Samsung TVs are some of the most popular and well-received available on today’s market. Therefore, Samsung TV video playback issues are also ubiquitous on many forum sites such as the "Samsung TV won't play MP4" problem. That’s a question many of people are asking. Can't Samsung TVs play MP4 video? Well, the quick answer is yes, they can. But it’s not entirely straightforward.
From the Samsung support official site statement, Samsung TV supports MP4 video. But why are there still so many issues of "Samsung TV can't read MP4"? We have searched on Google deeply and read many the analytics on many forums and finally, we collected the issues and solutions as below.
Try The Tips When You Can't Play MP4 on Samsung TV
Tip 1: As we all know, MP4 is a container, which can contain various video and audio codec. But for Samsung TV, the most compatible MP4 will be in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video codec and AAC audio codec. Some new Samsung 4K TV models also support HEVC/H.265 MP4. When you can't play MP4 on Samsung TV, you can use MediaInfo to check if your MP4 has Samsung TV unsupported codec. If your issue is caused by this reason, you can use a file conversion program to convert MP4 to Samsung TV supported MP4 video.
Tip 2: More and more people like to record video with a drone like the popular DJI Phantom. DJI Phantom can encode video with 3840x2160@60fps in MP4 or MOV formats. But if you check your Samsung TV manual, you will find that some Samsung TVs only support MP4 video in 3840x2160@30fps or 1920x1080@60fps. So when you play 3840x2160@60fps MP4 video on Samsung TV, you'd better to change 3840x2160@60fps MP4 video to 3840x2160@30fps or 1920x1080@60fps MP4 with a video converter.
Tip 3: Some Samsung TVs only can play 4K MP4 video via USB 3.0 while some models support to play 4K MP4 via USB 2.0.
Tip 4: Sometimes, you maybe produce a MP4 clip with Cyberlink or other video editors with too high bitrate. The too high bitrate also can lead Samsung TV MP4 playback issue from time to time. When you play a MP4 exported from a NLE software, you can choose a 6Mbps rate produced a clip which can be played on Samsung TV without problems.
Tip 5: TV abling to play videos from a USB storage or via LAN is implementation dependent and not something any vendor promise you. Even TV of the same vendor but different model may not give you the same capability. This "video feature" is just something they throw at you to wet your appetite, to sell you the TV, rather than a serious feature, IMO, with lots of limitations.
Limitation such as MP4, MKV blah-blah, these are "containers" you have probably heard the term, is really what's the inside codec being used is what matters. With a PC, if it can't read a certain format, you just load the proper, missing codec and BAM! can't do that with a TV, none TV that I know of, and TV vendors don't promise you anything about what video codec they support, heck they don't even tell you that in the manual.
Tip 6: Many people would play MP4 video on Samsung TV via external hard drive. 2011-2014 Samsung TVs, the HDD or flash drive must meet the following specifications:
● Portable HDD type
● USB 2.0
● 4GB minimum
● 2TB maximum
● Read 20MB per second
● Write 34MB per second
● At least 5400 RPM
● Supported file systems are FAT, exFAT and NTFS
When connecting an external hard drive, use the USB (HDD) port. We recommend that you use an external hard drive with its own power adapter.
So, if your external USB hard drive is not self-powered (providing it's own power adapter,) it's unlikely to work.
How to Convert MP4 or Adjust the Settings to Make it Playable on Samsung TV?
No matter it is the MP4 codec, frame rate, bitrate that causes the streaming issues on Samsung TV, all of those can be solved by Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate. As the best all-in-one toolkit, this software can convert any MP4 to Samsung TV supported H.264/MPEG-4 MP4 with AAC audio. It also can convert many other videos like MOV, WMV, MKV, TS to Samsung TV. If needed, it still can remove Blu-ray and DVD copy protection and convert Blu-ray and DVD to Samsung TV supported MP4 video then you can play the video via USB.
With this MP4 to Samsung TV converter, you can adjust the video resolution, frame rate, bitrate, codec, audio channel, audio sample rate, video aspect ratio and more settings to make the output video more compatible with all Samsung TV models like the popular Samsung MU7500 TV, Samsung MU6500 TV, Samsung MU9000 TV, Samsung Q65Q7F TV, Samsung MU8500 TV, Samsung MU8000 TV, Samsung KU6250 TV, Samsung KU6290 4K UHD HDR TV and more.
Step 1: Load MP4 video
Just download and install the MP4 to Samsung TV converter and launch it. You can load the MP4 files by browser or just drag and drop the MP4 to the software. This program supports batch conversion so you can load multiple MP4s to batch them. If you are using a Mac, you should use the equivalent Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac.
Step 2: Choose Samsung TV Supported MP4 video
Click “Format” and navigate to “TVS” profile. Here lists the main four TV brands. Just choose Samsung TV. Or you can also select common H.264 MP4 format in “Common Video” or HD MP4 from “HD Video” so that you can use the video in other portable device.
You can click "Settings" to check if the video is H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec. In the profile settings window, you also can change the resolution, frame rate, bitrate to fit in your Samsung TV.
Step 3: Start MP4 to Samsung TV conversion
After the above steps are done, you can click “Convert” button to convert your MP4 to Samsung TV. Once the process ends, you can find the generated Samsung TV supported MP4 video in the output folder.
You can transfer the MP4 video to USB stick then stream it on Samsung TV via the USB port. You also can put the MP4 into Plex sharing folder then watch the MP4 video on Samsung TV with Plex. If you want to play the video directly from computer to Samsung TV, you can use audio-visual (AV) cables to connect the computer and TV.
