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Every MP4 in my entire movie collection no longer plays... your help is now requested

post #1 of 4
Thread Starter 
Hey everyone, not sure if anyone else w/ an HTPC has been through this before, but today is a sad horrible nightmare and I can really use some help / advice.

For the last several months I have been tediously converting my movie collection to MP4s. 120 or so, working great, all done as of last week. Today, I go to watch one and discover that it wont play. Then I discover that none of them will play. No love from VLC, XBMC, etc.

After spending all day in research mode, it sounds like my problem may have something to do with broken mp4 headers. This is merely an educated guess (which if true, I'd have to attribute to one of the media organizer apps that I had tried in the last week).

To correct this, I've tried several apps & scripts to demux/ remux/ resave/ export the mp4s to get them to work... but so far, nothing has been able to play the actual video file within.

Everything about these files looks like they should work. I have no idea what happened, but the properties of the container & the media within look good as far as I can tell.

Can anyone help me? I'm pretty much at the end of the road.

Exact symptoms:
  • I try to play an MP4 from my within Movies folder, via multiple players, but the files simply won't work.

System:
Things I've tried that have failed:
  • codec replacement - shark 007 update/ re-install
  • ffmpeg - a simple acodec/ vcodec copy
  • mp4box - demux/ remux
  • mp4creator - demmux/ remux
  • AVIDemux - open/ export
  • YAMB - demux/ remux
  • Grau GbR Video Repair Utility - open/ export

Other interesting tidbits:
  • Any MP4 not in my Movies directory plays perfectly, on all players.
  • I'm no newb, but I certainly feel like one.
post #2 of 4
Thread Starter 
Here's a mediainfo on one of the files, if its helpful:

General
Complete name : F:\\MEDIA\\Video\\Movies\\Back to the Future (1985)\\Back to the Future (1985).mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 1.78 GiB
Duration : 1h 56mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 196 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2012-03-18 16:41:39
Tagged date : UTC 2012-03-18 20:22:38
Writing application : HandBrake 0.9.6 2012022800
Xtra : WM/MediaClassPrimaryID

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 1h 56mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 1 581 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 464 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 1.85:1
Original display aspect ratio : 1.85:1
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Minimum frame rate : 17.120 fps
Maximum frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.197
Stream size : 1.28 GiB (72%)
Encoded date : UTC 2012-03-18 16:41:39
Tagged date : UTC 2012-03-18 20:22:26
Color primaries : BT.601-6 525, BT.1358 525, BT.1700 NTSC, SMPTE 170M
Transfer characteristics : BT.709-5, BT.1361
Matrix coefficients : BT.601-6 525, BT.1358 525, BT.1700 NTSC, SMPTE 170M

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 1h 56mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 160 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 365 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -67ms
Stream size : 133 MiB (7%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2012-03-18 16:41:39
Tagged date : UTC 2012-03-18 20:22:25

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : ac-3
Duration : 1h 56mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -67ms
Stream size : 372 MiB (20%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2012-03-18 16:41:39
Tagged date : UTC 2012-03-18 20:22:25
post #3 of 4
Wow... So if you were to move one of your video files out of your main movie folder it plays ok? Do you have another computer you could try to play the files on? When attempting to open a video, does the player open at all? Have you tried to open VLC first then open a movie from inside the player? I really have no idea what could be causing your issue, just hoping something I've suggested will get us moving in the right direction...

Edit: check your file extensions (.mp4, .m4v) also. You might have to tell windows to display them. Possibly one of your organizer apps changed or removed the extensions, confusing windows?
post #4 of 4
This sounds like a permissions issue to me. Have you checked the file ownership and effective permissions on both the files and each dir in the path?
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