Media Player says it won't play MP4. But MP4 are on the list of accepted file types?

First: Sorry if I’m in the wrong forum.

My Player is a WDBAAP0000NBK-AESN

Box says: WD TV Live Network Media Player.

My player tells me it can’t handle MP4 (movie) files but the MP4 file type is on its approved list.

Anyone know what’s happening here?

MP4 is a file type, and yes, it is supported.   But the CONTENTS of the file also must be supported.

As the manaul and specifications indicate, the contents of the file must be:

Video:  AVC or MPEG4 

Audio: AAC, AC3, or MPEG Audio.

Other combinations will work, but aren’t officially supported.

If there are any questions about what’s in your file, Please post the full TEXT output of MEDIAINFO for such a file.

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net

TonyPh12345 - thanks. I’ve downloaded Media Info and I’ll check out the offending files shortly and come back.

I remember now that some of these movie files are ‘containers’ for other files. But I thought that only applied to MKV’s.

Being used to simple single-file types, I have trouble getting my head around the concept that one file could be made up of several other types. Like a doc being a blend of txt and pdf files, for example.

Do you know of any websites where these structures are explained in bog-simple terms?

Cheers :slight_smile:

The User Manual has a simple table of supported File Extensions / Containers / Codecs

Page 207 and onwards.

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/?id=282&type=25

eg.

zobrdrool wrote:

I remember now that some of these movie files are ‘containers’ for other files. But I thought that only applied to MKV’s.

Pretty much all are: mp4, avi, mkv, m2ts…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_container_format

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_container_formats

Hi guys. Thanks for the contributions, most informative.

I’ve installed Media Info and can now right click a movie file and summarize its contents.

Should I post a particular format of the Media Info format? Like - Basic, Sheet, Tree, Html?

Sorry, I see I’ve already been told to post a text output.

Here 'tis:


General
Complete name                            : H:\Good Cop 1\Good Cop 1-2.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom
File size                                : 311 MiB
Duration                                 : 58mn 7s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 749 Kbps
Writing application                      : Peter Bishop

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 5 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 58mn 7s
Bit rate                                 : 616 Kbps
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 402 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 25.000 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.085
Stream size                              : 256 MiB (82%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 125 r2208 d9d2288
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=19.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language                                 : English
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : 40
Duration                                 : 58mn 7s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 119 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                         : 132 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : 80ms
Stream size                              : 49.5 MiB (16%)


Guys, the MEDIA INFO analysis of the offending file (in the previous post) seems to indicate that the MP4 subsidiary files meet the WD Media Player’s requirements.

Is that the case? If so, can anyone suggest a fix for the problem? 

Writing application                      : Peter Bishop

??

You could split a sample with MP4BoxGUI or YAMB and upload it to sendspace.com so we can give it a try. You are correct that from the file specs it looks like it should be working.

Quickest way to fix it … Re-Encode it (eg. Handbrake) 

Re-Encoding a 311MB file would probably take 5-10 Minutes (if that)

Personal example: i got a 3 hour movie a few days ago … played fine for the 1st hour then it started to get really choppy. (like it was dropping frames)

File plays fine on PC (of course :wink:)  but has problems playing on my WDTV Live Hubs internal HDD

Mediainfo:     Result = nothing wrong, winthin spec

MKVToolNix:  Result = Remuxed the file, Time taken: 4 Mins  (did’nt fix it)

Handbrake: Re-encoded the entire 3Gig file, Time taken: 50mins

Result: plays perfectly now