Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: samsung tv can not play mp4

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Posted by Yoyo Smith (Member # 10139) on 08-24-2017, 03:48 AM:

hi, I do not know is it appropriate to ask the question here, sorry for my disturbing. My Samsung 55" Smart TV will not play two MP4 files I have on a WD HDD (Plugged into the USB Port). Both files display "The selected file is not currently supported". I searched a lot but in vain including http://www.videoconverterfactory.com/tips/samsung-tv-mp4.html and https://community.netgear.com/t5/Stora-Legacy/Why-can-t-I-watch-mp4-files-on-my-TVs/td-p/434351 Anyone has any idea? Thanks a lot

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-24-2017, 05:08 AM:

This is most definitely the wrong sub-forum and most likely the wrong forum entirely.

This particular sub-forum deals with professional, digital cinema gear and the forum in particular is targeted at the technical and operational aspects of cinema as a whole.

Regarding your particular problem: Please keep in mind that MP4 is a container format and the extension alone doesn't say anything particular about the type of encoding used for both audio and video inside the file. The most likely issue is simply the content inside being encoded in a compression format that's not supported by your smart TV. In that case, you could potentially fix it by transcoding it to a format that your TV will support.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-24-2017, 11:55 PM:

I have a 65" Samsung TV. It will play MP4 files from attached hard drives or memory sticks. But, yes, MP4 is simply a container file that can hold video encoded in different ways. If the MP4 file has video encoded in standard MPEG-4 AVC format it should be able to play on the TV set without any problem.

Either the MP4 files you're trying to play have video encoded in an odd format or the files might be corrupted.

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 08-25-2017, 11:57 AM:

quote: Yoyo Smith
will not play two MP4 files I have on a WD HDD

So, you can actually see the file names, or the content of the HDD?

The reason I ask is that one of the screening rooms I work at has a 55in
Samsung out in their lobby (which may or may not be the same model
as yours) and I know the manual for that TV specifically states that it
does not support HDD's on the USB ports. Only USB sticks or thumb drives.
(Probably has something to do with having to power the HDD but if I'm
correctly reading Bobby's post above, it seems he's able to connect an HDD
to his Samsung. So maybe it depends on the exact TV model number)

That being said- - it might be something with whatever program was
used to encode the mp4 files.

For example, I used to download .wav podcasts and use Roxio software
to convert them to mp3's so I could listen on a portable player I had. But
Roxio adds some extra metadata to the conversion, and I think somebody
once told me it's only used by their program to speed up indexing or
some other function within their software. Most mp4 players, including
two that I had, simply ignored the extra 'Roxio data'.

But I had a 3rd portable mp3 player, and also a desktop one that would
give me an 'unrecognized file format' error if I tried to play back the
same files that worked on the two portable players.

So, I'm just bringing that up, since you may have a similar type of issue.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-25-2017, 03:12 PM:

Perhaps some of the problem could involve the age/product generation of the TV set.

For instance, my old Playstation 3 slim is pretty picky about what gets connected to its USB ports. It will read most flash memory sticks just fine, but it will only read hard disc drives if they're formatted in FAT32. Most large capacity hard drives sold these days are pre-formatted in Windows NTFS. An old PS3 will not see a drive formatted like that or in Mac-based HFS+ or APFS.

My Samsung TV set is only a couple years old. Its USB ports will see data on just about anything I connect to those ports, be it a bus-powered hard disc, memory stick or even my Android phone (a Samsung Note 5).

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 08-25-2017, 09:50 PM:

Get something like Handbrake to convert the MP4 files to some other supported format?