Alternative Matroska Splitter (Haali)

[madshi]

Does anyone know if there has been any progress made on the MKV hardware acceleration problem?
See also this thread http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=129522
So far what I have been reading is that it is not sure if this is caused by Cyberlink, or the Haali splitter. Maybe Haali can say something about this?
There is no MKV hardware acceleration problem, as far as I can say. There is a problem with hardware acceleration of x264 encoded video streams. But that's a problem between x264 and hardware acceleration. MKV has nothing to do with it. Hardware acceleration generally works just fine with MKV and h264 content. E.g. all h264 HD DVDs, Blu-Rays and all European h264 HDTV broadcasts are all being hardware acclerated without any problem, no matter if they are in TS or in MKV.

[gdb66]

If it has nothing to do with the MKV container, then how is it possible that when you put the same x264 stream into an AVI container, the problems disappear?

[madshi]

If it has nothing to do with the MKV container, then how is it possible that when you put the same x264 stream into an AVI container, the problems disappear?
Is that so? That's certainly news to me.

[Demone]

Apparently they are two distinct problems:

mkv + x264 that play choppy (framerate is forced at 20fps)
mkv + x264 that show black screen (ppl say they are only 1080 but I have some 720 showing that problem too)

The first is solved by placing the x264 inside avi using mkv2vfw (so I think its Haali stuff)
The second problem is for now unsolved and it seems that its a particular setting of bframes in the x264 encoder fault.

If anyone has any news I'm all listening

[KoD]

Maybe option number three or four:

3. the Cyberlink H264 decoder (you are speaking of it, right ?) may not be able to properly interpret h264 streams not stored in the vfw way; h264 in mp4 and mkv is usually stored in native format; h264 stored in avi might be something that it knows what to do with, just like vc-1 in avi is also something that microsoft's vc-1 decoder knows how to handle (with all the b-frames issues and whatnot);

4. you are hitting a video driver & hardware capabilities wall; For the n-th time... hardware chips are made to handle only a limited number and combination of the features h264 streams can make use of. Silicon waffer space costs money and you only use as much area on the waffer as is required to support the specs you agreed on, nothing more. Unless you work for the departments in ATi/AMD or NVIDIA that designed the chip logic, your guess is as good as mine on what exactly the limits for these specific implementations are. I just have to look at the poor state of affairs with wmv acceleration on the graphic cards from those two companies in the past - it either works or not, depending on the wmv stream they are fed with.

[Demone]

@KoD
I dont understand at all your other two options.
I told that actually there are two and only two kind of problems feeding h264 steams into dxva and only with x264 type
Sure its that x264 is doing something that cyberlink and/or dxva cant handle

[madshi]

@Haali, I'm sorry for bugging you. But I have two questions, maybe you can answer them, if you find a free minute:

(1) What exactly is the technical reason why Haali Splitter -> Haali MKV Muxer fails to work on h264 EVO/m2ts movies? I mean it works perfectly fine on h264 broadcasts. So why does it fail on EVO/m2ts files? Obviously there must be some kind of difference?

(2) Is there anything I can help with to get muxing for h264 EVO/m2ts movies working? I'm a developer myself, so if I can help somehow, just let me know, please. (Don't really like C++, though, but anyway...)

The reason why I'm asking is that I've not found any software which is able to remux h264 EVO/m2ts files reliably to MKV. Ok, demuxing the h264 raw data and remuxing it with mp4box/creator works for some movies, but audio sync is totally destroyed for some movies. So it's not really a usable solution.

[honai]

@madshi

Are you refering to the bug that is caused by (non-standard) changing sequence headers mid-stream? If so, mkvmerge has this fixed a few weeks ago. As it's non-standard, Haali Splitter's behavior is correct because the sequence header is parsed and written only once, which of course fails for most AVC EVO/m2ts streams from commercial disks.

Perhaps you could team up with mosu to provide a patch, but I'm not sure if the source code of Haali's work is publicly available. Actually, the fix is quite simple: Just disable the stripping of subsequent sequence headers after the first one, CoreAVC has no problem playing back the resulting stream.

[madshi]

Are you refering to the bug that is caused by (non-standard) changing sequence headers mid-stream?
I've no idea. I can only state that remuxing h264 EVO/m2ts movies to MKV by using the Haali filters doesn't work. I don't why it doesn't work.

