Cannot play some MKV files

[surly]

I was just starting to watch a movie earlier, and it was playing fine, then suddenly the screen went black. The audio continued playing but screen stayed black. I tried some other files, and found that it's happening now on some other mkv files that used to work just fine. But not on all mkv files...

The files that do not working in Sage work fine in media player. I do notice that the ones that won't play the video are not loading the ffdshow program in Sage, and the ones that still work do load ffdshow.

Anyways, I have no idea what has happened...

[james_k_p]

Bummer, so this occurred in movies that you know played fine all the way through before and now this started happening? Sounds like something is going out hardware wise, or something corrupted software wise.

As a major user of mkv myself, I'm assuming you are using 1080p mkvs. Most 1080p mkvs that are encoded with L5.1 profile settings don't work well, stutter heavily and such things to my experience, and in some cases go black.

If it's encoded with L4.1, it usually works great on sagetv and hd100 extender.

I'm using the latest beta 6.4.4 and this has been the case since I started using this product 2 months ago with the current version then.

Hopefully sagetv will make some enhancements soon in future versions that can handle these higher profile encodes. Unfortunately I've even been seeing some 1080p mkvs with L4.1 having some stutters here and there in sagetv, but fortunately, works great on the HD100 which is what I really care about anyway. I can use media player classic to watch them on the PC.

That's the only input I can add.

[james_k_p]

Heck, is anyone out there playing mkv 1080p's flawless in sagetv? I would think many more would be doing this and having issues, but I don't see many posts.

If you have no problems, what's your system specs?

[Taddeusz]

The 1080p MKV files I've created from transcoded Blu-ray rips play fine on both my client and HD100. I think the key is to keep bitrates lower. I personally have not desired to use the video straight from the disc. 16-30GB per movie is just insanely huge to keep stored. I knock most movies down to around 4-6GB and have no problems playing them.

[surly]

It's actually occurring on both 720p and 1080p files, and yes, they all used to play fine before. They all still do play fine in media player, it's just sage. Also, prior to this issue, all files played flawlessly, no sutters or anything.

I am able to play some L4.1 and L5.1, and others not. I have tried everything to find a common element to the non-working files, and I can't seem to find anything.

I was hoping to be able to fix it without restoring the PC... but I guess that's what I'm stuck with.

HD100 is in the mail as well, hopefully all will be well when it arrives

[Shield]

Originally Posted by james_k_p

Heck, is anyone out there playing mkv 1080p's flawless in sagetv? I would think many more would be doing this and having issues, but I don't see many posts.

If you have no problems, what's your system specs?

I can play back all my mkv files perfectly including 1080p.