Can anyone play this MP4 AVC file?

[neuron2]

I have a small (10Mbyte) file called empire.mp4 available at my FTP site (please see my sig below). I would appreciate it if anyone can tell me how to play this file. All my attempts have come to naught. The closest I got was with MPlayer Classic, which reports being unable to handle a pin called GPAC ISO video. Right click and save on the following link:

http://neuron2.net/guest/empire.mp4

Warning: this may be an HD stream.

I would also be very grateful to be told how to extract a raw *.264 stream from this MP4 file.

Thank you very much.

[uray]

did you have install all required codec and mp4 spliter? usually i'm using ffdshow and mpc 6.4.8.7, and set ffdshow merit to highest and lower all codec except ffdshow

[charleski]

Plays for me using Gabest's latest MP4 splitter and the 8Nov ffdshow build. Also plays in Nero ShowTime. It is HD.

You can extract the raw .h264 using mp4box (easiest to do that through YAMB, I can never remember all the commandline switches).

Here's the info from mp4box:
* Movie Info *
Timescale 600 - Duration 00:00:16.683
Fragmented File no - 1 track(s)
File Brand avc1 - version 0

File has root IOD
Scene PL 0xff - Graphics PL 0xff - OD PL 0xff
Visual PL: AVC/H264 Profile (0x15)
Audio PL: No audio capability required (0xff)
No streams included in root OD

Track # 1 Info - TrackID 1 - TimeScale 7856463 - Duration 00:00:16.683
Media Info: Language "und" - Type "vide" - Sub Type "avc1" - 1000 samples
MPEG-4 Config: Visual Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x21
AVC/H264 Video - Visual Size 1280 x 720 - Version 1 Profile 0x64 Level 0x33
Self-synchronized

[Sharktooth]

I have a small (10Mbyte) file called empire.mp4 available at my FTP site (please see my sig below). I would appreciate it if anyone can tell me how to play this file. All my attempts have come to naught. The closest I got was with MPlayer Classic, which reports being unable to handle a pin called GPAC ISO video. Right click and save on the following link:

http://neuron2.net/guest/empire.mp4

Warning: this may be an HD stream.

I would also be very grateful to be told how to extract a raw *.264 stream from this MP4 file.

Thank you very much.
Update FFDShow and Haali media splitter. Use any directshow player/mplayer/vlc for playback.
Use YAMB (GUI) or mp4box to extract the raw stream.

[neuron2]

Thanks, guys.

Can you give me links to the versions that actually work, because I've been trying versions of things all day and getting very frustrated.

Thank you.

[charleski]

Gabest's stuff is here (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303) (for the MP4 splitter, or you could get the latest Haali one).

Milan Cutka's versions of ffdshow are here (http://ffdshow.sourceforge.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Getting+ffdshow)

[Sharktooth]

celtic druid's mplayer builds: http://www.aziendeassociate.it/cd.asp?dir=/mplayer
sherpya's mplayer builds (even with GUI): http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php
Media Player Classic: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358&release_id=373767
ffdshow: http://ffdshow.sourceforge.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Getting+ffdshow
YAMB: http://yamb.unite-video.com/ (includes mp4box) or http://kurtnoise.free.fr/Yamb/
Haali media splitter: http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/

[hitbit]

For me ffdshow 3 nov works, but 24 nov (Milan's build) don't. Others AVC encodes gave me trouble with 24 nov version. Also, with 3 nov the movie pause a bit after few frames at the beginning.
However mplayer plays it very smoothly.

[neuron2]

Thanks loads. I'll report back how I get on. I've already got the .264 stream out with YAMB and I'll try to play that on our silicon now.

[neuron2]

However mplayer plays it very smoothly. Do you mean MPlayer Classic?

[neuron2]

usually i'm using ffdshow and mpc 6.4.8.7, and set ffdshow merit to highest and lower all codec except ffdshow How do I do that?

Sorry to be such a noob.

[Sharktooth]

Do you mean MPlayer Classic?
no, mplayer and media player classic are 2 different things.

[neuron2]

For me ffdshow 3 nov works, but 24 nov (Milan's build) don't. Others AVC encodes gave me trouble with 24 nov version. Also, with 3 nov the movie pause a bit after few frames at the beginning.
However mplayer plays it very smoothly. I don't see a Nov 3 build at the milan link.

[Kopernikus]

Try a build from www.x264.nl

They are newer than milans.

