WD HD TV (1st. Gen) and MP4 conversion using Handbrake 0.9.4 Options

[OsvaL]

I would like to expound a situation I currently have while trying to convert movies from DVD to MP4 H.264 AAC, or from any other format to MP4 H.264 AAC using the regular or high profile using Handbrake 0.9.4 and x.264.

I have a lot of AVI movies on my external hard drive, so after decided I wanted a new current video format, I have chosen MP4 H.264 to have everything organized on iTunes, using only one file containing the cover or thumbnail, the subtitles and the movie itself. I started to convert all my movie files to MP4 using Handbrake as I said before, everything was perfect after I tried to play them using my first generation WD HD TV.

At the beginning I started to experiment with different profiles, the regular and the high profile without success, I thought it may be something wrong with my old AVI files so I grabbed a DVD and started to rip using the combination of Fairmount (VLC 32 bits) and Handbrake 0.9.4 all again without success.

Another problem I noticed, is that after trying to play these mp4 movies on my WD HD TV, I have to reset to the factory settings because the device won't play any other regular file (AVI, etc) that used to play regularly. Without the hard reset, the only thing I received when trying to play AVI or other files, is a black screen. After the factory settings reset, everything goes back to normal, until I play one of the movies encoded with Handbrake.

So, I thought that maybe the last firmware (1.03.1) wasn't compatible with files encoded on Handbrake, so I decided to make a downgrade using the last stable firmware from july 2009 version (1.02.07), after the downgrade, I had the same results, unable to play mp4 files.

The process I use to encode my files to MP4 is quite simple, these are the steps:

Launch Handbrake
Choose the AVI file source
Select the Normal or High Profile
Select the x.264 video codec
Select the audio track AAC using CoreAudio
Add an external .SRT subtitle (soft subtitles)

Then I start the process....

After finishing all the tasks I launch MetaX to find the cover art, and all the data concerning the movie, as director, actor, actress, etc....

In iTunes, everything work fine, the subtitles, the cover art, the movie, everything. In the WD HD TV I got the "Unable to play the selected file. Please refer to the user manual on how to change the file to a supported format" The thing here is that it is a supported format, everything in the movie files is among the supported parameters.

Computer used for the process: Macbook Pro 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard) 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo - 4 GB RAM

If someone has any ideas please write about it.

Here is the movie file info:

*** MediaInfo Mac // Plain text file report
2010-02-20 16:12:26 -0300
Information for File: Gran Torino.mp4

General / Container Stream # 1
Total Video Streams for this File -> 1
Total Audio Streams for this File -> 1
Video Codecs Used -> AVC
Audio Codecs Used -> AAC LC
File Format -> MPEG-4
Play Time -> 1h 56mn
Total File Size -> 972 MiB
Total Stream BitRate -> 1 166 Kbps
Title (Tag) -> Gran Torino
Encoded with -> HandBrake 0.9.4 2009112300
Video Stream # 1
Codec (Human Name) -> AVC
Codec (FourCC) -> avc1
Codec Profile -> High@L3.0
Frame Width -> 720 pixels
Frame Height -> 352 pixels
Frame Rate -> 23.976 fps
Total Frames -> 167586
Display Aspect Ratio -> 2.35
Scan Type -> Progressive
Colorimetry -> 4:2:0
Codec Settings (Summary) -> CABAC / 3 Ref Frames
QF (like Gordian Knot) -> 0.164
Codec Settings (CABAC) -> Yes
Video Stream Length -> 1h 56mn 29s 826ms
Video Stream BitRate -> 998 Kbps
Video Stream BitRate Mode -> VBR
Bit Depth -> 24 bits
Video Stream Size -> 831 MiB (86%)
Video Encoder -> x264 - core 79 r1347 5ddd61b
Video Encoder (Settings) -> cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Date of Original Encoding -> UTC 2010-02-16 02:26:54
Audio Stream # 1
Codec -> AAC
Codec (FourCC) -> 40
Audio Stream Length -> 1h 56mn 29s 952ms
Audio Stream BitRate -> 164 Kbps
Audio Stream BitRate Mode -> VBR
Number of Audio Channels -> 2
Audio Channel's Positions -> L R
Sampling Rate -> 48.0 KHz
Bit Depth -> 16 bits
Audio Stream Size -> 136 MiB (14%)
Audio Stream Language -> English
Date of Original Encoding -> UTC 2010-02-16 02:26:54

[WDUser]

So did you even try out the profile suggestion I made here, before starting another topic about the very same issue? If re-encoding, also try without CABAC and see if that helps.

You can continue your discussion in the other thread, because another one about the same issue is pretty much redundant.