Sharp AQUOS LC-46LE620UT won't play .MP4 created with DVD Ripper

[cholla]

The other H.264s in the list have MP LV4 & HP LV 4 so I guess it supports Main & High profile as well.
Either up to level 4 or only level 4 .

The .mp4 converted with the DVDFab version 7 also worked.
It used CAVLC .
This is the dvdfab_internal.log for it.
I usually don't post the log in a post but as an attachment.
This one is so short I putting it in the post.

DVDFab 7.5.0.8 (2017/08/21 12:55:40)

0m 03.68s: option dvd2dvd 1 dvd2mobile 1 bluray2bluray 1 bd2mobile 1 file2mobile 1 filemover 1


DVDFab 7.5.0.8 (2017/08/21 12:56:21)

0m 01.32s: option dvd2dvd 1 dvd2mobile 1 bluray2bluray 1 bd2mobile 1 file2mobile 1 filemover 1
1m 23.41s: pathplayer enabled
4m 30.89s:


------ begin mobile work(1/1) ------


4m 30.89s: create config(0)
4m 30.89s: convert profile(generic.mp4.h264.aac)
4m 30.89s: dvd title(2) angle(0) chapter(1->9)
4m 30.89s: stream(480,2,1) stream(128,86019,1)
35m 14.56s:


------ finish mobile work ------

That's it the log sure was short back then.

[Johnathon]

Ha, indeed it was.

And yes, Main and High profiles are also supported by your TV. The levels define maximum values, and they increase with each level, so your TV supports up to, and including, level 4. So all lower levels are also supported.

We're back to the difference of MP42 and AVC1 as the root of the issue with compatibility.

[cholla]

If you look at the Jewel.txt I posted in #11 in this thread.
It shows Codec ID : mp42 in the General section of MediaInfo.
Then Codec ID : avc1 in the Video section of MediaInfo.
This one was done with HandBrake & played on my TV.

Compare this to the DVD Ripper.txt in post # 4 in this thread.
In this area they are the same.
The DVD Ripper one doesn't play on my TV.

If DVDFab could create a .mp4 that works on my TV with old DVDFab version 7.
That didn't even call it DVD Ripper.
Then also with DVDFab DVD Ripper in version 8.
What did the developers change that creates .mp4s that don't work on my TV in versions 9 and 10 ?

There have been no answers from the developers or staff on a solution or any interest on fixing this.
Maybe because it is for DVDs . A lot of us still use DVDs .
It's fine that a lot use blu rays & I don't know if they are having a similar problem.
Maybe they have all went to H.265 & that works for them.

My point is since all other software converters I have tried can create a .mp4 that works on my TV .
Why can't DVDFab DVD Ripper do this ?
There has to be something wrong with the programming of DVD Ripper in this area.

[Johnathon]

I see what you're talking about in Post #11. I had missed that part of it.

Differences of note: The Handbrake one appears to be JVT AVC with compatibility for ISO Base Media, with the DVDFab one being ISO Base Media with compatibility for JVT AVC. I'm unsure if there are differences there that might make slight differences that might be enough to cause issues on your TV since I don't know that "compatible" means 100% compatible, or just "compatible enough".

The other weird thing is that the DVD Ripper never actually shows track information for the video. It's expected that it won't show an audio track label because we're extracting that to AAC not MP4A because AAC is better compression, but I would expect to see the video track listed there with framerate and the like. It's possible that your TV is trying to read the headers to get the track information and isn't finding anything and is erroring out because of that. Have any of the other rippers you've tried left the video track headers blank? Could you post the metadata from the DVDFab 7 one for comparison?

[cholla]

@ Johnathon , I'm not sure if I know which .mp4 was created with DVDFab 7.
I've done so many for this.
I believe I can tell which one though.
Neither the DVDFab 7 or 8 Identify DVDFab as the writing application.
DVDFab 9 and 10 do.
Is MediaInfo ok for the metadata ?
Or is there another software you would prefer this information from?

