Skip to content Video formats: what plays depends on your device
Which video formats you get is decided by the chip in your box, not by the app. Here is how to find out what yours does.
Video decoding is done by your device’s hardware. mtivi hands the stream over and the chip either knows the format or it does not.
What a modern device handles
Practically every current TV box, stick and phone decodes:
- H.264, also called AVC. The format most IPTV channels use.
- H.265, also called HEVC. Most 4K content.
- VP9 and AV1 on newer hardware.
What older and stronger boxes add
Many full Android TV boxes also decode MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC-1, VP8, H.263, MJPEG and Dolby Vision. Cheap sticks usually do not, and they do not need to: almost nothing on a modern playlist uses them.
Where a gap shows up. Old AVI files and the occasional odd TS stream are where a weak device runs out. Everything else in a normal catalog plays.
If a stream will not play
- Try another copy of the same title
The same film in a different quality is often a format your device does handle.
- Switch the decoder mode
Settings, then Playback, then Decoder Mode, then Prefer Software Extensions. It changes how the stream is prepared and rescues some cases.
- Set it back to Auto afterwards
Software work is heavier and can stutter on a weak box.
HDR
HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision are detected from the stream and passed to the TV. What you actually see depends on the panel. A channel with 4K or HDR in its name is not proof the stream carries either.
See also Get a true 4K HDR picture and Format not supported.
