Trouble w. MKV files

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jazzman161

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 6, 2004
Messages
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Hey all! So I've begun ripping my dvd collection into MKVs (via MakeMKV) and I've run into some snags. I can't get 7MC to display subtitles. This is a really huge issue when I'm trying to watch, say, House of Flying Daggers, since I don't know Mandarin! :D

I've installed FFDShow but I only see the "Audio" decoder load up in the taskbar when I try to play said file in 7MC. Right now when I load GraphStudio to show the flowchart of my splitters/decoders, it shows the video going to some Windows DTV-DVD Decoder.

Any help?


[I'm running Windows 7 (build 7100) x64. I had FFDShow and Gabest Splitter installed. I've since uninstalled all my decoders/splitters so I can start some scratch. Only VLC Player plays my MKVs for the time being]
 
jazzman161 said:
Hey all! So I've begun ripping my dvd collection into MKVs (via MakeMKV) and I've run into some snags. I can't get 7MC to display subtitles. This is a really huge issue when I'm trying to watch, say, House of Flying Daggers, since I don't know Mandarin! :D

I've installed FFDShow but I only see the "Audio" decoder load up in the taskbar when I try to play said file in 7MC. Right now when I load GraphStudio to show the flowchart of my splitters/decoders, it shows the video going to some Windows DTV-DVD Decoder.

Any help?


[I'm running Windows 7 (build 7100) x64. I had FFDShow and Gabest Splitter installed. I've since uninstalled all my decoders/splitters so I can start some scratch. Only VLC Player plays my MKVs for the time being]
Click to expand...

Have you run into any problems where some of the mkvs either won't play or will play but don't have audio or video? I've only done 4 movies so far (Fast & Furious, The Watchmen, Taken, and Valkyrie) and only The Watchmen has worked at all. I tested each file in vlc, media center, media player and mpc-hc. The Watchmen even streamed to my 360 extender without transcoding but the others had one of the two problems I described.
 
I have put almost 200 HD MKV files through my 7MC box's aswell as a plethora of other video formats and haven't had even a single issue playing a file. All I have installed (in addition to 7MC) is CoreAVC to do the h264 CUDA decoding and Haalis splitter. That's it.

The MS decoders take care of everything else.

The biggest issue most of us foresee with diagnosing people's 7MC issues is that people are going to do what they always have done and that is install unnecessary codec's and packs and screw everything up. People need to realize that when it comes to 7MC, less is more.

I was able to play most everything I could find on a stock 7MC install. Nothing else installed. I wanted GPU acceleration for my HD h264 media so I installed CoreAVC. That's all I did.

Everything plays perfectly now.

OP, you are using this to select ffdshow to be 7MC's preffered decoder correct? If not, how do you know its actually being used?
 
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You have to set ffdshow to be the preferred H.264 decoder (assuming that's what you're talking about.. mkv files are only containers) using this tool.
 
OK. Let me throw out some more info.

First off, I'm using this tutorial as my baseline (http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/02/mkvs-for-minimalists-on-windows-7.html)

I installed FFDShow and FFDShowx64 (rev. 3029 and 3024, respectively). I also uninstalled Gabest and installed an x64 version of Haali. I also ran the preferred decoder selector you guys linked and chose FFDShow for both 32-bit and 64-bit h.264 decoder. Everything else is left as Microsoft.

Now here's what's going on. House of Flying Daggers plays subtitles by default now (yeay?). However, I can't get subtitles to play in any other English-based film. Additionally, I can't change the audio tracks. For example, HoFD has the 5.1 Mandarin and English tracks. Paul Blart has 5.1 English and 2.0 Commentary tracks.

For HoFD, I see FFDShow Audio, Video, and Haali load up in the taskbar. For Paul Blart, only FFDShow Audio and Haali show up.

I've tried running Media Control as recommended by hack7mc but when I bring up the menu in WMC via shortcut and choose subtitle or audio streams, nothing happens? No change, nothing.

I guess my current questions/issues are, how do I switch subtitles on/off and switch audio tracks?

FYI - I'm currently testing all this on my main rig (dual monitor setup) so I run WMC on one monitor and view the taskbar on the other. Also, all subtitles are wrapped in the MKV container. There are no .srt or .sub files.
 
It seems my problem has been noted on the makemkv forum and is being worked on.

Check half way down this thread for one_love's post. He has some instructions that may work for you.
 
criccio - how'd you even get 7MC to recognize MKVs from a stock install? I just did a fresh install on one of my other rigs and 7MC looked right over all my MKVs.

I guess I'm going to hold off ripping anything til I can get the few movies I do have working 100%. I knew I was going to run into issues but damn! lol


edit:
sc385 - I've done what "one_love" has suggested but still can't get my situation resolved. FFDShow video encoder never shows up in the taskbar even when I set to use it. however, haali splitter does. If i right click on that icon, i can select the audio streams and they change. However, when i select the subtitle tracks, nothing happens. It changes in haali, but nothing changes in 7MC. Additionally, I'd rather keep all my menus/settings/changes within 7MC. I don't want to fiddle w. the mouse and minimizing 7MC to change settings when I get this fully functional. Is there a work around for this?
 
