Weird video playing

[carlmart]

Please redirect this topic to another area, if it doesn't belong here.

What I'm looking for is for some way to diagnose some files, particularly mkv types, when they do weird things.

Right now I downloaded a file that refuses to let me move forward with VLC. That's trying to use the small arrow at the base of the screen, to go to a different place in the video.

It seemed as if there was a problem on the file. I run it on Bitrate Viewer, and it doesn't show anything.

So I downloaded MPC HC and installed it, and it did play fine, with no weird things like on VLC.

But that file also refused to fast forward on my BD player which I use for MKV playing. So there IS something "different" on the file.

Media Info read this:

General
Unique ID                                : 242402465528688377840404323172560868743 (0xB65D04462800A0B9B6458D3C0CB31587)
Complete name                            : C:\Downloads\file.720p.bluray.x264.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4 / Version 2
File size                                : 4.37 GiB
Duration                                 : 1h 32mn
Overall bit rate                         : 6 762 Kbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 2010-02-22 21:41:31
Writing application                      : mkvmerge v5.9.0 ('On The Loose') built on Dec  9 2012 15:37:01
Writing library                          : libebml v1.3.0 + libmatroska v1.4.0

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 5 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 1h 32mn
Bit rate                                 : 6 536 Kbps
Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
Height                                   : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 25.000 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.284
Stream size                              : 4.14 GiB (95%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 128 r2216 198a7ea
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=6536 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                           : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness              : Big
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 1h 32mn
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 224 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 148 MiB (3%)
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Any hints?

[Steve(MS)]

Just a guess, check reference frame between this one and the mkv that plays correctly on player.

[carlmart]

You mean Reframes? It's the same, because the file played on both players was the same. In VLC it refuses to advance to another point.

Now another clue: I re-merged the file with MKVMerge. And now it plays fine in VLC too.

So I put the new file through Mediainfo too, and put the text of both data side by side in Word. Nothing seems to be changed, except the size (4Kb smaller) and the writing library, which on mine is older. Have a look:

General
Unique ID                                : 250762982864323481713649498799691575350 (0xBCA7319A88477ADC81582632B8CCB036)
Complete name                            : C:\Downloads\file.720p.bluray.x264 (1).mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 2
File size                                : 4.37 GiB
Duration                                 : 1h 32mn
Overall bit rate                         : 6 762 Kbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 2013-01-22 09:39:09
Writing application                      : mkvmerge v4.9.1 ('Ich will') built on Jul 11 2011 23:53:15
Writing library                          : libebml v1.2.1 + libmatroska v1.1.1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 5 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 1h 32mn
Bit rate                                 : 6 536 Kbps
Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
Height                                   : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 25.000 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.284
Stream size                              : 4.14 GiB (95%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 128 r2216 198a7ea
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=5 /  deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 /  psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 /  8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 /  threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1  / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 /  b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 /  weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 /  rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=6536 / ratetol=1.0 /  qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 /  ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                           : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness              : Big
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 1h 32mn
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 224 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 148 MiB (3%)
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

This merged file also plays fine and advances forward correctly on my BD player, through my wired network.

[Selur]

would have probably also played fine if you would have used mkvtoolnix 6.0.0 since it disables mkv header removal compression by default. (4.9.1 didn't have it 5.9.0 has it enabled by default)

Check:
MediaInfo --Full "Path to your file"
and look at the 'Muxing mode' values.

Cu Selur

[carlmart]

To start with header removal was enabled by me in the MKVToolnix 4.9.1 I used. So it was "my" default.

Then you are also assuming the problem might be in header removal, and I did say processing the file with an older version, which did not remove compression headers at all, seemed to solve the problem. So logic seems to show the problem is not there.

I didn't understand or found what you asked me to check. Where's that full "path to your file"?

[Selur]

Where's that full "path to your file".

path to your file = replace it with the path to your file that you want to analyze

[carlmart]

Oh. but that is way to access my file from Mediainfo, and that's what I showed above.

There is no other data besides what is shown there. I don't know what Muxing mode values you mean.

[Selur]

If you are using the gui you can choose a higher debug/detail level and select text view to seem more infos .e.g. 'Muxing mode'

[carlmart]

OK, I choose Advanced mode, and in fact got more info.

But no 'Muxing mode' values though.

[Selur]

Just checked, seems like MediaInfo shows 'Muxing mode' if 'Header removal compression' is active.

[carlmart]

Where can I set Header Removal compression in Mediainfo? AFAIK that is something you do on some MKVToolnix versions. Am I wrong?

[Selur]

No, you are right, but MediaInfo will only show infos about the muxing mode if the mkv it analyses uses the header removal compression,...

[carlmart]

Well, this file has no header stripping. That's one of the first things I checked, because my BD player can't play that.

On another forum it was suggested that the problem here might be an index corruption, which was solved with the new merge.

I am inclined to think it was so.

[den78]

file also refused to fast forward on my BD player which I use for MKV playing. So there IS something "different" on the file.

Same here, my LG BD player can't fast forward or rewind mkv's created with v5.9.0 & the new one 6.0.0.
It just exits playback.
This happened from v5.9.0, never experienced this issue in the earlier versions.

[Selur]

with 5.9.0
- CueRelativePosition was introduced, it can be disabled with --engage no_cue_duration
- CueDuration was introduced, gut since it's only added for subtitles tracks it's probably not the cause of the problem
may be there are some other changes I overlooked: https://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/doc/ChangeLog

[carlmart]

Yes, that's why I keep older MKVMerge versions and try to use them. Header stripping is the first thing I remove.

In fact this fast-forward problem happened on a video that had been merged in 5.9.0, and maybe that was the problem.