Thanks for your inputs everyone. Glad to see many of you on the same boat as me and putting in the effort to do debugging to narrow the problem down.
To the guys that suspect that it is a problem with the MP4’s themselves and not a problem that exists in the WDTV Live: it’s a good suggestion, and I found it interesting that somehow an MP4 produced in Handbrake would have audio sync issues whereas MP4’s encoded with other software did not. I’m no tech guru, but I would assume that the h264 container is a standard that all encoders would adhere to, but obviously this isn’t the case judging from your test results. But the fact remains that the 1.0 firmware works flawlessly as far as audio syncing is concerned. Not to mention these same MP4’s also play just fine on any computer. To me, this shows that the WD firmware had at one point the capability to play these MP4’s just fine, but somehow the audio sync programming in later firmware updates that came after fw 1.0 became broken.
To PixelPower: I will run mediainfo and post data later this evening.
To Guy_K: I have a bunch of mp4’s that don’t play correctly, but they’re all really huge full length movie files, but I’m super eager to get sample files submitted to you so that you guys can take a look at it. Can you or anyone else recommend a program to me that can split up a movie file into smaller segments? Thanks.
Sorry the thread started off with a bunch of negativity, but I’m glad and can’t say that I’m not happy that it’s become really productive now.
To me, this shows that the WD firmware had at one point the capability to play these MP4’s just fine, but somehow the audio sync programming in later firmware updates that came after fw 1.0 became broken.
To PixelPower: I will run mediainfo and post data later this evening.
To Guy_K: I have a bunch of mp4’s that don’t play correctly, but they’re all really huge full length movie files, but I’m super eager to get sample files submitted to you so that you guys can take a look at it. Can you or anyone else recommend a program to me that can split up a movie file into smaller segments? Thanks.
Sorry the thread started off with a bunch of negativity, but I’m glad and can’t say that I’m not happy that it’s become really productive now.
Yeah, it’s usually the case that the most active members are the ones with the biggest issues and therefore are the most negative. ;)
I’ve used YAMB and gotten along well with it but have seen some critical comments regarding it’s stability (including a worrying tale of it trashing the start menu on uninstall!). No experience with My MP4Box GUI but apparently it works really well and gets a high rating.
Make sure to double-check the sample and make sure it’s long enough to exhibit the issue. Sorry if I’m stating the obvious!
In any case, give it a whirl. :) Not sure how Guy_K wants the file but if you can upload to a public sharing site (megaupload?) I wouldn’t mind trying it out on my setup. Almost all my files are MKV or else MP4 with AC3. :)
To Guy_K: I have a bunch of mp4’s that don’t play correctly, but they’re all really huge full length movie files, but I’m super eager to get sample files submitted to you so that you guys can take a look at it. Can you or anyone else recommend a program to me that can split up a movie file into smaller segments? Thanks.
you also try AviDemux (free) - Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks.
When I got this device, one of the reasons was to find a ps3 alternative that would work with subtitles. SRT inside the MP4 did not work, but if I used SAMBA share and had an SRT file named same as MP4, as you know it loads, and works well. I decided to try IN mp4 again, due to some notes in release notes. So I used Subler to put the SRT into mp4, and it works perfect. This is great, because it also means I do NOT have to use SAMBA shares to play MP4s anymore, I can use a UPNP server, like Twonky or Playback. I am testing it now, works great. Still have the audio drop out issue, but the experience is getting better.
The only negative, is that wdtvlive doesn’t support chapters, and also thinks the chapters track is subtitles. But I can live with that.
So if I was forced to list my priorities, or I should say, if you were forced to listen to my priorities…
Fix AAC audio dropout issue.
When choosing DIGITAL on settings instead of stereo, decode AAC and send through hdmi as multi-channel PCM like the PS3.
If just the above were fixed, and nothing new was broken, I would buy at least 2 more, recommend them, and replace my PS3 in my home theater. Of course, I am just one guy, but here is hoping.
And lastly, I can live without, but what the hell…
Support chapters in MP4
Parental controls based on iTunes/Subler style ratings.
I would be happy to take one for the team, and send a disk of full length 1080P files that can be tested. I have a ton of disks, SATA 500GB and 250GB disks that I replaced for larger from servers. I can load up a bunch of files and send, but I would want to be contacted personally by some staff member so that if I do this I know I am sending it to the right place, and that it will do some good.
I can fill up a 500GB SATAII drive that you can test, all are encoded backups done with handbrake from MakeMKV blurays that I own, all with chapters, some with 3GPP Text subtitles embedded, most with multiple audio tracks, usually the first AAC track is 5.1 AAC and then I add commentary tracks.
So if WD staff would like to take me up on this, and you don’t have to send the disk back, contact me at ragboy - at - mac - dot - com
OK, so I loaded up 475 GB of MP4/AAC files, most 5.1 AAC, many with extra commentary tracks. A couple of 7.1 AAC MP4 files, some files that don’t play due to the libmp4v2 optimization issue, that play on anything else. MP4/AAC 5.1 files with SRT subtitles in them, and a couple of raw MKVs from makemkv with DTSHD and PCM.
Sending out UPS today, should get to WD tomorrow, since we are both in california. Hope it helps, be happy to send other samples if necessary.
Wow Ragboy thank you for doing this! The entire wdc community owes you big time. Sorry I never got a chance to break up my own mp4’s and provide them to the WD staff, but I was checking out the latest 1.02.21 fw and I noticed that some MP4’s were playing perfectly synced (although with audio dropouts every 5 seconds or so), some MP4’s were playing slightly off sync although could be “resynced” if I simply fastforwarded the video and played it again, and some MP4’s were not synced no matter what I did.
I guess there is no need for me to provide any MP4’s now that Ragboy went beyond the call of duty, but here’s the media info for some of my movies anyway just for kicks.
What about .MKVs encoded with h264 and AAC or AC3.
Presumably the .MP4 audio sync issue is the same as the .MKV audio sync issue?
WD can you test some .MKVs too? Maybe recode those MP4s as MKVs, they should experience the same audio sync issues. Then make sure your firmware update fixes both the .MP4 and .MKV files.
