Video Stuttering Issue

[joebor5000]

Hi All. I've been having a video issue for the last several years that I cannot for the life of me figure out. On certain video files, I'm noticing a slight stutter or skipping during panning shots. It seems like dropped frames or something, but I'm not sure. I know the stutter is not encoded into the video, because sometimes the same shot will play back smoothly.

The files in question are MKVs ripped from a blu-ray disc using MakeMKV. They are lossless, exact copies of the video files from the disc. Most of the time I do this I can play back the files no problem. But for a few files, I get this stuttering issue. If you're curious, the problematic files come from the Sentai blu-ray set of Kaiji, as well as the Sentai release of When They Cry.

My first through was that it was a bad rip. So I reripped every disc again, and still go the same issue.

My next thought was that the blu-rays were damaged. So I bought new sets, reripped them, and got the same issue.

I then thought maybe it was the video player I was using. I use VLC, which seems to be the best option, but I decided to try something else. I tried Media Player Classic, both HC and BE, Cyberlink PowerDVD, and even the default Movies ant TV app in Windows, and still got the exact same stuttering.

I then started thinking it was my hardware. I was surprised, since I have an Nvidia 3070 TI and an Intel Core i9-10850K CPU @ 3.60GHz processor, but I figured I'd try it on another system. So I pulled out my old PC with a GTX 980, and got the exact same problem. I also tried them on a different monitor, and the issue remained. I even tried it on my company-issued work laptop, and got the same problem.

My next thought was that something must be up with the files themselves. So I re-encoded them using Handbrake. I used the Fast 1080p30 h264 preset, but still got the same issue. I then tried encoding to MPEG-4, and despite the video being compressed down to 275mb, the issue still remained. This was the most mystifying thing of all. I thought surely if I re-encode the videos they'll play back fine, but no encoder settings worked. I tried lossless, lossy, constant frame rate, variable frame rate, all to no success.

A few other things to note. When this stuttering happens, VLC does not log any dropped frames. I've toyed around with some VLC settings like deinterlacing, input/codecs, buffering, all that stuff, but nothing works.

And to clarify, these are the ONLY video files that do this. No other blu ray rips, MKVs, or other video files stutter like this.

I'm completely stumped now. Has anyone else run into this, and does anyone have a fix? Please let me know if you have any ideas, thanks!

[johns0]

I remember ripping a movie and then watching it on usb and saw some weird stuttering and delays at a scene,found it was the ripper causing the issue.

[joebor5000]

I remember ripping a movie and then watching it on usb and saw some weird stuttering and delays at a scene,found it was the ripper causing the issue.

By ripper, do you mean the program you used to rip, or the drive you ripped it with? I've tried a few blu ray drives, but have only used MakeMKV for ripping. Are there any other programs you recommend?

[johns0]

The program,if makemkv can't rip it right try dvdfab.

[joebor5000]

The program,if makemkv can't rip it right try dvdfab.

Just tried DVDfab, got the exact same issue with the file it outputted.

[johns0]

Then you gotta wait till there is any program that can rip your blu-ray/dvd properly.

[joebor5000]

Then you gotta wait till there is any program that can rip your blu-ray/dvd properly.

They both rip blu-rays flawlessly. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the rip, but is somehow inherent to the files on the disc.

[poisondeathray]

I know the stutter is not encoded into the video, because sometimes the same shot will play back smoothly.

Maybe you blinked and missed it.

Step through the panning scene frame by frame

[joebor5000]

I know the stutter is not encoded into the video, because sometimes the same shot will play back smoothly.

Maybe you blinked and missed it.

Step through the panning scene frame by frame

Just checked this, all frames are there and accounted for. It's also not something you'd miss by blinking. When it stutters it's very obvious and happens for a few seconds at a time. But other times the entire shot plays back perfectly.

[poisondeathray]

Sometimes makemkv can mess up the timestamps, that can cause stuttering and playback problems. But you'd expect to see the problem more often on that video, not just some of the time. Demux, remux, check that the timestamps are ok and CFR

Did you try pure CPU decoding ? Disable HW acceleration ?

Are you doing other stuff in the background ? Background applications/tasks ? Antivirus scan ?

[joebor5000]

Sometimes makemkv can mess up the timestamps, that can cause stuttering and playback problems. But you'd expect to see the problem more often on that video, not just some of the time. Demux, remux, check that the timestamps are ok and CFR

Did you try pure CPU decoding ? Disable HW acceleration ?

Are you doing other stuff in the background ? Background applications/tasks ? Antivirus scan ?

So I demuxed and remuxed, and the remuxed file still gave me the same issue. I'm not exactly sure how to check if timestamps are ok, would you mind clarifying what you mean by this? I extracted the timecodes but don't really know how to understand the file. Apologies for my lack of knowledge here.

