Encoded 15.0 Mb/s MPEG2 video does not play nice on my PC with VLC

[Mark1980]

A little background -- I'm encoding VHS footage captured at 720 x 480 (using Lagarith Codec) to a 15,000kbps video, 384k audio MPEG-2 file, mainly to archive family home video footage and for viewing on my Plex media server with the native interlacing intact.

When I try to play the resulting MPG file back on my desktop computer in any media player there are issues -- VLC plays the video for a few seconds and then the video stops moving and the audio continues to play but with glitches, lots of stutter and breaks. Playing the file (no transcoding, direct stream) on my Roku via Plex -- plays just fine.

If I use MKVToolNix to multiplex the MPEG2 file into an MKV container, it plays just fine on my PC; also plays just fine on Plex. This struck me as really curious as to why this would play fine on my PC.

Just as a note, I have hundreds of other DVD resolution, DVD bitrate captures that play just fine on my PC as is -- the issue just seems to be with these higher than DVD spec files I'm creating.

I guess my main question/concern is whether or not I'm creating some non-standard MPEG2 video files that will not reliably play across devices or if there's just something wrong with the way my computer is setup to decode MPEG2 files on my PC for these higher-bitrate files?

Here is the media info for one of the files:

General
Complete name : P:\Test.mpg
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 9.04 GiB
Duration : 1 h 22 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 15.6 Mb/s
Writing library : (dvd5: Oct 27 2015)

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@High
Format settings : BVOP
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Format settings, GOP : Variable
Format settings, picture structure : Frame
Duration : 1 h 22 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 15.0 Mb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 1.448
Time code of first frame : 00:00:00:00
Time code source : Group of pictures header
GOP, Open/Closed : Open
GOP, Open/Closed of first frame : Closed
Stream size : 8.64 GiB (96%)
Writing library : (dvd5: Oct 27 2015)

Audio
ID : 189 (0xBD)-128 (0x80)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Muxing mode : DVD-Video
Duration : 1 h 22 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 228 MiB (2%)
Service kind : Complete Main


Thanks in advance!

[DB83]

It could be the muxing since 15mbs is beyond the dvd spec

[TimA-C]

Hi Mark,

What device and software did you use to capture the video? Have you done any editing and/or processing to the video? In the various software players, have you tried turning on/off any hardware support? Is the software and the graphics drivers all up to date? Do you get the same issues with VLC both when playing full screen and when in a window at 100%?

Just to clarify, are these files held locally on the desktop PC that you're trying to use VLC to play them or are they coming over a network? If network, then wired, wifi or powerline? Just wondering if maybe it's a network issue with the higher bitrate?

[Mark1980]

Thanks for your responses guys! I think I actually figured it out -- it looks like the issue is being caused by the MPEG2 Profile Level. I switched from using Main@High to Main@Main and encoded several test clips from their uncompressed originals and it seems to have resolved the issue.

Is there a way to change the Profile level for the videos I have already encoded at Main@High in the metadata without introducing a re-encode?

Thanks!

[El Heggunte]

Question:

Writing library : (dvd5: Oct 27 2015)

¿what is that? I had never heard of it so far.

[DB83]

Don't think so.


I just noticed a line in the mediainfo report 'GOP variable' so that could be a result of the encoding/muxing. GOPs AFAIK should be of fixed size. So if the profile change requires that GOP change then there has to be a re-encode.

[Mark1980]

Question:

Writing library : (dvd5: Oct 27 2015)

¿what is that?

That's a good question, what does that indicate and what might that be coming from, the encoder?

[TimA-C]

Something like VideoRedo *might* be able to help? Not free but . . . They also have a pretty decent forum that's supported by the developers. (Or, at least, it used to be. I haven't been active over there for the past few years.) It might be worth asking the question there?