Can't play MKV (Matroska) files

[ambrosechapel]

I have a number of files in MKV format and I can't play them.

I have OS X 10.3.9 running on a G3 iBook, which is a bit underpowered for this kind of thing, but I normally get good results from VLC on most video files.

VLC (0.8.5) won't open these files at all and neither will MPlayer for mac. VLC sometimes says "couldn't open" and sometimes says "no suitable access module".

I guess it's possible there's actually something wrong with them?

I installed the command line tools and when I do "mkvinfo <filename>" it says "No EBML head found".

Should mkv files just work in VLC? I don't have to install anything else like the command-line tools or other libraries? Same with MPlayer?

Having spent about a week torrenting these files, am I out of luck?

[schwinn]

I just solved this problem at least for me. Different files may well have different results. I used "ffmpegX " to convert to DivX play great now on my Mac using either Quicktime or VLC. Search this forum and you will find more info on how to do if you need it. or I could try to write out more on how I did it.

[ambrosechapel]

Unfortunately ffmpegX can't read them either. I guess the files are corrupted in some way. I think I have to give up on these particular files. Other MKV files can be played OK. Oh wel...

[ambrosechapel]

I'm posting to say ... oh my god I am such an idiot.

But at least the story has a happy ending.

I was trying to play files from an earlier, aborted attempt at torrenting the files, which were of course useless because they were only partially downloaded. Now that I've found the actual files, everything is working just fine.