Multichannel AAC audio in *.mov unsupported?

Hi guys,

wanted to know if I was the only one with this problem or if it is widespread : I enjoy viewing and showcasing *.mov trailers on my full HD TV via the WD TV LIVE Media Player but I’ve noticed that the only ones that had sound were the ones who had only 2 channels…The multichannel ones, even though they are encoded in AAC audio ( Format which seems to be supported by the device. ) do not have any sound. (And yes I have a 5.1 Home cinema system and I could view multichannel AC3 and DTS *.mkv movies fine with no sound problems.)

I would also like to add that I still use firmware version 1.01.24 and do not intend to update to the latest one, since I’m reading over here so many problems about it…

You need to look at the .mov with mediainfo and post details of the tracks.

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en   (freeware - you can right click on most A/V and get full info on its make-up.)

That’s what I did already, otherwise how would I know the number of channels in the file ?

As far as I can see the multichannel audio is made up of 6 discrete channels which of course the WDTV would not be able to handle (or it seems hardly anything else)

http://www.thismuchiknow.co.uk/?p=34

  1. You might have a movie file with a 6-channel AAC soundtrack – such as one of Apple’s  high-definition movie trailers. These soundtracks have six discrete audio channels – one each for Left, Center, Right, Left Surround, Right Surround, and LFE (Low Frequency Effects). Each channel is encoded in AAC format.

To play a 6-channel AAC file on a Mac, you would need an audio device with six discrete audio outputs (such as the  Griffin FireWave). This will only work with a Mac, as you can’t add external audio devices such as the FireWave to the Apple TV.

It’s unlikely you’ll have one of these soundtracks, unless you’ve downloaded one of the Apple HD trailers.


We may have been able to see that if you had included the results from mediainfo!

If you do end up with a six channel AAC file you can convert it to a playable form with ffmpeg.

Ok I’ll try out ffmpeg but do you guys think this is something WD can fix through a Firmware update ?