Hi
I have a WD TV (not WD TV Live) and I installed the latest firmware 1.02.17.
I ripped my own blu-ray movies into a MKV format, but without any compression, so the files are easliy 20-30 Gb. Untill recently I had not noticed that - when playing some movies - the image stutters. Not all my rips have this luckely.
Changing the HDMI setting on WD TV to 25p, 50p, or 60p does not change anything. I did this because some posts argue that this could be the reason, but nope! On the other hand, playing the same MKV on my Mac works fine!
I tried everything - even installing an older firmware version - but nothing works… Can anyone help me out here??
Is the WD TV processor too slow to handle these files? I guess no, because some MKV are 3 times the size and they play fine. Strange
Many thanks!
memling wrote:
when playing some movies - the image stutters.
Stutters? Or Judders? Two different things.
Judder is induced when frame rates don’t match.
Stutter is too generic a term to pin down a cause, but the first thing to look into is the bitrate.
Playing a straight Blu-ray rip in an MKV file over a wired network shouldn’t cause the WD TV problems at all.
With framerate set to auto you shouldn’t see any judder.
Hello TonyPh12345
I forgot to mention that I play the MKV from a USB attached HD, so strange. Should I consider downgrading the firmware again?
When I play a MKV, I sete immediately that every 2-3 sec, the image ‘jumps’ a frame or two = stutter ?
In your original post you state you tried 25p … which is wrong, there is No “25p” setting … only 1080p 24Hz
Note: Your TV *must* be capable of 24Hz for this setting to play properly (my Panasonic Full-HD TV is)
failing that …
post a mediainfo output of your file …
https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo
eg. I ripped my Starship Troopers Blu-Ray *uncompressed* and it plays fine
General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Complete name : D:\ALL\Starship Troopers.m2ts
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 25.8 GiB
Duration : 2h 9mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 28.5 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 35.5 Mbps
Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : VC-1
Format profile : Advanced@L3
Codec ID : 234
Duration : 2h 9mn
Bit rate : 26.7 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.537
Stream size : 24.2 GiB (94%)
Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 2h 9mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 593 MiB (2%)
Language : English
hello Joey
Of course you are right, I meant 1080p 24Hz. Thanks for bringing this to my attention :wink:
My Panasonic projector is capable of 24Hz, 50Hz,… Mmmmm…
So here’s a description of an MKV which stutters, I see nothing wrong with it?
Size: 17.96 GB
Format: Matroska/WebM file format
Chapters count: 13
Stream count: 4
Duration: 02:01:36
Bit rate: 21147 kb/s
Meta info:
title: A Most Wanted Man
creation_time: 2015-05-13 18:14:38
Stream 0
Type: video
Codec: vc1
Codec profile: Advanced
FourCC: WVC1
Width: 1920
Height: 1080
Sample aspect ratio: 1:1
Display aspect ratio: 16:9
Pixel format: yuv420p
Frame rate: 23.98 fps
Default: YES
Stream 1
Type: audio
Codec: dca
Codec profile: DTS-HD MA
Bit rate: 1536 kb/s
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Sample format: s16
Channel: 6
Default: YES
Meta info:
language: eng
Stream 2
Type: subtitle
Codec: pgssub
Default: YES
Meta info:
language: nld
Stream 3
Type: subtitle
Codec: pgssub
Meta info:
language: fra
Stream 0
Type: video
Codec: vc1
Codec profile: Advanced
FourCC: WVC1
Width: 1920
Height: 1080
Sample aspect ratio: 1:1
Display aspect ratio: 16:9
Pixel format: yuv420p
Frame rate: 23.98 fps
Default: YES
That doesn’t look right 
and is the most likely cause of stuttering
“Standard” framerates for TV/Film are
25.000 fps (PAL)
29.97 fps (NTSC)
23.976 fps (FILM)
Hello Joey
I guess mediainfo does a kind of round : it shows 23.98 fps but when I have a look with VLC I can see 23.976 fps for the same file.
I will call WD Support tomorrow and ask their input.
