.avi movies freeze when video is saturated

[HartsVideo]

Hi,

I don't know if saturated is the right word for the title but I didn't know what else to call it. I used saturated in a non-technical way. When I try to watch Journey to the Edge of the Universe (and just a couple other fast moving movies with a lot of detail), all the motion makes the movie freeze and then pick up again a few seconds later.

The movies were originally HD .mkv files. I joined them and changed the ext to .avi and play them on VLC Media Player. In Tools > Messages, I changed the Verbosity Level to 2 and saved the log but it didn't help. I have about 75 HD movies stored but only a few with a lot of detail has the problem, the rest play fine. I also tried playing them on Media Player HomeCinema but the problem remained.

I have a Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP monitor, an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield, Socket 775 LGA, and an ASUS EAH4650-DI-512MD2 graphics card and my drives are WD Caviar Black so I don't think my hardware's the problem, but you never know.

Does anyone have an idea what the problem is or if there's another setting I can change to fix the problem? Any advice will be extremely appreciated.

[davexnet]

Open the file in question in MediaInfo (text view) and post the results here.

[jagabo]

VLC only has a single threaded h.264 decoder. You need a dual core CPU (which you have) and a multithreaded h.264 decoder to play 1080p properly, or a video card with DXVA GPU h.264 decoding and a player that supports DXVA. MPCHC has both a multithreaded h.264 decoder built in and DXVA support. Or get a player that can use DirectShow decoders and install a multithreaded DirectShow decoder like ffdshowmt, Divx (their h.264 decoder), CoreAVC Pro, etc.

[HartsVideo]

MediaInfo:

General
Complete name : H:\movies 00-pr\-«]¥[ovie»- HD Journey to the Edge of the Universe 2008 (br-koadic 1080p wma.6ch 1920x1080).avi
Format : Windows Media
File size : 7.44 GiB
Duration : 1h 30mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 11.8 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 14.4 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2009-05-27 03:23:43.839
Cover : Y
Video
ID : 3
Format : VC-1
Format profile : AP@L3
Codec ID : WVC1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Description of the codec : VC-1 - VC-1 Advanced Profile
Duration : 1h 30mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 11.1 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.179
Stream size : 7.01 GiB (94%)
Audio #1
ID : 1
Format : WMA3
Format profile : M2
Codec ID : 162
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Audio 3
Description of the codec : Windows Media Audio 10 Professional - VBR Quality 98, 48 kHz, 5.1 channel 24 bit 1-pass VBR
Duration : 1h 30mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 362 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 24 bits
Stream size : 235 MiB (3%)
Audio #2
ID : 2
Format : WMA2
Format profile : L3
Codec ID : 161
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Audio 2
Description of the codec : Windows Media Audio 10 Professional - VBR Quality 98, 48 kHz, 5.1 channel 24 bit 1-pass VBR
Duration : 1h 30mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 254 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 164 MiB (2%)

[davexnet]

On my own box, 1080p with VC-1 advanced codec is also very difficult to play properly.
I have DXVA set up and working using Media Player Classic-Home Cinema (MPC-HC) which works good for some flavors
of 1080p and all 720P I've seen so far. But it doesn't kick in for 1080p VC-1 advanced -
so you're left with CPU decoding only, which can be heavy.

Whether DXVA works is determined on the player, video card and driver. Try MPCHC and see if you can get it to work.

[HartsVideo]

Media Player x86 freezes.

VLC has a plug-in libh264_plugin.dll

I have Divx installed

I have ffdshow-rev3611_20101006_x64 installed but I didn't configure it myself, just left it the way it was.

I just installed MPCHC v1.4.2499.0.x64 but it didn't install in the usual way. It just opened MPHC and when I tried to open the movie, it said that it can't render the file.

I installed Divx Pro/Plus. When I tried to open the movie with it, I received the message that says "This video is in an unsupport format and cannot be played without installing additional DirectShow Filters," but since it doesn't say which ones are needed, I don't know what to install. I have enough installed so that everything plays fine except for the 3 or 4 hd movies. 70+ hd movies play fine on all players.

I installed CoreCodec.CoreAVC.Professional.Edition.v2.0.0.0 which supports nVidia CUDA and installed nVidia drivers for nVidia CUDA-enables cards and nVida video drivers. I wash't sure if my card is nVidia supported so I installed it to see if it would help but it didn't, the Divx player gave me the message again.

I just installed ffdshowmt from the link given above (rev3562_20100907) but it didn't fix the prob.

I'm not sure if I made myself clear in my original post. I watch the movies on my computer, not on an attached device and not burned to disk.

[poisondeathray]

The movies were originally HD .mkv files. I joined them and changed the ext to .avi

That's probably your problem . Many programs will not decode wvc1 in "fake" avi container . Play the original in MPCHC

[poisondeathray]

On my own box, 1080p with VC-1 advanced codec is also very difficult to play properly.
I have DXVA set up and working using Media Player Classic-Home Cinema (MPC-HC) which works good for some flavors
of 1080p and all 720P I've seen so far. But it doesn't kick in for 1080p VC-1 advanced -
so you're left with CPU decoding only, which can be heavy.

