WD TV Live Media Player not playing most x264 format mp4

Since several sites are starting to change from posting avi to h264 and x264, I have encountered difficulties playing x264 on my WD TV Live media player (but not avi, mkv or h264). Error message advises me I’m trying tpo play unsupported format. Recently I downloaded x264 that does play. I have used media info but can see no discernable differences between the two files.

This one plays on my WD TV Live

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 34s

Bit rate : 589 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) : 0.081

Stream size : 247 MiB (82%)

Writing library   : x264 core 122 r2184 5c85e0a

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 / 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.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Audio

ID   : 2

Format : AAC

Format/Info  : Advanced Audio Codec

Format profile  : LC

Codec ID   : 40

Duration : 58mn 34s

Bit rate mode  : Variable

Bit rate : 120 Kbps

Maximum bit rate : 143 Kbps

Channel(s) : 2 channels

Channel positions  : Front: L R

Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz

Compression mode  : Lossy

Delay relative to video  : -1s 600ms

Stream size                              : 50.1 MiB (17%)

But this one DOES NOT

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 : 57mn 32s

Bit rate  : 814 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)  : 0.113

Stream size  : 335 MiB (86%)

Writing library : x264 core 120 r2164 da19765

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 / 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.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Audio

ID : 2

Format  : AAC

Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec

Format profile  : LC

Codec ID : 40

Duration  : 57mn 32s

Bit rate mode  : Variable

Bit rate  : 117 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 : -1s 600ms

Stream size   : 48.2 MiB (12%)

I don’t mind re-encoding if necessary to watch shows but I need to know what’s wrong and how to fix it. Hope someone

has sum suggestions.

The information you posted from Media Info seems to be incomplete, since it does not show the filenames and the containers.  Based on the WD TV Live/ Live + user manual, x.264 is supported only using MKV as container.

1 Like

Sorry, Vadir, as a novice, I didn’t realize the other info was required as well. Here is the top section mediainfo for both files

CAN PLAY

General Complete name                            : C:\Users\Ron\Videos\Silent_Witness.15x04.HDTV_x264-FoV\Silent.Witness.S15E02.hdtv.x264-river.mp4 Format                                   : MPEG-4 Format profile                           : Base Media Codec ID                                 : isom File size                                : 346 MiB Duration                                 : 59mn 16s Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable Overall bit rate                         : 817 Kbps Encoded date                             : UTC 2012-04-02 21:44:22 Tagged date                              : UTC 2012-04-02 21:44:22

CANNOT PLAY

General Complete name                            : C:\Users\Ron\Videos\Silent_Witness.15x04.HDTV_x264-FoV\Silent.Witness.S15E04.hdtv_x264-fov.mp4 Format                                   : MPEG-4 Format profile                           : Base Media Codec ID                                 : isom File size                                : 302 MiB Duration                                 : 58mn 34s Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable Overall bit rate                         : 720 Kbps Writing application                      : Peter Bishop

Having problem with 20,000 character limit to include full text

Vibs-Vibs provided a solution in another post. I tried it and it works, (but don’t understand how or why - I just save the video and audio files again in MP4 container) but it seems to be a lot of work to convert virtually every sd x.264 file to play it on WD TV Live

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-General-Discussions/Unable-to-Play-Selected-Videos-Youtube-Downloaded-MP4-Videos/m-p/202276/highlight/true#M22237