Can't play MP4s on Samsung Plasma

[super_hunter]

I am creating videos of 1080 60p video captured off of two different cameras (Git2 and a Canon G7x). If I use the following output parameters for a MP4, that file will play fine on the Samsung 8500:
MPEG-4 Files
24 bits, 1280 x 720, 59.94 fps
Frame-based
H.264 Main Profile Video: 40000 Kbps, 16:9
48000 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo
MPEG AAC Audio: 256 Kbps

If I change the frame size to 1920x1080, the resultant file looks great on YouTube (much better than the 1280x720 file), but I get an error when playing the file off of my Twonky Server, with the Samsung TV software saying it cant play that video type. Have you folks seen something similar, a TV that is supposed to support that frame size not playing VideoStudio files cleanly? Any ideas how to resolve?

[BrianCee]

Does your TV play ANY files with that frame size - ones which have not been made in Videostudio for instance

1280 x 720 may be a standard size for Americam TV's - 1920 X 1080 is not - it is more of a UK PAL standard


....

[canuck]

Does the video from your camera play directly on your Samsung TV. I have found that there are several "formats" that the Samsung will not accept.

[super_hunter]

I will try to play directly from camera to TV here in a bit, and report back

[Ken Berry]

I am wondering, though, how old the Samsung is. He says it is a plasma model, which is getting pretty old these days. They mainly dated from a period when 1280 x 720 was the international standard for HDTV. So it could be that that is the maximum frame format his TV can deal with.

The only other thing I can think of would be to suggest he try changing the extension of the 1920 x 1080 clip from mp4 to mpg and see if that works.

[canuck]

I have never heard of 1280x720 being the North American TV standard.

I just created a 1920x1080 60p test video and it does not play on my Samsung 40" Smart TV
Next I created 1920x1080 60i (=1920x1080 30p) test video and it plays fine on the same TV.

My WD streamin media player though handles almost every format I throw at it

The Samsung 8500 Plasma series though is supposed to play all 1920x1080 formats as well as UHD and 3D.

It may depend thoug exactly which model the user has

[super_hunter]

I tried the trick of renaming the file extension, and that didnt change the outcome. I also tried plugging in the Sony and the Git2 cameras to the Samsung TV via USB, and the TVs software will only play still photos -- so that didnt yield any more diagnostics. The TV was purchased at the end of 2014 new. It talks about supporting 60fps through dejuggling or something like that, and it seems like its the 1920 size thats the problem. Its a PN64F8500. There are not a lot of MP4 output settings to tweak; but was just wondering if anybody had battled this on a smart tv and figured out if there was some MP4 output setting to get this to work. Youtube prefers MP4, but my experience is the 1920 frame size using 50000 as the bit rate yields really good results on Youtube's conversion software. I guess the workaround is to create two MP4s for each project, a TV version and a Youtube version

[canuck]

I tried the trick of renaming the file extension, and that didnt change the outcome. I also tried plugging in the Sony and the Git2 cameras to the Samsung TV via USB, and the TVs software will only play still photos -- so that didnt yield any more diagnostics. The TV was purchased at the end of 2014 new. It talks about supporting 60fps through dejuggling or something like that, and it seems like its the 1920 size thats the problem. Its a PN64F8500. There are not a lot of MP4 output settings to tweak; but was just wondering if anybody had battled this on a smart tv and figured out if there was some MP4 output setting to get this to work. Youtube prefers MP4, but my experience is the 1920 frame size using 50000 as the bit rate yields really good results on Youtube's conversion software. I guess the workaround is to create two MP4s for each project, a TV version and a Youtube version

I can't believe that that TVdoes not play video via USB even if not all formats. This is what the manual states:

Triple USB Ports: The television is equipped with three USB (type-A) ports. Two of the USB ports can accept a USB mass-storage-class device (5V, 0.5A), while the other USB port will accept a USB hard-disk-drive (5V, 1A). Either USB port lets you view photo and movie files, as well as listen to audio files saved on a compatible USB device. Files must be formatted in FAT16/32 or NTFS. The TV can recognize up to 1,000 files in each folder.

Video Playback: The TV supports the following video file types; AVI, Divx, H.264, MPEG, MKV, MOV, and WMV. Movie files are displayed in a folder and title list in either date or alphabetical order. The TV offers Play, Pause, Search, and Resume playback functions for compatible video files stored on a compatible USB device.

