Can't play a MKV file with the WD HD TV Live Hub

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Hub Discussions
1

Hi there,

The mkv works fine on VLC, but not on the live hub. Here is the info from Mediainfo - Has someone any clue ? Thanks in advance !

Format                           : Matroska
File size                        : 703 MiB
Duration                         : 1h 38mn
Overall bit rate                 : 995 Kbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2003-10-28 20:02:59
Writing application              : mkvmerge v0.7.2
Writing library                  : libebml v0.6.0 + libmatroska v0.5.2
Attachment                       : Yes / Yes

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : RealVideo 4
Codec ID                         : V_REAL/RV40
Codec ID/Info                    : RealVideo 4.0 aka RealVideo 9
Duration                         : 1h 38mn
Width                            : 704 pixels
Height                           : 400 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 25.000 fps
Language                         : English

Audio #1
ID                               : 2
Format                           : AAC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version                   : Version 4
Format profile                   : HE-AAC / LC
Codec ID                         : A_AAC/MPEG4/LC/SBR
Duration                         : 1h 38mn
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz / 24.0 KHz
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Language                         : French

2

Yes. Here is the hint-

Format                           : RealVideo 4
Codec ID                         : V_REAL/RV40
Codec ID/Info                    : RealVideo 4.0 aka RealVideo 9

RealVideo is not supported by the hardware decoder in this device.

3

Thank your for the info. Now I have to see if there is a way to encode it in divx…

4

You don’t have to change it to divx, you just have to switch the codec for mkv.

You need to change it from Realvideo to MPEG4, which will allow you to play the mkv.

5

Well divx would not be a good choice of codec either as that is not officialy supported. Technically divx is very close to xvid but there are subtle differences. I would go with one of the codecs/profiles that are explicitly stated to work.

And @Timwarble, I think you a just confusing th OP. MKV is not a codec it is a container format. The contents of the mkv just have to be transcoded to any container, codec AND profile the the WD will support.

6

Well, technically DivX and Xvid are both MPEG4.2 ASP.

Since MPEG4 (both part 2 and part 10) is listed as supported, they should work.  I’ve never had issues with in-spec DivX or Xvid streams re-muxed into a .mkv container.

I’ve always been a little confused why DivX is explicitly mentioned in the .avi section over and above MPEG4 support.

7

I’ve always been a little confused why DivX is explicitly mentioned in the .avi section over and above MPEG4 support.

You might want to take a read here then- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divx

8

You might want to take a read here…

 

And?

Says the same thing over and over… that it’s a subset of MPEG4.

Doesn’t say why WD feels the need to list it separately from other MPEG4 codecs.

9

RoofingGuy wrote:

 

I’ve always been a little confused why DivX is explicitly mentioned in the .avi section over and above MPEG4 support.

I think it’s a trademark issue…  DivX is a registered trademark.  XviD is public domain.

10

I’d have to agree with Tony, this seems to more of a legal issue.  My Seagate media player does list Divx Plus TM, but you have to register it to play DivX video.

I don’t believe that there is an issue including the decoder for DivX, but there may be some issue listing it as a DivX player.

11

Yes, sorry… I get that there’s nothing in the back of the manual about DivX, and that that’s a legal issue.

I’d meant to say Xvid – y’all confused me as to which one was listed under AVI adn which one wasn’t. :wink:

What I mean is, it says it will play MPEG4 part 2 and MPEG4 part 10 streams, and lists constraints.   Without getitng into trademark issues, that alone should cover what can be decoded by the chip.

Listing “XVID” (which I erroneously called DivX) seems extraneous.  Whether they can mention DivX by name or not, my thought was simply that they don’t need to explicitly mention either DivX or Xvid, since they’re both susbets of MPEG4, which is listed.

I mean just look at how many “why won’t this file play” posts we get around here.  Non-technical folks aren’t reading the manuals and the specs, and have no clue what a codec is to begin with.  They just want their “AVI” to play… they don’t know or care what’s in it.  Any of the technogeeks who do know about the various codecs, would presumably know that both Xvid and DivX are MPEG4 streams.

As I say, both codecs in a .mkv container play fine for me.  And that’s no major surprise, since MPEG4 support is listed (and there seems no technical reason why the chip would be able to decode a Xvid stream if WD pulls it out of an .avi, but not the identical stream out of a .mkv).  Just seems rather odd for Xvid to be listed under AVI in addition to MPEG4.  Seems redundant.  Or, why it wasn’t also added to the MKV list in addition to MPEG4.  But none of that has anything to do with whether DivX is trademarked or not.

The way the listings in the manuals read, it just implies that if the exact same MPEG4.2 stream is listed as “XVID” in the file header, that it will only be decodable if it’s pulled out of an AVI.  The manulas imply that unless you change the stream header to read “MPEG4” instead of “XVID”, that the stream will be undecodable from a MKV.  That’s easily shown to not be the case.

So the question comes back to, if MPEG4.2 support covers all “codec hints” that are subsets (as it certainly appears to with MKV containers), then what’s the need for WD to also specify “XVID” in the supported codecs for AVI?  It’s either redundant, or it implies that the chip can tell the source of the stream and XVID isn’t supported in MKV, and DivX is unplayable from either.

12

Thanks for your reply and the interesting conversation on the differences between divx & xvid !

Still, I haven’t found the way to change the realvideo codec to a compatible codec - mkv2vob doesn’t seem to fit the purpose. 

Is there a program for my problem ?

Thanks in advance ! :slight_smile:

13

Try MKVtoolnix, and if that doesn’t work then try Handbrake. 

These are the two best mkv tools.

14

Thank you so much for this info : i am going to try them out !