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jazzman161 said:
criccio - how'd you even get 7MC to recognize MKVs from a stock install? I just did a fresh install on one of my other rigs and 7MC looked right over all my MKVs.
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Ahh.. lol. Your question confused me for a moment then I realized I had installed Haalis first. You need a splitter such as Haalis, but then MKV's aren't an issue.


Here is a software list of everything installed on my 7MC HTPC. It is able to play everything under the sun.

-CoreAVC (for CUDA offloading of h264 material)
-Haalis Media Splitter (for proper MKV splitting)
-DirectVobSub (for subtitles in 7MC)
-7MC DirectShow Filter Tool (for selcting CoreAVC instead of the default 7 filters) - IMPORTANT

Thats it. On a fresh 7 32bit install, with just those things installed, everything will play without a hitch.
 
OK that makes a little more sense. Thanks!

I'll give that a shot once I get rid of everything I've installed. Can you control everything through a remote once its all setup? (i.e., change audio tracks/subtitles) WITHOUT having to find mouse around and right click and mess w. icons in the taskbar?
 
Not that I know of.

To be honest I don't use subtitle's unless its some random foreign film I'm watching. That isn't often. If that is the case I strip out all but the English sub track.
 
Well the good news is using criccio's setup, I was able to play all my files. I could even select the audio streams and subtitles on/off/commentary/etc. The bad news was all the selections had to be done outside of 7MC via the icons on the taskbar.

I can't imagine this is how everybody operates their HTPC? Isn't there a another front-end gui or plug-in that lets me change all my settings from within the program?
 
jazzman161 said:
Well the good news is using criccio's setup, I was able to play all my files. I could even select the audio streams and subtitles on/off/commentary/etc. The bad news was all the selections had to be done outside of 7MC via the icons on the taskbar.

I can't imagine this is how everybody operates their HTPC? Isn't there a another front-end gui or plug-in that lets me change all my settings from within the program?
Click to expand...

Yea, but not 7MC.

Check out XBMC or MediaPortal.

XMBC is easy to setup and uses all its own internal codec's to play everything. No extra software needed.

Downside is its all software so no HW acceleration.

MediaPortal is just confusing to setup IMO.

Good luck!
 
jazzman161 said:
Well the good news is using criccio's setup, I was able to play all my files. I could even select the audio streams and subtitles on/off/commentary/etc. The bad news was all the selections had to be done outside of 7MC via the icons on the taskbar.

I can't imagine this is how everybody operates their HTPC? Isn't there a another front-end gui or plug-in that lets me change all my settings from within the program?
Click to expand...

You could try the MediaControl plugin. I could never get it to work, but some people swear by it, especially anime fans with custom .srt files.

http://damienbt.free.fr/
 
Another thing slipped my mind and that is DTS audio decoding. My HTPC is using S/PDIF out to a receiver so I never worried about DTS decoding. The built in 7MC decoders take care of AC3 (DD) but for DTS you will need ffdshow if you aren't using a receiver.
 
Thanks FromTheLou for that link. I've already got MP up and running (and so far I like it) but this guide will help me double-check some items.
 
Question for those of you who are further along on this process than myself. Currently I'm backing up my DVDs via MakeMKV and everything is hunky dory. In the future, if/when I back up hi-def content (HD/BR), I know I'll need to rip the TrueHD/DTS-HD streams to FLAC to keep that intact. Should I just begin that process now w. my DVDs? Strip out the audio from the MKV and convert to FLAC? That way I've got all videos in MKV (regardless if SD or HD) and all audios in FLAC.

What do you experts out there recommend? Thanks!
 
No, you shouldn't be doing DVD audio to FLAC because that'd be going from lossy -> lossless, which not only isn't truely 100% lossless (because lossy sources have no bitdepth) but would also result in a larger file size. The only time you want to go with FLAC is if your audio is lossless to begin with.
 
criccio said:
I wanted GPU acceleration for my HD h264 media so I installed CoreAVC. That's all I did.
Click to expand...

Speaking of unnecessary codecs... Windows 7's built in codecs support H.264 GPU acceleration so CoreAVC is rather pointless. Why does no one know this? It has been widely advertised.
 
Snowknight26 said:
No, you shouldn't be doing DVD audio to FLAC because that'd be going from lossy -> lossless, which not only isn't truely 100% lossless (because lossy sources have no bitdepth) but would also result in a larger file size. The only time you want to go with FLAC is if your audio is lossless to begin with.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Just what I need to know!

When I get my HTPC up and running, will all the audio run through hdmi or will I need to setup spdif for DD/DTS and hdmi for the lossless HD audio?
 
As long as you have your default audio device set to HDMI, all audio will go through it regardless of format (as it will most likely be decoded by whatever software you're using beforehand/as long as its within the bitrate limit of the device).
 
gtg465x said:
Speaking of unnecessary codecs... Windows 7's built in codecs support H.264 GPU acceleration so CoreAVC is rather pointless. Why does no one know this? It has been widely advertised.
Click to expand...

