MKV won't play

[knl]

I have a philips 40PFL5605H/12 and according to the manual it supports "MKV video (*.mkv): H.264"

Yet, when I try to play a MKV movie on the TV it wont work. I get the error: "The file cannot be read" (translated from the Danish error message).

The file is a 20 GB MKV movie split up to 4 GB pieces in order to fit on a FAT32 USB drive.

If I try to play the file (the split) on my computer it works perfectly so I don't exspect the splitting to be a problem.

The file is H.264. Here's some output from mediainfo:

Format : Matroska
File size : 3.91 GiB
Duration : 3h 23mn
Overall bit rate : 2 747 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2010-12-01 03:15:25
Writing application : mkvmerge v4.4.0 ('Die Wiederkehr') built on Oct 31 2010 21:52:48
Writing library : libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 3h 23mn
Bit rate : 1 182 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 14.5 Mbps
Width : 1 918 pixels
Height : 1 078 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.024
Stream size : 1.68 GiB (43%)
Title : 14500 kbps
Writing library : x264 core 110 r1804 e89c4cf

Why doesn't this work?

[Philips - Thomas]

Hi

Please post the complete Mediainfo output.

Regards
Thomas

[knl]

Sorry, here is the complete output from mediainfo:

General
Unique ID : 184761975972563191843342172903949769713 (0x8AFFDCB9DBB49A2AB91D95E87A5C9BF1)
Complete name : movie.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 3.91 GiB
Duration : 3h 23mn
Overall bit rate : 2 747 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2010-12-01 03:15:25
Writing application : mkvmerge v4.4.0 ('Die Wiederkehr') built on Oct 31 2010 21:52:48
Writing library : libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 3h 23mn
Bit rate : 1 182 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 14.5 Mbps
Width : 1 918 pixels
Height : 1 078 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.024
Stream size : 1.68 GiB (43%)
Title : 14500 kbps
Writing library : x264 core 110 r1804 e89c4cf
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=tesa / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=0.85:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=6 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=14500 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:0.80
Language : English

Audio
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 3h 23mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 2.15 GiB (55%)
Title : Main Audio
Language : English

Text #1
ID : 3
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Title : English Sup
Language : English

Text #2
ID : 4
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Title : English Sup
Language : English

Text #3
ID : 5
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Title : Chinese Sup
Language : Chinese

Text #4
ID : 6
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Title : Chinese Sup
Language : Chinese

Menu #1

Menu #2

Menu #3

[Toengel]

Hi,

DTS audio is not supported on Philips TVs...

Toengel@Alex

[knl]

Thank you very much for the reply. I had completely overlooked that part.

I'll convert the audio of the file to mpeg.

Thanks again!

[Hilbert]

Dear knl, did this solve your problem. As I know, this Phillips cannot play videos to the end from USB Flash if the file (ex. .mk4) is bigger than 1.265 Gb.

I think you have to split the files further.

[knl]

Indeed I did solve the problem

I converted the audio of the file to mp3 using ffmpeg and then I was able to play the file. I didn't change the size.

However, when playing I am unable to fast-forward or fast-backwards, but I don't know if this has to do with the file size or because the file has been split.

Since the TV software is Open Source I really think it should support another file system than just FAT32.

I personally use Linux and would greatly benefit from being able to watch a say 16 GB MKV file on the TV in 1080p. This would be doable using for example EXT.

But even NTFS from MS would be acceptable.

I think it's a real shame that the TV only supports FAT32.

I don't know if it is possible to alter the source code and upgrade the TV with support for another file system or how complicated that would be.

[Hilbert]

Strange that your TV can play these large files. Do you really play from an USB Flash Drive (Memory Stick)?
Mine stops after 102 minutes (1.265 Gb).

Here is the answer from Phillips Support, which also explains your answer about NTFS:

”Vi har fundet frem til, hvorfor min kollega kan få store filer til at virke, når du ikke kan.

Dit tv (32PFL5405H) er kun kompitibelt med usb nøgler, som er formateret til FAT. Vores nye tv i 7000-9000 serie er også kompitibelt med USB nøgler, som er formateret til NTFS.

Hvis din usb nøgle er formateret til NTFS, og tv’et er kompitibelt til at tage NTFS, så kan den godt afspille filer, uanset størrelsen.

Hvis usb nøglen er formateret til FAT (16 eller 32), så er Philips tv ikke kompitible til at afspille store filer, der er en begrænsning på lige omkring de 1.3 til 1.5 GB.

Desværre er dit Philips tv et der ikke er kompatibelt med NTFS, og derfor vil der være en begrænsning, for hvor store filer du kan afspille.
Den måde du kan løse problemet på er, hvis du komprimere filerne, så de bliver mindre (og selvfølgelig stadig til en format, som tv’et er kompitibelt med), så kan dit TV afspille dem.

Man kan desværre ikke via en software updatering ændre, hvilke filtyper
eller USB formateringer som tv’et er kompitibel med.”

[knl]

I'm not using an USB stick, but an USB 500 GB harddrive formatted as FAT32.

The TV has no problems playing a file of 3.999 MB.

I will test whether the TV should be able to read NTFS, though it does say in the manual that it only supports FAT32.

Since the new TVs has been retro fitted with NTFS, it should be easy for Philips to upgrade the software on our models to use NTFS as well.

[knl]

Just for the fun of it I decided to test if the TV could actually read NTFS and it can!

I formatted a USB Stick 16 GB in NTFS for the test and stored a 5 GB MKV movie on it and the TV plays the file perfectly!!

Very nice indeed!

[Toengel]

Hi,

which NTFS version did you use? (I think you can chose the version in the format dialog)

Toengel@Alex

[knl]

I'm on Linux and was using ntfs-3g version 2010.3.6 with integrated FUSE 27.