[Johnathon]

I went ahead and downloaded an old version of DVDFab 7. I can't get the audio track to rip correctly with it, but for the video track, where we're looking anyway, it outputs "video (avc1) [VideoHandler]" - So not a lot of detail, but at least it's something, and maybe that's all your TV wants?

As for the encoded by field, it doesn't matter what's there. That's a purely textual field that you can edit at will and won't change anything.

I'm pulling data using AVInaptic since it pulls the track information as well as everything else.

So let's try this...

Download XMedia Recode (Freeware) and import a file that doesn't work on your TV (from DVDFab DVD Ripper 10.5.x). Once you've done that, select the following:

Format Tab:

Profile: Custom
Format: MP4
File Extension: MP4
Output Stream Type: Video and Audio
Audio/Video syncronisation: Yes

Video Tab:

Mode: Copy

Audio Tab:

Mode: Copy

Queue Tab:

Output: Input Folder
Don't Overwrite: Selected

Click "Add to queue" at the top and then "Encode" - It should only take a second and you should have a _1.mp4 in the same directory as your original file. Run AVInaptic on both. You may see a slight difference in size between the files for... reasons (I don't actually know why, but the recoded one seems to be smaller in my testing) and the duration may be rounded a bit, but everything else will be the same except that the track information will show as

Track nr. 1 video (avc1) [VideoHandler]
Track nr. 2 audio (mp4a) [SoundHandler]

Instead of

Track nr. 1 video (avc1) []
Track nr. 2 audio (mp4a) []

Then try the recoded file on your TV and see if it works.

[cholla]

I downloaded the portable version of XMedia Recode & have it doing the encode now.

I decided to see if I could find a tool that would read more metadata.
This one seems to & is available as a portable .

https://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

You just drag the video file onto the .exe .
Wait & a command window will load the information.
This as a text of the DVDFab 7 .mp4 from exiftool-10.61 .
On this file it really got the dates wrong.
The second one is avinaptic & it got the dates wrong also but different ones.

[cholla]

XMedia Recode fixed the .mp4 created with DVD Ripper 10 .
The XMedia Recode .mp4 will play on my TV.
It was also fast at doing the fix .

There were a couple of differences in avinaptic on the two .mp4s.
The ones you already posted were there.
Also these:
DVDFab Ripper 10
Magic
File type ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, version 2
Major brand ISO Base Media version 0

XMedia Recode
Magic
File type ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, version 1
Major brand ISO Base Media version 512

I believe that should make it easy for the developers to fix .

[signals]

A few observations from this interesting thread:

• This TV (and some other devices that are not primarily video file players) sure seems to be persnickety about what it will play and won't, maybe those devs need to do some work too
• For the knowledgeable, DVDFab v10 allows precise control of Ripper conversions in the Profiles (...\Program Files[x86]\DVDFab 10\profiles6) and Presets (Fab's "persets").
  • The Profiles invoke what are called "persets" (elsewhere known as Presets) that allow even finer controls. They are found in the same Program Files\DVDFab 10 folder in ...\DVDFab 10\template\perset
  • You can identify the one being used by reading the Profile
  • Can be edited by Notepad or any text editor that leaves no embedded formatting characters or similar mush
  • You can't really hurt anything here that ctl-alt-del plus a reinstall won't fix
  • In earlier versions (v8-ish) you could actually edit and save the 'perset' with a new name and edit the Profile to call it, not sure if this is still possible and it requires saving the customiized xml somewhere else to survive a Fab version upgrade or re-install

I have not felt the need for this level of tinkering in some time and as always, YMMV. This should not be considered a Fab approved or endorsed procedure.

[cholla]

First thanks Johnathon for your help.
I believe you found the problem.
With this:
Track nr. 1 video (avc1) [VideoHandler]
Track nr. 2 audio (mp4a) [SoundHandler]
Instead of
Track nr. 1 video (avc1) []
Track nr. 2 audio (mp4a) []

It appears my TV doesn't like the [VideoHandler] and [SoundHandler] addition to the text that DVDFab 10 DVD Ripper writes.
I'm doing some more testing on this .