Tried disabling hardware acceleration, unfortunately the issue remains. VLC is the only program running when this happens, although various windows services are going in the background. Microsoft Defender Antivirus Service is running, but not doing a scan.

[poisondeathray]

For timestamps, you want to check if it's 23.976 (or some BD's are 24/1) CFR (constant frame rate) . A quick way to check is mediainfo (view=>text) . If it reports variable frame rate, or a min/max framerate, then there is a problem with the timestamps. MakeMKV is known to do this on occasion, and it can cause playback problems .

If that' s not the issue, can you cut a sample (e.g. with mkvmerge/mkvtoolnix) around a panning shot that exhibits the issue (sometimes) and post it here ?

[joebor5000]

For timestamps, you want to check if it's 23.976 (or some BD's are 24/1) CFR (constant frame rate) . A quick way to check is mediainfo (view=>text) . If it reports variable frame rate, or a min/max framerate, then there is a problem with the timestamps. MakeMKV is known to do this on occasion, and it can cause playback problems .

If that' s not the issue, can you cut a sample (e.g. with mkvmerge/mkvtoolnix) around a panning shot that exhibits the issue (sometimes) and post it here ?

Just checked mediainfo, frame rate is constant, 29.97. Here is the file with the problematic pan. You may need to play back the file up to 10-20 times for the stuttering to occur, it's very inconsistent. There is about half a second before and after the problematic pan, just to capture the whole movement. The pan in question is the one where the man with long hair is facing the camera, with the window in the background. It takes up the majority of the clip.

[poisondeathray]

I played it back 20 times in mpchc no stutter . But stuttered twice in 10 times in mpv....and about 3x in 10 in in vlc... interesting . My mpchc configuration was set to nvidia cuvid decoding using lav

The 1st part is 23.976p content (telecined to 29.97i), but the middle is 29.97p content . It might be from the way the sample was cut, but the 1st few fields have the wrong field order, this might be causing confusion in some players. But that shouldn't affect the middle part. Can you can a longer scene, including a few seconds before

There are errors in the encoded fields of both pans - the even fields are blended, odd fields are clean . It might confuse a player that was using adaptive field matching, but you'd expect the same results each time

[poisondeathray]

And mpchc with hw off, just sw decoder there is massive stuttering every time - much more than vlc or mpv

[joebor5000]

I played it back 20 times in mpchc no stutter . But stuttered twice in 10 times in mpv....and about 3x in 10 in in vlc... interesting . My mpchc configuration was set to nvidia cuvid decoding using lav

The 1st part is 23.976p content (telecined to 29.97i), but the middle is 29.97p content . It might be from the way the sample was cut, but the 1st few fields have the wrong field order, this might be causing confusion in some players. But that shouldn't affect the middle part. Can you can a longer scene, including a few seconds before

There are errors in the encoded fields of both pans - the even fields are blended, odd fields are clean . It might confuse a player that was using adaptive field matching, but you'd expect the same results each time

Thanks a ton for experimenting with this. I tried MPCHC with Nvidia CUVID as well, and at first it seemed to work, but eventually I did notice the stutter. Seems to be less common and less intense with this setting though.

Here's a longer cut of the same scene, let me know if you discover anything from this. Starting to think the way this was encoded at whatever studio manufactured this blu ray is weird.

[ProWo]

Try a simple remux with Mkvtoolnix or clever Ffmpeg-GUI.

[johns0]

Try re-encoding a portion of the video that has the stuttering and see if it plays ok.

[buzz1891]

Maybe it's de-interlacing to blame? I use Potplayer - if method left at defaults ('blending') it stutters every time, but if I force it to 'Bob 2x' there is no stutter at all ..

[Alwyn]

Play it in Virtual Dub2. The bad bits look awful. You can see the areas that Poisondeathray refers to.

[joebor5000]

Try a simple remux with Mkvtoolnix or clever Ffmpeg-GUI.

Tried both programs, still getting the same issue.

[joebor5000]

Try re-encoding a portion of the video that has the stuttering and see if it plays ok.

Tried this, still get the exact same stutter. Tried constant frame rate, variable frame rate, a clean 30fps, h264, mpeg, everything I can think of and always get the same issue. no amount of re-encoding seems to fix this, which is really baffling to me.

[joebor5000]

Maybe it's de-interlacing to blame? I use Potplayer - if method left at defaults ('blending') it stutters every time, but if I force it to 'Bob 2x' there is no stutter at all ..

WOW! This fixed it! Setting it to Bob2x with Potplayer seems to work, played it back 30 times with no stutter. THANK YOU! There's still the possibility that I'm just getting lucky over and over, but I really do think this worked. Will update this thread again after more testing. I wonder if VLC has a similar deinterlace setting, but for now I'm switching to Potplayer. THANK YOU AGAIN!