What to do? No Sound when I Play MKV movie with AC3 on Gear VR

Diana Joan

Mar 27, 2015 06:18 am / Posted by Diana Joan

Has anyone been able to figure out how to play videos with AC3 audio inside Gear VR? When I play such (2D or 3D) videos, the video plays fine but there is no sound and I get a pop-up that the audio codec is not supported.

Since most of my videos have AC3 audio, it is a real pain if I have to convert the audio every time before copying such video files from the PC to Note 4 SD card.

AC3 to Gear VR

According to what the user mentioned above, we know that AC3 is not the supported audio codec by Gear VR. And from samsung’s official site we know that Gear VR supported media formats are as follows:

Video: 2D MP4/AVI/FLV and 3D SBS MP4/MKV

Audio: AAC and MP3

So what to do if you want to play MKV with AC3 audio on Gear VR in Oculus Cinema? Now we will talk about the solution about this issue -why no sound when playing MKV with AC3 on Gear VR and what to do.

Since AC3 is not supported by Gear VR, there are two choice: convert your video files with AC3 audio to AAC/MP3 audio or root your phone and add codecs for AC3.

Solution No.1: Covert MKV with AC3 to Gear VR supported AAC/MP3

By this way, a video converter is absolutely needed. Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate for Windows/Mac(best 3D Movie Converter) is highly recommended here. With it, you can convert MKV format to 3D SBS MKV with AAC or MP3 audio codec just with one-click. Also there are other 3D formats for you to choose, such as MP4 which is supported by Gear VR, too.

windows download mac download

Follow the steps:

Step 1. Import MKV movie

Click the “Add video” button, browse to import video into this app.

Import MKV movie

Step 2. Select output format

Click”Format” bar, can choose MKV/MP4 from”3D Video” list. Then click”Settings” to choose the audio codec, AAC or MP3.

MKV to 3D SBS MP4

Step 3. Convert MKV video to SBS 3D MP4 with AAC

Just click the”Convert” icon down to start the conversion from MKV to MP4. After the conversion, place your video files into the folder named “My Videos” on your MicroSD card for Galaxy Note 4 then watch MKV AC3 with Gear VR in Note 4.

Solution 2. Root your phone and add codecs for AC3

Following is the guide:

1. Put the file media_codecs.xml in the folder system/etc
2. Put the files libsac3d.so & libsomxac3d.so in the folder system/lib
3. Set permissions to all 3 files: 0644 (owner: root/root)
4. Reboot

Above are two solutions for Gear VR playing MKV movie with AC3 audio. You can try both of them to enable MKV with AC3 playable in Gear VR.

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Further Reading
Set Up Samsung Gear VR to Watch Movies with
5 Best 3D movies to watch on Gear VR
YouTube now offer 360-Degree Videos for Gear VR
Hardware and Software Requirements to Watch 3D Movies on Computer
10 Awesome 3D VR Glasses/Headsets