H264 MP4 sound sync and choppy video

I am in UK.  Running Windows 7 Pro with PCI tv card for digital terrestial tv HD (DVB T2 standard).  I have a QNAP server.  I have two tvs each with a current version WD TV Live running the latest firmware and linked to my home network using Netgear high-speed Ethernet over power wiring (I am getting good speeds, circa 210 MBps). I record programmes from tv in HD using Windows Media Player (producing .wtv files).  I edit these (to remove ads etc) using VideoReDo H264 and save video as H264 MP4.  These video files are then uploaded to the QNAP server.  The files play perfectly on my pc using VLC and a mapped drive to the QNAP shared folder; they play perfectly using QMobile server-client arrangement on my iPad and iPhone. On both WD TV Lives, however, the playback (via Windows shares) is choppy as though every 10 frames or so are being missed; the voice/picture sync is badly out making viewing very problematic.  I have found forum messages about exactly these issues going back two years or so.  Have WD still not fixed the problem after all this time?  Has anyone a solution?  I have tried (1) renaming files with a .m4v extension and (2) re-muxing the .mp4 file to a .mkv file.  Neither apporach makes much difference. I’m getting desperate.  Does anyone know of a streamer that handles mp4 files better than WD TV Live - I’m close to throwing the WD units away!

Haven’t had any issues with mp4 files so far. Can you upload a sample clip (2-5 min) to sendspace.com or mediafire?

Thanks.  I have never used either of these sites before but I have uploaded my clip to Sendspace.  The file is at http://www.sendspace.com/file/g9wmb3.  Is this all you need to access it?

Bill

Yes. But when you speak of “current version WD TV Lives” and actually do mean the WDTV LIVE Streaming, you’re posting to the wrong forum.

I’ve downloaded your file and it’s indeed out of sync on both LIVEs, the sound being a little early (which is quite noticeable in the beginning when Portillio puts his suitcase into the overhead rack). However, after conversion to MKV and M2TS the file plays back in sync.  You’re sure “Match video framerate” is set to on? Setup > Audio/Video Output > Video Output > HDMI > Auto > Auto > On. If that still doesn’t work record a new short clip and upload the untouched wtv file.

I have what WD call WD TV Live on their website. So am I on the right forum.  Have set Match Video Framerate to “On” but no change.  Will try MKV conversion and let you know.

Bill

A little bit more research (downloading the full user manual) has shown I have the WD TV® Live™
Streaming Media Player (3rd generation?)
.

Have converted a full MP4 H264 file to MKV and it’s looking good so far (sync perfect to the eye).  This is on one WD TV Live/TV combination; tonight I’ll try playing the same file on the second WD TV Live/TV combination.  If this works, I then have the laborious task of converting all my MP4 files (probably around 100) to MKV!

Thanks for all your help so far.

Bill

Bill32 wrote:

A little bit more research (downloading the full user manual) has shown I have the WD TV® Live™
Streaming Media Player (3rd generation?)
.

Yep, which is why I said you are in the wrong forum, mabye a mod will move the tread to this one.

Bill32 wrote:
If this works, I then have the laborious task of converting all my MP4 files (probably around 100) to MKV!

 Not necessarily. It’s quite possible VideoReDo isn’t muxing the MP4s properly  which is why I asked you to upload an untouched wtv sample so we can try encoding to MP4 and see if it makes a difference. The few MP4s I’ve created so far using Hybrid play back fine as well as downloads from Youtube. Also, if conversio would be necessary a batch file would take care of those files pretty fast since you onl need to remux.

Brilliant!  Conversion to .M2TS and the config setting change fixed the sync and stutter problems.  Forgive my ignorance but should I be converting to .MKV or .M2TS file type?  Does it matter?  What’s the difference?  The only downside with moving to a .mkv or .m2ts solution is that my QNAP runs Twonky (or a derivative) as a uPNP server and using QMobile as the client to view movies on the ipad doesn’t work (QMobile doesn’t even see .mkv or .m2ts files).  Workaround is to use AirVideo server on pc reading NAS shares as Windows shares - not the end of the world although pc has to be running.  I will upload original .wtv clip tomorrow.

Bill

Original .wtv clip uploaded.  Download link is http://www.sendspace.com/file/dd7keu.

Just to re-emphasise that the .mp4 files play fine (perfect sync and no stutter) on vlc, VideoReDo and SMPlayer.  It’s only the WD TV units that gives the problem so I’d be surprised if there are problems with the original .wtv files but who knows.

Bill

As mentioned in another thread, players like VLC are optimized to play even bad files in ways hardware players like the LIVE (which is quite picky about spec compliance) never could. When I remuxed your wtv to TS with Remuxtool (also read the comments in this thread), it ran fine on the WDTV but I could not extract the audio stream to manually create an MP4 from it. Converting with MC-TVConverter created a new MP4 that also ran fine on the WDTV but conversion took so long, it would appear the tool is re-encoding the file rather than just putting it into another container.

Since my self-made MP4s and those downloaded from YouTube are all in sync, I think it’s possible your wtv files aren’t authored properly. The question is, what do do about it. If you can’t record to another container (or other codecs inside) you might wanna rely on converting those files to mkv or m2ts. MKV is the more modern, flexible container but lately there have been some issues that are not yet fixed so m2ts might be the better container for the time being.

Super, thanks.  I tried two things today to eliminate network issues.  (1) I played the .mp4 file from local USB Key storage and (2) I ran a temp Cat5 cable direct from my gigabit switch to the WD Live.  In both cases there was no change.  However, since changing the WD setting as you suggested, no only has any stuttering ceased but the sync is much more tolerable - at least I’m prepared to live with it!  As a separate exercise, I’m in touch with the VideoReDo developer to see if there is anything I can do in the .mp4 settings to improve the sync even further.

Again, many thanks.  I think I’ll marked this one as fixed now!

Bill