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Thanks. That would be great.

Just getting into the Videos section. Very cool stuff.

This is tribute video that I created for my grandmother's funeral about 13 years ago and wanted to share it with the family. So yeah, it's an old video format.

I've tried to convert it to mp4, and it's successful when getting a 60 second preview in Handbrake, but when I try to encode the whole video, even Handbrake chokes on it. It does, however play fine (video and audio) when I attempt to play it on the server using Windows Media Player, before and after the file extension change.

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Weird. Someone should be able to help with a simple ffmpeg command. It sounds worth converting it to a more modern format for keeping it around.

It was worth digitizing video from 1980's era magnetic VHS to the WMV format, so yeah, I could do that. As a software developer, and as you get older, you'll realize the importance of backward compatibility on items worth savings, because file formats change too frequently to screw around with this.

I will, however get this video into mp4 one way or another if you decide you'd rather not tackle this compatibility issue.

Software developers do understand this importance, and that is why most all of them promote open standards. In 2010 there were video codecs superior to WMV, so the blame lies either with whichever service you used, or you for not requesting a better format.

However, don't blame subsequent developers and services for not supporting the crappy and proprietary format.

(It's almost similar to going to Blockbuster and yelling at the clerks because they don't have any Betamax ... except the opposite, because Beta was the superior format over VHS.)

Sorry to off topic this, but can't resist. But, recently learned this not true. Betamax (Consumer format) was not really superior to VHS. Modern comparisons is subjective of course, but facts prove otherwise and is a general misconception that Beta is "superior".

Betacam is vastly superior and very different Professional format, used until the late 90's in TV Studios, and that is typically where the argument of "Beta" is better comes from. (Source: Technology Connections 1, 2, 3)

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Please try the latest server pre-release and TestFlight beta to see if this works now.

I updated to V2023.05.17.0130 and I now get a thumbnail. When I attempt to play it on a PC, it just spins. When I try to play it on the firestick it says

! Recording not found (-16)

The log says:

2023/05/18 19:02:25.415637 [ENC] Starting encoder for video3.wmv in D:\CHANNELS\ChannelsDVR\Streaming\file14048-ip192.168.254.102-2150750086\encoder-0-2276026648 at 0 (0.000000) (encoder=h264_mf, resolution=960, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=9744, segment_size=0.01)
2023/05/18 19:02:25.966880 [HLS] ffmpeg: file14048-ip192.168.254.102:  [h264_mf @ 0000000002b7eac0] stream format change
2023/05/18 19:02:59.242310 [ENC] Stopped encoder for video3.wmv in D:\CHANNELS\ChannelsDVR\Streaming\file14048-ip192.168.254.102-2150750086\encoder-0-2276026648 after encoding 0 to 31

Try the Channels beta client on Fire stick

I'm already running the beta app on the firestick. I just went into support on the client and there appears to be an update ... running that now.

So after the update I get audio but no video. Getting closer.

Okay please submit diagnostics from that app after playback with no video

Just switched the client on the LAN to 8mbps transcoding and it's playing now. If the firestick can't play wmv natively, is there a way the server can figure out what to do there?

Just submitted logs. The logs were submitted after upgrading, then switching between transcoding and not transcoding across the LAN.

What do you think?

Try new beta

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Yep, it plays. Thank you.

When we're running the beta on a client, do we need to be manually upgrading that or does it happen automatically?

I didn't get that from my response, but if it came across that way, I apologize.

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The client beta apk does not auto-update.