how can one single H264 MP4 file not be supported?

[njitgrad]

I have four Samsung TVs in my house all hooked up to my LAN via ethernet cable. I also have a Synology NAS that streams MP4 videos to those TVs. The MP4s were encoded with Handbrake (using the High Profile preset). For some reason there is one MP4 file that I cannot play on my oldest TV. It is a 2009 Samsung LN46B650 and it connects to the NAS via DLNA (unlike the three newer TVs purchased between 2011 and 2014 which connect to the NAS directly using the NAS's media server).

This one TV can play all other MP4s created by Handbrake except this one. When I try to play around with the Handbrake settings and choose MPEG4 instead of H264 (and use two-pass) the old TV will play the file but the audio is slightly out of sync. Any suggestions on how I can figure out why I can't play this one single file??

[JVRaines]

What exactly does "cannot play" mean? What are the symptoms?

[njitgrad]

the tv says "not supported media format"

[Baldrick]

Post the full details from the mp4. Use MediaInfo. View -> text.

Or try use the normal profile in HandBrake.

[jagabo]

My guess is a mod 2 frame size.

[njitgrad]

Post the full details from the mp4. Use MediaInfo. View -> text.

Or try use the normal profile in HandBrake.

I've tried Normal as well.

I've even tried using the MP4 file produced by Handbrake (High Profile) as an input to create another High Profile (and Normal Profile) MP4 and the resulting files still cannot be played.

I've even used AGK to create an AVI file from the original source, and then used that AVI as an input to HB. The MP4 file produced by HB still cannot be played.

I've tried moving the MP4 file to another storage location on my NAS (to rule out the NAS as the source of the problem) and that made no difference.

Normally I can figure these kinds of issues out, but this one has me scratching my head.

I will post the MediaInfo stuff later today.

[njitgrad]

My guess is a mod 2 frame size.

Can you elaborate? Not that familiar with advanced HB settings.
And why just this MP4 and not the hundreds of others that I have?

[jagabo]

Handbrake automatically crops black bars from videos. By default it may leave the width or height a mod 2 size (an integer multiple of 2) depending on the size of the black bars. Many devices require mod 4. Some even require mod 8 or 16. So some players will reject a frame size like 1918x1080 (1918 is mod 2) but have no problem with 1916x1080 (1916 is mod 4).

[Cornucopia]

Would be a good idea to also post a "compliant" file 's spec for comparison.

Scott

[njitgrad]

Here is the media info:

General
Complete name : G:\bh.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 1 018 MiB
Duration : 1h 41mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 397 Kbps
Writing application : HandBrake 0.10.1 2015030800

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 1h 41mn
Bit rate : 845 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 360 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Minimum frame rate : 19.978 fps
Maximum frame rate : 642.857 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.136
Stream size : 615 MiB (60%)
Writing library : x264 core 142 r2479 dd79a61
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / 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=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=62500 / vbv_bufsize=78125 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Color primaries : BT.601 NTSC
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.601
Color range : Limited

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 1h 41mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 160 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 117 MiB (11%)
Title : Stereo / Stereo
Language : English

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : ac-3
Duration : 1h 41mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 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 : 280 MiB (27%)
Title : Surround / Surround
Language : English

Menu
ID : 4
Codec ID : text
Duration : 1h 41mn
Language : English
00:00:00.000 : Chapter 1
00:07:14.884 : Chapter 2
00:14:37.126 : Chapter 3
00:21:48.390 : Chapter 4
00:24:32.087 : Chapter 5
00:29:34.022 : Chapter 6
00:36:57.298 : Chapter 7
00:44:17.688 : Chapter 8
00:50:48.303 : Chapter 9
00:54:32.228 : Chapter 10
01:00:43.398 : Chapter 11
01:07:11.820 : Chapter 12
01:11:53.902 : Chapter 13
01:16:25.873 : Chapter 14
01:24:43.370 : Chapter 15
01:31:51.882 : Chapter 16
Bit rate mode : VBR

[johns0]

Variable frame rate is the issue.

[njitgrad]

Then why does this file play just fine:

General
Complete name : G:\dd.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 447 MiB
Duration : 21mn 16s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 936 Kbps
Writing application : HandBrake 0.10.1 2015030800

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 21mn 16s
Bit rate : 2 576 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Original display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Minimum frame rate : 19.978 fps
Maximum frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.311
Stream size : 392 MiB (88%)
Writing library : x264 core 142 r2479 dd79a61
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / 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=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=62500 / vbv_bufsize=78125 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Color primaries : BT.601 NTSC
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.601
Color range : Limited

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 21mn 15s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 160 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 24.3 MiB (5%)
Title : Stereo / Stereo
Language : English

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : ac-3
Duration : 21mn 15s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 29.2 MiB (7%)
Title : Stereo / Stereo
Language : English

Menu
ID : 4
Codec ID : text
Duration : 21mn 15s
Language : English
Bit rate mode : CBR
00:00:00.000 : Chapter 1
00:02:48.018 : Chapter 2
00:09:07.897 : Chapter 3
00:15:43.893 : Chapter 4

[johns0]

Look at the difference in the frame rates of the affected file.

[njitgrad]

I did notice one odd value in my problem file:

Maximum frame rate : 642.857 fps

Is this not right? My other TVs play this file just fine. Just not the 2009 model.

[njitgrad]

What would you do to correct this?

[johns0]

Re-encode it as a constant frame rate.

[jagabo]

Maybe you can just patch the header to indicate the max frame rate is a more reasonable value.

[njitgrad]

Maybe you can just patch the header to indicate the max frame rate is a more reasonable value.

How do you go about doing that?

[jagabo]

Maybe you can just patch the header to indicate the max frame rate is a more reasonable value.

How do you go about doing that?

I don't know, I'm just speculating. But MediaInfo doesn't parse the video stream, it only reads the header information. So that information must be in the header.

<edit>
You might try remuxing the file with mp4muxer or yamb.

[njitgrad]

Re-encode it as a constant frame rate.

I tried this but the resulting file still cannot be played. Well, I "think" I tried it. The only thing I did to override the HB preset was to select constant frame rate. I didn't actually specify a frame rate because I assumed it would do so automatically. There are so many to choose from I don't know which to pick.

[jagabo]

I can't find the post that discusses this now but as I understand it Handbrake usually uses variable frame rates for NTSC material in MP4 because MP4 uses a fixed time base (something like 1/80000 sec) that can't give exactly 30000/1001 or 24000/1001 fps. So it flags videos with those frame rates as VFR and alternates the display times for individual frames so they average out to the correct value. If you encode to MKV instead you won't have this problem.

[njitgrad]

Any other suggestions?

[Baldrick]

Yep. Get a portable player or a htpc that plays everything. .

[njitgrad]

Yep. Get a portable player or a htpc that plays everything. .

Just another remote to lose.

[racer-x]

Did you do what Jagabo recommended?

Demux to elemental streams, Then Remux the streams into an mp4 with mp4box/yamb. Enter 23.976 fps. in the framerate box.

[njitgrad]

Did you do what Jagabo recommended?

Demux to elemental streams, Then Remux the streams into an mp4 with mp4box/yamb. Enter 23.976 fps. in the framerate box.

Can you give me a step-by-step? I've never demuxed/remuxed a file before.