Problems playing MKV on Samsung Blu-ray

[roboo7]

hi, first post so hi to all.

i have a Samsung BD-C7500 and i connect my 2tb external to the usb port to play mkv movies. the blu-ray supports alot of different audio and video formats but has problems with a few mkv files [mainly with aac audio]. most of the videos that have problems playing i would run through avi-mux and it would play fine after but a select few wont work even after i run it through avi-mux. now the weird thing is some files would play audio at first and no video. then after i run it through avi-mux the video would play and the audio wouldnt. i wanted to know what exactly is avi-mux doing to the files in order for it to play on my blu-ray. also are there any other problems [besides mkv-merge] that i should try running my mkv files through to see if it might play on my blu-ray.

greatful for any help
thanks

[DB83]

Sorry. But what is 'avi-mux' ? Do you mean avidemux ?

You must read your manual carefully to see what formats video and audio are supported. Chances are that the audio is in some of these mkvs not supported. A conversion could well fix that since you are un-wittingly chosing a different codec.

[roboo7]

im definitely no re-encoding them, just running them through https://www.videohelp.com/tools/AVIMux-GUI. ive been using the blu-ray awhile now and i have a good idea what plays and what dosent. i usually have problems with aac-audio just for some reason when i run it through avi-mux it begins to play but video goes out instead. its been frustrating trying to figure what to do with the mkv files that dont play.

older movies thats been processed with older version of mkv-merge play great on my blu-ray. i try to use older versions but dont get the same results. is im just editing the header and not re-enconding?

again any help would be greatful.

[poisondeathray]

If the video used incompatible encoding settings in the MKV, you would have to re-encode it . Or if MKV used incompatible mux settings, then sometimes remuxing it will make it playable on some devices

mediainfo (view=>text) will provide more information

[yoda313]

if its just the audio that is giving you problems could it be a variable bitrate vs constant bitrate issue?

Use mediainfo as poisondeathray suggested. Check very carefully the ones that work and the ones that don't. You say its aac audio that is giving you issues. Check the whether its vbr or cbr audio.

If vbr is giving you issues you can reencode just the audio to cbr. I don't have an easy way to do that for you but lots of programs can demux audio and you can reencode just the audio with lots of programs.

Check out avidemux for starters for audio conversions with copying just the video.

Edit - come to think of it are these aac audio tracks 5.1? That might complicate things. At least for playback on a surround sound amp aac 5.1 is problematic unless you have a really high end feature packed amp.

It might be possible a 5.1 aac track might be confusing your bluray player. You could try converting the aac 5.1 to ac3 5.1 and remux it. Eac3to would be able to do the conversion (edit - I'm fairly certain it can). You can remux with avidemux.

[roboo7]

i solved the issue with aac-audio. for some reason avi-mux has 'allow codecID A_AAC' turned off by default so it would show up on my blu-ray as unsupported. dont know why i didnt catch that earlier.

the data at the bottom is from an mkv that wont play at all. as far as i know my blu0ray had no problem supporting avc with 5.0 profile. the audio codec is unfamiliar to me though. my blu-ray would normally react by playing the video and show text saying the audio is unsupported.

media info:

General

Unique ID : 210722213745219353162146563324887796186 (0x9E879F44904C929199A89FDC4FF189DA)
Complete name : C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\22-Header Checked\S.A.C. 2nd GIG - 01 - Reembody [Reactivation] [1080p] (1).mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 537 MiB
Duration : 25mn 24s
Overall bit rate : 2 956 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2013-05-04 22:36:35
Writing application : mkvmerge v5.7.0 ('The Whirlwind') built on Jul 8 2012 20:08:51
Writing library : libebml v1.2.3 + libmatroska v1.3.0


Video

ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 9 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 25mn 24s
Bit rate : 800 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.016
Stream size : 145 MiB (27%)
Writing library : x264 core 78 r1318 fe83a90
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=10 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=10 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=2 / wpredb=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=0 / crf=22.0 / qcomp=1.00 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00
Language : Japanese
Default : Yes
Forced : No


Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : 3013
Codec ID : A_MS/ACM / 3013
Duration : 25mn 24s
Bit rate : 1 049 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 520 bits
Stream size : 191 MiB (35%)
Title : English
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No



Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : 3013
Codec ID : A_MS/ACM / 3013
Duration : 25mn 24s
Bit rate : 1 049 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 522 bits
Stream size : 191 MiB (35%)
Title : Japanese
Language : Japanese
Default : No
Forced : No



Text
ID : 4
Format : SSA
Codec ID : S_TEXT/SSA
Codec ID/Info : Sub Station Alpha
Compression mode : Lossless
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Opening
00:01:29.567 : en:Part A
00:12:26.433 : en:Part B
00:22:58.433 : en:Closing
00:24:28.833 : en:Tachikomatic Days

[yoda313]

I'm not familiar with that codec either.

