WD Live TV & Live TV Plus and MKV

[visiter555]

I am having problems streaming MKV files. Have had the WDs for three plus years, all at current f/w.

I have tried recently to play several MKV files and all I get is the format not supported error. If I setup Mezzmo to transcode, it says that the player supports these formats already. I have manually converted the MKVs to AVIs and they work perfectly with the WDs.

Any way to get Mezzmo to transcode these MKVs to AVIs (or something the older WD TV Live & Live Plus devices can handle) on the fly or pre-transcode?

I couldn't see any way to specify the output format required, so am I correct in assuming it is based on the Device profile?

My server is a iCore 7 with 24 GB ram and one 2 TB drive for the OS and a 3TB drive for the media.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[smitbret]

I am having problems streaming MKV files. Have had the WDs for three plus years, all at current f/w.

I have tried recently to play several MKV files and all I get is the format not supported error. If I setup Mezzmo to transcode, it says that the player supports these formats already. I have manually converted the MKVs to AVIs and they work perfectly with the WDs.

Any way to get Mezzmo to transcode these MKVs to AVIs (or something the older WD TV Live & Live Plus devices can handle) on the fly or pre-transcode?

I couldn't see any way to specify the output format required, so am I correct in assuming it is based on the Device profile?

My server is a iCore 7 with 24 GB ram and one 2 TB drive for the OS and a 3TB drive for the media.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Just turn the transcoding off for your WDTV Live. The Western Digital website is having trouble right now, but I believe the only common format that I have run across that won't play is .flv. So, unless you've just ripped a bunch of stuff from YouTube then it should serve right up without transcoding. I think the Play is almost the same except that it doesn't support .vob/.mpeg containers (unconverted DVD rips that aren't in .iso).

The transcoding is always turned off for my WDTV Live Hub.

[Paul]

If you want to force your file to be pre-transcoded even though they are supported by your device (as defined by the selected device profile), then select the "Pre-transcode files even if they match the device's supported formats" checkbox in the Pre-transcode Files dialog. See this FAQ for more details - http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/6025-Tutorial-Pre-transcoding-Files

[visiter555]

Paul,

Thanks for the response. I had already selected the pre-transcode and no joy. If I use a stand alone converter and convert the MKVs they play fine as AVI or MOV.

Any additional suggestions?

[Hashybot]

Try updating to the latest firmware on the WDLive Hub. I'm on 3.11 and use the latest Klite codec pack and mkvs are working fine for all my movies in HD 720p.

Also be sure your running the latest version of Mezzmo.

Hope this helps you a little. :)

[visiter555]

Try updating to the latest firmware on the WDLive Hub. I'm on 3.11 and use the latest Klite codec pack and mkvs are working fine for all my movies in HD 720p.

Also be sure your running the latest version of Mezzmo.

Hope this helps you a little. :)


The WD boxes are Live Plus not the HUB.

[visiter555]

If you want to force your file to be pre-transcoded even though they are supported by your device (as defined by the selected device profile), then select the "Pre-transcode files even if they match the device's supported formats" checkbox in the Pre-transcode Files dialog. See this FAQ for more details - http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/6025-Tutorial-Pre-transcoding-Files

Paul,

I took another shot at the pre-transcoding. This is a Dell XPS8500 iCore 7, Windows 8 Pro, 24 GB ram and is dedicated to running Mezzmo. The device profiles are for the WD Live (Plus). I started a pre-Transcode as you suggested and selected the default (recommended) output.

Taking a 1.6GB MKV the pre-Transcode hase been chugging along for 14 hours. I restarted Mezzmo and the transcode and it is still at 2% for an additional 14 hours. I next rebooted the server, restarted Mezzmo and restarted the transcode.

Thoughts?

[Paul]

The pre-transcoding of that MKV does not appear to be working well. Run Mezzmo and go to the Transcoding pane. You should see your file listed as transcoding. Right-click on it and click 'View FFmpeg Output'. Email this information to us at support [at] conceiva [dot] com.

[visiter555]

Paul,

I have sent the information a couple of times. Your support (at) conceiva (dot) com is being bounced at your end. Looks like it went through today though.

Wilson

[Paul]

Thanks - got your email. We'll respond via email shortly.

[visiter555]

Peter,

That is where the problem lies, Mezzmo is not transcoding these files. Even when I manually select the file, set it to transcode it "stalls" out. Again the is an iCore 7, 16 GB ram, Windows 8 Pro and it is only acting as the Mezzmo server with nothing else running other than BitDefender Total Security anti-virus.

