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Author Topic: mp4/mkv files (h.264) not playing for me  (Read 1958 times)

steveklein

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mp4/mkv files (h.264) not playing for me
« on: October 02, 2007, 06:37:21 pm »

i've been ripping my dvds but media center 12 is not playing them back.

i've got a fresh install of windows xp with all the updates, MC12 build 332 (dont think 335 gonna change things), and the only codecs i installed were the CCCP and they were all installed successfully.

when i play the files in windows media player 11, they work fine and they use ffdshow codec filters according to the properties.when i try playing them in media center 12, they don't play back and instead tell me quicktime isn't installed on my computer which is absurd because the files aren't quicktime at all!

anyone got any ideas as to how to get this fixed? i've read through glynor's post about video in MC12 but have not yet found the answer but will continue to research it...
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JimH

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Re: mp4/mkv files (h.264) not playing for me
« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2007, 06:45:25 pm »

It could be your DirectShow settings for the file types.
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steveklein

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Re: mp4/mkv files (h.264) not playing for me
« Reply #2 on: October 02, 2007, 07:08:16 pm »

It could be your DirectShow settings for the file types.

how do i go about fixing it? i picked the ffdshow audio and video decoder filters to use for those file types. is that not what i'm supposed to do?
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glynor

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Re: mp4/mkv files (h.264) not playing for me
« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2007, 08:09:30 pm »

Did you read this? http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DirectShow_Playback_Guide

Particularly this part: http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DirectShow_Playback_Guide#What_filters_do_I_need_and_where_do_I_get_them.3F

You mentioned FFDSHOW but not Haali media splitter.  Both are needed to decode MKV files (there are older splitters out there but Haali's is the "supported" one by the MKV folks).  The recommended decoding system for all Matroska files is CCCP.  If you've downloaded and installed FFDSHOW separately, I highly recommend you remove it and use the CCCP install instead, unless you are confident that you know what you are doing.

After that, simply make sure that both MP4 and MKV are checked in Options --> Playback --> DirectShow Playback settings (and uncheck any boxes inside the individual configuration for MP4 and MKV), and you should be set.  If not, perhaps something else is going on...
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steveklein

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Re: mp4/mkv files (h.264) not playing for me
« Reply #4 on: October 02, 2007, 09:02:35 pm »

Did you read this? http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DirectShow_Playback_Guide

Particularly this part: http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DirectShow_Playback_Guide#What_filters_do_I_need_and_where_do_I_get_them.3F

You mentioned FFDSHOW but not Haali media splitter.  Both are needed to decode MKV files (there are older splitters out there but Haali's is the "supported" one by the MKV folks).  The recommended decoding system for all Matroska files is CCCP.  If you've downloaded and installed FFDSHOW separately, I highly recommend you remove it and use the CCCP install instead, unless you are confident that you know what you are doing.

After that, simply make sure that both MP4 and MKV are checked in Options --> Playback --> DirectShow Playback settings (and uncheck any boxes inside the individual configuration for MP4 and MKV), and you should be set.  If not, perhaps something else is going on...

yeah i've read through all of that. i didn't ave the haali media splitter checked before but now i do and i still get the same quicktime error. and yes i installed just the cccp. it's a real bummer... it's such a bizarre error. i mean quicktime? mkv files don't point to quicktime at all do they?
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glynor

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Re: mp4/mkv files (h.264) not playing for me
« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2007, 08:17:07 am »

H264 can be decoded by Quicktime.  MKV is only the container format, once you split out the video stream, you need another filter to decode it (which should be FFDSHOW).  Something is failing in the decode process somewhere.  I wonder if this is similar to the recent weirdo MP4 playback issue we worked on here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=42244.0

Question... Do the same MKV files play back in Windows Media Player?  How about ZoomPlayer and/or Media Player Classic?

Also, read this section of the above linked thread.  Could you post the TXT file generated by the script I posted there (or manually save and post the relevant registry key)?
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glynor

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Re: mp4/mkv files (h.264) not playing for me
« Reply #6 on: October 03, 2007, 08:21:45 am »

yeah i've read through all of that. i didn't ave the haali media splitter checked before but now i do and i still get the same quicktime error.

You shouldn't really need to check ANYTHING in the DirectShow Playback Options configuration for each individual media type.  You only need to check those boxes if you want MC to use something other than the default system decoders.  If you've installed CCCP following the instructions, all the appropriate decoders should be the defaults, so you don't need to override them.

For example...



This window should be "empty" for each media type, in almost all circumstances.
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steveklein

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Re: mp4/mkv files (h.264) not playing for me
« Reply #7 on: October 03, 2007, 10:13:31 am »

well i fixed the problem, though i'm not sure what it was specifically that fixed it as i did not change one variable at a time and there's no way i'm going back to figure out what it was because i'ma fraid i won't ever get it working again. here's what i did:

- against your advice, i checked the boxes for direct show filters that i wanted to use for mp4 and mkv files. i told it to use the media splitter, and then of course the ffdshow codecs/filters for both video and audio.

- installed the latest version of quicktime

- ran windows update, rebooted



...and now it works. i think it may have been the installation of quicktime that did it.
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