LAV Filters - DirectShow Media Splitter and Decoders

[Olivier C.]

Hi nevcairiel,

Some seamless branching BD (theatrical version / extended version) can not be played correctly.
The extended version (usually the longest MPLS) can hide some audio tracks. You can check theses hidden tracks in BDInfo, beginning with an asterix '*'.
LAVFDemuxer completely ignores this information. Therefore, when we launch the extend version (i.e. usually the longest playlist), the audio is out of sync when we reach a M2TS for which the initial language selected is not available.

For example :

Extended version :
-> playlist 00802.MPLS english only (german hidden)
-> 00001.M2TS (german and english)
-> 00002.M2TS (english only)

When we reach 00002.M2TS, audio is out of sync if we select german as initial audio track.


One solution could be to check the available audio tracks in the selected playlist (MPLS) and avoid selecting a track hidden by the playlist.
Or maybe LAV could change the audio track dynamically when the current audio language is not available in the current M2TS ?


Thanks a lot

[hubblec4]

Which Bluray is that. All my seamless branching BDs have ever all streams in all m2ts files. Your case is new for me.

[Olivier C.]

For example :
Kingdom Of Heaven (2005) - Director's Cut version


BDInfo - Director's Cut version - Spanish and French hidden by the playlist (see asterix '*') :




BDInfo - Theatrical version - Spanish and French available :




Blu-Ray Menus -> French available only in theatrical version (as indicated) :

[hubblec4]

Wow, I have never seen this before, could you imagine to share the disc with me?
If so, I will offer my DiscShare tool to easy create a disc chunk.

[Olivier C.]

Yes, PM

I can provide more examples like this one.

I think it's time to fork and fix LAV + MPC-HC for BD stuff (forced subtitles / Blu-ray menus).

[hubblec4]

Originally Posted by Olivier C.

I think it's time to fork and fix LAV + MPC-HC for BD stuff (forced subtitles / Blu-ray menus).

This can also be a problem for chapterEditor's BD2mkv Multi-Edition-mkv mode, when MKVToolNix fails while muxing.
There is no check to omit streams which are not used in all editions.

[clsid]

Originally Posted by Olivier C.

I think it's time to fork and fix LAV + MPC-HC for BD stuff (forced subtitles / Blu-ray menus).

Submit a patch and I will apply it to MPC-HC

[Olivier C.]

According to my quick debug, I could find that LAV was the culprit.
LAV Splitter takes in account user preferences languages in order to select audio track but ignores that a track can be hidden by a playlist.
When you reach at some point a piece (M2TS) which does not contain the initial audio track selected by LAV (because the cutted scenes are available only in english for example), the audio part you can hear does not belong anymore to the video part. It's quite funny.

[nevcairiel]

Originally Posted by Olivier C.

LAV Splitter takes in account user preferences languages in order to select audio track but ignores that a track can be hidden by a playlist.

This is actually done intentionally, as people used to complain that some of the tracks aren't shown.
Its not really clear if a track is supposed to be hidden because its "incomplete", or if its missing for some other unwanted reason from the playlist, which does happen.

Originally Posted by Olivier C.

I think it's time to fork and fix LAV + MPC-HC for BD stuff (forced subtitles / Blu-ray menus).

Its easy to complain, hard to send improvements.
LAV will never offer Blu-ray menus, its not designed for such interactive access (and its also hard to make that happen in a generic filter like LAV, as it requires tight interaction with a player to work properly). It would be easier to make a stand-alone BD menu source filter then trying to shoe-horn that into LAV. Unfortunately all people that tried usually didn't stick around long enough to finish it, or have decent ambitions to do it right.
And without menus, its almost impossible to find forced subtitles reliably on all discs.

[Olivier C.]

Here is an interesting trace (libbluray) on the playlist which belongs to the Director's cut version :

LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629801 : Seek Request: 40912906507 (time); 13685463360 (byte), 91791360 (prev byte)
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629802 : [BD] file_win32.c:47: Closed WIN32 file (0000020457FC6310)
Le thread 0x3664 s'est arrêté avec le code 0 (0x0).
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629806 : [BD] file_win32.c:143: Opened WIN32 file Z:\\\BDMV\STREAM\00850.m2ts (00000204582C87A0)
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629806 : [BD] register.c:420: bd_psr_write(): PSR7 (PLAYITEM) 0x0 -> 0x22
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629806 : [BD] bluray.c:3111: PSR change: psr7 = 34
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629806 : [BD] register.c:418: bd_psr_write(8, 524280): no change in value
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] bluray.c:3072: PSR write: psr8 = 524280
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] bluray.c:293: Stream with preferred language not found
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] bluray.c:314: Selected stream 0 (language eng)
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] register.c:418: bd_psr_write(1, 1): no change in value
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] bluray.c:3072: PSR write: psr1 = 1
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] bluray.c:293: Stream with preferred language not found
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] bluray.c:305: Subtitles disabled (audio is in the same language)
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] bluray.c:314: Selected stream 0 (language eng)
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] register.c:418: bd_psr_write(2, 268369921): no change in value
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] bluray.c:3072: PSR write: psr2 = 268369921
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] register.c:420: bd_psr_write(): PSR8 (TIME) 0x7fff8 -> 0xb6d700
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] bluray.c:3111: PSR change: psr8 = 11982592
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] register.c:420: bd_psr_write(): PSR5 (CHAPTER) 0x1 -> 0x19
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] bluray.c:3111: PSR change: psr5 = 25
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : [BD] bluray.c:1632: Seek to 13685463360
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629807 : BD Seek to 13685463364, achieved 13685463360, correcting target by 4
LAVSplitter.ax(tid c68) 3629828 : New clip! offset: 38363739337 bytepos: 12822546432