I did make some drive changes this week and now Mezzmo is running on a 3 TB drive (only app accessing that drive) with a 2TB boot drive (93% empty) and the movies on a second 3 TB drive.

Thoughts?

Wilson

[Paul]

Hi Wilson,

If you try to pre-transcode the file, does it transcode fully or does it fail? Right-click on the video in Mezzmo and click 'Pre-transcode Files' (see this FAQ to pre-transcode files - http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/6025-Tutorial-Pre-transcoding-Files). Then go to the Transcoding pane and check if the file has been transcoded successfully. If it is listed as Failed, then click on the Failed status hyperlink and post the FFmpeg output here so we can see why it is failing.

[smitbret]

I am having problems streaming MKV files. Have had the WDs for three plus years, all at current f/w.

I have tried recently to play several MKV files and all I get is the format not supported error. If I setup Mezzmo to transcode, it says that the player supports these formats already. I have manually converted the MKVs to AVIs and they work perfectly with the WDs.

Any way to get Mezzmo to transcode these MKVs to AVIs (or something the older WD TV Live & Live Plus devices can handle) on the fly or pre-transcode?

I couldn't see any way to specify the output format required, so am I correct in assuming it is based on the Device profile?

My server is a iCore 7 with 24 GB ram and one 2 TB drive for the OS and a 3TB drive for the media.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Could this be a problem with the files themselves? The WDTV Live series simply loves .mkv files. Transcoding should not be necessary at all. The fact that transcoding is so troublesome supports this in my mind. You may want to try remuxing one of the files using something like MKVMmerge or remuxing to an .m2ts file with Tsmuxer. Either operation should only take about 3 minutes. If you put one of the files on a flash drive and pop it directly into the USB port of the WDTV, will it play from there?

[visiter555]

Could this be a problem with the files themselves? The WDTV Live series simply loves .mkv files. Transcoding should not be necessary at all. The fact that transcoding is so troublesome supports this in my mind. You may want to try remuxing one of the files using something like MKVMmerge or remuxing to an .m2ts file with Tsmuxer. Either operation should only take about 3 minutes. If you put one of the files on a flash drive and pop it directly into the USB port of the WDTV, will it play from there?

It will not play via USB drive. It will play (individual file) on Windows 7 & 8 and Android with zero issues.

[Paul]

The fact that it does not play via USB does tell us that your WD TV Live does not like this MKV file. You will need to transcode or remux it in order to get it working. You can do this using tools as smitbret suggests or you can pre-transcode the files using Mezzmo's Pre-transcode Files feature (see http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/6025-Tutorial-Pre-transcoding-Files).

[smitbret]

The fact that it does not play via USB does tell us that your WD TV Live does not like this MKV file. You will need to transcode or remux it in order to get it working. You can do this using tools as smitbret suggests or you can pre-transcode the files using Mezzmo's Pre-transcode Files feature (see http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/6025-Tutorial-Pre-transcoding-Files).

To amend that, it's probably not just a matter of the WDTV Live not liking it, there is something out of spec with the file(s). Remux and see if that fixes it.

[visiter555]

Hi Wilson,

If you try to pre-transcode the file, does it transcode fully or does it fail? Right-click on the video in Mezzmo and click 'Pre-transcode Files' (see this FAQ to pre-transcode files - http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/6025-Tutorial-Pre-transcoding-Files). Then go to the Transcoding pane and check if the file has been transcoded successfully. If it is listed as Failed, then click on the Failed status hyperlink and post the FFmpeg output here so we can see why it is failing.

Paul,

As I pointed out earlier it doesn't Transcode and it doesn't fail, it just hits the 2% mark and stays there. I now have a dozen MKVs that this happens to when Transcoding. I did e-mail you the requested log files a week plus ago. See msgs 7 & 9 in this thread.

[Paul]

It appears Mezzmo cannot transcode the file(s) for some reason. Please try to pre-transcode one of the files and then go to the Transcoding pane. You should see your file listed there. Right-click on it and click 'View FFmpeg Output'. Copy this text and email it to us at support [at] conceiva [dot] com. This will tell us why ffmpeg.exe cannot transcode the file.

[smitbret]

Paul,

As I pointed out earlier it doesn't Transcode and it doesn't fail, it just hits the 2% mark and stays there. I now have a dozen MKVs that this happens to when Transcoding. I did e-mail you the requested log files a week plus ago. See msgs 7 & 9 in this thread.

I would think that stalling for hours at 2% qualifies as failing. If you can't play them back from a USB drive, the problem is the .mkv files.