Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Why wouldn't a blu-ray player be able to play mp4 files?

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-16-2012, 02:47 PM:

I downloaded a few old TV shows in avi format. My BR player (a fairly new Panasonic) states in its instruction manual that it will play mp4 files, but not avi. So I found a utility online to convert the files to mp4.

I put those files onto a thumb drive, put that into the player and.... it said "This USB device is not compatible."

So I copied the files onto an external hard drive. This time, the player will list the directory and it will play other files off the drive (pictures and such) but when I try to play one of these mp4s, it just says "Cannot play this program."

I thought maybe the utility was to blame, so I tried re-rendering one of the original avi files into an mp4 using my normal video editing softare....still no luck.

What am I missing? Are these players normally this picky or is this just a Panasonic thing? Both the avi and mp4 files play fine on my computer.

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 08-16-2012, 03:08 PM:

Try ripping the files to a dvd or BR disc. I am willing to bet that the mp4 compatibility isn't valid for the USB input.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 08-16-2012, 04:39 PM:

Also could be that your program that created the files is using an a perfectly valid mp4 video/audio scheme, but which are unsupported by your player.

As mentioned at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4_Part_14
Most of the registered mp4 video codecs are not supported by most mp4 players out there.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-16-2012, 09:46 PM:

It doesn't say anything about codecs or other stuff in the manual (understandably) but it does list mp4 as being playable from a USB device.

Anyway I'll try Tony's idea of putting the files on a DVD and see if that works.

I miss the good old days when you could put your videocassette into a player and it would just play. (Sigh) I'm sure someday today's kids will look back at all the problems we had with our electronics and go, "I can't BELIEVE they had to go through all that crap just to watch a TV show!"

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 08-16-2012, 10:56 PM:

Wasn't DIVX a program to create MP4 and play back compressed MP4 video at one time?

I do believe that SONY's PSP and their UMD discs contained MP4 content - a highly compressed video and audio format.

MP4 (or part 14) is a container file for video and audio to allow streaming content. Movie or video clip that uses MPEG-4 compression, a standard developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG); commonly used for sharing video files on the Internet.

Plenty of converters out there to convert MP4 (and FLV) files to AVI files for DVD burning.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-17-2012, 01:32 PM:

Well...it must be a problem with the mp4 codec as Chris stated. I put the files onto a DVD, and the machine wouldn't even list them. It would recognize the DVD, but not list the files.

So then I put a couple of files onto an SD card -- on that, the machine would list the directory but would not play the files.

Maybe there's some way of connecting the TV and computer -- we have wireless internet in the house -- but I don't think this particular TV has that capability.

Posted by William Brittain (Member # 6528) on 08-17-2012, 05:40 PM:

Our new Film-Tech DCS came with a Panasonic BR player that has USB input and I had the same problems. The disk reader supports multiple video formats, however I was disappointed to find the USB only supports the Matroska (.mkv) container after trying several video formats. I much prefer using flash drives to old tedious disk burning. Panasonic USB also does not support video loop one/loop all playback or continuous playlist, only file-by-file from the root menu. It also starts playback of mp3 before I even have a chance to look at the playlist, which I do not like.

Even the mkv container has to have a certain codec configuration. I believe what finally worked for me was encoding the mkv package with mpeg4 video and AC-3 audio, as some of my tests had picture but no sound. You might also try mkv>xvid or mkv>h264 codec, I don't remember at the moment. I got tired of fooling with file conversions and went back to laptop-thru-VGA connection which plays every vid I have as is.

At home I have a Philips disk player with great USB support, it has much more satisfying playback than Panasonic, I have a Seagate 1TB drive plugged in with a ton of videos I pick and choose from an Explorer-type menu. I would suggest looking at the Philips 5000 series for a player with the most versatile and up-to-date USB multiple file support.

Could it be a problem with your flash drive brand? I've had no problems with Lexar and PNY...
Panasonic DMP-BD75 Blu-ray specs

Posted by William Brittain (Member # 6528) on 08-18-2012, 12:03 PM:

Also make sure your flash drive is formatted to the standard FAT32 file system, not NTFS

Posted by Jim Henk (Member # 3628) on 08-18-2012, 04:49 PM:

Sounds like he got other stuff on his USB stick to show up, so I'm sure it's not a device incompatibility.

Mp4 is weird. I'm wrestling right now with trying to get properly converted AC3 to mp4 files to pass surrounds through an Apple TV to my receiver. Downloaded mp4 with surround signal works just like a charm, but apparently mp4 covers a *multitude* of sins, and some mp4 formats are not the same as others.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-18-2012, 10:50 PM:

The thumb drive (flash drive) would not work -- the machine just said "This USB device is not compatible." (Why can't they figure out a way to make it say WHY it's not cmpatible?)

Where I was able to see files was from an external USB hard drive. It would list the files and show still pics but would not play the mp4s. Would just give a "Cannot play this program" message (again with no explanation).

Posted by Chuck McGregor (Member # 6826) on 08-20-2012, 06:39 AM:

quote:
Mike Blakesley:
I'm sure someday today's kids will look back at all the problems we had with our electronics and go, "I can't BELIEVE they had to go through all that crap just to watch a TV show!"

Digital technology has brought a wealth of riches. It is the very breadth of this wealth that has the users causing the technology to trip all over itself.

I recently bought a Sony BD player/receiver. It can play 3 things: audio, video, and pictures. The prodigious list of formats it can deal with means it is not a trival task to do any of these things.

There is something to be said for a monopolistic approach to some technological developments. Not surprisingly, this simply reflects the ongoing human dichotomy between the individual and the collective. This MP4 dilemma is a case of the collective getting the short end of the stick -- in this instance a USB stick [sex]