Can WD TV Play The HD .mov Files From My Camera?

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

I was considering a WD TV for playing the video files from my camara, but it’s not clear fromt the specifications if the format is supported.  The website for my camera lists the file format as “MOV [H.264 + Linear PCM (stereo)]” and Media Player Classic gives the following details:

General
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt  
Overall bit rate : 24.7 Mbps

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Baseline@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 1mn 2s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 23.2 Mbps
Width : 1920 pixels
Height : 1080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.838
Stream size : 173 MiB (94%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2011-03-09 04:34:14
Tagged date : UTC 2011-03-09 04:34:14
Color primaries : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177
Transfer characteristics : BT.709-5, BT.1361
Matrix coefficients : BT.601-6 525, BT.1358 525, BT.1700 NTSC, SMPTE 170M

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : sowt
Duration : 1mn 2s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 11.5 MiB (6%)
Language : English

As you can see the video is 1920x1080p30 at approximately 24Mbps.  The specifications for the WD TVfor the L4.1 profile seem to indicate it can only play back 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30, so it seems the WD TV may be unable to play the files smoothly.

H.264 MP@L4.1 and HP@4.1 up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30, or 1280x720p60 resolution.

It seems odd that such a common resolution and format is not supported by the WD TV, and I’m wondering if I’m misinterpreting the specs.

Could anybody tell me if the WD TV could play back the video from my camera?

Thanks for your help.

2

When I play ,mov files with a bitrate of 24 Mbps I notice that they are not playing smooth.

Asking the WD TV Live support gave me the answer that the birate was too high for WD TV Live.

A bitrate of 18 Mbps in a mpeg-4 mov file played well for me.

Below is an answer which I got on the dpreview site: 

“It appears WDTV supports only Level 4.0 (up to 17Mbps) and no tLevel 4.1 needed for 24Mbps or Level 4.2 needed for 28Mbps.”

Regards

3

Thanks a lot for the inforamtion.  Looks like I’ll have to find something else for playing my vidoes.