@ signals , Your input is appreciated. I will look into the Presets (Fab's "persets").
As you posted "For the knowledgeable" & I hope I qualify.
Certainly not at the level of DVDFab developers & staff.

About this TV:
It is a 2010 so I doubt the manufacturer & the developers that work for Sharp will be releasing any firmware update for it.
I seriously doubt contacting Sharp would produce any results.

As for this TV not being primarily a "Video file player".
From the USB when a hard drive or flash drive is connected and USB is the selected input.
There is a Menu to select the video file from as many as are on the hard drive.
Once selected the TV has Play,Pause, Forward andReverse with speed selection up to 32X ,Repeat,Next track(chapter) forward and back,and Repeat. Setting of Audio and Video Mode. Display Info . With a "Media Player " type screen that appears when any of these are selected & then hides. To me that makes one of the main functions of this TV a "video file player".
I haven't tested all of these but it is supposed to play .AVI , .MP4 , .MOV , .MKV , .mpg and .mpeg in PS , and others (*.ts).
In what were the specs at the time of manufacture.

As above the problem seems to be in what I call the header text.
That may be incorrect .
Maybe the [VideoHandler] and [SoundHandler] addition to the text are some outside the standard for .MP4 .

I will need to create some more with the various converters I have & check this .
I already deleted the ones I did testing .
I don't remember any but DVDFab Ripper having those.

I will post an update as I test some more.

[Johnathon]

Yeah, VideoHandler and SoundHandler won't work on the file from DVDFab because neither of those have been defined within the actual video/audio streams.

We can confirm this using the ffprobe from ffmpeg (Freeware & Portable) against a file from DVDFab shows that there is no "TAG:handler_name:" defined in the streams for either video or audio. (Therefore, nothing to be referenced in the Track nr. 1/2 fields)

To do this, copy ffprobe.exe from the downloaded zip file to the same directory as your mp4 file. Then open command prompt to this directory and do a

ffprobe -v error -show_format -show_streams "YOURFILENAMEHERE.mp4"

Replace YOURFILENAMEHERE.mp4 with the actual name of your mp4 file

When you scroll through the output, there will be 2 or 3 streams (index=0, index=1, and possibly an index=2 if a thumbnail has been generated for the file)
Stream index=0 is your video stream. Stream index=1 is your Audio stream, and Stream index=2 (if it exists) is your bmp icon stream that defines the icon you see for the video.

Unfixed file: (Emphasis and annotations added in bold underline)

