atc98092 wrote:First, you must remember that MP4 and MKV are simply containers, and the video and audio codecs within them are vary. Your Samsung appears to be having an issue with a codec within one of the files. Generally, MP4 containers have a supported video codec, but it sounds like you might have some that don't. What we need to know is what codecs are in the files that won't play. If you look at my signature line, there's a link to a page that tells how to retrieve the contents of a media file. Use those instructions and let us know what codecs are being used in a file that won't play.
Yes, Serviio will transcode files that are recognized as unsupported. It's all controlled by the profile Serviio has assigned to your TV. But that profile is likely assuming that anything within an MP4 container is supported, so does not attempt to transcode. Every profile has to make some assumptions about the file contents, although some profiles are more detailed than others to catch these outliers. You are likely using the Samsung E/F TV profile. I just took a quick look at it, and I only see one MP4 matches line, for LPCM audio. So it will only transcode an MP4 file if PCM audio is detected. It will also transcode any video that has a higher resolution than 1080, regardless of container. So depending on your media, you might need a customized profile.
Your other option is to use something like Handbrake to convert your unplayable files. Transcoding doesn't work quite the way you think. It can't convert MP4 to MKV. As I said, those are just containers. Most profiles transcode into a MPEG-TS stream, with some using a few other formats. The TS stream contains the codecs either as they were in the original container (if they are supported) or transcoded into a supported codec.
Dear Dan,
Thank you very much for responding to my post.
I am familiar with how mediafiles work, about how they are encoded, about media containers, codecs etc.
I am / Serviio is indeed using the standard Samsung E/F TV profile.
I also know I can ofcourse convert the MP4 files to an other format which I did before with for example Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate, but if you have alot of mediafiles or download alot its quite a hassle/time consuming.
About the transcoding bit... I really dont mind how Serviio transcodes the file as long as it does it so it would be quite helpful!
Anyways like I said before, the Samsung UE46F8000 TV with Serviio plays almost everything except for that MP4 type of movie.
I went to your page that tells about how to get the content of a videofile. I will post my findings here.
I recently I downloaded a same type op MP4 file from the same type of content from the same contentcreator which for some reason does play on the Samsung UE46F8000 so I have made a FFMPEG.exe -i and MediaInfo. I will post those results to.
MediafileInfoSaMP4.jpg is from the MP4 file / type of file that WONT play on the Samsung UE46F8000
MediafileinfoCAMP4.jpg is from the MP4 file of the same content/contentcreator that does work on the Samsung UE46F8000
FFMPEGSACAMP4.jpg is from both files. On the left you see the FFMPEG -i of the SA.mp4 file / type of file that WONT play on the Samsung UE46F8000, on the right you see the FFMPEG -i of the CA.mp4 file which is the MP4 file from the same content/contentcreator that does work on the Samsung UE46F8000
I hope with this information we can add something to the standard Samsung E/F TV Profile so that it will start transcoding those non working MP4 files.
Awaiting your response!