Unsupported format

[Mark Fuller]

When I sync videos to my tracphone alacatel, some of the videos work ok but some give an unsupported format error message. I checked on my PC and all of the file types are MP4 so that is not the problem. What is unsupported format and what can I do to correct it?

 

[mike1959]

It's that MP4 is a very wide range of specs, and some phones or devices are very 'picky' about what will or won't run.
It could be that the width/height of the original is too much for the phone, or that the sound codec is not supported.
Best way out of this, I found, is to run the 'problem' videos through a converter program, such as;
Videotovideo, where you choose your phone from a list, and the format will be adjusted to work for it.
You then have to save the modified, working version to a different folder, but if it works it's worth the effort.
With my old Nokia, it would playback .3GP format but not MP4, so I had to do the conversion every time.
With Videotovideo software it's possible to adjust many parameters, framerate, width/height, bitrate, sound bitrate etc, so you might have to do a few trial runs to find the right combination, or the default 'preset' might be right for you phone, it's a free and excellent program in my opinion.

 

[bazz2004]

I've had similar problems with a Sony Walkman and more recently with my iPad Air 2. You can convert video formats to play on just about anything but it takes a lot of time and fiddling about. When that problem arises now I just accept it and watch on a compatible device. A computer will play pretty much anything. It all depends on how important it is for you to do a conversion.

 

[Mark Fuller]

Thanks for the information. I googled video converters and the most recommended commercial version was the AVS converter, so I bought it. I used it and got poor results because the videos on the phone were choppy and fuzzy and had poor audio quality. So then I used my already installed ytd video downloader/converter pro and got perfect results. Just for your information.

 

[bazz2004]

Thanks for the info. I did have a short phase converting stuff but soon decided it wasn't worth all the trouble and time.