MakeMKV compatible Blu Ray players

[TriggerThumb]

Hi, long time reader and first time poster!

I currently own a LG BD350 Blu Ray player but having difficulty playing mkv files created with MakeMKV from my dvd collection. Some x264 mkv files play fine but I think the issue here is that my player does't like mpeg2 inside the mkv container.

I've tried muxing my dvd structures into ts and m2ts containers using tsmuxer and the output plays fine but doesn't allow seeking through the file or chapter support which is a big issue. I have also tried vob2mpeg which has exactly the same outcome.

Basically, my end goal is to have files on an external hard drive hooked up to my Blu Ray player for quick access. I have toyed with the idea of streaming from pc to Xbox 360 but bandwidth restrictions make this a non starter.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this particular Blu Ray player or could suggest a player fully compatible with the files produced by MakeMKV?

I will be purchasing an Xbox One so another option may be to wait and see what file formats it supports. With it having Blu Ray support i'm hoping it will provide native playback of m2ts files as the PS3 does.

This is going to be a fairly big project for me so I need to avoid any form of transcoding if possible. Hard drive space won't be an issue.

[wulf109]

My personal expierence with Makemkv is that it produces unplayable mkv's. I would suggest you use Vidcoder,it will make mkv's with x264 or mpg2,but why use mpg2?

[TriggerThumb]

My personal expierence with Makemkv is that it produces unplayable mkv's. I would suggest you use Vidcoder,it will make mkv's with x264 or mpg2,but why use mpg2?

Ideally I didn't want to transcode to x264. Would rather just change my vobs to a different container.

With my BD350 I can live without chapter support but definatley not without seeking. The player also doesn't seem to remember last playback position on stop/resume. I get exactly the same end results with all containers i've tried (ts, m2ts, vob) etc.

If Vidcoder can be used to mux mpeg2 into an mkv container then I could give that a try.

[ozzy66]

hi,

I use MKVMerge GUI to "convert" my dvd's (vob's) to mkv

[hello_hello]

I currently own a LG BD350 Blu Ray player but having difficulty playing mkv files created with MakeMKV from my dvd collection. Some x264 mkv files play fine but I think the issue here is that my player does't like mpeg2 inside the mkv container.

I'd guess your conclusion there is likely to be correct.
I downloaded the manual for the player (LG's UK site, if it makes a difference) and "mkv" is not to be found in it anywhere.

In case it's the muxing itself and not the video within, have you tried remuxing the MakeMKV output with MKVMergeGUI? Or even remuxing it as an MP4 (I'm fairly sure it supports mpeg2). It's just that for playback via USB, the supported extension list consists of avi, divx, mpg, mpeg, and mp4. (mpeg ts and mpeg ps files aren't on the list but they are included under supported video formats).

[TriggerThumb]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I tried muxing the vob file into an mkv using mkvmergegui but this produced an unplayable file as did yamb when I placed the streams into an mp4 container.

I have tried vidcoder and was quite surprised how quickly the file transcoded. I might just queue my files and set them to batch encode over night. I need to get started on this and don't really want to wait until the xbox one reveals it's supported file formats. I would imagine it would definitely support x264 mp4 files though.

Just out of interest, what settings would be recommended with vidcoder? I used quality setting of 20 and it looked pretty good to be honest.

[hello_hello]

The only Handbrake/Vidcoder preset I'd use is High Profile. It encodes with x264's default settings. Someone else may be able to tell you what settings the Normal profile uses. I don't know. By default it's set to x264's veryfast preset, but whether changing that to medium (the x264 default) is the same as the High Profile I'm not sure. Vidcoder/Handbrake might also change other x264 settings when the Normal preset is used but unfortunately the GUI doesn't tell you and I've never run an encode to look.

It sounds like you used the Normal preset. High Profile will be a lot slower, although you can change the x264 speed preset it uses if you want to. I've really only used medium or slower presets so I can't tell you if the faster ones will drop the quality in a noticeable way. CRF values between 18 and 22 seem to be in common use by others here. I used 18 for 480p and 720p myself, and 20 for 1080p, but it's really personal preference.

[Noahtuck]

My personal expierence with Makemkv is that it produces unplayable mkv's

I use MakeMKV on a WEEKLY basis and have zero issues with the resulting files.

All it does is package files into an MKV container, it does NOT convert video or audio so the problem would most likely be with the original A/V files or a crappy player.

[usually_quiet]

Hi, long time reader and first time poster!

I currently own a LG BD350 Blu Ray player but having difficulty playing mkv files created with MakeMKV from my dvd collection. Some x264 mkv files play fine but I think the issue here is that my player does't like mpeg2 inside the mkv container.

I've tried muxing my dvd structures into ts and m2ts containers using tsmuxer and the output plays fine but doesn't allow seeking through the file or chapter support which is a big issue. I have also tried vob2mpeg which has exactly the same outcome.