I am surprised you can use profile 5.0. Generally speaking I thought 4 or 4.1 was the max for settop bluray players.

I would suggest trying to convert the audio and see what you get.

If that doesn't work in this particular case you may need to reencode the whole file, video and audio. You can use handbrake or ripbot or whatever floats your boat. I would set it to profile 4 or 4.1 to make sure it is more compatible overall. And use aac 2.0 audio to be much more compliant.

[DarrellS]

A lot of players don't support aac audio in MKV or only support certain types of aac. I would remux the mkv files to mp4 since aac audio is part of the mp4 spec or you could re-encode the audio to ac3. Some players don't support ac3 audio in mp4 so I would remux my ac3 mp4 to mkv for better compatibility.

I use ffmpeg to do my conversions by creating batch files. I create folders for certain conversions like MKV-2-MP4 and place a copy of ffmpeg in the folder along with the batch file for that conversion.

Command prompt needs the files to have no spaces in the file name so I use an VBS script to replace the spaces with dashes (I have another script to remove the dashes if you want to convert them back).

Here is the script for replacing the spaces with dashes...

    dim objFileSys, file, folderName, folderObj, fileColl, objRegEx, newFile
     
    set objFileSys = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    folderName = InputBox("Enter the full path where the files are located.", "Full path is required")
     
    set folderObj = objFileSys.GetFolder(folderName)
    set fileColl = folderObj.Files
    set objRegEx = new RegExp
     
    objRegEx.Pattern = " " ' the pattern is one space
    objRegEx.Global = true
     
    for each objFile in fileColl
    newFile = objRegEx.Replace(objFile.Name, "-") ' each pattern gets replaced with one dash
     
    objFileSys.MoveFile objFile, folderName & "\" & newFile
    next

Paste the code into notepad and save as "Replace-Spaces-With-Dashes.vbs" and doubleclick the vbs file. Paste the path to the folder that you want to remove spaces from and click OK. All spaces will be replaced with dashes.

Batch file for mkv to mp4 (paste in notepad and save as mkv-2-mp4.bat) ...

for %%a in ("*.mkv") do ffmpeg -i %%a -vcodec copy -acodec copy  %%~na.mp4

Batch file for mp4 to mkv (paste in notepad and save as mp4-2-mkv.bat) ...

for %%a in ("*.mp4") do ffmpeg -i %%a -vcodec copy -acodec copy  %%~na.mkv

Batch file to re-encode audio in mkv (paste in notepad and save as mkv-aac-2-ac3.bat) ...

for %%a in ("*.mkv") do ffmpeg -i %%a -vcodec vn -acodec ac3 %%~na.ac3

Use MKVmerge to add ac3 to mkv (remove original aac).

[DarrellS]

I'm not familiar with that codec either.

I am surprised you can use profile 5.0. Generally speaking I thought 4 or 4.1 was the max for settop bluray players.

I would suggest trying to convert the audio and see what you get.

If that doesn't work in this particular case you may need to reencode the whole file, video and audio. You can use handbrake or ripbot or whatever floats your boat. I would set it to profile 4 or 4.1 to make sure it is more compatible overall. And use aac 2.0 audio to be much more compliant.

Yeah, I thought the same thing about the profile.

AAC is so problematic for anything but Apple's mp4 (m4v), I don't know why anyone uses it for anything else. IMO, the file size savings isn't worth destroying the original ac3 audio. All of my encodes are avc/ac3/mkv since all my players and TVs accept it (sometimes I'll keep the DTS audio since my WDTV will passthrough DTS to my receiver).

[yoda313]

AAC is so problematic for anything but Apple's mp4 (m4v), I don't know why anyone uses it for anything else.

I've been pretty fortunate with my acquired video sources that do have aac. THey all pretty much play just fine on my android tablet.

IMO, the file size savings isn't worth destroying the original ac3 audio.

I agree with this. These days storage space is so much better that it really doesn't matter. THough dts-ma is a different story. converstion to ac3 can be benefical.

