Can't play 4K files on U4 HDD - sound but no picture

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WalMast
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Can't play 4K files on U4 HDD - sound but no picture

Post by WalMast » Sun Nov 21, 2021 17:10

I have my U4 connected to a 4K Sony Bravia A80J via a brand new high speed HDMI cable, rated for 4K, plugged into the eARC input on the TV. Everything works, except for playing 4K files on the U4's drive. I get sound but the screen is black. Anything below 4K plays fine. TV output is fine.

On the U4, I have tried auto resolution on or off, with auto resolution off I have tried to set the resolution to 1080i or 2160p, but the behaviour is the same. I have tried a few different 4K files from different sources; all the same result. All the files I have tried have an mp4 extension.

Any hints? I presume the U4 should be capable of playing a 4K file on a 4K TV.

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Gully
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Re: Can't play 4K files on U4 HDD - sound but no picture

Post by Gully » Sun Nov 21, 2021 17:15

Have you set the HDMI signal format to Enhanced format for that input?
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Re: Can't play 4K files on U4 HDD - sound but no picture

Post by MrQuade » Sun Nov 21, 2021 17:31

It's also worth paying the mediainfo details to make sure that the video encoding on your files is supported by the U4. Since of the high profile hevc and avc encodings are not supported.
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Re: Can't play 4K files on U4 HDD - sound but no picture

Post by WalMast » Sun Nov 21, 2021 18:13

This is one file that didn't play:

Image

This one did play, but only in stereo, not 5.1.

Image
Last edited by WalMast on Sun Nov 21, 2021 18:44, edited 1 time in total.

WalMast
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Re: Can't play 4K files on U4 HDD - sound but no picture

Post by WalMast » Sun Nov 21, 2021 18:45

Gully wrote:
Sun Nov 21, 2021 17:15
Have you set the HDMI signal format to Enhanced format for that input?
Yes.

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Re: Can't play 4K files on U4 HDD - sound but no picture

Post by peteru » Sun Nov 21, 2021 21:20

That does not look like full output of MediaInfo - the key information is missing.

But, taking a guess at both of those files, it looks like you are not downloading the right format. If you want the best experience, you should download MKV files with H.265/HEVC and AC3/DD for 4k content. For FullHD (1080p) content, you can additionally choose to download MKV with H.264/AVC and AC3/DD.

MP4 is not a great choice and AAC audio is outright a bad choice. If you do end up with AAC audio, you can use something like AviDemux to copy the video stream and transcode the audio to Dolby Digital 5.1 format (AC3) to get the full experience. This is fairly quick. On my system it takes less than a minute for a two hour file.

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WalMast
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Re: Can't play 4K files on U4 HDD - sound but no picture

Post by WalMast » Mon Nov 22, 2021 13:30

Thanks. These are just sample 4K videos downloaded from a sample site. I'll try the transcoding.

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Re: Can't play 4K files on U4 HDD - sound but no picture

Post by prl » Mon Nov 22, 2021 14:14

If you'd said which videos and which site, other people would be able to download them and perhaps be more able to help.
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Re: Can't play 4K files on U4 HDD - sound but no picture

Post by MrQuade » Mon Nov 22, 2021 14:27

WalMast wrote:
Mon Nov 22, 2021 13:30
Thanks. These are just sample 4K videos downloaded from a sample site. I'll try the transcoding.
When we talk about mediainfo, we generally mean to use the program called "mediainfo" which gives the detailed information:
https://mediaarea.net/MediaInfo
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