MKV files trouble

[keroda1058]

I have a Viera TC-P50X3 television and I am using Mezzmo as my media server on Windows Vista. I am having trouble playing my MKV files, it seems that sometimes they will play and other times they will not play. I thought my television was capable of playing MKV files with out having to be transcoded, my other files such as mp4 will play without any trouble. My question is should i use transcoding on all MKV files before trying to play them on my television? Thank you!

[Paul]

A few questions:


What device profile are you using for your TV in Mezzmo? Go to the Media Devices dialog in Mezzmo to see this.
What is the FFmpeg information on an MKV that does play? Right-click on the MKV file in Mezzmo and click 'Get FFmpeg Information'.
What is the FFmpeg information on an MKV that does not play? Right-click on the MKV file in Mezzmo and click 'Get FFmpeg Information'.

Once we get this, we can work out what is going wrong with some of your MKVs.

[keroda1058]

Device Model is - Panasonic Viera (2011 models)

FFmpeg on MKV that works:

ffmpeg version N-40693-gc457a29 Copyright (c) 2000-2012 the FFmpeg developers
built on May 15 2012 12:57:14 with gcc 4.6.2
configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --arch=x86 --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-w64-mingw32- --enable-static --disable-shared --enable-zlib --disable-postproc --prefix=/home/peter/ffmpeg/build/gpl --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --extra-libs='-lx264 -lpthread' --enable-runtime-cpudetect --extra-cflags=-I/home/peter/cc/include --extra-ldflags=-L/home/peter/cc/lib --pkg-config=pkg-config --disable-w32threads
libavutil 51. 51.100 / 51. 51.100
libavcodec 54. 21.101 / 54. 21.101
libavformat 54. 5.100 / 54. 5.100
libavdevice 53. 4.100 / 53. 4.100
libavfilter 2. 73.100 / 2. 73.100
libswscale 2. 1.100 / 2. 1.100
libswresample 0. 11.100 / 0. 11.100
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'C:\Users\kenneth\Downloads\GrabIt Downloads\Homeland\Homeland 202.mkv':
Metadata:
creation_time : 2012-10-08 03:09:21
Duration: 00:48:32.22, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 3601 kb/s
Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1280x720, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
Stream #0:1: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), s16, 384 kb/s (default)
At least one output file must be specified


---> DB Level Info: 41, 100
---> Frame rate: 23.98
---> Aspect ratio: 16:9

FFmpeg information on MKV that does not work:

ffmpeg version N-40693-gc457a29 Copyright (c) 2000-2012 the FFmpeg developers
built on May 15 2012 12:57:14 with gcc 4.6.2
configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --arch=x86 --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-w64-mingw32- --enable-static --disable-shared --enable-zlib --disable-postproc --prefix=/home/peter/ffmpeg/build/gpl --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --extra-libs='-lx264 -lpthread' --enable-runtime-cpudetect --extra-cflags=-I/home/peter/cc/include --extra-ldflags=-L/home/peter/cc/lib --pkg-config=pkg-config --disable-w32threads
libavutil 51. 51.100 / 51. 51.100
libavcodec 54. 21.101 / 54. 21.101
libavformat 54. 5.100 / 54. 5.100
libavdevice 53. 4.100 / 53. 4.100
libavfilter 2. 73.100 / 2. 73.100
libswscale 2. 1.100 / 2. 1.100
libswresample 0. 11.100 / 0. 11.100
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'C:\Users\kenneth\Downloads\GrabIt Downloads\Homeland\Homeland 206.mkv':
Duration: 00:49:15.99, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 2785 kb/s
Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1280x714, SAR 1:1 DAR 640:357, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), s16, 384 kb/s (default)
At least one output file must be specified


---> DB Level Info: 41, 100
---> Frame rate: 23.98
---> Aspect ratio: 640:357

[Paul]

Thanks for the information. The FFmpeg information shows that the two MKV are very much the same except for the resolution & aspect ratio. I think your TV may be rejecting the MKV due to the non-standard resolution (1280x714) and aspect ratio (640:357). Another reason may be that MKV may be badly encoded in some way and your TV's firmware is unable to decode the MKV file.

Try pre-transcoding the problem MKV file and see if it streams. Right-click on the MKV file in Mezzmo and click 'Pre-transcode Files' to pre-transcode the file.

[keroda1058]

My television is only 720p.

I have tried to transcode these files and there was a couple of times I got a "failed" response. I didn't know what that meant because I have never seen That before.

[keroda1058]

Thank you!

[Paul]

When you get the 'Failed' status when pre-transcoding, please click on the 'Failed' hyperlink text and it will display the full pre-transcoding log for the file. Copy this and email it to us for analysis at support [at] conceiva [dot] com.