Why can't I watch .mkv files?

[Shrinn]

My lappy has been giving me trouble with .mkv and other HD formats since some random time during the end of summer. I'm finally fed up with it enough to try to get some help. Whenever I try to watch some sweet, delicious, freshly released anime, I'm met with videos randomly locking up while the audio continues, de-synchronization, and sometimes the video is only a garbled mess for long periods of time.

HP Pavillion tx1000 Notebook PC.
AMD Turion 64 x2 Mobile Technology TL-58 1.9 GHz.
Windows Vista 32 bit.
1982 MB RAM


GeForce Go 6150
Dedicated Video Memory: 64MB
Shared System Memory, 256 MB

I have the free All in one codec pack (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Codec_Pack_All_In_1.htm) and I've tried VLC media center, Windows media player, Subedit-player, Media player classic. They all showcase the same problems, eventually.

Any help would be great.. because this is a perplexing problem to me.

[Zrikz]

Hrm, I had this problem with windows media player and then I switched to VLC and it fixed it. If your saying VLC does not fix it for you, then I am unsure :(

[Goronmon]

Media Player Classic (http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/)

CCCP (http://www.cccp-project.net/)

I watch anime fan-subbed from various groups and have yet to run into a single file that this combo has not played, including any MKV files.

[TrackZero]

My lappy has been giving me trouble with .mkv and other HD formats since some random time during the end of summer. I'm finally fed up with it enough to try to get some help. Whenever I try to watch some sweet, delicious, freshly released anime, I'm met with videos randomly locking up while the audio continues, de-synchronization, and sometimes the video is only a garbled mess for long periods of time.


Could be the codec. Could be a driver. Either way, what's happening is because there isn't enough processor speed to properly translate an .mkv file (I know, I used to have the same problem in the same situation). Maybe your anti-virus is sucking up too much CPU power, who knows. Either way, investigate, but the root cause is processor cycles not being there for whatever reason (either it's less efficient at using them, or has less to go around).

[Goronmon]

Hmm...for some reason the hardware side didn't occur to me. Yeah, playing HD formats is actually not an easy thing for computer to handle due to the amount of data that needs to be processed. If the player and codecs I posted don't work, I'd say it's probably your system not able to handle the playback.

[shodan2020]

Go with VLC my good man and watch any goddamn video codec you desire. :)

[Goronmon]

Go with VLC my good man and watch any goddamn video codec you desire. :)I've run into videos that VLC wouldn't play correctly, especially subtitles. Which is a big deal if you are watching anime, as the OP is.

[Wraith]

Are you having these same problems with .mkv files that previously played just fine, or only with newly-downloaded files?

[raymeswh]

I've run into videos that VLC wouldn't play correctly, especially subtitles. Which is a big deal if you are watching anime, as the OP is.

there are ususally subtitle tracks that you can DL and import into VLC, if you cant see subs and theyre supposed to be there, right click in VLC and check the options under video....

also, an option to convert the MKV to MP4 and watch on your 360...:D

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/convert_mkv_to_mp4_for_xbox_360.cfm

ninja edit: link fixed

[Wraith]

there are ususally subtitle tracks that you can DL and import into VLC, if you cant see subs and theyre supposed to be there, right click in VLC and check the options under video....

also, an option to convert the MKV to MP4 and watch on your 360...:D

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/convert_mkv_to_mp4_for_xbox_360.cfmThe page you requested could not be located

[Goronmon]

there are ususally subtitle tracks that you can DL and import into VLC, if you cant see subs and theyre supposed to be there, right click in VLC and check the options under video....Oh, I could see the subs, but not all fansubbers support VLC, so the subtitles would overlap during fast dialog and stuff. Very annoying.

[RandoM51]

Sounds like it is inconsistent, even within the same media file which sort of rules out codec issues, at least in the "don't have to right codec to play this content" way.

Here is what I would do:

1. Uninstall any/all codec packs you've added, making sure to clean up any registry entries.
2. Uninstall your video drivers using driver cleaner to make sure you get rid of all settings/registry entries.
3. Install the latest video driver
4. Defrag your hard drive
5. Run 2-3 anti-spyware/adware utilities to remove anything that might be stealing resources
6. Install mediaplayer classic and then try to play one of the problem videos while you have nothing else running.

[raymeswh]

oops, my bad

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/convert_mkv_to_mp4_for_xbox_360.cfm

[J Arcane]

I've run into videos that VLC wouldn't play correctly, especially subtitles. Which is a big deal if you are watching anime, as the OP is.
Yeah, I've actually run into a fair number of videos that wouldn't run with straight VLC on both my Mac and my OS X. VLC's good, but it's not a perfect solution.

I find the CCCP seems to do the trick quite well though. that plus MPC or Zoom will pretty much play anything.

[Krispy]

The old Media Player Classic (last updated nearly three years ago!) actually has a buggy splitter for mkv. Make sure you install the Haali Splitter or use the newer Media Player Classic Hometheater Edition (currently active project) and if you are having trouble decoding the HD file, spend $10 on CoreAVC. It is the most efficient h264/x264 decoder. Otherwise I would suggest ffdshow as it supports the older x264 builds better (CoreAVC will glitch on old b-frame fast motion vectors).

[Shrinn]

Either way, what's happening is because there isn't enough processor speed to properly translate an .mkv file

That's what I figured, but I've seen higher quality formats get played on worse laptops so I thought it might be something with a player I'm using, or maybe that my video card sucks horribly. If I close everything, it helps a little, but the file still ends up desynced.

Media Player Classic (http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/)

CCCP (http://www.cccp-project.net/)


I'll try reinstalling and getting those new codecs.

Are you having these same problems with .mkv files that previously played just fine, or only with newly-downloaded files?

I only watch anime on a weekly grab-delete basis. And the problem has been going on for quite some time so I can't really compare. One day, Geass was just super choppy. I've been living off late .avi releases and choppy videos and I've just grown tired of it. For the most part its just desyncing of audio and video which gradually gets worse, so I can suffer through it and keep pausing so it can catch up if I'm really bored. However, lately it's just been ridiculously bad.

Zoom

I'll try that too.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I'm going through everything now and I'll report back shortly.

[CES]

Media Player Classic (http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/)

CCCP (http://www.cccp-project.net/)

I watch anime fan-subbed from various groups and have yet to run into a single file that this combo has not played, including any MKV files.

I endorse this statement.

VLC is just ass at Matroska. If the subs arent running ahead of the video, they're either not working or VLC crashes outright.

Now, if Orb would kindly get some Matroska support for streaming, I could watch my shows on my TV.

[Goronmon]

oops, my bad

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/convert_mkv_to_mp4_for_xbox_360.cfmI know I'm resurrecting an old thread here, but I have yet to get GOTSent to produce a video file that my 360 even detects, let alone plays.

Is there some trick I'm missing about using it?