Whether DXVA works is determined on the player, video card and driver. Try MPCHC and see if you can get it to work.

This is probably because of your graphics card. IIRC, your model (8600GT) doesn't fully support WVC1 (newer cards do) - it only has partial DXVA support

[HartsVideo]

Play the original in MPCHC

your graphics card. IIRC, your model (8600GT) doesn't fully support WVC1

I changed the ext back to .mkv. VLC still freezes, MediaPlayer still can't render the file, and Divx still says "unsupported format . . ."

[jagabo]

Your file isn't an MKV or an AVI. It's a WMV file:

MediaInfo:

General
Complete name : H:\movies 00-pr\-«]¥[ovie»- HD Journey to the Edge of the Universe 2008 (br-koadic 1080p wma.6ch 1920x1080).avi
Format : Windows Media

If WMP can't play it properly on your computer (after downloading the VC1 cocec) nothing will.

[poisondeathray]

Try changing the extension to .wmv

[davexnet]

Generally, to play the MKV in WMP, you need the Haali media splitter and perhaps CoreAVC
or FFDshow with H264 decoding switched on.

In MPC-HC, view/options/internal fiters.
Check the settings for source filters Matroska, (try it enabled,
or disabled if Haali is installed)
Transform filters VC1 dxva and ffmpeg. Try disabling, and it should use standard
Windows filters.

poisondeathray - it makes sense and I assumed as much . There was a utility called
DXVAChecker. About a year ago it was driving me crazy trying to interpret what it
was telling me. In the end I never fully understood it and gave up. I stumble
upon so few VC1 files, mainly trailers, that it doesn't bother me. I'll live with that
limitation in my current PC. They still play, even in WMP 11 with MS codecs -
uses about 35% of my (modest) dual core.

[jagabo]

Generally, to play the MKV in WMP, you need the Haali media splitter and perhaps CoreAVC or FFDshow with H264 decoding switched on.

That is 100 percent accurate. But contrary to what he said in his original post he has a WMV file not an MKV file. So none of that will help him with this particular file.

[davexnet]

Generally, to play the MKV in WMP, you need the Haali media splitter and perhaps CoreAVC or FFDshow with H264 decoding switched on.

That is 100 percent accurate. But contrary to what he said in his original post he has a WMV file not an MKV file. So none of that will help him with this particular file.

Ooops... then if it's a WMV file, it should play in WMP without any further additions to the system.
Presumably, some acceleration is available in recent systems ? Isn't there an option to include HW
decoding in the WMP preferences ?

[HartsVideo]

In MPC-HC, view/options/internal fiters.
Check the settings for source filters Matroska, (try it enabled,
or disabled if Haali is installed)

I have Haali Media Splitter installed but when I started the movie in MPChC x86 and checked Matroska as above, the movie no longer freezes! (it still freezes when I tried VLC and Divx though, and it won't play on MPCHC x64 even with Metroska checked)

Thanks! I can now watch the movie without the constant stops and restarts

P.S. The movie was originally an .mkv file but I changed the ext to .avi.

[jagabo]

P.S. The movie was originally an .mkv file but I changed the ext to .avi.

It may have had .MKV as the extension but it was a .WMV file according to MediaInfo -- which is very good at determining container types. If it was really an MKV file MediaInfo would have said "Format : Matroska".

[johns0]

The video is also a downloaded wmv which can also just be a bad movie file.

[detroit1]

I wanted to know if anyone knows how to fix the problem of playing hd m2ts files that have the VC1 AP@L3 in them
I noticed that MPC and Windows Media player will not play the video; the screen is black
all other blu-ray video files from movies play fine; interestedly, Power DVD 9 or 10 plays these files with no problem

the reason I ask is because these same AP@L3 files cannot be inputted in softwares like Nero 10, Xilisoft, Sothink,etc

all of these softwares can take other m2ts files with no problem; no copy protection on any of these files

I think it has to be the same reason; some type of codec; the files that play on MPC or Windows Media player can be inputted in all these softwares to edit or make disc, etc

can anyone let me know what codec I need to install to get these to play

[jagabo]

Do you have a DirectShow VC1 decoder installed? Try ffdshow.

[detroit1]

I tried that; same result; I think I already had that in my system; most m2ts files play fine with WMP and MPC and Power DVD
only certain ones with AP@L3; which I noticed are some concert files; all other m2ts play fine with all the softwares

[jagabo]

Most of your m2ts files are probably h.264, not VC1. Be sure the VC1 decoder is enabled in ffdshow. Start -> All Programs -> ffdshow -> Video Decoder Configuration. In the left pane select Codecs. In the right pane locate VC-1 and set it to libavcodec or WMV9.

If you're using MPCHC (which has a built in VC-1 decoder, unlike MPC) you might try switching its state there. View -> Options -> Internal Filters -> Transform Filters -> VC1...

[detroit1]

yeah I tried the liba and wmv9; same result; the wmp and mpc will not play the file and nero and xilisoft will not take the file as input ; those softwares will take the file and you see the black screen in the edit section so same result

any other suggestions?