My son put a TV series on my External Drive which I can connect to the TV using USB.When I tried to watch some of the series I got a message saying unsupported content.When I plugged the hard drive into my laptop and found the series and tried to play it it was in VLC format.Do I just delete it or is it possible to play it.Have never used VLC.Thank,s

Forgot to mention the TV is a Sony KDL-42W653A Model

I was under the impression that VLC is a media player not a video format. So I'm wondering if what you are looking at is a VLC playlist? In which case the individual video files the playlist references should also be on the disk. Unless that is whoever created it forgot that rather important step

What you could do is download and install VLC (it's free) which will tell you what the file actually is.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.en_GB.html

If the video files are there and not in a format the TV can handle VLC can convert them into one the TV can play. Most likely something like MPEG .

The TV cannot play whatever format the video is in. Simple really. VLC is not a video format, it is a video player.

Can't you ask your son how he recorded the shows and in what format, as others have stated VLC is a media player not a file type. Most modern TV's will play the common video formats, mkv, mp4, avi etc.

But where did the son get the files from?
They could be tied to only the set that they were recorded from if they were recorded to a drive via USB.

No such thing AFAIK. Do you mean it is a format for which VLC is the configured default player? What is the file extension when viewed in Windows Explorer?

If you set VLC as the default player for a particular filetype - say mkv - those files show as VLC media file (.mkv) in the 'type' column in Windows, but that doesn't usually carry over to a device that hasn't got VLC installed.

I'm guessing the TV series in post #1 is mkv - most are nowadays (yes I know it's a container not a filetype . . . ).

It say's VLC Media player then MKV so does that mean it is in MKV Format

I forgot to say I downloaded VLC onto my laptop

MKV strictly speaking is not a format. It is a container for various other audio and video formats. So you need to know exactly how the audio and video have been encoded, which VLC ought to be able to tell you.

The Sony TV will play MKV files provided they conform to the specs given here

http://pdf.crse.com/manuals/13LW6001...eclist.html#10

Open the file in VLC and then select Codec Information from the Tools menu which will tell you what actual format the video is.

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/con...L-42W653A/list

It seemingly should play most of anything.


If the TV is not even listing the files then perhaps it cannot even "parse" them to display thumbnails.

I have no solution since it should work.

I did the following and took a screen print of what came up.
Open the file in VLC and then select Codec Information from the Tools menu which will tell you what actual format the video is.Is it possible to attache the screen print to a message on here

You'll have to upload it to a pic sharing site like imagebam http://www.imagebam.com/ make sure you select 'family safe content' or else you will see content NSFW in the ads
and then post the link

Where do I post it to thank's

You can't post images on DS. The only thing you can do is upload the image to any image hosting site that takes your fancy then post a link to that image.

This is part of what it said
Stream 0
Type Video
Codec MPEG-H-Part 2

Stream 1
Type Audio
Codec MPEGAAC Audio (MP4A)

Stream 2
Type Subtitle
Codec Text Subtitles with various stages

It seems your son encoded the series to a format that the TV cannot play (MPEG-H-Part 2 = H265)

Tell him to be more traditional and use H264 (also known as: MP4 part10 / MPEG-4 AVC)

H264 is the best choice for things like TVs, the newer formats like H265 are ok for laptops and android boxes that can be easily updated to the latest formats.

Thank for that would it be possible to convert the files to something more suitable for viewing on the TV

Yes it would.

Try Handbrake one of the best free programmes.

https://handbrake.fr/

VLC will do it for you.

https://wiki.videolan.org/Documentat...ia_File_Format