MKV: One file plays one doesnt please help

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

I love my wd tv live plus but all of a sudden i get get a mkv file to play. the icon just spins and doesnt play and i have to reset it before any other video will play. please help

works

fail

the one that works:

Format                           : Matroska
File size                        : 5.43 GiB
Duration                         : 2h 58mn
Overall bit rate                 : 4 353 Kbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2010-04-26 12:08:31
Writing application              : mkvmerge v3.1.0 (‘Happy up here’) built on Jan 19 2010 12:09:24
Writing library                  : libebml v0.7.9 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : High@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 8 frames
Muxing mode                      : Container profile=Unknown@3.1
Codec ID                         : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                         : 2h 58mn
Bit rate                         : 3 967 Kbps
Width                            : 1 280 pixels
Height                           : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 29.970 fps
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.144
Stream size                      : 4.84 GiB (89%)
Writing library                  : x264 core 88 r1471 1144615
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=8 / deblock=1:-2:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=9 / 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 / mbaff=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 /

b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=0 / keyint=300 / keyint_min=30 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc=2pass /

mbtree=0 / bitrate=3967 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 /

pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00
Language                         : English

Audio
ID                               : 2
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                   : CM (complete main)
Codec ID                         : A_AC3
Duration                         : 2h 58mn
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 384 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L R
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                        : 16 bits
Stream size                      : 490 MiB (9%)

the one that fails to play

Format                           : Matroska
File size                        : 5.46 GiB
Duration                         : 2h 57mn
Overall bit rate                 : 4 401 Kbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2010-08-16 12:47:43
Writing application              : mkvmerge v4.2.0 (‘No Talking’) built on Jul 28 2010 18:38:23
Writing library                  : libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : High@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 5 frames
Muxing mode                      : Container profile=Unknown@3.1
Codec ID                         : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                         : 2h 57mn
Bit rate                         : 4 015 Kbps
Width                            : 1 280 pixels
Height                           : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 29.970 fps
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.145
Stream size                      : 4.88 GiB (89%)
Writing library                  : x264 core 88 r1471 1144615
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:1:1 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=9 / 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 / mbaff=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 /

b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=2 / keyint=300 / keyint_min=30 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc=2pass /

mbtree=0 / bitrate=4015 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 /

pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00

Audio
ID                               : 2
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                   : CM (complete main)
Codec ID                         : A_AC3
Duration                         : 2h 57mn
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 384 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L R
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                        : 16 bits
Stream size                      : 488 MiB (9%)

2

Welcome to the forums.

This one’s easy – the file that doesn’t play was made with a BAD version of MKVMerge (anything past 4.0 is BAD :>).  Use an earlier version and remux (or you can use a later version but you’ll need to turn off both video and audio header compression).

3

Thanks. I have been around for a months months learning tricks (using mediainfo to post the file info here) since i got my wdlive. Basically i should just download mkvmerge 3.1.0 and load the video that wont play, click start muxing and in about 5 minutes it should work on the wd? Will i lose any video or audio quality doing this?

Thanks

4

Yes, that will work (or download MKVMerge 4.0 – it’s the last “safe” version).

And it will just remux – no re-encoding and no loss of quality (and it’s very very fast to boot, should only take less than a minute even for a long file).

5

As regards remuxing with 4.0, does each file need to be remuxed twice – once with audio highlighted and again with video highlighted? I don’t see a way to remux both audio and video at the same time. Thanks.

6

Before i saw your response to my question i reinstalled 3.1 and all i did was load the video, named the output and started and was done in about 120 seconds. then i loaded up and watched about 10 minutes on the wd and seemed to work fine. anything i am missing?

7

No, that’s it.

And to the other poster, just run the file again through any version of MKVMerge 4.0 or earlier – you don’t have to select anything or do anything else.  It will produce an output file that works.

8

Thanks Mike. Easier than I originally imagined.