WD TV won't play mp4, mkv, avi video from usb stick
plugged in my 16gb usb 2.0 stick to the wd tv play. it sees it and the files on it. but when I select a video file to play, mp4, mkv, or avi, it just shows the spinning arrow and never plays. Video files play fine on other devices like my samsung tv which plays video from usb sticks/devices plugged-in. I've even re-encoded the files using handbrake without any luck playing on wd tv play. Any ideas? fixes?
WD TV Media Player supported file formats
WD TV Media Player enables you to play videos or movies stored on USB devices, before moving any media files to the USB drive for WD TV playback, first take a reference at WD TV Media Player supported file formats:
Video: AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9, FLV (h.264)
Audio: MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
File resolution requirements for WD TV supported formats
MPEG2 MP@HL up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30 or 1280x720p60 resolution.
MPEG4.2 ASP@L5 up to 1280x720p30 resolution and no support for global motion compensation.
WMV9/VC-1 MP@HL up to 1280x720p60 or 1920x1080p24 resolution. VC-1 AP@L3 up to 1920x1080i30, 1920x1080p24 or 1280x720p60 resolution.
H.264 BP@L3 up to 720x480p30 or 720x576p25 resolution.
H.264 MP@L4.1 and HP@4.1 up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30, or 1280x720p60 resolution.
Play incompatible file formats on WD TV via USB
From above lists, we can see that if you have get some AVI files encoded with Divx, MKV or MP4 video encoded with H.265 codec, your WD TV Media Player will definitely fail to play them via USB stick. To fix this codec incompatible issue, a third-party video conversion tool will be the best solution for you. After searching online, you may find Pavtube Video Converter for Windows/Mac (support Mac OS X El Capitan) does the job best than all its competitors. It can convert virtually any file formats (H.265/HEVC codec is also included) to WD TV Media Player best compatible formats listed above.
To output video with the best video and audio quality, you can adjust the output video codec, size, bit rate, frame rate and audio codec, sample rate, bit rate and channels to fit them with your WD TV media players.
How to Play AVI, MP4, MKV, FLV, etc on WD TV Media Player via USB Drive?
Step 1: Load video files to the program.
Launch the application on your computer, click "File" > "Load Video/Audio" or "Load from Folder" to import WD TV incompatible file formats to the program.
Step 2: Output WD TV Media Player supported formats.
From "Format" drop-down list, select "HD Video > H.264 HD Video(*mp4)" as the output file format to play on WD TV media player via USB.
Step 3：Adjust output profile parameters.
Click "Settings" to open "Profile Settings" window, here you can choose or specify exactly the parameters such as video/audio codecs, file size, bit rates, frame rates, etc as you like. And in the Task information section, you can compare the detailed information of the source video and the target video.
Step 4: Start video to WD TV Media Player conversion.
Clicking the Convert button on main interface,a Conversion window will pop out with the detailed conversion information such as Time elapsed, Time left, Generated size, and Estimated size.
After the conversion, you can click Open output folder to popup output directory with the converted files. Then transfer the converted files to your USB drive and plug it into the USB ports on your WD TV for playing back.
View Blu-ray/DVD movies on WD TV Media Player
For people who own large collection of movies on Blu-ray/DVD disc, it would be a good option for you to backup Blu-ray on NAS for streaming to WD TV or directly convert DVD to VOB format to play on WD TV via USB devices. Here, with Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate for Windows/Mac, you can easily make digital copies of your Blu-ray/DVD disc and convert to WD TV best compatible format or even lossless MKV format with subtitles, 5.1 or 7.1 channel.
