Costco's UHD Solved - Bandwidth Warning!

[Kalulu Ngilo]

Some of you know it has been a pain getting flash drives to playback UHD content on recent Costco UHD sets. It started way back with HiSense(months ago), then Samsung and then Vizio.
Couple days ago after a new release of Handbrake, I was able to convert some downloaded UHD content from youtube in .mp4 && .webm to h265 and to my surprise both Vizio and Samsung playback this content without problems.

Here are the detailed findings:
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==UHD Files==

.WEBM files are Google/On2's VP9 Video (VP90) Codec :: Resolution - 3840x2160 ::
.MP4 files are H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1) Codec :: Resolution - 3840x2160 ::

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==Sample .WEBM Fetch==

====================

The conversion is done in Handbrake.
=====Here is a sample view=======

=========================

If you prefer the terminal for encoding:

ffmpeg -i input -c:v libx265 -x265-params crf=26:psy-rd=1 output.mp4

(https://www.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-codecs.html)

This is how I converted my original 1080p files and the first UHD(never worked-they played on vlc just fine) tests.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i audio.m4a -vcodec mpeg4 -acodec copy -threads 0 -qscale 0 Final.mp4

===Vizio Demo Flash Drive(Sent from Vizio to Costco)===
The text file playlist looks like this:

VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_PSeries_Product_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
Stevie_Johnson_Clean_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
LA_Nights_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
UHD_Showcase_Florian_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
Nature_RED_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
CostaRica_HEVC_FINAL.mp4, 1, 0, 0

===Factory Demo USB end===

====Modified Vizio New Demo====
This is how I modified that playlist to suite the new videos.

VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_PSeries_Product_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
AMERICAN_SOUTHWEST_UHD.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
COSTA_RICA_UHD.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
HONEY_BEES_UHD.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
INK_DROPS_UHD.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
MYANMAR_BURMA_UHD.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
NORTHERN_INDIA_UHD.mkv, 1, 0, 0
VIZIO_UHD_SplashScreen_FINAL.mkv, 1, 0, 0
PHANTOM_FLEX_1000FPS_UHD.mkv, 1, 0, 0

====End Modified====

I used a mixture of USB 2.0 flash drives for playback and all flash drives were plugged into USB 3.0 ports. In-fact I do not think it matters which USB ports you use, the TVs seem to just pick it up. When the Vizio UHD set is set on Store Demo mode, it goes after vizio_demo.txt file. The Samsung sets just play the files then I enforce "Repeat All" mode in tools menu.

I hope this information helps you demo your own content on these new UHD sets. It felt good after figuring this out... I am proud to say that only our warehouse(possibly) plays/demos non-factory UHD content on our sets. Assuming I'm around... :001_rolleyes:

Thanks:
Jacob + Katie Schwarz ( http://www.jacobschwarz.net/ )
R3D
ffmpeg
Handbrake




=============== Misc Shots ==============