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Anyone care to take a shot at why this video won't play....

S

shorn

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 29, 2010
206
16
Hi all,

I've converted (using MKVTools) alot of MKV's successfully. However I hit some that wont play on the appletv (gen2).

Heres the log of the file that wont play...

PHP: 
General / Container Stream #1
	Total Video Streams for this File.................1
	Total Audio Streams for this File.................1
	Video Codecs Used.................................AVC
	Audio Codecs Used.................................AAC LC
	File Format.......................................MPEG-4
	Play Time.........................................51mn 52s
	Total File Size...................................677 MiB
	Total Stream BitRate..............................1 825 Kbps
	Title (Tag).......................................A New Germany (1933 - 1939)
	Encoded with......................................iFlicks
Video Stream #1
	Codec (Human Name)................................AVC
	Codec (FourCC)....................................avc1
	Codec Profile.....................................High@L3.1
	Frame Width.......................................720 pixels
	Frame Height......................................572 pixels
	Frame Rate........................................25.000 fps
	Total Frames......................................77808
	Display Aspect Ratio..............................1.373
	Scan Type.........................................Progressive
	Color Space.......................................YUV
	Codec Settings (Summary)..........................CABAC / 16 Ref Frames
	QF (like Gordian Knot)............................0.161
	Codec Settings (CABAC)............................Yes
	Codec Settings (Reference Frames).................16
	Video Stream Length...............................51mn 52s 320ms
	Video Stream BitRate..............................1 659 Kbps
	Video Stream BitRate Mode.........................VBR
	Bit Depth.........................................8 bits
	Video Stream Size.................................615 MiB (91%)
	Video Stream Title................................/Volumes/BACK UP/The World At War/Season 01/The.World.At.War.s01.e01.A New Germany - 1933-1939.mkv.temp.v1.h264 - Imported with GPAC 0.4.6-DEV (internal rev. 6)
	Video Encoder.....................................x264 - core 68 r1195M 5d75a9b
	Video Encoder (Settings)..........................cabac=1 / ref=16 / deblock=1:-3:-2 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy_rd=1.9:0.2 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=3 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=8 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / lookahead=100 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=1659 / ratetol=1.0 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:0.85
	Date of Original Encoding.........................UTC 2011-01-13 07:04:51
Audio Stream #1
	Codec.............................................AAC
	Codec (FourCC)....................................40
	Audio Stream Length...............................51mn 52s 128ms
	Audio Stream BitRate..............................157 Kbps
	Audio Stream BitRate Mode.........................VBR
	Number of Audio Channels..........................2
	Audio Channel's Positions.........................Front: L R
	Sampling Rate.....................................48.0 KHz
	Audio Stream Size.................................58.4 MiB (9%)
	Audio Stream Title................................/Volumes/BACK UP/The World At War/Season 01/The.World.At.War.s01.e01.A New Germany - 1933-1939.mkv.temp.Audio.t0.aac:lang=English - Imported with GPAC 0.4.6-DEV (internal rev. 6)
	Audio Stream Language.............................English
	Date of Original Encoding.........................UTC 2011-01-13 07:05:16

and heres one that plays fine...

PHP: 
General / Container Stream #1
	Total Video Streams for this File.................1
	Total Audio Streams for this File.................2
	Video Codecs Used.................................AVC
	Audio Codecs Used.................................AC3 / AAC LC
	File Format.......................................MPEG-4
	Play Time.........................................22mn 59s
	Total File Size...................................971 MiB
	Total Stream BitRate..............................5 905 Kbps
	Title (Tag).......................................Pilot
	Encoded with......................................iFlicks
Video Stream #1
	Codec (Human Name)................................AVC
	Codec (FourCC)....................................avc1
	Codec Profile.....................................High@L3.1
	Frame Width.......................................1 280 pixels
	Frame Height......................................720 pixels
	Frame Rate........................................23.976 fps
	Total Frames......................................33073
	Display Aspect Ratio..............................16:9
	Scan Type.........................................Progressive
	Color Space.......................................YUV
	Codec Settings (Summary)..........................CABAC / 5 Ref Frames
	QF (like Gordian Knot)............................0.239
	Codec Settings (CABAC)............................Yes
	Codec Settings (Reference Frames).................5
	Video Stream Length...............................22mn 59s 421ms
	Video Stream BitRate..............................5 285 Kbps
	Video Stream BitRate Mode.........................VBR
	Bit Depth.........................................8 bits
	Video Stream Size.................................870 MiB (90%)
	Video Stream Title................................/Volumes/BACK UP/Modern Family/Season 01/Modern.Family.S01E01.720p.BluRay.X264-REWARD.mkv.temp.v1.h264 - Imported with GPAC 0.4.6-DEV (internal rev. 6)
	Video Encoder.....................................x264 - core 104 r1713 c276662
	Video Encoder (Settings)..........................cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=5285 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
	Date of Original Encoding.........................UTC 2011-01-12 22:58:44
Audio Stream #1
	Codec.............................................AC-3
	Codec (FourCC)....................................ac-3
	Audio Stream Length...............................22mn 59s 424ms
	Audio Stream BitRate..............................448 Kbps
	Audio Stream BitRate Mode.........................CBR
	Number of Audio Channels..........................6
	Audio Channel's Positions.........................Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
	Sampling Rate.....................................48.0 KHz
	Bit Depth.........................................16 bits
	Audio Stream Size.................................73.7 MiB (8%)
	Audio Stream Title................................/Volumes/BACK UP/Modern Family/Season 01/Modern.Family.S01E01.720p.BluRay.X264-REWARD.mkv.temp.Audio.t0.ac3:lang=English - Imported with GPAC 0.4.6-DEV (internal rev. 6)
	Audio Stream Language.............................English
	Date of Original Encoding.........................UTC 2011-01-12 22:59:21
Audio Stream #2
	Codec.............................................AAC
	Codec (FourCC)....................................40
	Audio Stream Length...............................22mn 59s 349ms
	Audio Stream BitRate..............................157 Kbps
	Audio Stream BitRate Mode.........................VBR
	Number of Audio Channels..........................2
	Audio Channel's Positions.........................Front: L R
	Sampling Rate.....................................48.0 KHz
	Audio Stream Size.................................25.9 MiB (3%)
	Audio Stream Title................................/Volumes/BACK UP/Modern Family/Season 01/Modern.Family.S01E01.720p.BluRay.X264-REWARD.mkv.temp.Audio.t0.added.aac:lang=English - Imported with GPAC 0.4.6-DEV (internal rev. 6)
	Audio Stream Language.............................English
	Date of Original Encoding.........................UTC 2011-01-12 22:59:28

Theres not much difference between them so i cannot understand what the problem is.
 
roidy

roidy

macrumors 65816
Dec 30, 2008
1,027
22
Nottingham, UK
At a guess I'd say it's because it's been encoded with 16 reference frames:eek: Thats gonna make any device struggle.
 
Last edited:
S

shorn

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 29, 2010
206
16
That was the only thing that i noticed was different. What do the reference frames mean then? This is untouched video, so I'm guessing it'll need encoding? I was hoping avoid that, especially as it was h264 originally. Its a pain, cos it plays flawlessly in iTunes, but i guess ATV is another beast!
 
roidy

roidy

macrumors 65816
Dec 30, 2008
1,027
22
Nottingham, UK
Reference Frames

To put it into perspective Blu-ray's usually have between 2 and 5 reference frames, 16 is just plain stupid but alas you find this in a lot of torrented material. The people who encode them think there getting better quality by using insainly high ref frame numbers when infact there just making the file harder to play.
 
Last edited:
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