Pretty desparate here :cry:
If you check them with MediaInfo, I would bet that any files giving you trouble are VC-1 encoded files. I have the exact same problem except I am using a PC. Problem is I don’t know if it’s MakeMKVs fault (my ripping software) or it’s the WDTVs fault. Here’s a bit of info on 2 files that I ripped, Batman and Hot Fuzz:
Batman
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 22.5 GiB
Duration : 2h 6mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 25.5 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2015-08-01 23:30:29
Writing application : MakeMKV v1.9.5 win(x64-release)
Writing library : libmakemkv v1.9.5 (1.3.0/1.4.1) win(x64-release)
Video
ID : 1
Format : VC-1
Format profile : Advanced@L3
Codec ID : V_MS/VFW/FOURCC / WVC1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 2h 6mn
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Hot Fuzz
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 23.5 GiB
Duration : 2h 0mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 27.8 Mbps
Movie name : Hot Fuzz
Encoded date : UTC 2015-08-09 11:18:48
Writing application : MakeMKV v1.9.5 win(x64-release)
Writing library : libmakemkv v1.9.5 (1.3.0/1.4.1) win(x64-release)
Attachements : cover.jpg
Video
ID : 1
Format : VC-1
Format profile : Advanced@L3
Codec ID : V_MS/VFW/FOURCC / WVC1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 2h 0mn
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Both of them contain the line:
‘Compression mode : Lossy’
I wonder if that is correct? Maybe that value is causing the WDTV to incorrectly identify the file. Should it be lossy? That value is not contained in any of my other rips that aren’t VC-1 as they don’t show an entry for ‘Compression mode’. But I don’t know enough about the software to be sure. However as these files play back fine on the VLC software player, maybe it’s the WDTV and it just needs a firmware update to fix the problem.
Only way I could get the VC-1 encoded files to playback smoothly on the WDTV was to change the Video Output to 1080i 60Hz. Which presents a further problem. Manually changing the video output is a pain as it seems to immediately break the WDTV unit, stopping it from playing any video files, and I have to do a ‘Device Restart’ from the settings menu every time in order to get it working again. So I just wind up leaving it on 1080i which is not exactly ideal.
Hello DarthCalis
Thanks for your input. I looked at my MKV which stutter, and YES, they are all encoded with VC-1. Allthough I have other MKV encoded in VC-1 which don’t pose any difficulty, this is a step further in figuring out what’s going wrong.
I did not get a satisfying answer from WD Helpdesk. They said their software is ok, it should be the conversion which is wrong.
But, to prove my point, I re-encoded a blu-ray which stuttered, and yes, exactly the same problem with the new MKV.
I do not see the line ‘Compression mode’ in Media-info (version 1.2 Mac). I guess you are right, the WDTV propably would need a firmware update to tackle this problem. Your suggestion to set the WDTV at 1080i 60Hz did not work either:confounded:
If I would find a solution, I will definately came back! Strange that I have not read similar complaint on the WDTV forum?! There must be others with the same issues, not??
My VC-1 files play just perfectly fine … (on all WDTV’s from Gen1 up to the latest WDTV) link to my post on page(1)
http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Media-Player/WD-TV-stutter-blu-ray-MKV-rip/m-p/880887#M2984
i did not use MakeMKV
it was a while ago, but from memory i used Clown BD http://www.videohelp.com/software/Clown-BD
note: this was an uncompressed stream (similiar to how MakeMKV rips) also note, my resulting file is … m2ts
i’m not suggesting you use it … but i would highly recommend using different software other than MakeMKV
i do remember reading people having playback issues with MakeMKV ripped files.
Well, to make things even more confusing, today I tried playing some mkv files off my media server (Synology DS1815+) using a PS3 and a PS4 and they all play fine, even the VC-1 files. It has crossed my mind that my WDTV unit might be faulty, however I have gut feeling that it’s not. I can’t help thinking there’s some little thing I’m missing somewhere in my setup that’s causing the issue with the VC-1 files not playing back properly on the WDTV.
I did also read on another forum that the issues some were having with VC-1 files was confined to those files with a framerate of 23.976fps so that’s something else that might narrow it down. If I remember right in the same forum it also said that it was a problem with software that uses ffmpeg, but I thought that MakeMKV only used ffmpeg to convert audio so I don’t think that would be the issue.
Personally, I do like using MakeMKV because it’s so simple and I don’t need any other sofware to defeat the blu ray security, but when I get a chance I will try some alternative software and see if it solves the problem.
