No audio on video playback!

[Busterbee]

I've copied a DivX.mkv video file to my usb stick and played the file in video playback,
the quality of the video is good but alas no sound, I've checked mute button etc but still silent.
The video file is ok as it plays perfectly in DivX player on my laptop,

Can anyone kindly offer any advice?

BB

[echelon]

clearly your pc has codecs installed capable of dealing with the sound format, whereas the spiderbox clearly cannot use that sound format

remember that mkv and avi files are containers and what is inside them differs a lot

a pc will always be more capable than the spiderbox at this, and the manual did give some advice on divx playback (but not mkv)

the faq section also gives advice on correct divx conversion too

https://www.satpimps.co.uk/showthread.php?130612-Setting-up-your-SpiderBox-Setup-amp-Installation-Guide

so there will always be formats a spiderbox cannot play or display correctly

2 questions for you

1) what type of audio is contained in the mkv file ?

2) what type of audio works on the spiderbox ?


once you know this, have you tried popcorn to convert the audio ?

PopCorn MKV AudioConverter is a MKV audio tool that allows you to convert between MKV DTS to MKV AC3 files, as well as convert Ogg audio to to AC3, MP3 and AAC formats.

_http://www.digital-digest.com/software/PopCorn_MKV_AudioConverter.html

[Busterbee]

I understand what you're saying Echelon but the SB 9900 manual states "To play videos on your STB, first convert the the avi file in DivX Manager" which I did but no success.
Any ideas?

[Aldo]

If you are using Windows 7 have you tried these Codecs:


http://www.filehippo.com/download_windows_7_codecs/

[paulus]

Also, currently the 9900 cannot play mp3's - since this was crippled to fix a problem with some channels on 30W. So I guess if the audio in the file is plain and simple mp3 then that is why it is not playing.

[echelon]

I understand what you're saying Echelon but the SB 9900 manual states "To play videos on your STB, first convert the the avi file in DivX Manager" which I did but no success.
Any ideas?


I dont have the 9900 so cannot comment on it, but my point is that these boxes cannot play every audio and video aspect known to man

and the link I gave explains how you need to convert divx, which are avi containers, to a suitable format that the spiderbox can play, which is what you quoted, but it does NOT mention mkv files which are the ones you tried, and in any case it is telling you to convert to divx format (avi format) which you didnt bother to do or to try

MY POINT is that the same must apply to an mkv container, and you didnt answer MY questions

ie:-

1) which MKV (matroska) files play ok with both video and audio

2) what video and audio paremeters are they that work as described in question 1 ?

apply those parameters to your new mkv file and I assume the audio works ok

you also did not say if you tried that audio converter I linked to to change the current audio file to a different audio file

you need to do some of the work here like other members do, identify the problem, try a different tack, and come up with a solution

there is no way that you tried all this in the half hour between my post and your post !!!!
so as mentioned in the last post, it could be that your mkv has mp3 audio, and requires ac3 or ogg or some other type of audio

knowing which formats the spiderbox supports would help, but its not as if you can install the klite codec pack onto a spiderbox to fix playback issues, unlike your pc or laptop

so test different mkv file formats until you know what audio files are supported and what arent, and then convert your present mkv to that audio file format and I would assume your problem would be fixed

job done

[Busterbee]

Got a bit of ground work to do then!!!

Speak to you later.

[echelon]

Got a bit of ground work to do then!!!

Speak to you later.

yep, my point exactly

you asked for any ideas, which I provided, now you have to track down which audio formats do and dont work and convert your mkv or avi files into files that do work

you cannot make the spiderbox fix the problem, so you fix the files instead

[Busterbee]

I've downloaded and installed PopCorn MKV Audio Converter 1.87.4, configured, Ran and here are the results:

Selected “MKV Tools” tab
“Individual Locations”
“Single File”

Progress Log:
Extracting Information for file "D:\Videos\Source File\MyVideo_HDTV.mkv"

Video Track:
Track Number: 1
Codec: V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Pixel Resolution: 624x352
Aspect ratio: 1.77
Display Resolution: 624x352
Frames per second: 23.976

Audio Track #1
Track Number: 2
Codec: A_MPEG/L3
Language: eng
SampleRate: 48000
Channels: 2
Skipping conversion - none of the audio tracks can be converted
or the conversion has been disabled:
--------------------------------------------------------------

I'm new to Video/Audio protocols and configurations so could you please explain what I should do next...

[echelon]

no idea m8, you asked for ideas and clearly the issue is a file issue and your breakdown above appears to indicate that the audio is mp3

I would assume you need to change that by conversion to a suitable file format for a spiderbox, which is a pc issue, not a spiderbox issue

I also asked you to find a file that did work and to check what audio format that uses too
(getting fed up of repeating myself here)

that same issue of changing formats was addressed by some clever spiderbox owners for the divx avi file format and I copied and pasted their recommendations here on the forum in the faq,s some time ago before the 9900 came available

now we need somebody to do the same thing for mkv files as was done for avi files

[Aldo]

I just wonder if this free ware converter would do the trick, it would be worth a try:


http://www.filehippo.com/download_freemake_video_converter/

[captainglassback]

I have found avi to be a bit hit and miss with Spiderbox regardless of file size, (above / below 1GB). What I now do is covert whatever video file I get to MPEG2 using 'AnyVideoConverter'. Not had any failures.... yet! (Spider 9000)

[Busterbee]

Thanks for your help guys, having great difficulty finding an audio file format which works on my box, that's why I can't supply you with the necessary information.

Just down loaded "Any Video Converter" and at present I'm converting the file to MPEG2 format as suggested by by captainglassback

Let you know how I get on...

[paulus]

I suspect that you are doomed to fail here also. MPEG2 uses mp3 in its audio level (as far as I know) and in the 9900 the mp3 codec doesn't work. This is very different to the 9000, so 9000 users do not have this problem. If I remember correctly when I last did this I converted to mp4 (irrespective of the container - I think). If I am right your mpeg2 will fail - so try mp4. Hope this helps.

[echelon]

the divx info in the FAQ shows a rhapsody version to try to give WMP compatibility

so I believe that those files that you re-encode into that version of xvid use ac3 audio format

but I do agree that its likely that any mp3 audio file format will fail on the 9900 due to the 9900 patches crippling mp3 playback in order to fix some other issue

so I would have thought conversion into AVI format using the info in that sticky thread should give video and ac3 audio that plays on any spiderbox (and on any pc or laptop too)

[Busterbee]

Well guys, after a bit copying and converting I think I’ve found a solution to my audio problem.

1: I copied a new video.avi file to my usb stick which played ok but with no sound
2: I converted the video.avi with Divx Manager to a video.mkv format which played ok but with no sound.
3: I converted the video.avi with AVC to video(mpeg2).mpg format which played ok and with excellent sound.
4: I converted the video.avi with AVC to video(mpeg4).mpg format with rubbish video and ok sound.

So I think I’m happy now with just converting the original avi file through AVC to a mpeg2 format unless anyone has a better solution!

Thanks for all your advice...

BB