Disapointment with Surface 2 video playback

[SteelSteve]

So I've had my Surface 2 for about 6 months now, and I have been unable to stream any of the movies I have on my DLNA server to the device. I have tried numerous apps from the apps store, with no success. To make matters worse my wife's iPad, and son's Galaxy Tab2 along with all other devices in the house (including 2 Windows 8 PC's) stream just fine. I thought it may have just been mine, except that my brother in law got a Dell xps10 Windows RT tablet for Christmas and he has the same issues. It's not like I'm using some bizarre format, all movies are MPEG's. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a place to download codex for the Surface RT and Surface 2?

 

[oditius]

I think it may be a RT thing. But not sure, my Dell Venue 11 Pro shows movies just fine. So you might want to concentrate your search on "Windows RT DLNA"... Good luck on it...

 

[Cruncher04]

It would help if you could detail at which point you are failing. Is the server and the files in question visible, but it just fails playing?

 

[SteelSteve]

Yes, I can see the files, but no app will play them

 

[podsnap]

So, just to be clear, if you copy the movie file onto the Surface, can you play them or is it the ability to stream across the network that's the problem?

 

[Cruncher04]

I checked with MPEG videos on my server and it is streaming just fine. I open the server and file with the file explorer (desktop). After that the XBox video app starts for playback.

 

[SteelSteve]

So, just to be clear, if you copy the movie file onto the Surface, can you play them or is it the ability to stream across the network that's the problem?

I tried copying the files directly to the device and they still do not play, however those same files on the same DLNA server play just fine on every other device in the house, granted I have to download apps from iTunes the Google marketplace, and in the case of My Windows 8 PC's the Microsoft marketplace. What really makes me believe its Windows RT is if I download an app that worked on the PC it still does not work on the Windows RT (I say Windows RT as not only does my Surface 2 seem to have this problem, but my brother in law with a different DLNA server than mine has the same issue at his place with his Dell XPS10 Windows RT device).

 

[SteelSteve]

Not being a DLNA expert here is how I upload my files. I use a program called DVD Catalyst (great app), to RIP my DVD's. Per the author of that program I rip them utilizing his "Tivo" format which encodes it as MPEG2_mp2 with a screen res of 720x480. Since I am the one who showed my brother in law how to do this his are also rip'd and encoded the same way. Is there a better way?

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Not being a DLNA expert here is how I upload my files. I use a program called DVD Catalyst (great app), to RIP my DVD's. Per the author of that program I rip them utilizing his "Tivo" format which encodes it as MPEG2_mp2 with a screen res of 720x480. Since I am the one who showed my brother in law how to do this his are also rip'd and encoded the same way. Is there a better way?

Ah. MPEG2 is the video codec used for DVDs. Support for MPEG2 is pretty limited and often restricted to DVD playback. If I remember correctly it has to do with the licensed technology used in the MPEG2 format. (again if my memory is correct) Windows 7 and 8 no longer provide MPEG2 support out-of-the-box.

I'd recommend using Handbrake (or any other mp4 tool) to rip your DVDs to .mp4 format. I have no problem playing .mp4 files on the Surface RT/2.

 

[Cruncher04]

Oha, you mentioned MPEG not MPEG2 in your original email....big difference. Indeed mpeg2 codec is not supported in vanilla Windows 7 and Windows 8.
As suggested above you should use mpeg4 avc + ac3 within mp4 container. Putting mpeg2 into mp4 container will still not work of course.

 

[SteelSteve]

Thanks everybody, I've experimented with an mp4_h264_aac format and it seems to work with everything including the surface.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Thanks everybody, I've experimented with an mp4_h264_aac format and it seems to work with everything including the surface.

Excellent! Thanks for the follow up on that.

 

[RajeevT]

For what it's worth Power Media Player does support MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video on the Surface 2.

 

[Ed Boland]

Have you tried PLEX?