my files wont play on my blu ray - why?????

Forzafan

Prominent Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
2,083
Reaction score
166
Points
599
Location
England
hi,

i just bought the cheap philips 3100 blu ray player and the thing i wanted most was for it to play my home videos easily via usb. what a nightmare this is turning into.
my hd camera creates files which are mp4 which the blu ray doesnt support so i get picture but no sound. it does say that it supports wmv files though so i downloaded a converter and converted a file to wmv but now it says unsupported video so i get sound but no picture!
the same happens when burning to a disc via itunes (because they are mp4 too i think).
my avi files do not work either but randomly avi files of tv programmes/films aqquired from the internet work fine with sound and picture.
PLEASE someone help me out all i want is just to be able to show my kids themselves on tv !! this is the reason i bought a hd camcorder!

seriously if someone could come up with a solution that works i'd be so grateful.:)
 
The .mp4 file extension , as well as the .avi file extension , simply indicates the file is a container type , it does not say what is in that file container.

For example , .mp4 files that are playable on "mp4" players , should contain h264 /Mpeg4 AVC video and audio in either of the following formats ,

MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3), Apple Lossless, MPEG-4 Part 3 Audio Object Types: Audio Lossless Coding (ALS), Scalable Lossless Coding (SLS), MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2), MPEG-1 Audio Layer I (MP1), CELP, HVXC (speech), TwinVQ (very low bitrates), Text To Speech Interface (TTSI), SAOL (MIDI) and others.

Not all players claiming mp4 compatibility can play all of the above , in fact , most wont be able to play all of the above.

Avi is a similar situation , there is a vast amount of video types and audio types that can be contained within an AVI container.
There are various different versions of Divx , various versions of Xvid , and many other types.

Your player is highly unlikely to play them all.

The easiest way to figure out what your trying to play is to download this program , its free ,

MediaInfo | Download MediaInfo software for free at SourceForge.net

Install it , then right click on any media file , you should see the mediainfo option , select that , and it will tell you exactly what type of audio and video is within the container , then you can compare that with the speclist of your player.

I think you'll find that the type your trying to play is not compatible.
 
thankyou for the information but basically with the files i have being produced by my camcorder you're effectivly telling me i'm *****d right??
 
Install mediainfo , highlight one of those files , an untouched or uncoverted one please , and post what it says !

Then lets see if the player claims to play it , if so there may be a firmware upgrade on the way , or you can contact the manufacturer with some genuinely useful info and see what they can do !

At worst , you can replace the player with the knowledge that you know exactly what you want its replacement to be able to do !
 
i have just installed the latest firmware.

the 'avi' file that works tells me that the 1 video stream is mpeg4 visual (xvid) and the 1 audio is mpeg audio mp3.

the avi file that doesnt work says 1 video stream jpeg (?!) and 1 audio stream PCM microsoft.

the mp4 files say 1 video stream avc and 1 audio stream aac.

:confused:
 
the avi file that doesnt work says 1 video stream jpeg (?!) and 1 audio stream PCM microsoft.

Video streams described as jpeg are usually mjpeg or motion jpeg , these have trouble on a lot of players and are not easily converted. Finding a disc player that will play that format is not easy.

From the Wiki :
Unlike the video formats specified in international standards such as MPEG-2 and the format specified in the JPEG still-picture coding standard, there is no document that defines a single exact format that is universally recognized as a complete specification of “Motion JPEG” for use in all contexts. This raises compatibility concerns about file outputs from different manufacturers. However, each particular file format usually has some standard how M-JPEG is encoded. For example, Microsoft documents their standard format to store M-JPEG in AVI files [2], Apple documents how M-JPEG is stored in Quicktime files, RFC 2435 describes how M-JPEG is implemented in an RTP stream, and an M-JPEG CodecID is planned for the Matroska file format[3].

So , mjpeg is not really standardised , there are many different types , and finding a player or trying to convert will be problematic.
I have a old Sony camera myself that takes video in mjpeg , however the only thing I can play the video on is a PC , it wont play on any media player I have , ( WDTV, PS3, Oppo , etc. ) and I have never successfully managed to convert them to any other format.

The mp4 with AVC and AAC should have worked if the player claims mp4 format compatibility , as this is the preferred and most widely supported video and audio for that container.
 
Last edited:
thanks again for your help. the camcorder actually has mpeg-4 avc/h.264 written on it. i have just recorded a video which is 1 video stream avc and 1 audio stream aac.
here is a link to my dvd player specs:

Philips - 3000 series Blu-ray Disc player BD-Live USB2.0 Media Link DivX Ultra - BDP3100/05 - Blu-ray players - Home video - Sound and vision

this may be a stupid question but if i was to find a way to burn this file to dvd would it mean that it may then be compatible or will it not make a difference?
 
Your camcorder specs are the normal type specs for mp4 video , so , assuming that the player does indeed play mp4 containers then it should play back material from your camcorder.

Heres the thing though , the product brochure claims mp4 playback , but the user manual does not !!
I got the user manual from the support tab on your link.
Maybe the user manual is an old version , but still , probably best to send an email to the support desk and ask if the unit is supposed to play back mp4 of the type you have.

You have the details of the video you want to play back , a screengrab of the mediainfo details attached to the email would help them to answer you properly.
 
i have finally had a response from philips simply stating that the blu ray player in fact doesnt play mp4's. does this mean from what you said earlier its pointlessme trying to convert them?
 
If the camcorder makes mp4 files with h264 /Mpeg4 AVC video and aac audio then you should be able to convert them to something that will play on the philips unit , aim for xvid or divx.

The format that is difficult to convert is mjpeg , which was mentioned earlier as one of the file types you had.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom