I have an HP x280n extender on my WMC setup, and it has been great.
I have about 200 MP4 Movies on my HTPC that I have an issue with. The Video plays perfectly on the x280n, but I get no sound while on Media Center. These files are 720p or 1080p in the 800mb to 1.5GB size, and have aac 2 channel sound. The files look amazing, and I would hate to totally blow the size of the file up to 4 or 5 GB per movie. I have tried (with my limited Encode knowledge) to change the file to .mkv .m2ts .ts .wtv and .wmv and they all look horrible. Most will play with sound, but some are 4:3 others are really pix elated and blocky. None look as good as the MP4. What file types do you guys use for the x280n that is not HUGE. If I leave Media Center, and open the file thru the network share it plays normally, They also play on the DMA2200 normally, but the x280n is a far superior extender in every other aspect, and exiting the Media Center to watch a movie is a pain. Any help will be great.
x280n Movie File Help
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barnabas1969
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I don't think the X280N supports AAC... or at least not with H.264 video... or maybe the AAC audio is encoded at too high a bitrate. Re-encode the audio to AC3 and you're good to go. No need to change the video encoding/codec if the video plays OK. You can leave the container MP4, even if you change the audio to AC3.
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robcy
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Thanks for your assistance. I used handbreak to do the audio. I left the container as MP4, I left the Video at H264, and changed the Audio to AC3. I created a couple of files one with AC3 Stereo, and the other with AC3 Passthru (those are the only 2 options). Both copies pay video, and audio, but the video is blocky, and deteriorated. I do not mind encoding into another format that is not HUGE, and provides the video quality close to the MP4. Do you thing that changing the video to FFmpeg (MPEG-4 or 2) for the video along with AC3 audio will work? I have access to a couple of i7 machines that go thru the encode pretty fast.
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barnabas1969
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- Location: Titusville, Florida, USA
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HTPC Specs:
I've never used handbrake, but I know there are quality settings, including a 2-pass encoding. You are confusing containers with codecs. The container is MP4 (or MKV, or WTV, or whatever).
H.264 is a video codec. It is also known as MPEG-4. They are one and the same. The quality is affected by the bit rate, and other factors such as the number of passes used in the encoding process.
AC3 is an audio codec.
The container (MP4, in your case) contains one or more audio/video/text-subtitle streams, among other things like metadata.
If you can find a way (with handbrake or some other tool) to leave the video stream alone (no re-encoding), and to re-encode the audio as AC3... then you're golden. It would be much, much faster to re-encode the audio stream while leaving the video stream as-is.
H.264 is a video codec. It is also known as MPEG-4. They are one and the same. The quality is affected by the bit rate, and other factors such as the number of passes used in the encoding process.
AC3 is an audio codec.
The container (MP4, in your case) contains one or more audio/video/text-subtitle streams, among other things like metadata.
If you can find a way (with handbrake or some other tool) to leave the video stream alone (no re-encoding), and to re-encode the audio as AC3... then you're golden. It would be much, much faster to re-encode the audio stream while leaving the video stream as-is.
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breezytm
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I know this is old but new to me. I can't play my mp4s either and my videos also contain aac as default track and ac3 6 channels as secondary. The local player seems to play the file fine with the aac stereo track but windows media center seems to have an issue with it. What are your thoughts?