MPC-HC won't play some mkv files

[pequickit]

Hi folks... All of a sudden MPC-HC refused to play some Matroska mkv files on my Windows XP SP3 system, while playing others with no problems.

Just before I noticed the problem, I had been having problems frameserving an avs script to TMPGEnc Xpress in order to process a Matroska video.

I installed Avisynth to to see if it would help. But I forgot that AutoGK had already installed and older copy of Avisynth, and that TMPGEnc had already been processing avs files properly.

I ended up uninstalling them all, and reinstalling them, MPC-HC first, then AutoGK (w/Avisynth), and TMPGEnc Xpress.

But TMPGEnc Xpress still wouldn't load the avs script that it's been loading without problems in the past.

I ended up fixing TMPGEnc Xpress by installing the latest Haalli (Matroska) Spiltter. That's when I discovered that MPC-HC wasn't playing the mkv file anymore.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled the latest copy of MPC-HC, but to no avail.

I notice that GSpot reports a group of MPC splitters on my Windows 7 system:

* MPC - Matroska Splitter (babgvant)
* MPC - MP4 Splitter
* MPC - MPEG4 Video Splitter
As well as:
* Haali Media Splitter

GSpot reports the Haali splitter in Windows XP, but none of the MPC splitters that it reports in Windows 7

I'm looking at the properties for the mkv file that plays, and the one for the mkv that loads to a black screen and doesn't play.

The only major difference I can see are the versions of the writing library, and the Format profile, High@L5.1 vs High@L4.1.

mkv that plays:

General:
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.0.2 ('You're My Flame') built on Feb 21 2007 23:40:55
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1


Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 16 frames
Muxing mode : Container profile=Unknown@5.1
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 46mn 27s
Bit rate : 943 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Original display aspect ratio : 5:4
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.091
Stream size : 306 MiB (87%)
Title : S02E13
Writing library : x264 core 55 svn-663C

mkv that doesn't play:

General
Writing application : mkvmerge v4.4.0 ('Die Wiederkehr') built on Oct 31 2010 21:52:48
Writing library : libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 10 frames
Muxing mode : Container profile=Unknown@4.1
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 7mn
Bit rate : 4 750 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 536 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.35:1
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.289
Stream size : 2.25 GiB (94%)
Title : 720p @ x264, High Profile; CRF@16.0
Writing library : x264 core 107 r1766 f9f0035


Am I barking up the wrong tree here?

Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
PQ

[setarip_old]

Hi!mkv that doesn't play:

Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 536 pixels Perhaps the non-standard "Height" has something to do with it.

Why did you use height of 536 when you originally created the file?

[pequickit]

Hi!Perhaps the non-standard "Height" has something to do with it.
Thanks for your feedback... This was the 2nd time I posted a problem on these forums, and never get any feedback. Yours is the 1st.

It's not an aspect ratio problem. All my other Matroska mkv videos had the same problem. I never figured out what the problem was, but I did finally get MPC to play mkv files by changing the DirectShow output setting over to 'Overlay Mixer'.

PQ

[sneaker_ger]

A problem with DXVA?
First file might have fallen back to software, because of either SD resolution and/or having 16 reference frames and/or level check. Overlay Mixer does not support DXVA and would thus always fall back to software. I don't have XP running and I do not know MPC-HC's DXVA limitations on that system, though.

[setarip_old]

PLAYS "mkvmerge v2.0.2 ('You're My Flame') built on Feb 21 2007 23:40:55"

DOESN'T PLAY "mkvmerge v4.4.0 ('Die Wiederkehr') built on Oct 31 2010 21:52:48"

1) Why the tremendous age disparity between the versions of mkvmerge used for your two examples?

2) Did you use the compression feature of mkvmerge?

[sneaker_ger]

2) Did you use the compression feature of mkvmerge? [/Color]

Shouldn't matter, as neither Haali nor MPC have any problems handling header removal compression. Only DivX could break things AFAIK.

[pequickit]

I didn't encode those files setarip_old. I'm not quite sure if you're suggesting something in particular to look into here sneaker_ger.

Researching DXVA and MPC-HC, I found this information (http://imouto.my/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/) that, under the checklist there, requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4 for "Watching H.264 videos using DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA)"

It isn't loaded now, and to my knowledge wasn't loaded into XP back before the problem with MPC-HC not playing Matroska files.

PQ

[sneaker_ger]

The framework is only needed for EVR renderer, but DXVA can be utilized by using VMR9 under Windows XP. If you want to make sure that DXVA is not used by MPC-HC go into "Options" > "Internal Filters" and untick "H.264/AVC (DXVA)".

[mindbomb]

are you sure you didn't mix up the file that plays and doesn't play?

cause it would make a lot more sense in reverse.

[pequickit]

Thanks for trying to help me figure out what happened here folks. But since I do have MPC playing mkv files in my XP system now, at this point I really need more help figuring out how to get TMPGEnc Xpress to load and edit mkv files in a Windows 7 x64 system I just set up.

I've started a new topic in the Newbies forum (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1476814#post1476814) here if anyone following this thread can help me out.

Thanks
TS