After "How Do I Download From Your Website" the next most popular question on our contact channels is "Your movies don't play on my TV but it does play on my computers and mobile phones. Why is that?".
Before you download these "problematic" movies there's always a notice you have to "understand" before the download button is shown to you. This notice clearly explains that the video might not play across all video players (or devices). Here is why.
Some of our movies are encoded using the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC aka. H.265) as against the very popular Advanced Video Coding (AVC or H.264). HEVC is the successor to AVC and as such it'll take some time to gain support across various devices. But currently many Smart TVs already support it (look out for the supported codecs in the product specs sheet).
Almost all devices out there right now, phones, computers, televisions and other video playing devices support H.264, but only a few support H.265 and some only get to play our movies as an audio because they only support the encoder used for the audio (AAC).
Why Not Use H.264 Then?
Why not use H.264? one might ask. Well, for movies our major concerns are video quality and file sizes. This is where H.265 comes in. A study found HEVC is capable of reducing bit-rate of videos by 51 to 75% of what AVC can achieve. This reduction in bit-rate directly means the file size of a movie with AVC can be reduced by 51 to 75% when it is encoded using HEVC.
For this reason and considering most of our visitors are on paid internet plans, we go for HEVC which will mean they get to spend less of their data allowances on downloading movies. Also, the reduced size also helps us because our servers wouldn't fill up as fast as it'll be if we were adopting the AVC coding.
But i'll really love to play this movie on my TV....
Since the use of HEVC affects those trying to play on televisions more, we will suggest that these users buy an Android TV Box. Android OS by default supports H.265 decoding so Android TV boxes will among other benefits play these movies with ease and the display is right on your TV.
What is an Android TV Box?
Android TV Boxes are Android devices you can plug into your TV and use as if you were using a normal android devices. Simply see them as an android phone without the screen. Your screen will become your TV (but of course, touchscreen wouldn't be available) instead you get to control it with the remote controller that comes with them.
We've tried some of these TV boxes ourselves and the only problem we faced with some is that the navigation isn't as sleek as you'll want it to be. But when we bought an Air Mouse and ditched the remotes that came with them, the experience was out of this world.
What is an Air Mouse?
Well, an air mouse is more like a mouse with motion sensors which you can connect via Bluetooth to a device and control the device. Aside working on TV Boxes, it works on computers and phones too.
You can get these Android TV Boxes and Air Mouse combo from your favorite online shopping website.