[netmask56]

Sorry. But what is 'avi-mux' ? Do you mean avidemux ?

You must read your manual carefully to see what formats video and audio are supported. Chances are that the audio is in some of these mkvs not supported. A conversion could well fix that since you are un-wittingly chosing a different codec.

https://www.videohelp.com/tools/AVIMux-GUI
AVI-Mux GUI is an application that allows to combine several video, audio or subtitle files into one file, with out without size restriction, allowing to configure properties of the output file to a deeper level than usual for such applications. Supported input file types: * AVI, MKV * WAV, MPA/MP3, AC3, DTS, AAC, OGG/Vorbis * SRT, SSA. Supported output formats: * AVI, MKV * raw (MPx, AC3, DTS...) * ATDS-AAC, OGG/Vorbis.

[LuKePicci]

Also my Samsung BD-C5900 fail to play lots of mkvs made with mkvmerge 5.7.0, maybe all of that.
Here are two reports, the first one doesn't play, the other one does (same format but newer muxer).

I've deleted DOES_NOT_PLAY.mkv from my computer, so I can't regenerate report in english, sorry

[ Info sul file ]
Nome: DOES_NOT_PLAY.mkv
Data: 
23/06/2013 22:52:15
Dimensione: 1,912,866,587 bytes (1824.252 
MB)
 
[ Info generiche ]
Durata: 01:43:33 
(6213.28 s)
Tipo di contenitore: matroska
Data creazione: 23/06/2013 20:31:37 UTC
Streams totali: 6
Tipo stream n. 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC) {Source....isck}
Tipo stream n. 2: audio (A_AC3) {Italian AC3 5.1}
Tipo stream n. 3: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF {iTA Sub}
Tipo stream n. 4: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF {iTA Forced}
Tipo stream n. 5: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF {EnG Forced}
Tipo stream n. 6: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF {EnG Sub}
Audio streams: 1
Muxing Application: libebml v1.2.3 + libmatroska v1.3.0
Writing Application: mkvmerge v5.7.0 ('The Whirlwind') built on Jul  8 2012 20:08:51
 
[ Dati rilevanti ]
Risoluzione: MOLTO ALTA (1920 x 1040)
Larghezza: multipla di 32 (BENE)
Altezza: multipla di 16 (BENE)
 
[ Traccia video ]
Codec ID: V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Risoluzione: 1920 x 1040
Frame aspect ratio: 24:13 = 1.846153 (~1.85:1)
Pixel aspect ratio: 1927:1920 = 1.003645
Display aspect ratio: 1927:1040 = 1.852884 (~1.85:1)
Framerate: 23.976024 fps
Stream size: 1,414,749,588 bytes
Durata: 01:43:33 (6213.081676 s)
Bitrate: 1821.639774 kbps
Qf: 0.038049
 
[ Traccia audio ]
Codec ID: A_AC3
Canali (contenitore): 6
Frequenza: 48000 Hz
Stream size: 496,674,070 bytes
Bitrate (contenitore): 639.5 kbps
Initial skip: 496,334,702 bytes
Internal skip: 339,224 bytes
AC-3 frames: 1
Durata: 00:00:00 (0.0345 s)
Bitrate (bitstream): 32 kbps CBR
Frequenza (bitstream): 44100 Hz
Mode: 3 front
 
[ Info sulla codifica H.264 ]
SPS id: 0
  Profile: High@L4
  Num ref frames: 4
  Aspect ratio: Custom pixel shape (1927:1920 = 
1.003645)
  Chroma format idc: YUV 4:2:0
PPS id: 0 (SPS: 0)
  Codifica entropica: CABAC
  Weighted prediction: P slices - explicit weighted prediction
  Weighted bipred idc: B slices - implicit weighted prediction
  8x8dct: Sì
Frames totali: 148965
Drop/delay frames: 0
Frames corrotti: 0
 
[ Profile compliancy ]
Profilo da testare: MTK PAL 6000
Risoluzione: 1920 x 1040 > 720 x 576
Framerate: 23.976024  25
Min buffer fill: 364089%
 
[ Capitoli ]
Capitolo 01: 00:00:00,000 - 00:04:44,910
Capitolo 02: 00:04:44,910 - 00:11:15,967
Capitolo 03: 00:11:15,967 - 00:15:54,370
[...] many other chapters  [...]
 
