Help Centre

Mediaread inspects an audio or video file and tells you exactly what is inside it — and, usually, why it won't play. This page covers getting started, the questions we hear most, and what the service does not do yet.

Getting started

Open the App page. Drag and drop a file onto the upload area, or click it to browse. Audio and video files up to 500 MB are accepted.
The report appears in labelled sections — Container, Video stream, Audio stream, Issues, and Thumbnails. Every field comes from the file itself; if a field is absent, it reads "not present in this file".
Start with the Issues section. That is where the usual playback problems are flagged: a codec the browser refuses, audio at a sample rate nothing expects, a stream tagged with the wrong language, or a declared duration that disagrees with the actual content.
No account is needed and nothing is stored. The file is processed once and deleted immediately — no copy is kept anywhere.

Frequently asked questions

Why won't my video play?

Read the Issues section of your report — it exists for exactly this question. The usual culprits are a video codec the player or browser does not decode (for example HEVC/H.265 in older browsers), audio at a sample rate most players won't handle, a stream marked with the wrong language tag, or a file whose declared duration doesn't match what the stream actually contains. The report never guesses: it tells you what is in the file, and each issue includes a plain-English note about what it means for playback.

What does "not present in this file" mean?

It means exactly that: the field has no value in the file you uploaded. For example, an audio-only file has no video stream, so the video section says "no video stream present in this file" rather than showing zeros. Mediaread never infers a number from the file name or the extension — if the file does not contain the information, the report says so.

Is my file stored? Who else can see it?

Nobody. Your file is processed once and deleted immediately after processing; no copy is stored anywhere. It is never listed, indexed, or shown to another visitor, and it is never used as an example. Thumbnails are shown inline during your session and discarded when the page is closed. There are no accounts, so there is no history that could be revisited. See the Privacy page for the full statement.

Why is there no account or login?

Because there is nothing to log in to. Each inspection is independent — the file is processed, the report is returned, and the file is deleted. There is no saved history, no saved files, and no ongoing session, so an account would only add a step for no benefit.

What file types and sizes do you support?

Any audio or video file up to 500 MB. For the smoothest experience keep files under roughly 200 MB — very large files, or files on a slow connection, can take longer than the request window allows and time out. Files that are not media at all (for example a text file renamed to .mp4) are refused with a clear message rather than a misleading report.

Can you convert, repair, or re-encode my file?

No — and we won't pretend otherwise. Mediaread reads files; it never modifies, converts, repairs, or re-encodes them. What it gives you is the truth about the file, which is the part you need to fix it in the tool of your choice: the codec, the audio settings, and the specific issue that stops playback.

Known limitations

Honest by construction. Everything below is a real gap or a deliberate non-feature. We would rather state it than have you discover it.

The processing backend may not be live. The App page calls a backend that runs ffprobe. If that backend is not reachable, the page shows clearly-labelled example results with realistic data instead of a report on your file — and the thumbnails in those example results are simulated placeholders, not frames from your file. You will always be told when you are looking at examples, never left to mistake them for a real readout.
There is no email, no notifications, and no support mailbox. We do not send alerts, receipts, reminders, or digests — there is no email sender behind this service, and no contact address exists yet. That is an open item for the owner, not a detail we will invent.
No conversion or repair. The service reads media files and reports what it finds. It does not fix them. If that is what you need, the report tells you what to fix in another tool.
Size and time limits. Files over 500 MB are rejected. Very large or badly damaged files may time out before a report is returned.
Corrupt or truncated files. When a file is cut off or damaged, some fields — most often duration — may be unknowable. The report says so rather than printing a confident but wrong number.
No legal entity yet. No company or legal entity has been registered for this service, and there are no paid plans — the service is currently free. See Terms and Pricing.

How to contact us

Support is not yet reachable by email. There is no support mailbox on any Mediaread domain at this time, so we will not print an address that cannot receive your message. This limit is recorded as an open item for the owner, and the moment a real contact route exists this page will say so.

If a question is not answered above, the fastest path is usually the report itself — the Issues section is written for someone who cannot run ffprobe and needs to know what to do next. If you still need help, please check back: this page is the first place a contact address will appear once one is available.