Unprecedent peculiar issues with some video files!! Any ideas??

[Juon]

Hello everyone,

I’m facing a rather peculiar situation with theses .mkv video files.
Until now, no matter the file extension, I’ve always been able to play any video in any Media Player (Windows Media Player, VLC, MPC – HC and PotPlayer and even that new Media Player that comes with the computer, already installed).

However, with these specific files, the situation is quite different. Here’s how:
MPC – HC, It plays just fine
VLC – It crashes randomly (and it crashes for certain, if I pass on to the next vídeo on the list)
PotPlayer – It freezes completely, when I change the audio track
(New) Windows Media Player – Can’t play the video, because it says it is unable to play HEVC… Whatever that means;

So I went on my way to see what HEVC even is. And I spent hours trying to solve the issue, with all the Media players I have.
After a few hours browsing online, I believe I found a solution for VLC.

HOWEVER, I didn’t like the way I – apparently – solved it in PotPlayer. After a trial and error process, I took the following path:
Preferences > Filter Control > Video decoder:
Once I reached the Video decoder list, I choose the “HEVC” option, and changed the “Built-in decoder (recommended)” to “System standard”.

It seems to work… BUT I’m afraid I may have messed something up, because I don’t like to change the settings without even knowing what I’m doing. Plus, choosing HEVC another option, other than the recommended settings keeps me worried.
Is there any other way to make it work??

And ultimately, can you help me figuring out what is even the deal with these video files? What makes them so diferent, to the point of forcing me to change the recommended Media Player settings?? Are these files corrupted or something? Or is there some sort of incompatibility?

Any ideas? Any help? Please??

Thank you all.

[ProWo]

You could try to remux them only.
Use clever Ffmpeg-GUI or mkvtoolnix.

[jagabo]

HOWEVER, I didn’t like the way I – apparently – solved it in PotPlayer. After a trial and error process, I took the following path:
Preferences > Filter Control > Video decoder:
Once I reached the Video decoder list, I choose the “HEVC” option, and changed the “Built-in decoder (recommended)” to “System standard”.

It seems to work… BUT I’m afraid I may have messed something up, because I don’t like to change the settings without even knowing what I’m doing.

All you did was tell the player to have Windows decompress the video rather than using its internal HEVC decoder. Nothing to worry about. Use whatever works. Updating the player to a newer version might help.

And ultimately, can you help me figuring out what is even the deal with these video files? What makes them so diferent, to the point of forcing me to change the recommended Media Player settings?? Are these files corrupted or something? Or is there some sort of incompatibility?

If you can now play the videos without problems in some/most players there's probably nothing wrong with the videos themselves. Some players may have problems with some containers and/or codecs. Especially if you haven't updated them a long time.

And yes, re-muxing (copying the video, audio, etc. streams) to a different, or even the same, container may help. Some old muxers may have bugs.