 2
File size                        : 431 MiB
Duration                         : 19mn 55s
Overall bit rate                 : 3 026 Kbps
Movie name                       : Fractale - 01
Encoded date                     : UTC 2011-07-23 20:00:08
Writing application              : mkvmerge v4.1.0 (‘Boiling Point’) built on Jul  1 2010 14:37:28
Writing library                  : libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0
Attachment                       : Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : High@L5.0
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 11 frames
Codec ID                         : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                         : 19mn 55s
Width                            : 1 280 pixels
Height                           : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Progressive
Title                            : [H264]
Writing library                  : x264 core 114 r1924 08d04a4
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=12 / deblock=1:1:1 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-4 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=12 / b_pyramid=1 / 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=crf / mbtree=0 / crf=17.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:0.50
Language                         : Japanese

Audio
ID                               : 2
Format                           : FLAC
Format/Info                      : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Codec ID                         : A_FLAC
Duration                         : 19mn 55s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                        : 24 bits
Title                            : [FLAC 2.0]
Writing library                  : libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
Language                         : Japanese

Text
ID                               : 3
Format                           : **bleep**
Codec ID                         : S_TEXT/**bleep**
Codec ID/Info                    : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Compression mode                 : Lossless
Title                            : [**bleep**]
Language                         : English

Menu
00:00:00.000                     : en:Prologue / en:Opening / en:Ending
00:06:16.960                     : en:Part A
00:11:28.979                     : en:Part B

High @ L5 h.264 video decoding isn’t supported by the chip.  The chip can’t keep up with the video stream, is why your audio is suffering.

You’ll have to recode the files to something the chip is capable of decoding.

Manual: 

5. MPEG-4.10 (H.264) BP@L3 up to 720x480p30 or 720x576p25 resolution, including FMO and ASO.

6. MPEG-4.10 (H.264) MP@L4.1 and HP@L4.1 up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30, or 1280x720p60 resolution (constrained to match BD and HD-DVD specifications), 180 Mbin/s maximum for CABAC streams.

Website:

  • H.264 BP@L3 up to 720x480p30 or 720x576p25 resolution.
  • H.264 MP@L4.1 and HP@4.1 up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30, or 1280x720p60 resolution.

No firmware can change the chip’s decoding abilities… all you can do is provide it with supported streams.

thanks for the reply, like I said im not very tech-savy, im more of a ‘monkey see, monkey do’ type

im looking at the info on some of the other files that dont work and its strange because there are files with High@L4.0 that do not work, and yet some files with  High@L5.1 that work perfectly fine

Well, for that matter, the manual only lists the following audio formats as being supported in a Matroska container:

  • MPEG
  • PCM
  • Dolby Digital
  • DTS
  • AAC

Nothing really says that pulling FLAC out of a .mkv is supported by the WDTV, even though FLAC is supported in a FLAC audio file.

I probably should have started with that one. :wink:

But, I doubt you’re going to convince WD that it’s a “bug”, when they never claimed it’d work in the first place.  The stock answer we get is generally to play supported files.

There’s many things that aren’t listed as “supported” and yet they work anyways… or, at least somewhat work… but all we can really do is go to the Ideas section and ask for official support.

hmm, ok fair enough, thanks again for the quick reply, much appreciated.

Sorry I don’t have a happier answer for you.

In theory, since the chip itself can decode FLAC, I see no technical reason why FLAC (and OGG) support can’t officially be added to .mkv in a future firmware… but since they’re not officially supported now, nobody can really guarantee success with trying to use them.  It may work, or it may not.

I’m just so used to answering “my HP @ L5 won’t play properly” posts, that it didn’t even occur to me, at first, that FLAC wasn’t listed as supported.