If so, mkvmerge has this fixed a few weeks ago. As it's non-standard, Haali Splitter's behavior is correct because the sequence header is parsed and written only once, which of course fails for most AVC EVO/m2ts streams from commercial disks.
Why "which of course fails"? What do you mean with that? Do h264 EVO/m2ts streams have multiple sequence headers? And do you think this causes the Haali MKV Muxer to fail?

Perhaps you could team up with mosu to provide a patch, but I'm not sure if the source code of Haali's work is publicly available.
It's not publically available, AFAIK.

[honai]

What do you mean with that? Do h264 EVO/m2ts streams have multiple sequence headers?

Yes, e.g. Pirates of the Caribbean 1-2 Blu-ray. Sequence header changes after the studio logo, which indicates that the logo and main feature were encoded with different parameters and just joined for the disc.

And do you think this causes the Haali MKV Muxer to fail?

Yes. If you open the graphical bitrate dialog from the systray you'll see that muxing stalls about a minute into the movie, i.e. after the studio logo.

And mosu wrote in the other thread that initially he modelled his AVC muxing after Haali's work, so most likely both suffer from the same "bug" (and mosu since "fixed" it, i.e. turned off sequence header stripping).

[madshi]

That sounds interesting - thanks!

@Haali, what do you think?

[chros]

I'm a developer myself, so if I can help somehow, just let me know, please. (Don't really like C++, though, but anyway...)
If you would like to develop an mkv splitter, see Gabest's mkv splitter (in MPC), it's opensource. And always better to have 2 splitters rather than have only 1 ... :)
You can ask clsid to add you to the Guliverkli2 project ...

[madshi]

If you would like to develop an mkv splitter, see Gabest's mkv splitter (in MPC), it's opensource. And always better to have 2 splitters rather than have only 1 ... :)
You can ask clsid to add you to the Guliverkli2 project ...
I'm not sure if the problem is the splitter or the muxer. What help would it be to write a new splitter if Haali's muxer is the problem? I've already tried using different splitters (Sonic, Nero) to feed Haali's muxer with h264 Blu-Ray/HD DVD content, but that didn't work out, either. So I suspect that the muxer is the problem. Not really sure, though.

[LeMoi]

I'm on Windows Vista, I enabled Shell extension and thumbnails extraction in Haali Splitter settings but it doesn't work, there's not 'Media' tab and no thumbnails for mkv files :s.
I rebooted several times, didn't change anything. Am i missing something ?

[Tima]

Under WinXP MPC crashes then trying to open any IFO or VOB file with Haali Renderer. When switching to VMR9, it plays ok.

[IanD]

Would it be possible to modify Haali's splitter to remove the pulldown flags from EVO files?

Unfortunately the WMV9 decoder honours the pulldown flags in VC-1 content and won't display 24fps source as 24fps.

Currently I'm unable to decode VC-1 content and display at 72Hz because both PowerDVD and WMV9 decoder apply pulldown.

[zambelli]

Are you sure the WMV9 decoder honors VC-1 pulldown flags? Or is perhaps the EVO parser setting the framerate to 29.97 fps?

[IanD]

Are you sure the WMV9 decoder honors VC-1 pulldown flags? Or is perhaps the EVO parser setting the framerate to 29.97 fps?
I'm not sure what is going on.

There isn't an EVO parser per se in the filtergraph: only Haali simple splitter, WMV9 decoder and VMR renderer (or overlay mixer 2 plus renderer).

I did read somewhere that the WMV9 decoder honors flags; the WMV9 decoder properties say something about interlaced bob output and I haven't found any methods to influence that; and the renderer or some other element late in the filter chain mentions 29.97fps.

Coupled with motion not being completely smooth when displayed at 72Hz progressive, I suspected that something is resulting in decoding of 24fps source to 29.97fps and I wish I could stop that.

[madshi]

I'm not sure what is going on.

There isn't an EVO parser per se in the filtergraph: only Haali simple splitter, WMV9 decoder and VMR renderer (or overlay mixer 2 plus renderer).

I did read somewhere that the WMV9 decoder honors flags; the WMV9 decoder properties say something about interlaced bob output and I haven't found any methods to influence that; and the renderer or some other element late in the filter chain mentions 29.97fps.

Coupled with motion not being completely smooth when displayed at 72Hz progressive, I suspected that something is resulting in decoding of 24fps source to 29.97fps and I wish I could stop that.
You can remux to MKV (with Haali's filters) and then you can rewrite the timestamps to 23.976 (with mkvtoolnix). Works great here.

