MP4 Video Is Not Playing in VLC: Find Out Quick Fixes
Your MP4 video is not playing in VLC media player? We’ve listed possible reasons and solution below. Try the quick fix most recommended by us [85%].
VLC media player from VideoLan, is perhaps the most reliable free media player that is used even today. Because of its media playing capabilities, this player is now also dominating the smartphones. People choose VLC because of high compatibility with different video codecs and formats. It is also capable of playing some uncommon video formats. However, most of the time it is used for playing MP4 files.
This is because MP4 is the most popular video format that you can find almost on every multimedia device. And the good thing is that you can play all these MP4 videos directly in VLC player without even converting them. Then how come this common format MP4 doesn’t play in VLC? If you face such a situation then we are here to help you. Please read the article till the end to gain more knowledge on this topic.
Why MP4 Videos Not Playing in VLC? — Reasons and Solutions
If you’re facing this problem then there could be any reason behind this. However, this problem is only troubleshooting in nature and can be fixed easily once the actual reason comes in to light. Below we are giving some solid reasons with their respective solutions to this playback issue.
1. Corrupt MP4 Files
If your MP4 videos are corrupt then VLC media player will not play them. Corrupt files may result from an aborted copy operation where the file doesn’t get copied completely. These files can be repaired with video converters but many of them remain completely beyond any repair.
Solution: Corrupt MP4 files can be of two types. One type may have an unknown format while other type may have incomplete video data. If you believe that your MP4 file got changed to some other format then you can easily fix this by renaming that file and adding and ‘.mp4’ extension to the file name. This will change the unknown format to MP4 video format and VLC will then play it correctly. In case of video files with incomplete data you should try to obtain a copy of the file from its original source. To best prevent such situations always have a separate backup of your favorite videos.
2. Zero/Null Size Files
These are MP4 files having no size (0KB). This issue is common to smartphones while copying MP4 files. Even after copying the files the size remains zero.
Solution: If the file size is 0KB then you have to re-copy the file from the original location. Once the copy operation finishes re-check the file size.
3. Wrong VLC Settings
VLC player, without any doubts, can be treated as an advanced multimedia player having lots of customizable settings. If you ever made wrong settings in it then this may result in playback issues.
Solution: If you aren’t sure which settings you changed in VLC in the past, it would be better to set them to default. Open the player and click ‘Tools > Preferences > Input/Codecs’. Click the ‘Reset Preferences’ button below and save them. This will apply default settings and your MP4 videos should play now.
4. Wrong Codecs
Most MP4 videos around us use H264 codec which is being used since a long time now. Its successor is HEVC or H265 which has better video compression capabilities and it is mostly preferred by online video streaming services. H265 is not as common as H264 and it also has limited hardware support.
Solution: To fix such errors you will need a video converter software like VideoProc. Transcoding means converting a video to another video format. It is also possible to transcode MP4 H265 to H264 while keeping all the properties same as the original file. Please see the ‘Part 3’ below for this codec problem.
Fix the ‘MP4 Not Playing In VLC’ Problem with VideoProc
Before proceeding to the final part you should download and install VideoProc.
Simple Steps to Transcode MP4/H.265 with VideoProc
Step 1. Open VideoProc and click ‘Video’ on the first screen to go to the main UI. Here click ‘+Video’ and load your MP4 files that aren’t playing in VLC. You can also load multiple files.
Step 2. In ‘Target Format’ below click the ‘Video’ tab and then choose ‘MP4 H264’.
Step 3. Double click the ‘MP4 H264’ in ‘Target Format’ to open the video settings. Set the ‘Quality’ to ‘High’. Set the ‘Frame Rate’, ‘Aspect Ratio’, and ‘Resolution’ to ‘Keep Original’.
Make sure that the ‘Video Codec’ is ‘H264’. Click ‘Done’ to go back and click the ‘Run’ button to start transcoding your MP4 videos. Once the conversion completes, check the output folder.
Step 4. Start the transcoding by activating the RUN button.
Final Words:
Now we hope that whenever you face MP4 playback issues in VLC then you will apply the knowledge gained from this article to fix them. Most of the time MP4 videos will have a codec problem and for a reliable solution VideoProc should be your first choice. We also highly recommend that you have multiple backups of your videos in case if some files get corrupt. Corrupt files can be easily replaced from the backup.