 Rapporto generato da AVInaptic (18-11-2007) in data 25 giu 2013, h 00:42:44

Generale
UniqueID/String                  : 196804683221451003286212651641304681410 (0x940F3408ECC868A698CCD268CD768BC2)
CompleteName                     : PLAYS_WELL.mkv
Format                           : Matroska
Format_Version                   : Version 4 / Version 2
FileSize/String                  : 5,73 GiB
Duration/String                  : 1o 49min
OverallBitRate/String            : 7.490 Kbps
Encoded_Date                     : UTC 2013-02-20 12:20:47
Encoded_Application              : mkvmerge v6.0.0 ('Coming Up For Air') built on Jan 20 2013 09:52:00
Encoded_Library/String           : libebml v1.3.0 + libmatroska v1.4.0
Video
ID/String                        : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format_Profile                   : High@L4.1
Format_Settings_CABAC/String     : Si
Format_Settings_RefFrames/String : 4 frame
CodecID                          : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration/String                  : 1o 49min
BitRate/String                   : 5.359 Kbps
Width/String                     : 1.920 pixel
Height/String                    : 816 pixel
DisplayAspectRatio/String        : 2,35:1
FrameRate_Mode/String            : Costante
FrameRate/String                 : 23,976 fps
ColorSpace                       : YUV
ChromaSubsampling                : 4:2:0
BitDepth/String                  : 8 bit
ScanType/String                  : Progressivo
Bits-(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.143
StreamSize/String                : 3,97 GiB (69%)
Title                            : VideoBitrate=5359kbps - Avg.DRF=18.384 [ENCODED by Wiggaz]
Encoded_Library/String           : x264 core 125 r2200 999b753
Encoded_Library_Settings         : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-2:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=5 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=5359 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=50000 / vbv_bufsize=50000 / nal_hrd=none / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language/String                  : Inglese
Default/String                   : Si
Forced/String                    : No
Audio #1
ID/String                        : 2
Format                           : DTS
Format/Info                      : Digital Theater Systems
Format_Settings_Mode             : 16
Format_Settings_Endianness       : Big
CodecID                          : A_DTS
Duration/String                  : 1o 49min
BitRate_Mode/String              : Costante
BitRate/String                   : 1.509 Kbps
Channel(s)/String                : 6 canali
ChannelPositions                 : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
SamplingRate/String              : 48,0 KHz
BitDepth/String                  : 24 bit
Compression_Mode/String          : Con perdita
StreamSize/String                : 1,16 GiB (20%)
Title                            : DTS ITA 5.1 1509 kbps
Language/String                  : Italiano
Default/String                   : Si
Forced/String                    : No
Audio #2
ID/String                        : 3
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Format_Settings_ModeExtension    : CM (complete main)
Format_Settings_Endianness       : Big
CodecID                          : A_AC3
Duration/String                  : 1o 49min
BitRate_Mode/String              : Costante
BitRate/String                   : 640 Kbps
Channel(s)/String                : 6 canali
ChannelPositions                 : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
SamplingRate/String              : 48,0 KHz
BitDepth/String                  : 16 bit
Compression_Mode/String          : Con perdita
StreamSize/String                : 502MiB (9%)
Title                            : AC3 ENG 5.1 640 kbps
Language/String                  : Inglese
Default/String                   : No
Forced/String                    : No
Testo #1
ID/String                        : 4
Format                           : UTF-8
CodecID                          : S_TEXT/UTF8
CodecID/Info                     : UTF-8 Plain Text
Title                            : SUB ITA Forced
Language/String                  : Italiano
Default/String                   : Si
Forced/String                    : No
Testo #2
ID/String                        : 5
Format                           : UTF-8
CodecID                          : S_TEXT/UTF8
CodecID/Info                     : UTF-8 Plain Text
Title                            : SUB ITA [SDH]
Language/String                  : Italiano
Default/String                   : No
Forced/String                    : No
Testo #3
ID/String                        : 6
Format                           : UTF-8
CodecID                          : S_TEXT/UTF8
CodecID/Info                     : UTF-8 Plain Text
Title                            : SUB ENG [SDH]
Language/String                  : Inglese
Default/String                   : No
Forced/String                    : No
Menu
00:00:00.000                     : it:CAPITOLO 1
00:05:54.271                     : it:CAPITOLO 2
00:10:50.733                     : it:CAPITOLO 3
[...] many other chapters [...]