C:\Users\Johnathon\Desktop\Video\Video>ffprobe -v error -show_format -show_streams "Example_Unfixed.mp4"
[STREAM]
[U][B]index=0 (THIS IS YOUR VIDEO STREAM. Note the codec name below of h264)[/B][/U]
codec_name=h264
codec_long_name=H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
profile=Main
codec_type=video
codec_time_base=5/303
codec_tag_string=avc1
codec_tag=0x31637661
width=1280
height=720
coded_width=1280
coded_height=720
has_b_frames=2
sample_aspect_ratio=0:1
display_aspect_ratio=0:1
pix_fmt=yuv420p
level=40
color_range=tv
color_space=bt709
color_transfer=bt709
color_primaries=bt709
chroma_location=left
field_order=unknown
timecode=N/A
refs=1
is_avc=true
nal_length_size=4
id=N/A
r_frame_rate=303/10
avg_frame_rate=303/10
time_base=1/89991
start_pts=0
start_time=0.000000
duration_ts=1535490
duration=17.062706
bit_rate=2864874
max_bit_rate=N/A
bits_per_raw_sample=8
nb_frames=517
nb_read_frames=N/A
nb_read_packets=N/A
DISPOSITION:default=1
DISPOSITION:dub=0
DISPOSITION:original=0
DISPOSITION:comment=0
DISPOSITION:lyrics=0
DISPOSITION:karaoke=0
DISPOSITION:forced=0
DISPOSITION:hearing_impaired=0
DISPOSITION:visual_impaired=0
DISPOSITION:clean_effects=0
DISPOSITION:attached_pic=0
DISPOSITION:timed_thumbnails=0
[U][B]TAG:creation_time=2017-08-22T16:59:38.000000Z
TAG:language=und
TAG:encoder=JVT/AVC Coding
(THIS IS WHERE WE SHOULD SEE TAG:handler_name=VideoHandler)[/B][/U]
[/STREAM]
[STREAM]
[U][B]index=1 (THIS IS YOUR AUDIO STREAM - Note the codec name below of aac)[/B][/U]
codec_name=aac
codec_long_name=AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)
profile=LC
codec_type=audio
codec_time_base=1/48000
codec_tag_string=mp4a
codec_tag=0x6134706d
sample_fmt=fltp
sample_rate=48000
channels=2
channel_layout=stereo
bits_per_sample=0
id=N/A
r_frame_rate=0/0
avg_frame_rate=0/0
time_base=1/48000
start_pts=0
start_time=0.000000
duration_ts=822272
duration=17.130667
bit_rate=128000
max_bit_rate=131272
bits_per_raw_sample=N/A
nb_frames=803
nb_read_frames=N/A
nb_read_packets=N/A
DISPOSITION:default=1
DISPOSITION:dub=0
DISPOSITION:original=0
DISPOSITION:comment=0
DISPOSITION:lyrics=0
DISPOSITION:karaoke=0
DISPOSITION:forced=0
DISPOSITION:hearing_impaired=0
DISPOSITION:visual_impaired=0
DISPOSITION:clean_effects=0
DISPOSITION:attached_pic=0
DISPOSITION:timed_thumbnails=0
[U][B]TAG:creation_time=2017-08-22T16:59:38.000000Z
TAG:language=und
(THIS IS WHERE WE SHOULD SEE TAG:handler_name=AudioHandler)[/B][/U]
[/STREAM]
[STREAM]
index=2
codec_name=bmp
codec_long_name=BMP (Windows and OS/2 bitmap)
profile=unknown
codec_type=video
codec_time_base=0/1
codec_tag_string=[0][0][0][0]
codec_tag=0x0000
width=424
height=240
coded_width=424
coded_height=240
has_b_frames=0
sample_aspect_ratio=0:1
display_aspect_ratio=0:1
pix_fmt=bgra
level=-99
color_range=N/A
color_space=unknown
color_transfer=unknown
color_primaries=unknown
chroma_location=unspecified
field_order=unknown
timecode=N/A
refs=1
id=N/A
r_frame_rate=90000/1
avg_frame_rate=0/0
time_base=1/90000
start_pts=0
start_time=0.000000
duration_ts=1541760
duration=17.130667
bit_rate=N/A
max_bit_rate=N/A
bits_per_raw_sample=N/A
nb_frames=N/A
nb_read_frames=N/A
nb_read_packets=N/A
DISPOSITION:default=0
DISPOSITION:dub=0
DISPOSITION:original=0
DISPOSITION:comment=0
DISPOSITION:lyrics=0
DISPOSITION:karaoke=0
DISPOSITION:forced=0
DISPOSITION:hearing_impaired=0
DISPOSITION:visual_impaired=0
DISPOSITION:clean_effects=0
DISPOSITION:attached_pic=1
DISPOSITION:timed_thumbnails=0
[/STREAM]
[FORMAT]
filename=Example_Unfixed.mp4
nb_streams=3
nb_programs=0
format_name=mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2
format_long_name=QuickTime / MOV
start_time=0.000000
duration=17.130667
size=6803147
bit_rate=3177061
probe_score=100
TAG:major_brand=mp42
TAG:minor_version=0
TAG:compatible_brands=mp42isomavc1
TAG:creation_time=2017-08-22T16:59:38.000000Z
TAG:title=Example_Unfixed
TAG:artist=
TAG:album=
TAG:comment=
TAG:encoder=DVDFab 10.0.5.2
[/FORMAT]