[ACrowley]

yes..or he can completely remove the Pulldown with vc1conv ( before muxing)

[GmorG McRoth]

Hurray for new version :D

18/11/2007

* New Features:
o Removed Win9x support
o Enabled autoloading fonts by default
o Added support for writing zlib compressed mov headers
o Added an option to write smaller but less compatile files in gdsmux, this behaviour was always on previously
* Fixed items:
o Use ACM codec id 0x50 for MPEG-1 layer 1/2 audio
o Fixed detection of MPEG-1 audio channel count
o Various bugfixes in gdsmux
o Eliminated a deadlock in video renderer
o Fixed H.264 muxing
o Fixed parsing of zlib compressed mp4/mov headers

http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/

[Thunderbolt8]

awsome, thanks!

what exactly is fixed now by H.264 muxing?

[oddball]

I am having problems with the Haali splitter. I have a 1080P MKV x264 encoded in non-spec options. When using Haali's splitter the audio and video goes out of sync (Audio comes BEFORE the video). When I uninstall Haali and use KMPlayer's inbuilt splitter it plays just fine. I have the latest Haali version and also tried in Zoom Player and MPC and have the same problem. At present this is not a BIG issue as I am using the KMPlayer splitter instead but just thought I would drop in and post this problem for anyone else who may be experiencing a similar issue.

[madshi]

http://madshi.net/icon_crazy.gif

Is xmas early this year?

A very big THANK YOU to Haali. This is a most appreciated new build. Why? Because I can finally mux my h264 HD DVD and Blu-Ray movies to MKV with ease and seemingly perfect results. I've just tested it with Equilibrium which no other software could properly remux to MKV (or MP4 or AVI). With the latest Haali version it works just fine and the results seem to be perfect, as far as I can say after a quick check. Need to do some more testing. But first impression is very good.

I'm happy...

http://madshi.net/icon_blueBalloon.gifhttp://madshi.net/icon_redBalloon.gifhttp://madshi.net/icon_greenBalloon.gif

[Thunderbolt8]

what was the difficulty before with h264? you could always just demux the stream and put it in mkvmerge directly.

[madshi]

what was the difficulty before with h264? you could always just demux the stream and put it in mkvmerge directly.
That worked only for some movies, not for all. E.g. try remuxing Equilibrium that way. You'll totally lose audio sync with practically no chance to get it back. Haali's filters are the safest bet for h264 MKV muxing - they've always been (for h264 broadcast TS -> MKV remuxing they are the most reliable solution, too).

[nautilus7]

Would you tell me what is the procedure to mux a bluray/hddvd to mkv? I don't know how... :o

[DeepBeepMeep]

Thanks ! Good to see a new release.

However, I haven't noticed much improvement. I have tried to remux a couple of bluray avc files and I have the following issues although the mkv file can be played: fps set incorrectly to 25fps, seeking is impossible, unable to change the time codes to 23.974 using mkvtoolnix.

Remux a m2ts file with a DTS track seems to work though. Moreover the issues I have reported on some EVO file are still there.

Keep on the good work! hopefully you can fix these last problems.

[Rectal Prolapse]

Nice Haali! I hope you got the above mentioned lingering problems and the LPCM audio channel mapping problem from m2ts fixed soon. :D

Great work!

[Jor-El]

Feature request for Haali:

I'm able to use the Haali Media Splitter to open .divx files (renamed to avi) with multiple audio tracks and subtitles, produced by divxmux (even a 4Gb-avi), using latest ffdshow, Xvid for encoding and zoomplayer for viewing. I prefer this method because the divx player is very basic and the divx demuxer crash zoomplayer.

Of course the menu and the xsubs in the avi don't work. The subtitles are selectable but there's no render at the moment (maybe ffdshow or vsfilter in the future?). I can live without the menu and I can have external SSA subtitles rendered by vsfilter.

The problem is with the track names. Divx uses a strange notation to code the language and the description of the stream. It works in a DVD player and in the divx player.

The notation is as follows:

streamType [– [languageTag[-countryTag]];typeTag]

Example:

Audio - en-us;03

In the divx player and my stand-alone, that string becomes:

English Director Commentary

But in Haali splitter, the string is exactly the "Audio - en-us;03" which is located in the strn tag of the avi header.

¿Is it possible to convert the divx string to something like "A: Director Commentary (English)" as with matroska language codes and names?