Basically, my end goal is to have files on an external hard drive hooked up to my Blu Ray player for quick access. I have toyed with the idea of streaming from pc to Xbox 360 but bandwidth restrictions make this a non starter.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this particular Blu Ray player or could suggest a player fully compatible with the files produced by MakeMKV?

I will be purchasing an Xbox One so another option may be to wait and see what file formats it supports. With it having Blu Ray support i'm hoping it will provide native playback of m2ts files as the PS3 does.

This is going to be a fairly big project for me so I need to avoid any form of transcoding if possible. Hard drive space won't be an issue.

While the English PDF manual dated for the LG BD350 (dated 10/27/2009) that I downloaded from LG's US website does not say explicitly that MPEG-2 in an .mkv container is playable, it does say on page 27 that .mkv files are compatible and that MPEG-2 (PS and TS) are playable formats.

Maybe the LG BD350 doesn't support all mkv features. Try a .mkv with just the main movie's video and one audio track with no chapters to see if that plays, then start adding the additional features you want to use to see if anything specific is causing the problem.

[jman98]

To follow up on usually_quiet's post, I've got an MKV I made myself from an Xvid video source and an AC3 audio file. Both are quite legal for MKV. I have yet to find any standalone players that can correctly play it. The best I've ever had happen is have the video play without sound. PCs can play it fine. I wouldn't hold my breath that MPEG-2 will work in an MKV container. Most of the manufacturers have probably implemented MKV to mean H.264/X.264 video + a variety of audio formats and any other video format will likely have problems.

[usually_quiet]

I suppose it could it be the DVD's audio. Although DTS and AC3 audio are more common, MP2 and PCM audio are allowed by the DVD spec but aren't listed as supported formats for AV files in the BD350's manual.

[TriggerThumb]

Hi, long time reader and first time poster!

I currently own a LG BD350 Blu Ray player but having difficulty playing mkv files created with MakeMKV from my dvd collection. Some x264 mkv files play fine but I think the issue here is that my player does't like mpeg2 inside the mkv container.

I've tried muxing my dvd structures into ts and m2ts containers using tsmuxer and the output plays fine but doesn't allow seeking through the file or chapter support which is a big issue. I have also tried vob2mpeg which has exactly the same outcome.

Basically, my end goal is to have files on an external hard drive hooked up to my Blu Ray player for quick access. I have toyed with the idea of streaming from pc to Xbox 360 but bandwidth restrictions make this a non starter.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this particular Blu Ray player or could suggest a player fully compatible with the files produced by MakeMKV?

I will be purchasing an Xbox One so another option may be to wait and see what file formats it supports. With it having Blu Ray support i'm hoping it will provide native playback of m2ts files as the PS3 does.

This is going to be a fairly big project for me so I need to avoid any form of transcoding if possible. Hard drive space won't be an issue.

While the English PDF manual dated for the LG BD350 (dated 10/27/2009) that I downloaded from LG's US website does not say explicitly that MPEG-2 in an .mkv container is playable, it does say on page 27 that .mkv files are compatible and that MPEG-2 (PS and TS) are playable formats.

Maybe the LG BD350 doesn't support all mkv features. Try a .mkv with just the main movie's video and one audio track with no chapters to see if that plays, then start adding the additional features you want to use to see if anything specific is causing the problem.

The file is main movie only with 2 channel ac3 audio.

The player does play m2ts, ts, vob files but doesn't allow seeking or anything.

Any suggestions for a Blu Ray player that does successfully play makemkv files?

[usually_quiet]

I once tested a mkv file converted from a DVD by makemkv and copied to a USB stick using an LG BP220 Blu-Ray player. The DVD I converted was one produced by my DVD recorder, not a commercial DVD, and contained one movie with one AC3 stereo audio stream and no subtitles. I could play the mkv file and use the fast forward or reverse buttons, however there was no chapter support, and it won't remember where it stopped if you access the file again. You may not get chapter support or a resume feature for file playback with any Blu-Ray player. Blu-Ray players likely provide chapter support and resume playback only for actual DVD and Blu-Ray discs.

I don't know if all the features you want are are supported, but maybe you should be asking about a media player instead.

[hello_hello]

To follow up on usually_quiet's post, I've got an MKV I made myself from an Xvid video source and an AC3 audio file. Both are quite legal for MKV. I have yet to find any standalone players that can correctly play it. The best I've ever had happen is have the video play without sound. PCs can play it fine.

The video wasn't encoded using global motion compensation or some other non-supported encoder option was it?
I live in a different country, but the media players in the two TVs here (Sharp and Samsung) will both play MKVs containing Xvid/AC3, as will both the Sony and Samsung Bluray players.

[hello_hello]

Any suggestions for a Blu Ray player that does successfully play makemkv files?

Buying another Bluray player probably wouldn't be the best option considering you already have one. Standalone media players are pretty cheap, they'll play pretty much anything and they aren't bothered by Cinavia copy protection. Keep your current player for playing discs. I can't recommend one (although a friend has a WD player and she's quite happy with it) but there's models with and without internal hard drives, so your could connect you current drive to the media player, then HDMI out to the TV.