Why won't my phone play an mp4 movie file?

[Crunchyhippo]

I have a digital copy of a movie that I wanted to copy over onto my phone, but as soon as I tried to do it I got a popup saying that it wasn't compatible, and would I like to convert it now? When I said yes, it started converting and said something like "5 hours remaining"? I thought this type of file was very common; the S4 won't play them? I did successfullytransfer over an mkv file - something I didn't think the phone would play, but it does.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! If it's an official digital copy that you got along with a DVD/Blu-Ray disc that you bought, you typically can't just transfer the file over, since there is a lot of copy protection involved. The ability to play it on an Android device depends on the kind of digital copy it is. Is it Ultraviolet? Or is it through Paramount, or one of the other studios?

 

[Crunchyhippo]

It's a studio, I'm pretty sure.

 

[B. Diddy]

The printed materials that came with the disc should give you instructions on how to redeem your digital copy, as well as instructions on how to watch it on your Android device (if that's even possible with the particular system). At this point, I think Ultraviolet is the only system that reliably allows you to watch a digital copy on an Android device.