MKVmerge generated mkv does not play on LG BD360 player

[bobgatz]

If I rip a DVD with MakeMKV, it plays fine on my BD360 player. If I run the file through MKVmerge gui, the file does not play, hanging at the very beginning. It is NOT due to header compression, since it is set to NONE. I want to create a hard disk library of all my DVDs, and some are too big for a FAT32 drive, so I use MKVmerge to split only. I do not want to re-encode to a different format, cause that takes about 6 hours per DVD compared to 30 minutes with MakeMKV and MKVmerge. Any ideas on why one plays, and the other does not/

[dylz]

You have to tick disable header compression:
[Attachment 6160 - Click to enlarge]

[bobgatz]

You did not read my post!!!! I said it is NOT due to header compression. I have it ticked.

[dylz]

Sorry mate jumped the gun...If youré splitting the files and playing on fat32 drives you can't make them any bigger than 4gb (4096 MiB = 4194304 KiB = 4294967296bytes) or they won't play. I would type 4000M (4gb) or maybe less to be on the safe side.
If that doesn't work you could export them in avidemux and use the cut in -cut out markers to cut it up.

[frlev120]

Maybe you should give us the information, with mediainfo, of the video that can play and the one that can't.

[bobgatz]

If the files were bigger than 4GB I could not copy them to a Fat32 drive. Anyway, I have attached the mediainfo in text format. The good file was generated by MakeMKV via a DVD rip. The NotOK file was generated by MKVmerge gui v4.6.0 from the MakeMKV file.

[frlev120]

Hum so far I don't see any difference between the files. Have you tried MkvMerge 4.0.0, for me it work well. There were issue with some of the latest release.

[Ai Haibara]

The only "issue" with the versions of mkvtoolnix/mkvmerge beyond 4.0.0, really, is the "header compression enabled by default" issue. It probably wouldn't hurt to try installing mkvtoolnix 4.0.0, anyway, just to see if the problem does go away.

There were at least one or two other tool to split MKVs, as I recall, in VideoHelp's Tools section. (I say that, because I don't remember their names as I'm typing this, offhand. ) Maybe they'd work better than running the MKV through MKVMerge, in this case.

Edit: splitMKV might help, or possibly uncropMKV. Use on a copy of the source video, of course.

[frlev120]

The header compression is not the only problem, there is something else. It cause PS3 media server ans wdtv live to crash. The header compression for me just mean no audio in both case. Even TsMuxer wasn't able to process the mkv file. "Nalue size" if I remember. I switch back to v4.0.0 problem solve.

[noemi7]

You may try re/mux mkv in GDSMux from Haali Media Splitter. I had similar issue with some DVB-S recordings which were not playable or stuttering when muxed by MKVmerge but OK when by Haali.

[bobgatz]

I downloaded and tried splitmkv from the link above, but when I run it, it says mkvmerge v2.5.3. However, after processing the dvd rip overnight, it was still only 86% done, so it is a nogo for me.
I have mmg v3.4.0, and it's output also does not play. I do not have mkvmerge 4.0.0, but if 3.4.0 and 4.6.0 do not play, I doubt it will do any better. I will try gdsmux and report back, but it may be a while, since I have some pressing matters to attend to.

[frlev120]

https://www.videohelp.com/download/mkvtoolnix-unicode-4.0.0.7z

[bobgatz]

Downloaded and tried v4.0.0, but it does not play either. Running the mkv generated by makemkv thru GDSmux from Haali media splitter works, but I do not know to use it to actually split a large file to the 4GB size.
I had a look at the 2 mkv files with a hex editor, and found that the file created by mkvmerge gui has a padding of a lot of zeroes between sections, whereas the one generated by MakeMKV does not. I don't know enough about the structure of mkv files yet, but this has me intrigued and I will investigate further when I have time.

[dylz]

@bob did you try avidemux as I suggested?, I assume it muxes differently to mkvtoolnix, also you probably could do with a firmware update unzip and burn the file as data cd or dvd.

http://www.lg.com/ca_en/support/product/support-product-profile.jsp?customerModelCode=...oduct-profile#
The top one is newest LG_BD_360M_UPG_LG_V7163.zip

[bobgatz]

No, I have not tried avidemux, but will give it a shot. I use the network connection on my LG BD360 to check for updates occasionally, and my firmware version is 7.173.00.26, which is a lot newer than 7163. I just re-checked and it is the latest available.

[bobgatz]

Just tried avidemux and it has problems with the file from MakeMKV. When set up in copy mode for both video and audio, it complains that the index is not up to date and to use Rebuild Frame to fix it. If I select yes, avidemux cannot save the output. If I select no, I can select the break points, and the file is saved. However, even VLC media player cannot play the output files successfully. Firstly, the subtitles are gone, which alone makes it a nogo. Also, VLC media player hangs after a while.

[dylz]

Okay... I 'm assuming you have mpeg2 in a mkv container? have you tried extracting using mkvextrractgui2 or mkvcleaver than mux just entering the resolution and framerate, because if it's something wrong in the header I think mkvtoolnix will read from the elementary streams to get the info and not the mkv header.

[bobgatz]

Yes, it is mpeg2, and the audio is AC3. Will try what you suggest and report back.

[bobgatz]

Tried mkvcleaver and mkvextract gui2 and the results are the same . . . understandable since they both use mkvmerge to recreate the mkv file.
Guess I'll have to buy a better media player that supports NTFS disks so I won't need splitting. I bought a cheap one on e-bay from china ($42) that plays all types of files, but the video quality on mpeg2 streams is not very good. It is OK on x264, but on a lot of avi files it is much worse than on my bluray player.

[jussi]

I have Philips BDP3100 and it does not play MKV files generated by new (4.3.0 or 4.6.0) MKVmerge gui. I use MKVmerge gui 2.5.0 and it works just fine, worth of trying.

[frlev120]

You should try TsMuxer and the .m2ts format. You're blu-ray player probably handle it. There's also a split option. But the m2ts container can't deal with dvd subtitles you have to convert them to srt.

[bobgatz]

"I use MKVmerge gui 2.5.0 and it works just fine" . . . Was header compression set to none on 4.3.0 or 4.6.0?
I think I had tried a .m2ts file before and it is not supported, but will try again to be sure.