The VideoLAN Forums

Hi all
I am using VLC 0.8.6c on a Mac running OS 10.3.9
i tried to play an MP4 video, i get picture but no sound
this file was downloaded from a mobile phone onto my daughter's PC then emailed to me
this file is playing perfectly well on my daughter's PC, she gets picture and sound
i also tried to download VLC 0.8.6e, but this version will show no picture of the same file
what should i do?

thanks for your replies

I'm also having this problem on Windows XP SP2 with .mp4's taken by HTC C600 and HTC E650 mobile phones. I've tried VLC 0.8.6d and VLC 0.8.6f.
Otherwise it's a great bit of software, been able to play everything else I've thrown at it! I read somewhere on the net it's some problem with Quicktime encoding...

What is the audio codec? When the media is playing press "Ctrl+I" (or go to "View >> Stream and Media Info...") and click on "Advanced information".

Arite.

What is the audio codec? When the media is playing press "Ctrl+I" (or go to "View >> Stream and Media Info...") and click on "Advanced information".

Arite.

Hi Arite. Thanks for your reply.

The audio codec is "samr".

Cheers,

Dave

samr is the FourCC for AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) audio. It is not supported in VLC due to licensing issues. VLC can be compiled with AMR (using FFmpeg compiled with it) however this is not compatible with the GPL due to software patents.

To playback with audio in VLC the best thing to do would probably be to transcode the audio to e.g. MP3/MP4 using a convertor which supports AMR (it might playback with audio in QuickTime though).

Cheers, Arite.

Cheers for your reply, sorry it took me soooooooooo long to get back to you. It's only really one user who would ever notice, he's not too tech savy so would probably not take to converting files.

VLC can be compiled with AMR (using FFmpeg compiled with it) however this is not compatible with the GPL due to software patents.

I like the sound of that, how would I go about doing that ? That is, if it's not too naughty!

Cheers,

Dave

As far as I know FFmpeg needs to be compiled with AMR. In the configure script I think the flags are: For AMR-WB and AMR-NB.

For more information on compiling on OS X:
http://wiki.videolan.org/OSXCompile

Arite.

For more information on compiling on OS X:
http://wiki.videolan.org/OSXCompile

Thanks for your reply, I'm using XP, the opening poster is using OS X. Would that still work on XP?

For compiling on Windows:
http://wiki.videolan.org/Win32Compile

Same rules should apply for configure script etc.

Arite.

Hi friends,

After a lot of research i found the answer that everyone in the group was looking for, for playing a file's including audio and video which you have downloaded from your mobile as .mp4 extension can be played through Quick time player. There is no need to go for Quick Time pro and converting your .mp4 to .mov extension. You just have to follow few simple steps in order to see and listen the movie clearly.

Steps to Follow:-
1. First you have to find your audio and video codec, in my case the video was mp4v and the audio was "samr".
The audio codec, which is samr is not supported by VLC. So, you have to convert the "samr" (i.e AMR) codec to another codec, which could be mp3, wav etc. You will find the converter for your operating system at the following location:-
http://www.miksoft.net/mobileMediaConverter.htm
it's free of cost. But before that the second step is -->
2. Rename the files from mp4 to 3gp.
3. Download the convertor from the website mentioned above.
4. Open the convertor--> select the input file as one of your video file and the output file as a new file.
5. Start the converter, it will take less than a second for the file to convert.
6. Run the file using Quick time and now you can hear the sound. You don't have to use the converter for each and every file. You just have to do the conversion once and the solution will work for the rest.

Hope it helps................

Thanks and Regards,
Vibha Jha.

Hi everyone. I wanted to say a few things on the matter.

I download a lot of flash videos most of which are mp4 files, that probably has the same audio codec and hence the same problem as the ones being talked about here.
I too get picture but no audio. And using another media player for like my most used video format is no option for me, if I were to do so, I wouldn't have installed VLC to begin with.

There seems to be, however, some sort of a solution (as I guess) in the middle of the thread:

VLC can be compiled with AMR (using FFmpeg compiled with it) however this is not compatible with the GPL due to software patents.

I like the sound of that, how would I go about doing that ? That is, if it's not too naughty!

Cheers,

Dave

and

As far as I know FFmpeg needs to be compiled with AMR. In the configure script I think the flags are:

Code: Select all

--enable-ffmpeg --with-ffmpeg-amrwb --with-ffmpeg-amrnb

For AMR-WB and AMR-NB.

For more information on compiling on OS X:
http://wiki.videolan.org/OSXCompile

Arite.

Now I would like to do this fix-kind-of-thing, if I knew anything about what you're talking about there.
Can somebody explain to me what that is, how I can do it and actually watch one of the most popular video formats online with the media player that has been called in many places "the best media player there is"?

It'd be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,

Dimitrakopulos

For those facing similar problems, starting VLC with the option "--codec=faad" on the command line may work. Or it may not. Stolen from another thread.

Yeah, right. All I wanted was more and more "codes" and other stuff to deal with inaptitudes of a program when I was leaving Windows Media Player.
Oh wait, I didn't want that, I wanted no bugs, not a single one to deal with, none whatsoever.

Forget it now, I uninstalled the program. Back to Windows Media Player. At least till something else actually tops it.

Got the answer ladies and gents..

Download the Freemake Video Converter. It converts vlc to mp4 with sound and picture no problem.

Just watch out for the extra stuff it tries to download during installation. Go for the custom download, and when it says, "click here" to customize installation on the next page, click that. It allows you to de-select the "Next-Gen Search Engine", so you don't have to un-install it later.

Peace.