Timecode without mkvmerge

[liquidator87]

Can I set the timecode of a MKV without mkvmerge? For some reason it crashes when muxing a file, other muxers (like gdsmux or Haali Matroska Muxer) work well, but I cannot find how to change the framerate...

[liquidator87]

Nothing? Can't I set the framerate modifying the file with and hex editor somehow, for example?

[KoD]

There is no "framerate" stored somewhere in the container. Each frame has a timestamp that indicates when it should be displayed, that's why things like vfr are so easy to do in matroska: you are free to give each frame the timestamp you wish, such as the time interval between frame 1 and 2 is different from the interval between farme 2 and 3 which again can be different from the interval between frames 3 and 4.

When you say "I want to modify the framerate" you actually mean "I want to compute for each frame a timestamp, and even more I want the time interval between each frame to be constant". In other words, you want to remux the file, that's how you generate new timestamps for all the frames.

[liquidator87]

Ok, thanks so much for your answer... so, is there a way I can do this without mkvmerge? maybe is a simple thing, but I can't get it :(

[KoD]

You need a matroska muxer. And as such, you either use mkvmerge, or Haali's gdsmux utility (after installing Haali's splitter, look in the installation folder for it). It looks like after the Google Summer of Code there will be a (working) matroska muxer in mplayer as well.

But mkvmerge is the only tool I know of where you can specify a timecode file to be used for the streams that will be muxed.

[liquidator87]

But mkvmerge is the only tool I know of where you can specify a timecode file to be used for the streams that will be muxed.

D'oh!!! The only one that crash with my file

[DreckSoft]

Hm, a tool that only rewrites the timecodes would be great. I have several files (output from GDSMux) that are not seekable, maybe rewriting the timecodes would help.

Just remuxing with MKVToolnix doesn't help and when using a timecode file it crashes.

[foxyshadis]

Sounds more like the file headers are corrupt, try re-ripping or re-encoding.

There's no space reserved for missing timecodes, so it's not a matter of just hex editing them in, you really have to perform a full mux.

[liquidator87]

Sounds more like the file headers are corrupt, try re-ripping or re-encoding.

There's no space reserved for missing timecodes, so it's not a matter of just hex editing them in, you really have to perform a full mux.
Yes, h264 stream is probably not 100% error-free, but I think it's not FBR, cause the files (the original and the one remuxed with gdsmux) are perfectly playable

[DreckSoft]

MKVToolnix has problems with some H264 files using some strange (advanced?) features. For example it's unable to remux the H264 stream from the ConAir Blu-Ray. I think, we can assume a stream from a retail Blu-Ray to be error free.