mkv2vob and avi playback problems on pc

[craig198]

can anyone tell me why this file here only plays back pretty good on vlc and no other player including media player classic can play it? I say "pretty good" because seeking is still sloppy as it takes about 15-20 sec for vlc to clear up the pixels. I have not even tried it at the destination (Xbox 360) yet. pretty sure it will play like crap. and to clear things up this is the output file .avi that I got from a mkv file.
I do notice the the avi is a hvc codec with 6 channel audio. thats a no no for the xbox right? also I have latest k-lite codec pack full installed.

• General #0
  Count : 195
  Count of stream of this kind : 1
  Kind of stream : General
  StreamKindID : 0
  ID : 1
  Count of video streams : 1
  Count of audio streams : 1
  Codecs Video : AVC
  Audio codecs : AC3
  Complete name : G:\mkv2vobencodedfiles\ESB1.avi
  Folder name : G:\mkv2vobencodedfiles
  File name : ESB1
  File extension : avi
  Format : BDAV
  Format : BluRay Video
  Format/Family : MPEG-2
  Format/ : m2ts
  Codec : BDAV
  Codec : BluRay Video
  Codec/Family : MPEG-2
  Codec/ : m2ts
  File size : 2429417472
  File size : 2.26 GiB
  File size : 2 GiB
  File size : 2.3 GiB
  File size : 2.26 GiB
  File size : 2.263 GiB
  File creation date : UTC 2008-08-12 19:27:54.968
  File last modification date : UTC 2008-08-12 19:32:00.859
  
  Video #0
  Count : 90
  Count of stream of this kind : 1
  Kind of stream : Video
  StreamKindID : 0
  ID : 4113
  ID : 4113 (0x1011)
  MenuID : 1
  MenuID/String : 1 (0x1)
  Codec : AVC
  Codec : AVC
  Codec/Family : AVC
  Codec/Info : Advanced Video Codec
  Codec/Url : http://developers.videolan.org/x264.html
  Codec profile : Main@L4.1
  Codec settings : CABAC / 3 Ref Frames
  Codec settings, CABAC : Yes
  Codec_Settings_RefFrames : 3
  Bit rate : 6288000
  Bit rate : 6288 Kbps
  Nominal bit rate : 6288000
  Nominal bit rate : 6288 Kbps
  Width : 1904
  Width : 1904 pixels
  Height : 816
  Height : 816 pixels
  Pixel Aspect Ratio : 1.000
  Display Aspect ratio : 2.333
  Display Aspect ratio : 2.35
  Frame rate : 23.976
  Frame rate : 23.976 fps
  Chroma : 4:2:0
  Interlacement : PPF
  Interlacement : Progressive
  Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.169
  Delay : 600000
  Delay : 10mn
  Delay : 10mn
  Delay : 10mn
  Delay : 00:10:00.000
  Writing library : x264 - core 56 svn-680
  Writing library : x264 - core 56 svn-680
  Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=2 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=hex / subme=5 / brdo=0 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=2 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=5 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=0 / bime=0 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=abr / bitrate=6288 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.3
  
  Audio #0
  Count : 75
  Count of stream of this kind : 1
  Kind of stream : Audio
  StreamKindID : 0
  ID : 4352
  ID : 4352 (0x1100)
  MenuID : 1
  MenuID/String : 1 (0x1)
  Codec : AC3
  Codec : AC3
  Bit rate mode : CBR
  Bit rate : 640000
  Bit rate : 640 Kbps
  Channel(s) : 6
  Channel(s) : 6 channels
  Channel positions : Front: L C R, Rear: L R, LFE
  Sampling rate : 48000
  Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
  Delay : 600000
  Delay : 10mn
  Delay : 10mn
  Delay : 10mn
  Delay : 00:10:00.000
  Video0 delay : 0

here is the original mkv file stats

• General #0
  Count : 195
  Count of stream of this kind : 1
  Kind of stream : General
  StreamKindID : 0
  Count of video streams : 1
  Count of audio streams : 1
  Codecs Video : AVC
  Audio codecs : AAC LC-SBR
  Complete name : G:\EmSB1.mkv
  Folder name : G:
  File name : EmSB1
  File extension : mkv
  Format : Matroska
  Format : Matroska
  Format/Url : http://packs.matroska.org/
  Format/ : mkv mka mks
  Codec : Matroska
  Codec : Matroska
  Codec/Url : http://packs.matroska.org/
  Codec/ : mkv mka mks
  File size : 4463684629
  File size : 4.16 GiB
  File size : 4 GiB
  File size : 4.2 GiB
  File size : 4.16 GiB
  File size : 4.157 GiB
  PlayTime : 5678720.000
  PlayTime : 1h 34mn
  PlayTime : 1h 34mn 38s 720ms
  PlayTime : 1h 34mn
  PlayTime : 01:34:38.720
  Bit rate : 6288296
  Bit rate : 6288 Kbps
  Encoded date : UTC 2008-08-12 03:14:06
  File creation date : UTC 2008-08-12 03:14:06.171
  File last modification date : UTC 2008-08-12 03:19:21.312
  Writing application : mkvmerge v2.2.0 ('Turn It On Again') built on Mar 4 2008 12:58:26
  Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1
  
