Yet another MP4 question

Community Archives WD TV Mini
1

I picked up my Mini about a week ago. I actually like it (especially for the price) with one glaring exception, it will not play any of my MP4 movies.  It states on the box itself that it does in fact support the format but not one single MP4 movie will play.  I do not have a problem with searching out a different file format for future movies, however, I do not want to go through and change the 200+ that I allready have.

I upgraded to the latest firmware at the get go. I have seen several posts stating the same problem but have been unable to find any replies from a tech or anyone else with advice as to what I would need to do to get the unit to play what it is supposed to in the first place. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2

Where on the box does it say it supports them? Any pics? All of the other WD TVs do (I have like 8 of them in different flavors), but my mini box does not mention it. I’d be interested to see if they updated the box or something?

3

Well MP4 is written on my box and it is written in product specifications: here.

But mp4 consists of codecs and probably those in your videos are among those who are unsupported.

4

It says right in the manual that it will play an .mp4 video if:

  • video codec is one of MPEG-4, MP4V, MP42 – up to 720x576
  • audio codec is AAC-LC

Do you have the MediaInfo of .mp4 files that won’t play?

5

RoofingGuy wrote:

It says right in the manual that it will play an .mp4 video if:

 

  • video codec is one of MPEG-4, MP4V, MP42 – up to 720x576
  • audio codec is AAC-LC

 

Do you have the MediaInfo of .mp4 files that won’t play?

It’s 6 months that I’m trying to solve this problem (WD support, this Forum) but the only thing I read is

something like :

  • it’s not supported (wrong) and after “how do you encode it?”

Nobody provide a working example of a mp4 (or mkv) working file.

Anyway, I’ll talk about mp4 (about mkv is in another thread).

here are an mp4 made by me along with is mediainfo file (.info)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1945071/DVDVolume%20-%20Italiano%20-%20xvid%20aac.mp4

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1945071/DVDVolume%20-%20Italiano%20-%20xvid%20aac.mp4.info

This is a mp4 file with 1 video 2 audio 2 subtitle tracks.

The mp4 container (mpeg4 part 14, is the official draft of the container) allow

multiple audio and multiple subtitles (ok, the subtitle cannot be seen because

the standard do not foresee VobSub).

What it would be worth knowing is (when I say “you” I mean “WD”):

  1. Do you play this mp4? (I don’t see the video, only the audio but only one track)

  2. Anything wrong from the info file?

  3. Can you provide a mp4 with multiple audio tracks and subtitles that is possibile to fully

play with this player?

What is not clearly stated into the manual has to be supposed working as the standard says:

I can’t say, for example, that a player plays AVI if the supported audio tracks are not both

AC£ and mp3, unless in some part of the manual this is stated. So a mp4 is not supported

if the player is not able to read additional audio tracks without clearly stating this.

Hope this helps.

6

Even on VLC on my computer, which will just about play anything, the video is bad, but the audio works.

In fact, VLC will play the Japanese track too, not just the Italian, and the subtitles.

But the video is bad.

Whatever was used to make this .mp4, it does not make good files.

Google Translation:

Anche su VLC sul mio computer, che sarà solo di suonare di tutto, il video è male, ma le opere audio.

In realtà, VLC giocherà la pista giapponese troppo, non solo l’italiano, ei sottotitoli.

Ma il video è male.

Qualunque sia stato usato per fare questo. Mp4, non fa bene i file.

7

RoofingGuy wrote:

Even on VLC on my computer, which will just about play anything, the video is bad, but the audio works.

 

In fact, VLC will play the Japanese track too, not just the Italian, and the subtitles.

 

But the video is bad.

 

Whatever was used to make this .mp4, it does not make good files.

 

The video is poor in quality on purpose: I cannot waste too much time providing videos

for WD (even though, WD doesn’t make the same).

In my post I wrote that the video is not displayed at all.

Thank you for having pointed out that the video quality is poor but we are talking about

the badness of WD mini and my assertion is that my mp4 (it’s a sample, it’s not what I use)

isn’t played correctly: in fact, on WD mini the video is not displayed!

8

I meant it wouldn’t play in VLC either… I got audio, but no picture for most of it.  If it won’t play in one machine, it’s not likely to play on another.

The video stream is bad… not low quality.  It is an improper video stream.

9

RoofingGuy wrote:

I meant it wouldn’t play in VLC either… I got audio, but no picture for most of it.  If it won’t play in one machine, it’s not likely to play on another.

 

The video stream is bad… not low quality.  It is an improper video stream.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Anyway on my linux:

FFplay plays it smoothly

Mplayer plays it smoothly

Xine plays it even though complaining for some damaged headers

VLC Doesn’t play the video.

Could anyone provide a mp4 with 2 audio tracks and at least 1 subtitle that is supposed

to be played by this player?

10

Will this play on your Mini?

http://uploading.com/files/995842ca/DorkyGhost.mp4/

I don’t have a Mini to test it myself.

It meets what you asked for, howerever, even if it is only 30 seconds.

It has MPEG-4 video (although very grainy… it’s actually a blown-up cellphone camera video).

It has 2 separate audio tracks, in AAC-LC.

It has a subtitle track.

11

RoofingGuy wrote:

Will this play on your Mini?

http://uploading.com/files/995842ca/DorkyGhost.mp4/

 

 

 

I don’t have a Mini to test it myself.

 

It meets what you asked for, howerever, even if it is only 30 seconds.

 

It has MPEG-4 video (although very grainy… it’s actually a blown-up cellphone camera video).

It has 2 separate audio tracks, in AAC-LC.

It has a subtitle track.

It plays but…

No subtitles at all

Only the first audio track is played.

I mean, the player says that there are no subtitle at all and only one audio track.

12

Then it looks like the Mini only supports one audio track in an .mp4 container, and can only use external subtitle files.  Now you know.

The manual doesn’t seem overly clear about that.

13

RoofingGuy wrote:

Then it looks like the Mini only supports one audio track in an .mp4 container, and can only use external subtitle files.  Now you know.

 

The manual doesn’t seem overly clear about that.

I already knew. It’s WD that doesn’t seem to know.

If the manual is not clear about this, it’s not my fault. If something claims to

be compliant with a standard it’s up to the manual to state what’s is different.

MPEG4-part14 says that the “mp4” container supports multiple audio tracks; if

WD does not write that is not able to do that someone in its team is wrong.

The funny thing is that for AVI it’s able to play multiple tracks while the original AVI standard

dows not allow multiple tracks.

I’ve left enough info into this forum (see other threads) and I’ve exchanged enough mail

with the so called “WD support”.

Now people know that for AVI it is a good player, for the rest it **bleep**.