Samsung TV C-series corrected profile

hi everyone,

i just wanted to post this one for you, since it took me some time to figure it out. My Samsung UE40C5700 is not able to play MP4 containers with h264 video. I usually get the "Unsupported File Format" error, or some such.
I'm not sure, if this holds true for the rest of the C-series. Anyway, here's the fix for the profile in the Samsung TV / player (C/D/E-series) section:

  Code:

         <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="192" maxVBitrate="20000">
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" profile="high_10" />
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" profile="high" levelGreaterThan="4.2" />
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" profile="main" levelGreaterThan="4.2" />
                <Matches container="mp4" vCodec="mpeg4" aCodec="lpcm" />
                <Matches container="mp4" vCodec="h264" aCodec="lpcm" />
         </Video>


The added line is the last one. If you have multiple C/D/E-series TVs or players, you should probably copy/paste a complete profile section just for the C-series.
This did not fix all of my problems with .mp4 containers, but most. I have not yet figured out, why some h264/aac mp4's work, and some don't. Maybe the server did not yet refresh all of my library. It's grown quite large in the last decade or so. Anyway, if all else fails, you can always temporarily switch to the "DirecTV HD-DVR" profile. It's a bit overkill, but that worked for all my files.


00h

[zip]

you're transcoding mp4 with h264 and LPCM audio, not AAC.

seems to work for now, though.
that might explain, why some files work and others don't. I'll try <Matches container="mp4" vCodec="h264" aCodec="*" />.
it might be a general problem with h264 in a mp4 container.

00h

[zip]

aCodec="*" won't work, just leave out aCodec altogether to match any.

hm... looks like i got overly optimistic... here are the ffmpeg -i of two files. one works the other does not...

this one works:

  Code:

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'D:\PLAYS_JUST_FINE.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 1
    compatible_brands: isom
  Duration: 00:43:26.89, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1034 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 720x404,906 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 24k tbn, 47.95 tbc
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : GPAC ISO Video Handler
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 123 kb/s
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : GPAC ISO Audio Handler


this one doesn't:

  Code:

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'D:\UNKNOWN_FILE_FORMAT.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         :
  Duration: 00:43:18.16, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 984 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 720x404,838 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 20k tbn, 50 tbc
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 127 kb/s
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : SoundHandler


there's a whole bunch of differences in the details, but i'm not far enough into the whole thing to pinpoint the perpetrator.

i'll test leaving out the aCodec=...

00h

update:

leaving out the aCodec= part worked for both files. i have not been able to narrow it down more.

  Code:

 <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="192" maxVBitrate="20000">
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" profile="high_10" />
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" profile="high" levelGreaterThan="4.2" />
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" profile="main" levelGreaterThan="4.2" />
                <Matches container="mp4" vCodec="mpeg4" aCodec="lpcm" />
                <Matches container="mp4" vCodec="h264" />
         </Video>

00h

after checking a bunch of mp4 files, i could narrow it down to this:

mp4 files with minor_version=512 will not play on my UE40C5700. these have to be transcoded.

is there any way to specify this in the profile?

00h

[zip]

No, only major version is matched (ftyp)