Help Video MP4 files not readable (on computer, etc)

[janso]

When I transfer video files taken from my HTC ONE to my computer, they do not play. I tried to play them in WMP, Quicktime, and VLP. The files have a MP4 extension. I previously had a Motorola Atrix and the video files from there played with no problem. Can anyone help with this?

 

[marctronixx]

how are they encoded?

do you get an error message when attempting to play?

I have no issues playing a video on the computer.

are you using a PC? MAC?

have you tried to play on another computer?

 

[EarlyMon]

Did you mean VLP or VLC?

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

Tap on video in your gallery, details, to answer marctronixx question about encoding.

How were they transferred?

 

[erichg1000]

So I took a video file and dropped onto my computer to trim and edit - by windows media player couldn't open the video file. The audio was there... but no video. I used VLC to covert it to WMV and now WMP can open it, but Windows Movie Maker crashes every time I try to make an edit.

My GoPros all use MP4 and WMP can open that fine... what is different about the way the HTC One encodes the video files that WMP cannot read the files?

Note that my OG HTC Evo and HTC Evo 3D never had this issue...

---
Mine play in VLC just fine. I used the USB cable to transfer the file onto my hard drive.

This is on a PC. I have not tried a different computer yet.

The details of the file don't show how they are encoded but thy are at 19.6295Mbps bit rate, video/mp4.

I'll delete the file and try the transfer again

 

[erichg1000]

I tried it on a different computer. It did the same thing.... windows media player will only play the audio on the mp4 file and not the video.

other mp4 files that are not from the HTC One play just fine. so frustrating... remind me to never us the video camera on the POS again

 

[EarlyMon]

Your old phones recorded using a simple MPEG-4 video codec.

This one uses a more advanced one, the H.264 codec.

VLC has what it needs on-board.

Your other tools are missing that video codec.

 

[sikclown]

I tried it on a different computer. It did the same thing.... windows media player will only play the audio on the mp4 file and not the video.

other mp4 files that are not from the HTC One play just fine. so frustrating... remind me to never us the video camera on the POS again

As Early pointed out you need the necessary codecs. I personally stopped using WMP and WMM years ago because they lack flexibility. Try installing these codecs which should fix your WMP problem.

Media Player Codec Pack - CNET Download.com

 

[danski]

I use K-Lite codec pack on my lappie, if thats of any help.

 

[That_One_Guy]

So I put about 20 movies on my HTC One and included in there was Avatar and Inglorious Basterds. They are both mp4's and work on my computer just fine. However, they won't play on the One. The movies show up as gray boxes with exclamation points in them. My first guess is that these movies are too long and the file is too large. Does anybody have a solution for this? They show up on my phone, they just won't actually play.

 

[marctronixx]

Sounds like an encoding issue.

The container may be mp4 but what is the encoding specs of the files?

what program did you use to convert the files?

the other files you added. do they play just fine? were they converted using the same program?

just how large are the files in question? 1gb? more?

what player on your computer are you using? and is it PC or MAC?

what app are you using to play them? just the stock app? try:

Diceplayer
Moboplayer
MX Player

 

[clsA]

I just did a quick dump of dark skies dvd to my PC in x264 MP4 and it plays fine in MX Player on my One.
I use CyberLink MediaEspresso
with the 700x300 MP4 Profile
23.9 FPS
avc1 x264 Codec
the file came out to 422mb

 

[That_One_Guy]

Sounds like an encoding issue.

The container may be mp4 but what is the encoding specs of the files?

what program did you use to convert the files?

the other files you added. do they play just fine? were they converted using the same program?

just how large are the files in question? 1gb? more?

what player on your computer are you using? and is it PC or MAC?

what app are you using to play them? just the stock app? try:

Diceplayer
Moboplayer
MX Player

I used Wondershare to convert them from avi and mkv to mp4. I converted about 15 or movies and these are the only two that won't play. I tried Diceplayer, Moboplayer, and MX player. None of them worked. I looked at the files last night on my computer and they are both 5GB+ files. It's just because they are both so long and 1080p quality movies. I'm going to try and downsize the files to get them closer to 2GB. Any suggestions on the best way to get that done without losing substantial quality?