That could make Haali splitter a complete replacement of the divx demuxer (along with a proper xsub render) retaining the features of the DVD stand-alone players

An alternative is to have an external file (like .CUE or .mtxchp) where Haali's splitter can read not only stream names but other useful information (extended tags, prefered filters, default language, hide tracks, etc.) not only for AVI but for other containers. ¿Such file exists? This can give the expert user like me :D total control over the render of the file.

All in all, thanks to Haali and his excelent, feature-rich splitter. It can play everything I throw them :)

BTW the complete documentation of the divx "strn" is at:

http://download.divx.com/labs/DivXMediaFormat_SDK_r2.rar

[clsid]

Some MPEG files don't play properly with Haali's splitter. Here is a sample file (http://www.zshare.net/video/50101985cc03d9/).

MOV files with SVQ3 video inside stutter during playback using ffdshow as decoder. Sample file (http://download.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/2654/t_uncharteddf_vr.mov). Sample file (http://www.zshare.net/video/5010460896abe8/).

[Inventive Software]

Can I just say thank you, Haali, for this filter. Not only has it offered an easy way to play MP4 and MKV files on my PCs, I've now discovered it can mux WMV VC-1 encodes to MKV, so I can mate it with AC-3 audio instead of WMA! Thank you, may you continue to code in peace! :)

[Nasgul]

Hi,

first of all thanks for this great splitter!

I´m having some problems with the new version, though... I use haali media splitter for backing up my blu-rays. I use a simple graph

Haali media splitter (select M2TS file) -> ffdshow video decoder

This worked flawlessly with the old version, but not with the new one. I always get "timeout waiting for graph" when opening the script in virtualdub.

Any ideas?

Does anyone have a link to the old version (2007-06-03)?

Thanks,
nas

[Liisachan]

@Nasgul here..
http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/tmp/MatroskaSplitter20070603.exe

[Jaja1]

I (and others I hear) keep on having problems with EVO files encoded with VC1. These files have distorted sound and/or the video stutters. The new version of the splitter unfortunately didn't solve this.

Perhaps you are already aware of this problem, but could you please look into this Haali? It would be highly appreciated.

[Nasgul]

Thanks, Liisachan!

[trodas]

The new release of the MatroskaSplitter (18. 11. 2007 - v1.7.359.22) does not work at ALL for me. Win2k SP4 and previous version I used, from 18. Jul 2005 worked just beautifully!

Some upgrades... It would be essential to have on the official website the OLDER VERSIONS, because in some cases, the new versions are completely useless at best! :( :angry:

[Liisachan]

@trodas
Well, such a thing just happens from time to time. And we can't forget our gratitude to Haali.

For whatever its worth, here's a quite exhaustive archive (http://tirnanog.fate.jp/mirror/Misc%20(not%20by%20celtic_druid)/Haali/) (the maintainer is not I), including your favorite 20050718 and even before.

[clsid]

I have just tested the latest version on Windows 2000. Registering mkx.dll gives error code 3. Since that is a vital component, it explains the "not working at all" problem of trodas.

[clsid]

The reason for the failure on win2k are two missing exports in ws2_32.dll. To be precise: freeaddrinfo and getaddrinfo.

There is a simple fix to solve that:
http://blogs.msdn.com/seshadripv/archive/2005/10/21/483408.aspx

Hopefully Haali can compile a new build.

[Yod4z]

I add a black screen on MPC with the .m2ps files from my canon HR10 AVC HD camcorder. The splliter don't send the video to ffdshow. The 18/11/2007 do this on my Windows XP and 2K but work correctly on my Vista.

for my 2K and XP i use the 03/06/2007 build that work correctly.

[Atak_Snajpera]

I have recorded x-men 3 movie (TS - AVC - 12GB) which do not play with latest version but works with older version (June's)

Any ideas?

[Evil Ally]

I (and others I hear) keep on having problems with EVO files encoded with VC1. These files have distorted sound and/or the video stutters. The new version of the splitter unfortunately didn't solve this.

Perhaps you are already aware of this problem, but could you please look into this Haali? It would be highly appreciated.

I have the same problem, .evo files with VC1 video play with a stutter. For now, I have to remux with gdsmux and then put the resulting .mkv through mkvmerge specifying a timecode of 23.976fps. This seems to give me a .mkv that plays smoothly.

