matroska playback trouble on Win98 ?

[ChristianHJW]

Hi folks,

Liisachan was pointing me to the fact that there are problems with the latest matroska splitter filters on Win98 ? She is of the opinion that this categorizes the complete matroska project in beta status. Can anybody confirm this ?

Sorry if i dont head testing myself, i swear no 9x derivate will ever touch any of my computers HDDs again, as long as i live .... but of course, i am well aware of the fact that many user are stuck with 9x, so we need to get that going in any case.

Thanks for helping us out ....

Christian

[thoralf]

Hi there,

I just wanted to give it a go on a relatively fresh install of win98se. Here are the results:
I was not able to register the latest vsfilter (running "regsvr32 VSFilter.ax" resulted in the error message 'LoadLibrary ("VSFilter.ax") failed. GetLastError returns 0x00000485'). The same happened with vsfilter_20031208.zip (seems to be the same binary).
vsshort-mp3.mkv (from http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/samples/) without subs played fine with mplayer2.exe (I renamed the mkv to avi).

Filters used according to mplayer2:
NeroDigitalDecoder
mp3Decoder

and obviously

matroskasplitter_20040111-2.zip

So that worked fine.

[ChristianHJW]

You are aware you have to install the non-unicode version on Win98 ?

[Liisachan]

This is what how things are in my tests on Win98se english ver.

MatroskaSplitter 1.0.1.5 OR MatroskaPack 0.5 ---- Fine :)
MatroskaSplitter 1.0.1.6+ OR MatroskaPack 0.6+ -- no go :(
Media Player Classic (any ver) for Win 98 ------- Fine :)
* Outer Filters = Non-unicode build


I tested on a very clean-installed win98 + DX on VMWare.
Since the internal filters in MPC are OK, and since 1.0.1.5 is OK too,
I'm guessing there's some potential, unknown problem for Win98 + newer outer filters. If you dont use outer filters, MPC will be just more than satisfactory, so no practical prob, but if i m not wrong, MatroskaPack 0.6 1.0 1.01 doesnt work for WIn98+WMP for instance.

this might be my misunderstanding, but........:confused: :confused: :confused:

[thoralf]

Originally posted by ChristianHJW
You are aware you have to install the non-unicode version on Win98 ?

Yes, I tried to register this version

[dcoder]

Originally posted by thoralf
GetLastError returns 0x00000485

0x00000485 means that a dll is missing. dunno what VC Version was used to compile it, but make sure you have the Visual C 6.0, 7.0 and 7.1 runtimes installed. eg: msvcr71.dll for VisualC 7.1 ...

[thoralf]

0x00000485 means that a dll is missing. dunno what VC Version was used to compile it, but make sure you have the Visual C 6.0, 7.0 and 7.1 runtimes installed. eg: msvcr71.dll for VisualC 7.1 ...

doesn't that contradict the idea of having an user-friendly filter? It's worse enough that they come without a decent installer ... Joe Burger certainly does not have a C runtime installed on his system, i suppose.

[mikeX]

I think testing on vmware isn't that reliable!
I don't know the status of the current vmware version but IIRC i found it's support for win98 a bit disappointing on 4.0.2

[Liisachan]

Originally posted by mikeX
I think testing on vmware isn't that reliable!
I don't know the status of the current vmware version but IIRC i found it's support for win98 a bit disappointing on 4.0.2

OK, that's actually what I'm thinking about too. I'm going to test on a real win98 asap.

SO you are ok with the newest filters (like in pack 1.0) on win98?
Thanx for you advice anyway :)

[After the Test]
I was wrong and almost everything works fine on a "real" Win 98.
Basically these files play fine on Win 98 + Pack 1.0.1 + Mplayer2
* MKV with Vorbis / SSA softsub
* MKV with IDX+SUB (VobSub) softsub
* MKV with AAC
* MKV with FLAC
* MKV with RV9/10 + RAAC
In short, almost everything!

Some minor possible problems with the Pack 1.0.1 are---
* Seemingly, the included ffdshow can't decode some of XviD, altho older version of ffdshow does work if you install it separately
* The realmediasplitter is old: as a result, RV9/10 + RAAC file does'nt play if it is in .rmvb (This is not a Matroska's problem: they play fine if in MKV container. However, with a newer splitter, even .rmvb files can be played via DirectShow without problems)

[Conclusion]
ChristianHJW, I'm so sorry to confuse you with a false accusation about the recent codec packs, especially about Gabest's great Splitters. I should have tested them on a real win98, not on VMWare.:( I trusted VMWare too much because it works nicely with the Pack v0.5.:( You know,,,, vmware is convenient to do cross-platform tests, and I was too lazy,,,,,, Well, no wonder I'm the author of those Lazy Man's Guides (http://ld-anime.faireal.net/guide/mkv)^^;;
which should be updated now asap

I promise here that I will never say Matroska is not reliable because win98 is not fully supported, now that Ive realized even the newest A_FLAC does work on Win98.
I'm embarrassed to realize that i was deluded by vmware, but the bottom line is, I m happy to know now that Matroska works even on older Windows OS. :)

Thanks again, mikeX, for the critical tip!
:)

[ChristianHJW]

Originally posted by Liisachan
ChristianHJW, I'm so sorry to confuse you with a false accusation about the recent codec packs, especially about Gabest's great Splitters. I should have tested them on a real win98, not on VMWare.:(

I promise here that I will never say Matroska is not reliable because win98 is not fully supported, now that Ive realized even the newest A_FLAC does work on Win98.

No need to apologize for anything Liisachan, you are by far our most precious tester and helped the project a lot already, so we are more than glad that you actually do tests like this.

My only problem was that we didnt get any other error reports from Win9x users, so we had no idea where to search for the problem, if there was any. I am sooo glad we finally know it does work fine with current installer packs ..... and 1.0.2 is on the way :) .....

[mikeX]

i haven't tested much under win98 yet, i have it installed but it's abandoned at the moment.. i was thinking of letting it go after a little repartitioning i'm planning, and use vmware if i ever need it, but since some early testing of vmware gave me problems with it, and since Liisachan also verifies problems with vmware and win98 i'll leave some space for it...
if i find the time i'll set them up and test matroska and mplayer classic (which seems to fail miserably on my abandoned win98se installation)

don't be too harsh on yourself Liisachan, as you see your testing is greatly appreciated, regardless of some unfortunate mishaps!

i have to say though, that this failure with vmware could indicate a potential problem under certain circumstances (in case that it's not a vmware emulation bug, but an actual problem in the hardware that vmware emulates...)

since there are no other failure reports at the moment i think it's probably a vmware bug though...

[cweb]

I'm using Matroska under win98 (1st ed) - usually with XviD video and vorbis audio (or mp3) and DX9. No subs etc.

I've had no problems (except some video lockups which I'm sure have nothing to do with Matroska - I've reinstalled windows because of that too...) so far.