Not for CUDA acceleration. The built in decoder can't handle lvl5.1 encodes.
 
gtg465x said:
Speaking of unnecessary codecs... Windows 7's built in codecs support H.264 GPU acceleration so CoreAVC is rather pointless. Why does no one know this? It has been widely advertised.
Click to expand...
Try playing back L5.1@16ref and get back to us... ;)
 
w1retap said:
Try playing back L5.1@16ref and get back to us... ;)
Click to expand...

Funny you should say that because at 16 refs, CoreAVC falls back to software mode. I'm surprised you haven't tested it.

Point being, all H.264 Blu-rays and content that can be played on standalones has to support L4.1 for HD (3.0 for SD). If you're somehow getting content that's out of spec, that's your own fault. Consider the ability to play content with more reference frames @ a certain resolution an added bonus.
 
criccio said:
Not for CUDA acceleration. The built in decoder can't handle lvl5.1 encodes.
Click to expand...

w1retap said:
Try playing back L5.1@16ref and get back to us... ;)
Click to expand...

Why and where are you guys getting L5.1 encodes? Blu-ray movies are encoded at level 4.1, so anyone re-encoding them at 5.1 is an idiot. I've personally never come across a 5.1 encode.
 
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gtg465x said:
Why and where are you guys getting L5.1 encodes? Blu-ray movies are encoded at level 4.1, so anyone re-encoding them at 5.1 is an idiot. I've personally never come across a 5.1 encode.
Click to expand...

lol...
 
Snowknight26 said:
Funny you should say that because at 16 refs, CoreAVC falls back to software mode. I'm surprised you haven't tested it.

Point being, all H.264 Blu-rays and content that can be played on standalones has to support L4.1 for HD (3.0 for SD). If you're somehow getting content that's out of spec, that's your own fault. Consider the ability to play content with more reference frames @ a certain resolution an added bonus.
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No, the green tray icon definitely lights up and hardware acceleration is used, CPU usage under 15%. 32-bit W7, CoreAVC 1.9.5.0. w/ latest nvidia drivers. I have several test clips I use to confirm.

gtg465x said:
Why and where are you guys getting L5.1 encodes? Blu-ray movies are encoded at level 4.1, so anyone re-encoding them at 5.1 is an idiot. I've personally never come across a 5.1 encode.
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lol.gif


StarTrekFacePalm.gif
 
Um... good job of answering my question guys... or is it that you don't really know?
 
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Wow, I didn't know I was speaking with 2 year olds here. Either explain why you think it's better to encode at level 5.1 or admit that you're wrong.
 
Let me ask you something. How much BD re-encoding do you do? Do you know what x264 is? Do you really know how to use it? (command line, not a gui)

Educate yourself then come back. If you can't tell, we are laughing at you here, lol.
 
I do quite a bit of BD re-encoding, and of course I know what x264 is. Granted, I never felt the need to research x264 command line options when there are programs like RipBot to save me the effort. I realize that you're laughing at me, but how about we have an educated discussion and you explain what I'm failing to understand.
 
gtg465x said:
I do quite a bit of BD re-encoding, and of course I know what x264 is. Granted, I never felt the need to research x264 command line options when there are programs like RipBot to save me the effort. I realize that you're laughing at me, but how about we have an educated discussion and you explain what I'm failing to understand.
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You should probably start here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264

They have a nice table you can look at with the profiles and you'll realize why you'd want to use L5.1 video with certain movies when you re-encode.
 
The main difference I see between L4.1 and L5.1 is the max bit rate and resolution supported, but the bit rate and resolution of Blu-ray movies doesn't exceed what L4.1 supports, so why would you set your BD encodes to L5.1 and break compatibility with virtually everything?

Everything I've ever read has said L5.1 is pointless unless you have a video that exceeds the maximum supported bit rate and/or resolution of L4.1, which Blu-ray movies do not.

Are you guys just being dense for fun? End of discussion for me. You leave me no option but to assume you just don't know what you're talking about since you won't back up your stance with facts.
 
gtg465x said:
The main difference I see between L4.1 and L5.1 is the max bit rate and resolution supported, but the bit rate and resolution of Blu-ray movies doesn't exceed what L4.1 supports, so why would you set your BD encodes to L5.1 and break compatibility with virtually everything?

Everything I've ever read has said L5.1 is pointless unless you have a video that exceeds the maximum supported bit rate and/or resolution of L4.1, which Blu-ray movies do not.

Are you guys just being dense for fun? End of discussion for me. You leave me no option but to assume you just don't know what you're talking about since you won't back up your stance with facts.
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lol..

If everything you've ever read said it's pointless, everything you've read is wrong.

If you're going to just slander us for your own lack of knowledge and unwillingness to read guides which tell you exactly why and when to use those profiles, then keep being ignorant and keeping yourself in the dark. This isn't the place to discuss h264 encoding basics.
 
I'm not unwilling to read guides. Like I JUST said, I've read plenty and they don't agree with you. Please link me to a guide that contains the answer and I'll read it. Or better yet, just tell me. It makes no sense to me that you won't just tell me... you could have ended the discussion immediately (assuming you do actually know what you're talking about). Forums are a place to learn... what's the point of asking questions in forums if everyone is just going to say figure it out yourself?
 
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