[Liisachan]

Hi,
Has anyone ever had these problems?

-VSFilter incompatibility:
Recently, Haali Splitter (OGM MKV) + VSFilter makes the images flipped (upside down). As far as I remember I didn't experience this problem before (1+ years ago), so I suspect either a newer version of VSFilter or a newer version of Haali splitter somehow broke the compatibility.

Gabest Splitter + VSFilter does not have the flipping problem, but I'd like to use Haali Splitter, at least sometimes, for MKV.

Can anyone reproduce this, or is it maybe my problem since I'm using my XP with non standard settings?

-Interface: When the Tasktray Icon Is Right-Clicked
When I right-click a task tray icon (typically there are 2, so I mean any 1 of them) of Haali splitter, the context menu does pop up on RBUTTONDOWN, but then, the Window menu (system menu) of the task bar itself gets in my way on RBUTTONUP and I cannot use the Haali's context menu. Sometimes.
I'm wondering if Haali can maybe easily fix it just by 'eating' WM_RBUTTONUP, or letting the context menu pop up on WM_RBUTTONUP, not DOWN.

Thanks anyway for great filters :D

[KoD]

Hi,
Has anyone ever had these problems?

-VSFilter incompatibility:
Recently, Haali Splitter (OGM MKV) + VSFilter makes the images flipped (upside down). As far as I remember I didn't experience this problem before (1+ years ago), so I suspect either a newer version of VSFilter or a newer version of Haali splitter somehow broke the compatibility.

Gabest Splitter + VSFilter does not have the flipping problem, but I'd like to use Haali Splitter, at least sometimes, for MKV.

Can anyone reproduce this, or is it maybe my problem since I'm using my XP with non standard settings?

I don't have this issue. I am using the vsfilter version that's packed by CCCP. Try and see if it works for you. Here is a download link (http://www.mediafire.com/?bleozt23tdh) for the filter only.


-Interface: When the Tasktray Icon Is Right-Clicked
When I right-click a task tray icon (typically there are 2, so I mean any 1 of them) of Haali splitter, the context menu does pop up on RBUTTONDOWN, but then, the Window menu (system menu) of the task bar itself gets in my way on RBUTTONUP and I cannot use the Haali's context menu. Sometimes.
I'm wondering if Haali can maybe easily fix it just by 'eating' WM_RBUTTONUP, or letting the context menu pop up on WM_RBUTTONUP, not DOWN.

Same thing here. The sysmenu pops up besides Haali's menu. This happens when the player has focus and you try and right-click on Haali's icon.The "fix" would be to first click on the taskbar and then right click on Haali's icon. But that's not really a fix.

[Kurtnoise]

-Interface: When the Tasktray Icon Is Right-Clicked
When I right-click a task tray icon (typically there are 2, so I mean any 1 of them) of Haali splitter, the context menu does pop up on RBUTTONDOWN, but then, the Window menu (system menu) of the task bar itself gets in my way on RBUTTONUP and I cannot use the Haali's context menu. Sometimes.
I'm wondering if Haali can maybe easily fix it just by 'eating' WM_RBUTTONUP, or letting the context menu pop up on WM_RBUTTONUP, not DOWN.

I can confirmed that too..I thought it was my fault but huh no.

[LeMoi]

Yep, arrives here too...

[Liisachan]

@KoD
@Kurtnoise13
@LeMoi
Thanks for confirmation.

About the flipping pb, I think it's only when Haali filter(s) are called via Avisynth DirectShowSource. I should have narrowed down the problem before posting, sorry....

Like Avisynth doc says ("Some decoders (notably MS MPEG-4) will produce upside-down video"), it is more or less a general problem in DirectShow, but:
- The results are *not* flipped if Haali filter works without VSFilter loaded
- The results are flipped iff VSFilter is loaded
- Gabest's filters with or without VSFilter = not flipped
...that is, the pb seems to appear only when Haali filter + VSFilter are used.

[asasadad_1]

haali media splitter(1.7.359.22)+ wmvideo decoder dmo output green picture on some .evo（vc1）files, those .evo files played well via sonic hd demuxer(5, 0, 0, 103) +sonic cinemaster?video decoder(5.0.1.234).

2 small samples(7.30MB) (http://rapidshare.com/files/75180312/vc1-green_picture_haali_wmvideo_decoder_dmo_.rar.html).

[moshmothma]

Is truehd support planned for the next version of Haali Splitter? Thanks