I will try to investigate this a little further because it's quite annoying.

[Olivier C.]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

This is actually done intentionally, as people used to complain that some of the tracks aren't shown.

I can understand but on the other side, this could lead to other problems when a playlist contains different M2TS with different audio tracks (Director's cut with restricted languages, etc).

Some commercial blu-ray players does not show you these hidden tracks.

[Olivier C.]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

Its easy to complain, hard to send improvements.
LAV will never offer Blu-ray menus, its not designed for such interactive access (and its also hard to make that happen in a generic filter like LAV, as it requires tight interaction with a player to work properly). It would be easier to make a stand-alone BD menu source filter then trying to shoe-horn that into LAV. Unfortunately all people that tried usually didn't stick around long enough to finish it, or have decent ambitions to do it right.
And without menus, its almost impossible to find forced subtitles reliably on all discs.

I agree with you but :
- Jriver player can offer Blu-ray menus (thanks to libbluray and you)
- KODI player can offer Blu-ray menu

My opinion is that some small improvements can easily be done in MPC for the Blu-ray stuff but there is a lack of interest for the Blu-ray part in the MPC team (MPC-BE / MPC-HC).

[Manni]

Originally Posted by Olivier C.

I agree with you but :
- Jriver player can offer Blu-ray menus (thanks to libbluray and you)
- KODI player can offer Blu-ray menu

My opinion is that some small improvements can easily be done in MPC for the Blu-ray stuff but there is a lack of interest for the Blu-ray part in the MPC team (MPC-BE / MPC-HC).

There is a lack of interest because the MPC-BE devs probably rip to mkv and have no interest to spend the time developing menu support. CLSID only maintains MPC-HC and doesn't add features, but nothing stops you from contributing if it's "easy" .

How about buying jRiver if you want bluray menus? That's what I did.

It's not expensive and it works GREAT.

It's also a way to show your appreciation for the work that Nevcairiel does on LAV

[ryrynz]

Yeah, menu support is no trivial task. Would recommend as Manni suggested.

[Olivier C.]

I personnaly use Jriver for audio only. I much prefer Kodi for TV shows and movies : 3d cases, animated posters, cinéma experience, sagas, scrapping, flexibility, look and feel, widgets like imdb top 250 and so on. As a french guy, I had to wait until Jriver 24 for multi language scrapping. TV shows posters are not scrapped in my native language but in english. A shame for a paid software.

I asked many times the Jriver team on the feature request post (forums) to use the mouse wheel for volume control but they don't want their users to use their mouses like they want. Too bad for a so simple thing. They are very nice for asking me every year to pay in avance a license for the next release without the possibility to ask a so simple parameter.

In fact, I would much prefer paying nevcareil or someone else for integrating blu Ray menus in MPC-HC rather than paying a 26th license to the Jriver team. Good developpers need to be supported and motivated.
I like MPC-HC and lav filters for mkv but it lacks some features for blu rays.

Just my personnal opinion

[Olivier C.]

Originally Posted by Manni

nothing stops you from contributing if it's "easy" .

For the "easy" improvements, I was referring to hidden tracks in a playlist.

[Olivier C.]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

This is actually done intentionally, as people used to complain that some of the tracks aren't shown.
Its not really clear if a track is supposed to be hidden because its "incomplete", or if its missing for some other unwanted reason from the playlist, which does happen.

Why not selecting a track which is not hidden and let some users select another (hidden) track if they want. I was not asking for hiding them but just selecting a track in a more logical way.
This way, everyone should be happy.

[Aleksoid1978]

Originally Posted by Olivier C.

Yes, PM
I can provide more examples like this one.

Can you share disc for me - for improvement MPC-BE ?

[Olivier C.]

Yes, PM

[Olivier C.]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

And without menus, its almost impossible to find forced subtitles reliably on all discs.

Yes, I agree, it's "almost" impossible but a quick scan of 30 sec can guess forced subtitles tracks with a much greater accuracy (98% ?) than the couple MPC-HC/MPC-BE + LAV (50% accuracy in BD FHD ? Better in BD UHD though because there aren't so many separate forced subtitles tracks in UHD).
A friend of mine has developed it in his player and it's very usable. 2% of the time, his tool is wrong.