So, to fix this, all you need to do is run it through ffmpeg and add the missing handler information

ffmpeg -i "YOURFILENAMEHERE.mp4" -metadata:s:v:0 handler="VideoHandler" -metadata:s:a:0 handler="SoundHandler" -codec copy "OUTPUTFILENAMEHERE.mp4"

(Replace YOURFILENAMEHERE.mp4 with the actual name of your mp4 file, and OUTPUTFILENAMEHERE.mp4 with a name for the output file.)

Once it's done processing, if you run the output through the same command as above

ffprobe -v error -show_format -show_streams "YOURFILENAMEHERE.mp4"

Replace YOURFILENAMEHERE.mp4 with the name of the file we just created, not the original one.

You'll now see TAG:handler_name under both Stream index=0 and Stream index=1 as you should. Running the file through AVInaptic will also show VideoHandler/SoundHandler as it should in the headers.

There will be other changes that appear as a result of the modification. Namely, the TAG:creation_time, and TAG:encoder fields are dropped and some of the format tags are changed, and the duration/size may change slightly. You may also gain/lose a stream index=2 BMP stream. None of this shouldn't impact the play-ability on your TV though, so effectively the only relevant thing we've changed is the handler_name that was missing.

Now the actual question is, does that file work on your TV?

[cholla]

Hi Johnathon.
I will try this .
Then post the results.

This TV (and some other devices that are not primarily video file players) sure seems to be persnickety about what it will play and won't, maybe those devs need to do some work too

Is it possible that if this was fixed to work on my TV in DVDFab DVD Ripper 10 that "TVs and some other devices" that play the .MP4 files now might become the "persnickety" devices .

[cholla]

Johnathon,
Both the FFMPEG and XMedia Recode fixed DVDFab DVD Ripper 10 .MP4 play on my TV.

FFMPEG took about 10 seconds to do the handler change.
XMedia Recode took about 6 seconds to do the handler change.

I don't understand why this would be a major fix for DVDFab DVDRipper.
The DVDFab developers should be able to do this quickly & easily.
I believe part of the problem is DVDs have become the orphan child .
All the effort is on BD (blu ray) .
There are still many DVDFab customers like myself who use DVDs most of the time.
We need the same time devoted to DVDs as BD.
The thing is since DVDs are so much simpler they would take a lot less time to have the same benefits.

When checked with AVINaptic

DVDFab DVD Ripper 10 .MP4
Magic
File type ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, version 2
Major brand ISO Base Media version 0
Track nr. 1 video (avc1) []
Track nr. 2 audio (mp4a) []
Track nr. 3 text (text) []

FFMPEG fixed .MP4
Magic
File type ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, version 1
Major brand ISO Base Media version 512
Track nr. 1 video (avc1) [VideoHandler]
Track nr. 2 audio (mp4a) [SoundHandler]
Track nr. 3 text (text) [SubtitleHandler]

XMedia Recode is the same as FFMPEG.

[Johnathon]

This should be a simple fix for the developers. It's simply adding an additional text tag to the streams. It's worth noting that this issue is an H.264/MP4 issue as a whole, not a DVD only issue. Blu-Rays ripped with H.264/MP4 would have the same issue, so this isn't a matter of devotion of time to the format, but rather just an oversight as a whole since the handler_name is actually a part of the MPEG-4 standard to begin with (and did exist in DVDFab 7, but sometime later was inadvertently removed in later versions)

[signals]

That is certainly possible, but that is why there are profiles and 'persets' that can be customized. I do not consider the player firmware in TVs and many BD players to be very robust (compared to say, VLC) and I think it is considered a throw-away feature by the manufacturers, so, no, realistically I would not hold my breath waiting for firmware updates to improve universal playability. That is not to say that the DVDFab developers will not share the manufacturer's lack of concern, file playability is a high priority.