  Video #0
  Count : 90
  Count of stream of this kind : 1
  Kind of stream : Video
  StreamKindID : 0
  ID : 1
  UniqueID : 3740004285
  Codec : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
  Codec : AVC
  Codec/Family : AVC
  Codec/Info : Advanced Video Codec
  Codec/Url : http://ffdshow.sourceforge.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Getting+ffdshow
  Codec profile : High@L5.1
  Codec settings : CABAC / 16 Ref Frames
  Codec settings, CABAC : Yes
  Codec_Settings_RefFrames : 16
  PlayTime : 5673041
  PlayTime : 1h 34mn
  PlayTime : 1h 34mn 33s 41ms
  PlayTime : 1h 34mn
  PlayTime : 01:34:33.041
  Width : 1904
  Width : 1904 pixels
  Height : 816
  Height : 816 pixels
  Pixel Aspect Ratio : 1.000
  Display Aspect ratio : 2.333
  Display Aspect ratio : 2.35
  Frame rate : 23.976
  Frame rate : 23.976 fps
  FrameCount : 136153
  Chroma : 4:2:0
  Interlacement : PPF
  Interlacement : Progressive
  Writing library : x264 - core 56 svn-680
  Writing library : x264 - core 56 svn-680
  Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=16 / deblock=1:-2:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=7 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=6 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=crf / crf=18.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30
  
  Audio #0
  Count : 75
  Count of stream of this kind : 1
  Kind of stream : Audio
  StreamKindID : 0
  ID : 2
  UniqueID : 2624092345
  Codec : A_AAC/MPEG4/LC/SBR
  Codec : AAC LC-SBR
  Codec/Family : AAC
  Codec/Info : AAC Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replication
  PlayTime : 5678720
  PlayTime : 1h 34mn
  PlayTime : 1h 34mn 38s 720ms
  PlayTime : 1h 34mn
  PlayTime : 01:34:38.720
  Channel(s) : 6
  Channel(s) : 6 channels
  Channel positions : Front: L C R, Rear: L R, LFE
  Sampling rate : 48000
  Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
  SamplingCount : 272578560
  Resolution : 16
  Resolution : 16 bits
  

[Delta2]

By watching the full details of the resulting encoded file and the original MKV, I give my humble opinion :

1) Playback

The original MKV has a full-hd resolution

1904 x 816

If your CPU isn't a at least a dual-core, then forget it....

Is easy to check : play your file in MPC...and then check your CPU usage, if it is close to 100% usage.....that means that your CPU is out of breath almost having a heart attack

you can't play it smoothly in your PC like that

To get things even worst..add a graphic card without HD acceleration ... and you will get the worst media machine for HD playback

720 max resolution, HD-Ready, should be your maximum choice

2) I don't like MKV2VOB resulting quality, is a good tool, but in my opinion gives a crap quality

Mostly it transcodes video to a MPEG2 stream in a Blueray container or other....

What it does is to keep original resolution when transcoding to a lossy MPEG2 format using Mencoder, not the best transcoder for that

It's easy to figure that out just analyzing the output file with MediaInfo and checking the tools it uses, and man figures what it does and how it does, no logs are needed to guess that, even the audio is changed from the original

Just look at this images :


Original HD Image - ERAGON.MKV






VOB/MPEG2 - Quality using MKV2VOB







VOB/MPEG2 using HCEnc





Notice the lost of details in the guy's face to much obvious, and also look at the floor colors

Rather than keep original resolution in a crappy lossy codec, is much better to downsize to a DVD compliant resolution using a good encoder such as HCEnc, or CCE

tsMuxer, however, is by far the best choice because it is only a container transporter

3) XBOX

I think it can play fine a DVD, and AC3 is the standard supported either by PAL and NTSC

Hope this helps

[craig198]

thankyou so much for your help!

I notice that tsmuxer is really geared for ps3. any help for xbox360? only real thing I see doing with it is downgrading h264 from level 5.1 to 4.1 so xbox can play it. but to a ts file? what is the xbox going to do with that?

no, my pc is a powerful beast. amd X2 5000+ over clocked to 3.13Ghz with 2 gigs ram and a geforce 9600GT over clocked edition.

will give that ts program a go. I think I have already but I have probably every freeware video tool from this great site so my head is spinning lol. take care.

[Delta2]

Sooner or later, M$ should give support to Blueray

Xbox can play .ts files through windows media center

Here you have a tutorial to convert AVCHD ( mts ) to Xbox

http://www.vimeo.com/629815

There is also tutorials to convert to WMV-HD using TmpGenc...search in google

Converting to a DVD-DL I think it is a good alternative also, you loose HD but not audio quality if you make just a audio copy. And when applying a good resizer...then...

A DVD-DL made with HCEnc or CCE, if you look close to the image/details/colors - as I showed in images - they look much better in quality ratio than a pseudo Mpeg2 MP@HL profile produced by MKV2VOB

[craig198]

yep google is your friend all the time. sometimes I hit a wall in thinking of search terms. isnt tmpgenc a payware program?
thats cool vimeo has tutorials on this stuff. great site that is for HQ HD video.

thanks again delta2. great help

and I didnt know xbox could play those ts files through media center. I dont think tsmuxer got the sound out of the file.