[Koti]

Hmmm.... yep milans latest (11-29-05) stutters ,celtic druid build "ffdshow-20051103.exe" (http://www.aziendeassociate.it/cd.asp?dir=/ffdshow) or nero decoder work quite well tho on this sample :)

ps - used haali media splitter 11-25-05

[bond]

neuron2, something is wrong with that file
when i extract the stream to raw with either mp4box or mp4creator there are no nal units anymore on the stream (only PPS, SPS and the SEI), so the raw stream is not correct

as i cant reproduce this with any other file (be it muxed with mp4box or encoded with x264) i assume the empire.mp4 is already borked. do you know how exactly it was created?


about ffdshow:
afaik there are no important changes in recent ffdshow, so just make sure you are using a ffdshow thats not totally old

[Koti]

I was just gonna say someting odd with that file - I cannot extract a usable raw .264 from it. I am not a mp4box wizard either ;)

kinda off topic - as far as ffdshow , milans builds starting 11-24-05 stutter
( I tested [11-08 , 11-09 , 11-11 , 11-15 = Work [11-24 and upward stutter]
Didnt test other compiles except celtic druids 11-03-05 , that worked too.

[neuron2]

do you know how exactly it was created? Hmm. It was provided by our customer. If you load it in a hex editor you can see text at the beginning that shows it was made with x264 and the options used can be seen as well.

[Sharktooth]

what was the x264 revision (it should be there)?

[bond]

Hmm. It was provided by our customer. If you load it in a hex editor you can see text at the beginning that shows it was made with x264 and the options used can be seen as well.yeah, thats the userdata SEI

it says r380M

anyways the file is borked

[neuron2]

Here's the text from the binary:

http://neuron2.net/guest/hex.jpg

BTW, this crashed our silicon decoder, so that's consistent with something being very wrong.

But charleski and hitbit were able to play it, so I am confused.

[bond]

run h264_parse from mpeg4ip over the raw stream and you will see that all the nals from the frames are missing

[CruNcher]

ffdshow has problems playing it back frameskips (useing hallis parser)
neros decoder isn't impressed by the errors in the stream it plays it back anyways (useing hallis parser)
latest videolanclient is crashing (seeks like hell and crashs @ the end)
latest mplayer no problems

it's allways interesting to see how the error resilience between the Player/Decoder differs

[charleski]

It skipped in ShowTime, but MP4 splitter + 8Nov ffdshow played it smoothly. I did notice that the reported length of the clip didn't match the actual time taken to play it, probably because of the missing elements.
Not all ffdshows are created equal, alas.

[unskinnyboy]

From what I have checked,

ffdshow-20051109 + Haali Media Splitter-20051110 --> Smooth playback
ffdshow-20051115 + Haali Media Splitter-20051110 --> Smooth playback
ffdshow-20051124 + Haali Media Splitter-20051110 --> Jerky playback
ffdshow-20051129 + Haali Media Splitter-20051110 --> Jerky playback
(all milan's builds)

MPC v6.4.8.4 --> Smooth playback
VLC v0.8.4 --> Freezes at the first frame, then crashes after a bit

And as charleski pointed out, the timecode displayed is wrong from the actual duration of playback, both in MPC and BSPlayer. Didn't check in MPlayer since it played fine for everyone.

[woah!]

this file:

H264 Unknown Profile 64@5.1, 16.683secs, 5122kbps
1280x720 @ 59.941258 fps


one of mine:

H264 Main@5.1 everything else seems the same.



so whatever Unknown Profile 64 is i dont know. maybe a 64 bit encode that went wrong?

[akupenguin]

0x64 = 100 = high profile.

I demuxed it with `MP4Box -raw 1 empire.mp4` (cvs 2005-11-14), and it played in MPlayer both as mp4 and as raw.

Can people play this remux (http://students.washington.edu/lorenm/src/x264/empire2.mp4)?

[CruNcher]

yes same results as with the original

[hitbit]

With ffdshow 24nov, both remux and original give me this error message:

Assertion failed!

Program: C:\Video\mpc2kxp6485\mplayerc.exe
File:libavcodec/h264.c
Line: 2590

Expression: pic->data[0]

In 9 and 10 november, two patches were committed to libavcodec/h264.c (by akupenguin, I think)
Maybe this is somehow related...?

[Randall]

God himself coudn't play this AVC file.

[SeeMoreDigital]

0x64 = 100 = high profile.

I demuxed it with `MP4Box -raw 1 empire.mp4` (cvs 2005-11-14), and it played in MPlayer both as mp4 and as raw.

Can people play this remux (http://students.washington.edu/lorenm/src/x264/empire2.mp4)?I did much the same.... and obtained the same looking results.... ie: it's a bit of a "stop-start" affair with both FFDshow and Nero's DSdec filters!

QT7 player opens Donald's original Empire file but can't display it. And with akupenguin's Empire2 re-mux, all QT7 displays is a white screen.... which I guess is to be expected


Anyway Donald, it's nice to see you're getting interested in MPEG-4/AVC :)


Cheers

[neuron2]

Anyway Donald, it's nice to see you're getting interested in MPEG-4/AVC :) I have to to keep my job. :(

I have a lot of learning to do to catch up with you guys. I'm learning about NAL units and all that right now.

Thanks to everyone who helped with this funny stream.