Transcoding at 100% but video won't play

[FranticOrange]

Hi all.

I have a friend with a Sony Bravia TV using the built-in browser to connect remotely to my media server. Opening a movie shows the MEDIA SERVER STATUS as "Transcoding: 100%" but when attempting to play the video, it gives the generic message "Failed to play file. You may not have a compatible web browser, or your internet connection is too sloe, or media transcoding has not started yet."

His internet connection has been tested and has a good download rate (50Mb+), and transcoding has finished. It's a recent model but the first part of the message leads me to believe that the browser isn't great. Is there a way of verifying this, or is there something else that you could suggest to help please?

Thanks,
Frantic.

[Peter]

You can try pre-transcoding the file to mp4 to see if this plays. Mp4 is supported by all browsers so this would be a good test to see if the problem is the format of the file or something else.

[FranticOrange]

Thanks Peter. A couple of further questions if I may:

1. Which format would be best in this case as those that refer to MP4 are "matroska (FAKE_MP4)" (highlighted in bold as a preferred format for this device), "mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 (ISMV)", and "mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 (QT)"?
2. If the above works, is there a way of telling Mezzmo to only transcode to that format when the web access user selects a video rather than pre-transcoding my whole library?

Thanks,
Frantic.

[Peter]

"mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 (QT)" is the format to use, it is pure mp4 whereas the others are variations that only work in certain browsers. MP4 cannot be used for transcoding on the fly which is why it is pre-transcoding only, the formats used for transcoding on the fly are matroska webm or hls so if the TV's browser does not support either of these pre-transcoding may be the only option.