Hi, I apologise for the stupidity of my questions.
76 year old Aussie struggling with tech.
I have a problem with video files I downloaded with Tixati. (Awesome program by the way -  a BIG thank you to the creators).
I can play them on my desktop but not the TV.
The format is sometimes the same for file that do work and files that do not.
For example:
1080p.WEBRip.DD5.1.X.264-EVO
.WEBRip.x265-RARBG
.1080p.BluRay.x265-RARBG
.WEBRip.1600MB.DD5.1.x264-GalaxyRG
.WEBRip.6CH.x265.HEVC-PSA

These files would not play yet the one below did

.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG

The error message states that "Format not supported". Sometime the TV automatically goes to the next file on the USB stick but often I hear the audio but nothing is seen on the screen.
Could you smart young blokes please point me to the error of my ways and tell me how to overcome my problem.
The Mrs. gets very disappointed when I tell her I have a good movie to watch and then I fall on my face.
Help me earn some frequent lover points, please !

Thanks heaps,

P.Z. H.

I'm going to go into a lot of detail but I hope I explain it well enough.

A video file has these three main things you should look for to make sure it can be played on your TV.

1) video codec (examples: h264, h265, x264, etc..) Sometimes these also go by other names such as h264/x264 or h265/x265/hevc. Usually this is in the file name (like the examples you gave) or torrent description.
2) audio codec (examples: AAC, AC3, OPUS, MP3, etc..) Usually this is in the file name (like the examples you gave) or torrent description.
3) container (examples: .mp4, .mkv, .avi, etc..) You can look at the file extension of the video and know which container.

Based on the examples you gave it seems like your TV doesn't support x265/HEVC/h265 and some audio codecs. One of the examples you gave had "DD5.1" audio codec but was x264 for the video codec. DD5.1 is Dolby Digital 5.1 and your TV doesn't seem to support that. It would help if you told me the make and model of your TV or you could try going to their website and seeing what video/audio formats it supports.

x265/HEVC/h265 is the various names for a video codec and your TV doesn't seem to support it. OR it could be that the h265 videos you have are in the MKV container and it doesn't support that but it would play if in a MP4 container. Again, I don't know depends on your TV.


Here's what you can do.

1) Connect your computer to the TV and play the video from your computer. (This is what I do if I want to play something on my TV. I don't know how far away your desktop is from the TV or if you have a laptop, but I would just connect your computer to the TV and play the video that way. Your TV and computer (probably) support DP/display port or HDMI. If you aren't sure, google pictures of display port and HDMI and look at your TV and computer.)

2) Only download videos that are playable on your TV. (Some content might only be in a codec/container your TV doesn't support.)  MP4 container with h264 video and AAC audio is basically guaranteed to work with almost any TV but not everything uses all three of those. Lookup what your TV supports.)

3) Encode/convert the video to a format playable on your TV using something like Handbrake. (Not recommended. Time consuming and more difficult. https://handbrake.fr/docs/en/latest/  )

Additional resources/information
About containers, video/audio codecs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4NXxY4maYc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhWki9a7s18

Mediainfo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivy9ckSX1M0

Thank you for taking the times to give such clear explanations.
PC to TV link seems to be the easy solution and I will work on that now!
Thank you mother for the rabbits!
:-)

I'm delighted to see older users still rocking tech and sometimes better than the young.
As an alternative to connecting the TV directly, there're so called DLNA servers that would run on your PC and serve the folder with videos over the local network (LAN). Only if your TV already connects to your Wifi and it's a lot of work too. Projects like Universal Media Server or Plex.

As a hint when you connect your PC to TV:
1) DisplayPort and HDMI cables can transmit audio and video. You'll need to manually choose default audio output to be directed to your TV in Windows settings to watch movies.
2) Windows has multiple modes what to do when two screens are connected, like monitor+TV:
a) only monitor ON
b) only TV ON
c) handle both as separate screens. Like gluing two sheets of paper together - you can move windows between both screens
d) output the same picture on TV and monitor aka "mirror mode". Only works well if the resolution of both displays is the same.

Now that you know this, you shouldn't have any difficulties setting this up once you plug in the cable.

Another Great update for TVs is Google chromecast and kodi app, put movies on usb Hard Disk and plug in Chromecast, kodi has various codecs and chromecast is tiny but have a powerfull hardware.

all good info and advice above mate.
I use a media player box, Odroid linux N2 (based on android hardware like phones) and Coreelec OS/with biolt in Kodi player, that between them both will play just about anything so far i have come across.  so this box has a couple of usb hdd connected and i can move/copy files over the network to these drives then play them on the tv. Quality depends on the encoded type and source of course.
MPG265 are a new compression/storage method and some tv cant just play them by themselves so the above solutions are a personal choice.