[snowstorm]

Totally agree with canuck both cameras should play find on this plasma(not that old model)

Yes connected to the TV ;I would personnaly use HDMI connections ,
If "super hunter' has the Smart Evolution Compatible package/KIT installed on the tv set then it would be wise to update the TV

My guess is that the Twonky Media server has is limation while streaming 1920 x 1080
May be the Twonky server could be updated.....

Best of luck..

snowstorm

[super_hunter]

Snowstorm - I played the MP4 from a thumb drive and I got the same video data type error, so that eliminates Twonky. I will call into Samsung one day when I am home and see if I can get someone more knowledgeable than the first go round.

[Ilene]

I have been experiencing some similar issues streamimg mp4's from my pc to my smart tv's via windows media server and through roku. The first few mp4's i created play back perfectly... Streamed over home network. Then i tweaked one of my videos, re-rendered using same parameter and I couldnt get it to play. It takes a long time to load and then it starts to play and then stops in the same place every time and wont re load. I can fast forward past the "cut out" point as the video starts and i can get other parts of the video to play but then it stutters and stops again. I always use the same parameters for my videos and went back to others in my library which seem to play fine. Ive re-rendered the video in question several times and same result -- problems w playback. Then by accident I rendered only 1/2 of the video (had a preview range set) and 1/2 the video played back perfect.
Size shouldn't be the issue. My videos are only 10-12 minutes. The average length rendered at the setting below is 1-1.3gb
The settings I use for rendereing are
Mp4
24 bits 1920x1080, 29.97fps (some of my finished videos are 30fps)
Frame based
H.264 high profile video 15000 kbps
48000hz, 16bit stereo
Mpeg aac audio 256kbps

I should note that all ny projects consist of multiple format material - jpegs, pngs, mov, swf, mp4, mp3 and wav audio, i do photo /video montages and its never caused output issues.

I have been testing this multiple ways to determine if the problem is w the file itself, the bandwidth internet speed in my home, the media server, the tv, smart central on a sharp tv? (Called my internet provider and my speeds are good -- also all tvs in my house and pc are hard wired to internet)

I dont think its the file as it plays back normal on computer, was accepted and plays beautiful on vimeo, plays off usb drive connected to tv, plays through usb drive connected to blue ray on tv (which picks up my home network)

I was thinking of reducing my bit rate to something less than 15000kbps to see if it streamed better this way? Not sure how much quality i would lose -- files currently render to 12-13000 kbps on average even though setting is 15000
Anything im not covering here? Such a mystery. I produce videos for other people and need to know that im giving them a reliable file to stream at their homes. (Im really moving away fr making dvds as the quality of the hd file is so much better)

Have spent hours trouble shooting this all week -- hours and hours of rendering. Ended up giving the person the video that i initially made even though i had wanted to include a few minor changes because it worked reliably. Had I never played around w streaming I never known the problem. Or is it a oroblem. Maybe steaming video is just fickle?

Any thoughts from this brilliant community?? Thanks

Ilene

[lata]

Hi Ilene

I have a similar setup, PC and TV hardwired to network.

I am using m2t video as my source is my Panasonic camcorder.

I have created about 12 videos of various lengths all properties are identical, although I have tried 50P and 25fps interlaced although I do not think it is the video files problem.

Only about half are recognised by the TV, no reason why as sizes or length don’t seem to make a difference, all files are saved to the same folder.
As far as I know all videos play ok via USB memory stick I need to check that, although I have to connect via Bluray Player as TV does not have USB.

Last night I disabled the pc sharing to network, copied the video files to a different drive. I do think I may have a problem with the TV. I intend to reset that to factory settings., starting again.

Whatever I do just does not seem to make sense, strange things happening?

As you say “Such a mystery”

[Ilene]

Sorry about your issues. Although good to know im not alone. Currently rendering the file at 10000 bitrate to see if it makes a difference. All clues point to this being a tv/network issue however... I sent 2 files to a friend. The one that plays successful via streaming plays perfect and the one that was giving me issue was giving him issue too!! That is bizarre.
If you right click on both files ans compare properties they are identical! Truly identical as he only change i made from ine to the next was the size of a couple images and one transition. Nothing else channged betw renders.

[Ilene]

For what its worth, rendering at 10,000kbps yielded a file that played back beautifully without issue over home net work. PC to TV and thru Roku. The entire 12 minutes. The file size came down from about 1.25gb to just under 1gb (900 something mb) and I didnt notice any loss in quality. Not sure if this is really the solution as it still doesnt explain why other files rendered at higher bit rate and similar size were ok. But this is an altenative in case i run into the issue again?