4.16/ 17/ 18 Media player does not play movies

Hi All,

I’m trying to play out some pre-rendered VFX media using the media player but the media player only works using super low res videos.

The media player does not play files over standard 1920x1080 HD resolution, additionally we have had to reduce our bit-rate within our codec to a unreasonably low standard. We have tried different variations of files as stated within the media framework technical reference:

I have had this issue within UE4.16, 4.17 & 4.18 with the “Allow non-standard codec’s” setting turned on as well as all the default UE4 Media plugins turned on.

We require very high bitrate and resolution for our content to be played in realtime. This issue needs to be fixed as we are using the provided codec settings as stated in the documentation but the UE4 media player does not play the files. Instead I get the error “The media failed to open! Check output log for details” - When I open the output log there is nothing regarding the media player, no matter how many times I try to play it.

I have also attached a screenshot of the working video and ‘info’ as well as the non-working file. The media player has so much potential to work, please fix this teething problem!!

If I could have some technical documentation regarding what the limitations of the media player are I would be very grateful.

Is there a known limit on:

  • Resolution?

  • Bitrate?

  • Aspect ratio limits?

  • Specific smaller codec’s of files such as MP4/MP43/MP4V etc?

  • Max file size limit?

  • Compression?

  • Anything else that could be causing the media to not play?

Many thanks,

EDIT I’ve since realised I’ve been very stupid and the max texture size is 8K … Nevertheless I’ve tried rendering 2,4 & 6K media textures that still do not not play. Ignoring the attached image with the 15,000 width texture, this is still a bug I cannot fix.

In editor or for a windows project i can play video like 4k with no problem.
I can play video up to 4096x2048 on GearVR but not over that size.
I need to play 4k x4k video for a stereo project on gearVR and i’m still looking for a solution…

What codec did you use to render the 4096x2048 video texture? The files the media player accepts is very temperamental. I’m trying to play it in the editor and in a windows project for Occulus Rift.

I’ve successfully packed and deployed stereo SBS media content but not at a resolution that could be shippable.

Still waiting for an answer, I may try Twitter, Linkedin for help…

Standard h264, no problem with that.
I can’t remeber exactly but i was testing .h265 for over 4k resolution.