No video playback of .mkv-files with VLC 09.2

[rlfsoso]

Hi,

after upgrading my installation to the latest VLC 0.9.2 I get no video for .mkv-files which play fine with 0.8.6.x. In the view menu, all options except full screen are greyed out, selecting/deselecting doesn't change a thing. I do get audio, equalizer works as well. Going back to the latest 0.8.6.h or .i I can play them without any problems (or change of prefs).

This is on a MBP C2D 2.33 GH, 2GB Ram, German OSX 10.5.5.

Any hints or ideas?

Greetings,

Rolf

[jazzagers]

At the moment I can't play any videos, all I hear is the audio but a video window won't show up. Any suggestions?

[heffeque]

I have problems with the combination mkv+x264, specially when there are subtitles. Jumping to the 4th quarter of the movie makes the CPU go crazy and after a while 80% of the times the reproduction stops (the program doesn't close or crash, it just stops playing like if I had pressed the Stop button), 10% it crashes and the other 10% it actually plays it, but only if subtitles are off and if it's the first time I've tried advancing the playback.

Details of the video encoding:

Code: Select all

Formato : AVC Formato/Info : Advanced Video Codec Formato del perfil : High@L3.1 Ajustes del formato, CABAC : Si Ajustes del formato, RefFrames : 5 frames ID Códec : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC Duración : 2h 5min. Bitrate : 4 102Kbps Bitrate nominal : 4 325Kbps Ancho : 1 280pixeles Alto : 528pixeles Relación de aspecto : 2.424 Velocidad de cuadro : 23,976fps Resolución : 24bits Colorimetry : 4:2:0 Tipo de exploración : Progresivo Bits/(Pixel*cuadros) : 0.267 Título : Ironman-720p-Dual+subs-By-***** Codificando librería : x264 core 61 r957 7ce0f2c Opciones de codificación : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=6 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=6 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=4325 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=1.00 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=2:1.00 Idioma : inglés

The video plays ok on MPlayer OSX, but MPlayer OSX is sh¡t. It also plays ok on MediaPlayer Classic (on Windows XP) but I prefer to stay on MacOS X for watching movies.

[rlfsoso]

At the moment I can't play any videos, all I hear is the audio but a video window won't show up. Any suggestions?

well go back to 0.8.6x via TimeMachine for example

[pdherbemont]

Did you try to reset your preferences?

[heffeque]

Did you try to reset your preferences?

yes :-/

[pdherbemont]

With the provided script?

Could you past Menu>Window>Messages... content here? (Or start vlc with -vvv)

[heffeque]

Where it said Goodies or something like that. It was in a folder inside the dmg. I had to because going from 0.8.6i to 0.9.2 crashed. After resetting the preferences everything was good (crash-wise) but x264 content works worse than in 0.8.6i and it has problems reproducing long big files (even using the skip filter in h.264 thing) specially with subs in the mkv, but the problems are there with or without the subs, it's just that it's more noticeable when there are subs in the mkv. I'd pass you an example of a video in mkv and x264 that has problems reproducing in 0.9.2 but they have to be big so as to notice the problem correctly and it would take ages to upload 4 GB to your FTP. Right now the smallest video I have that has the problems weighs 4.37 GB :-/ The problem is that my source of HD movies is invite-only, has certain usage rules and is in Spanish (although most movies do have the original audio too and subtitles).

I have one that is high def, in mkv, not from my usual source of HD content, it's as big of a file as my usual content but it's probably not coded with the same options. It doesn't have additional audio or subtitle streams so I think that that has to do with the fact that it jumps to the end parts of the video faster and that it doesn't stop in the middle of the jumping process as often, but after jumping from one place to the other it eventually stops the video like with my other more-complicated videos. Jumping from one place to the other in these kinds of HD videos actually made my 0.8.6 crash sometimes in Windows and in Mac OS X equally.

I know I'm not helping much because I'm not giving you any crash reports, but the problem is that there are no crash reports. When I jump forward it takes considerably longer to catch the stream correctly than other players and it gives the usual errors:

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main debug: b_seek=0 th*avg=1048042 skip=438606 main debug: b_seek=0 th*avg=1048042 skip=567159 main debug: b_seek=0 th*avg=1048042 skip=746748

but that's normal in my book, it's always skipped some frames when jumping and the everything is ok, but now it skips some frames and specially in the end parts of the video: it closes without giving any additional info in the main debug.

I hope my information is helpful for you.

Edit: Op! Just waited for a little longer and the debug shows this:

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[...] main debug: b_seek=1 th*avg=1048038 skip=1448935 main debug: b_seek=0 th*avg=1048038 skip=567344 main debug: b_seek=0 th*avg=1048038 skip=1021941 main debug: b_seek=1 th*avg=1048038 skip=1184015 mkv error: This file has no cues, and we were unable to seek to the requested position by parsing. mkv warning: EOF mkv warning: cannot get block EOF? avcodec debug: ffmpeg codec (H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10)) stopped main debug: removing module "avcodec" main debug: thread ended main debug: thread 2960478208 joined (input/decoder.c:248) main debug: killing decoder fourcc `avc1', 0 PES in FIFO main debug: removing module "swscale" main debug: removing module "blend" main debug: removing module "quartztext" main debug: thread ended main debug: thread 2962145280 joined (video_output/video_output.c:536) macosx debug: Closing main debug: removing module "macosx" main debug: removing module "opengl" main debug: removing module "a52" main debug: thread ended main debug: thread 2961010688 joined (input/decoder.c:248) main debug: killing decoder fourcc `a52 ', 0 PES in FIFO main debug: removing module "a52tofloat32" main debug: removing module "bandlimited_resampler" main debug: removing module "auhal" main debug: removing module "float32_mixer" main debug: Program doesn't contain anymore ES main debug: EOF reached main debug: finished input main debug: dying input main debug: dying input macosx debug: input has stopped, refreshing interface main debug: dying input main debug: thread ended main debug: thread 2959945728 joined (mkv.cpp:2735) mkv debug: Stopping the UI Hook main debug: removing module "mkv" main debug: removing module "access_mmap" main debug: thread ended main debug: dead input main debug: thread 2958790656 joined (playlist/engine.c:244) main debug: TIMER input launching for 's-gattaca.mkv' : 37.150 ms - Total 37.150 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 37.150 ms) main debug: starting new item main debug: changing item without a request (current 0/1) main debug: nothing to play

With this video other players jump almost instantly and don't stop playing when jumping from one part to another a lot, just so you know that it's not a bad non-standard video-coding thing.

[Sylvaania]

I updated from 0.8.6i to 0.9.2. Before on my macmini 720p worked very well and even 1080p with minor stutter. After the 092 update all the mkv:s still worked fine and new subtitles looked much batter, although the default font is like childs fairytale book

But now even the 720p stutters, and 1080p was complete impossible to look, it takes much more cpu and overall result is not that smooth. Unfortunately had to downgrade back to 086i. Hoping for better result on 0.9.3. Only thing I need is better subtitles and more reliably time wind up (it crashes a lot and it's quite slow if compared some of the other players