The VideoLAN Forums

VLC Media Player will play most .mkv files, but will not play some. The reason is that the plugin VLC uses to play .mkv files
is outdated and must be replaced with the current version if you want to play all .mkv files.
The plugin VLC uses to play .mkv is a .dll file (libmkv_plugin.dll) which is libmatroska.dll
The download link below will get you the current version.
After downloading libmatroska.dll rename it libmkv_plugin.dll and replace the old one in VLC Plugin Folder.
This should resolve any problems VLC has with .mkv files.
I only made this post because VLC had problems playing some .mkv videos and after some time consuming research I found a solution, which will save you time if you have issues with .mkv files
nighthunder//
EDIT : link removed by admin

That's just wrong.
the mkv plugin isn't libmatroska it's a vlc module that uses it and is statically linked against it. Replacing it will cause vlc to be unable to use its mkv plugin. The reason it may work is that vlc will then fall back to ffmpeg to demux it.

If you have trouble reading some mkv files you should really consider to test the vlc 1.2 version first, the plugin had many changes. If the files still don't work please signal them so they can analyze and improve the plugin.

Doing this does not harm the player in any way and it makes VLC play all .mkv videos,

Well you'll have the same result if you just delete the dll... As I said it will fall back to ffmpeg to demux.

If you want to help to improve vlc consider trying 1.2 (from nightlies) and tell which files don't work.

VLC 1.2 in my opinion works better in an XP Enviroment, and cannot work properly in Windows 7 64 bit, which is where I now use VLC.
And as you said deleting the .mkv plugin has the same effect, but it is this plugin that crashes the Player when playing some .mkv vrdeos.
I came across the solution from a post in Windows 7 Forums.

VLC 1.2 in my opinion works better in an XP Enviroment, and cannot work properly in Windows 7 64 bit, which is where I now use VLC.

Why? I use 1.2 with my Windows 7 64 bit and I watch a lot of mkv with it. Especially since it can play 10bits H264. There were big changes in mkv parser for 1.2 so once again if you still experiences crashes with it you should tell us what files failed then temporarily switch to ffmpeg. So yes the current parser isn't perfect but it's definitely getting better so please give it a try and help us improving it with bug reports.

If I delete the .mkv plugin the player plays the .mkv video fine but crashes if the plugin is loaded.
Deleting is not the practical approach.
The .mkv video is Bleach Episode 302.
I did as you suggested and installed v1.2, and the same plugin failure occured.
To tell you the truth I dont know how we are going to take out the trash! on this one.
The following is the error details of the .mkv plugin failure logged in Windows Administrative Tools Event Viewer. -
This error was with VLC v1.2, and the exact same error occurs in the most recent stable version.


Faulting module name: libmkv_plugin.dll, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x4d8fbb0f
Exception code: 0x40000015
Fault offset: 0x0007fb51
Faulting process id: 0x29c
Faulting application start time: 0x01cc9465a76f59d9
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\plugins\demux\libmkv_plugin.dll
Report Id: 09ee060d-0059-11e1-b09c-c80aa90f2845
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Application Error" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>100</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2011-10-27T05:03:42.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>9333</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>CompaqPresario</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>vlc.exe</Data>
<Data>1.2.0.99</Data>
<Data>4d8fbb03</Data>
<Data>libmkv_plugin.dll</Data>
<Data>0.0.0.0</Data>
<Data>4d8fbb0f</Data>
<Data>40000015</Data>
<Data>0007fb51</Data>
<Data>29c</Data>
<Data>01cc9465a76f59d9</Data>
<Data>C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe</Data>
<Data>C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\plugins\demux\libmkv_plugin.dll</Data>
<Data>09ee060d-0059-11e1-b09c-c80aa90f2845</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

I created a bug ticket: http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/5488

But the best way for me to debug is to have the file. So you can upload it with http://streams.videolan.org/upload/ (put 5488 in the Trac Ticket field) or give the link/torrent where you got it.
You can edit the bug with more info like how to reproduce the crash.

Thank you for reporting.

The video that causes the libmkv_plugin failure is in high definition "720p", probably thats the problem to begin with. The file size is 279 MB, which is large for a 24 min. video.
It will take a lot of time for me to upload, the download link is below.


http://www.anime-access.com/anime/B/Ble ... [720p].mkv

What do you do to make it crash? It works fine at home with 1.2

Hmm... I even got it from HorribleSubs' site and it doesn't crash either.
Does it crash at a special time? When you do something? Do you use hardware decoding (if yes does it work when you don't and vice versa)?
Your file may have been corrupted during download, in that case I'm interested by that file.

Anyway the more details I have to reproduce it the better.

I redownloaded the video and to my surprise VLC it played ok!. what confused me is that all the other Players I have played it without any problems and if I deleted libmkv_plugin.dll or renamed libmatroska.dll and used it in its place VLC played the video fine. Can VLC .mkv Module be that sensitive to a glitch in a download.

If you still have the file I'm really interested in it to fix that bug. It shouldn't crash even on broken files

OK I will use the upload link you created to send it to you.
Let me know when you receive the video, the upload link does not give any indication that its being uploaded or not.

I deleted libmkv_plugin.dll or renamed libmatroska.dll and used it in its place VLC played the video fine. Can VLC .mkv Module be that sensitive to a glitch in a download.

No. If you remove libmkv_plugin.dll, move it, or rename it to anything that does not match lib*_plugin.dll, VLC will loose the native Matroska plugin. Then it will probably fallback to parsing the file with libavformat. VLC cannot use the libmatroska.dll as is.

OK I will use the upload link you created to send it to you.
Let me know when you receive the video, the upload link does not give any indication that its being uploaded or not.

Well apparently it didn't work I don't see anything new

I will try sending it again.

I deleted libmkv_plugin.dll or renamed libmatroska.dll and used it in its place VLC played the video fine. Can VLC .mkv Module be that sensitive to a glitch in a download.

No. If you remove libmkv_plugin.dll, move it, or rename it to anything that does not match lib*_plugin.dll, VLC will loose the native Matroska plugin. Then it will probably fallback to parsing the file with libavformat. VLC cannot use the libmatroska.dll as is.

What I did was; I renamed (libmatroska.dll - libmkv_plugin.dll). And relpace VLC's libmkv_plugin.dll with it.

That won't work. You might just as well remove libmkv_plugin.dll, for the same results.

I realize this thread is pretty old but I just wanted to throw in my experience. I have a lot of mkv files that played fine with vlc 2.0.1. I had to do a fresh install of windows 7 because of slow performance and the p.c. was a "family" computer. All of my video files are on a second hdd and were untouched during the install. I was in the middle of Boardwalk Empire season 4 so I pulled the next 4 episodes onto my phone so I could still watch just in case the install went bad and took a bit longer. Once windows 7 was finished installing I downloaded the newest version of vlc that I could find, 2.1.2. After this vlc wouldn't play my mkv files. After a couple of days of forum reading and installing and uninstalling and setting changes I decided to pull the same files back off my phone to give a try. Vlc plays them just fine. For whatever reason the old files had become corrupt or something. Hopefully this helps out.