MPC-HC x64 wrongfully does not show any audio track to choose on mkv file

[SendHelp]

Hello everyone,

first of all I am awfully sorry if this subject should have been addressed before, but I just couldn't seem to find it using the search function.

I am on the latest version of MPC-HC x64 (2.0.0 Jan 11 2023), using Windows 11 Home Edition, and for some reason I like it a lot better than VLC.
But just today I wanted to watch a new MKV file which is supposed to have both German and English audio tracks.

So I ran the file with MPC, to get no sound at all, and when I checked the audio tracks in the menu, there were no tracks displayed to choose from.
When I play the same file using VLC, though, I do have sound and both language tracks are shown and available to choose from, and they work just fine.
Although, when I run it using VLC, the audio track is by default set to "deactivated", but both the German and English audio tracks are visible and can be chosen.

It is the only file so far that I ever had this issue with on using MPC, so I wonder what may be the reason for that.
Surely looks like a codec issue, so I only just downloaded a new codec package, but it didn't change anything.
The Codec shown for both audio tracks in the properties in VLC is ""DTS Audio(DTS)"

When I check the file for details in MPC, in the properties it only shows video and subtitle information (but no audio), while in the media info tab, both audio tracks are mentioned.

If any additional information is needed, please ask. I will be grateful for any kind of ideas on this issue.
Thanks in advance and happy weekend, everybody!

[El Heggunte]

a new MKV file which is supposed to have both German and English audio tracks

plus

when I run it using VLC, the audio track is by default set to "deactivated", but both the German and English audio tracks are visible and can be chosen.

1) Please tell us what MediaInfo says about the problematic file.

2) "deactivated" tracks

Well, VLC is designed to play "anything", no matter how broken are the files...
OTOH MPC-HC uses LAV Filters, which normally do not tolerate borked files.

[SendHelp]

When my VLC menu language was set to German, on playing this file and choosing Audio>Audio Track, there were three options, the first one was "deaktivieren", then "German" and "English"

Sorry about the confusion, but I know now where that must have come from, because when I changed the VLC settings to English language just now, it didn't really say "deactivate" but "disable".
So when I go to "Audio>Audio Track" on VLC with this file, it is set to "disable" and no sound, but I can change to one of the other two options "German" or "English" no problem.

With MPC on the other hand, when I play the file and go to "Play", then "audio track" is already greyed out, and no audio track at all is available to choose.

This is the media info in MPC:

Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 7.59 GiB
Duration : 2 h 30 min
Overall bit rate : 7 242 kb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2022-03-17 22:33:07
Writing application : mkvmerge v66.0.0 ('Josie') 64-bit
Writing library : libebml v1.4.2 + libmatroska v1.6.4

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference fra : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2 h 30 min
Bit rate : 4 221 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 040 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 1.85:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.088
Stream size : 4.43 GiB (58%)
Writing library : x264 core 164 r3094 bfc87b7
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / 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=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : German
Default : No
Forced : No

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 2 h 30 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 509 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : C L R Ls Rs LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 1.58 GiB (21%)
Language : German
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 2 h 30 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 509 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : C L R Ls Rs LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 1.58 GiB (21%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No

Text
ID : 4
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Duration : 6 s 256 ms
Bit rate : 23 b/s
Frame rate : 0.160 FPS
Count of elements : 1
Stream size : 18.0 Bytes (0%)
Language : German
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Menu
00:00:00.000 : 00:00:00.000
00:06:01.611 : 00:06:01.611
00:08:32.386 : 00:08:32.386
00:14:11.392 : 00:14:11.392
00:18:53.298 : 00:18:53.298
00:22:54.748 : 00:22:54.748
00:29:34.230 : 00:29:34.230
00:34:22.268 : 00:34:22.268
00:41:27.318 : 00:41:27.318
00:50:49.796 : 00:50:49.796
01:00:07.061 : 01:00:07.061
01:10:43.155 : 01:10:43.155
01:18:20.320 : 01:18:20.320
01:27:15.855 : 01:27:15.855
01:38:15.472 : 01:38:15.472
01:47:08.588 : 01:47:08.588
01:52:52.932 : 01:52:52.932
01:58:59.215 : 01:58:59.215
02:05:42.618 : 02:05:42.618
02:14:06.788 : 02:14:06.788
02:20:56.865 : 02:20:56.865

[johns0]

Uninstall mpc-hc with revo uninstaller free and then install it with the newest version.

[El Heggunte]

...........
With MPC on the other hand, when I play the file and go to "Play", then "audio track" is already greyed out, and no audio track at all is available to choose.

Hmmmm......
Is the "internal audio switcher" turned on or off ???
Maybe you need to enable it OR disable it, depending on the case.
FWIW, I stopped using MPC-HC some months ago because its audio switcher started to cause playback problems on my Windows 7 machine.
Today I use only MPC-BE (often) and mpv (at times).

[SendHelp]

Thanks El Heggunte but playing with the audio settings (including internal audio switcher) did not help.
This seems to be a harder nut to crack then. If you recommend MPC-BE (which I haven't heard of before), I will just give that one a try. And if nothing else works, I can still watch that tricky clip using VLC. Hope you have a nice evening and a good weekend!


Edit:
Just if you care to know, MPC-BE is running the file perfectly with both language tracks working perfectly. Now if it manages to handle all my other files, you probably found me my new favourite player, thank you!

[El Heggunte]

Edit:
Just if you care to know, MPC-BE is running the file perfectly with both language tracks working perfectly. Now if it manages to handle all my other files, you probably found me my new favourite player, thank you!

Thanks 👍 for confirming that the problem was/is in MPC-HC itself, not in the media file.😌

[SendHelp]

Edit:
Just if you care to know, MPC-BE is running the file perfectly with both language tracks working perfectly. Now if it manages to handle all my other files, you probably found me my new favourite player, thank you!

Thanks 👍 for confirming that the problem was/is in MPC-HC itself, not in the media file.😌

Oh I thought that I had already confirmed by saying it runs fine on VLC, just the sound was set to disable when you run the file but you could easily choose either German or English language. It's just that I always preferred to work with mpc and it would have been too bad to have to go back to VLC just because of one single movie.

But thanks a lot anyway for your effort and time, and tc

[cleffknight]

hola, tuve el mismo inconveniente, les dejo la solución, solo deben reescribir el MKV con MKVToolnix y habilitar las pistas que no se ven en MPC-HC


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[Attachment 71202 - Click to enlarge]

[azoth-iii]

hola, tuve el mismo inconveniente, les dejo la solución, solo deben reescribir el MKV con MKVToolnix y habilitar las pistas que no se ven en MPC-HC

Thanks cleffknight for the solution.

Download MKVToolnix and remux the video file after setting the "Track Enabled flag" to Yes.

It looks like MPC-BE can see these hidden tracks, but I'd rather keep using the same MPC-HC that I have been so I used MKVToolnix to enable the track. Whoever made the mkv file just mistakenly disabled the flac audio track.