Wd live won't play AAC audio

[Testdis]

I just purchased this unit. Played a MKV 1080 backup copy of Avatar without a hickup but when I tried to play 3 different videos with AAC encoded with Handbrake there is no audio. Live is connected through Hdmi and the three different videos definitely have audio. Specs state the unit plays AAC.....anyone have ideas? Btw: just upgraded to latest firmware version

[mkelley]

Welcome to the forums.

AAC encoded with Handbrake?  What  Mixdown did you select?  With stereo or Pro Logic II you should have no issues at all.  You cannot, however, use 6 channel discrete (the Live, like a lot of hardware devices, does not support 6 channel AAC).

[Testdis]

Hey Mike,

Thanks for your response.  Funny thing happened.   The following day after I received your response, the files played fine.  Made no changes of any kind and they played without a hiccup.  Thought everything was fine, but now the WD Live won't play the audio for a DTS MKV and an AC3 MKV.  I have a support ticket in with WD as I shouldn't be having these problems.  Both the MKV's play fine on my PC, so I would assume the WD would play fine.  All files are played via USB.  Could there be an encoding problem I need to work out?  I'm getting close to returning this unit, so any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks for your asisstance...John

[mkelley]

What are your settings for audio in the Live, stereo or digital?  And how are you playing your sound - through a receiver or direct to your TV, and optical or HDMI?

[Testdis]

I've tried both stereo and digital....didn't work. Directly through the TV and Hdmi. My hitachi plasma can't play the dts but was assuming it could play the AC3. I'm going to compare the file that did play correctly vs. the new batch that won't play. Anything else to try

[mkelley]

For sure you need to be set on "Stereo" -- digital won't work for you since your TV can't decode it (not even the AC3 file -- you need an audio receiver for that).

The Live *should* correct decode both DTS and AC3 as long as they are correctly encoded, but that isn't always the case.  You didn't say how you encoded with Handbrake, or what version you used.  I would recommend downloading one of the nightlies (NOT the old version .094) and encode with the High Profile, changing only output type to MKV (leave everything else alone and for sure don't mess with the sound settings).  The default will convert your audio to AAC which is what you want here (since you can't decode 5.1 surround).

That should do it -- I'll bet you a dollar everything will be just fine then.

[Testdis]

The problem seems to be with my transcoding.  The original MKV of Avatar works properly and that video is DTS.  My "compilation" is also DTS but that won't play.  Only difference when I view the 2 files in MediaRaw is that the audio bitrate on Avatar is displayed and there is no bitrate displayed for my "compilation".  MKVmerge has all the same settings when compared.  I'm using MeGUI to transcode the "compilation".  I'm not exactly sure what the difference is, but its going to have to be a trial and error till I figure it out.  Any other ideas?!?

[mkelley]

Wait a minute -- you said you used Handbrake to make the videos.  Now you're saying you used MKVMerge and/or MeGUI?

That's a whole different ballgame -- you need to provide accurate information for us to help you.  If you used MKVmerge the odds are great that you simply used a version new than 4.0 (anything newer does not do the audio properly for the Live to work unless you turn off compression in the audio and video streams.  It's best to just use version 4.0 or earlier).

[Testdis]

Hey mike. Sorry for the confusion. The original AAC problem was with videos encoded with handbrake. That problem has since been resolved. The newest issue is building 2 1080 HD movies with megui and mkvmerge. One played fine (didn't transcode that one myself) and the one I built the sound wasn't working. I read some additional posts on this forum regarding your suggestion about using an older version of mkvmerge. I'm going to give it a try later this week and post the outcome. Thanks for all your help thus far!

[mkelley]

Okay -- but be careful about confusing an old man <bg>.