Sidenote: All my other movies look and sound AMAZING on this phone!

 

[clsA]

just drop them down to 720p
theirs no way you can tell the difference on 4.7" screen

this is a good read
http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=53172

 

[chong67]

Side question:

I never have a 1080p phone at 4.7" size before. (I do have a 120" screen and I need to see it at 1080p).

If you rip at 640x480, can you see any difference in it since the screen is small but the resolution is high.

 

[blau808]

So I put about 20 movies on my HTC One and included in there was Avatar and Inglorious Basterds. They are both mp4's and work on my computer just fine. However, they won't play on the One. The movies show up as gray boxes with exclamation points in them. My first guess is that these movies are too long and the file is too large. Does anybody have a solution for this? They show up on my phone, they just won't actually play.

Had same issue with some of my converted blu-ray rips. Just download MX player, it plays mp4's fine and its free.

 

[shadowspawn]

Avoid lossless audio containers. h.264/x.264 is a pretty universal video standard, but codecs such as FLAC and AAC are not. The more common AC3 and MP3 codecs are better choices for audio codecs.

As per reducing filesize, there are a bunch of different things you can do to get the file size lower depending on what you deem "substantial quality". Using different encoding methods, reducing sample rate, and dropping resolution are all ways to drop file size down considerably.

This applies to both video and audio by the way. It may be more beneficial to try this with audio first if you're not planning on using headphones since the drop in quality won't be very noticeable through speakers.

 

[cguidry21]

I transferred some videos from my HTC ONE phone to my computer and I cannot view them. I downloaded several video converter programs and none of them worked. I also tried to convert the videos to different... i dk what you call them versions.... like wmv, asf, mp3 and none of them worked....does any one have any ideas????

 

[Frisco]

I transferred some videos from my HTC ONE phone to my computer and I cannot view them. I downloaded several video converter programs and none of them worked. I also tried to convert the videos to different... i dk what you call them versions.... like wmv, asf, mp3 and none of them worked....does any one have any ideas????

Hello cguidry.

What computer OS do you have (Windows 7/XP, etc, Mac, Linux)?

 

[cguidry21]

windows 7...it seems like all of the converters are giving me error messages....i do not know if the videos are corrupt and i need to take the phone back ( i have only had it a week) or if i am doing something wrong....

 

[EarlyMon]

Do they play in VLC?

 

[cguidry21]

no every video converter i downloaded today ( i think about 10 or 15) kept giving me error messages. Since my last post I downloaded the media player codec and the video converter i have decided to use for now finally converted it but when i tried to open it in windows media player it would not open. I tried to open it in quick time but there was no video or audio....what are the best files ( i guess you call it) to convert these videos too or do i need to try something else....

ok so when i did wmv that is when i just didnt get the video or audio now i tried afs and it refuses to acknowledge it at all again....

 

[EarlyMon]

If they didn't play in VLC (not a converter) then it's more likely that they weren't transferred to your pc properly. Not your fault, that happens.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

 

[cguidry21]

I have looked all over the internet to find out how to get my toshiba laptop to play videos from my htc one sv. I tried to use the htc sync but it will not transfer my videos off of the phone. i tried drop box but it does not send all the vidoes over and I have tried every player i can think of like windoes, real time, VLN, and wuicktime. I tried the usb cable and the videos become corrupt and will not play at all. I tried calling htc and they said that my computer needs something to recognize the videos but they did not know what...does anyone here know of any ideas

 

[blackpent]

Have you try to send the video files using "ES File Explorer" to your PC and LAN connection?
Maybe "htc sync" is corrupting the files. With "ES File Explorer" you could avoid that.

Good luck!
http://androidforums.com/android-applications/180236-es-file-explorer-astro.html

 

[mikedt]

When you connect the phone to your PC, it should mount as a regular MTP device and can see the directories and files from the File Explorer - and then just copy and paste them. Then something like VLC should be able to play them. Should be no need for anything proprietary like HTC sync or whatever.