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Author Topic: MP4 playback problem continued  (Read 1727 times)

bbrip

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MP4 playback problem continued
« on: October 28, 2007, 02:59:05 pm »

Even with the latest 358 Version installed, I still dont get mp4 files played form a network drive.

MC12 continues to ask for QT player, evne so ffdshow filters are selected in the Directshow options.

This continues to be the only media player I have tried óver the past months that has these troubles.  Anythings else plays the mp4 files fomr a network drive without trouble,  including

Nero Showtime
Mplayer Classic
Zoomplayer
MediaPortal Player

etc.etc.

However, MC12 still is the system I would like to use as it has the most powerful database of all of them. So why on earth is it not possibly for you smart guys to fix this problem that has been around for a long while ?

I am at a loss here

BBrip
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lalittle

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MP4 playback problem continued
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2007, 06:11:24 pm »

Even with the latest 358 Version installed, I still dont get mp4 files played form a network drive.

MC12 continues to ask for QT player, evne so ffdshow filters are selected in the Directshow options.

I solved this by installing the CCCP codec pack, which includes both the ffdshow filters and the haali splitter needed to play these files.  This uses Directshow filters for playing these files rather than QT. thereby getting around the 63 character of QT.  Note that the only change in MC I had to make was to go the Directshow playback settings and check "mp4" in the list.  I didn't have to make any "advanced" modifications to the filters.

You mentioned that you're using ffdshow, but you didn't say if you installed the CCCP pack.  If you're already using this filter pack, then I don't know why it isn't working for you.  If not, then I'd recommend uninstalling the ffdshow filters that you DO have and trying the CCCP pack.  Go to http://www.cccp-project.net/ and get both the pack and the "Insurgent" file, which checks your system for other codec packs that may interfere with CCCP and allows you to remove them.  Run the Insurgent file, then install the pack.  Once installed, go to the DShow settings in MC and check "mp4" in the list.  This is what worked for me.

Larry
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trott

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Re: MP4 playback problem continued
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2007, 04:43:59 am »

You don't have to do anything to the filters. However, ffdshow contains only the codec.

Directshow works like this:
1) you have a file which contains, let's say, audio and video (these are the streams in the file). All streams are encoded  (eg xvid, h.264, mpeg-2 for the video and mp3, aac or ogg for the audio). Let's assume you have a file with xvid video and mp3 audio.
2) these streams have to be put together. To avoid having to put them in separate files (which is often done for subtitles for an avi file) they are put in a container. Containers also give other features such as tagging support. Some common containers are: AVI, MKV, MP4, WMV,WMA, ... Container formats like MP4 and MKV also support putting a subtitle stream in the file.
3) to play back this file, 2 things must be done:
  • The file needs to be split into its sub-streams
  • Every stream needs to be decoded

The first thing is handled by a directshow splitter, the decoding part is handled by a codec. Now this is not a problem for AVI files as Microsoft includes the AVI splitter by default in Windows. However, for MP4 files (or MKV or other types) you need to install a splitter in addition to the codec. Currently, while you could decode the streams, you cannot split the container they're in so directshow playback fails and a second attempt is made using Quicktime.

A popular splitter is the Haali media splitter. The CCCP pack installs both a splitter and a codec which is wy most people use that, it would seem. I personally don't install it since I don't like codec packs (updating separate components can be tricky and you never know what's in them). In your case, I would just download and use the Haali splitter. (http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/)

Note: to be complete, you might also want to install vsfilter (the new name for directvobsub). It is a directshow filter which allows you to display subtitles for various container formats. FFDshow already has some support for subtitles but imo vsfilter supports more formats.

Also consult the Directshow playback faq on this board as it contains some useful info.

I know the situation with MC is complicated since so many different splitters exist for non-avi formats. However, saying "yes, configure directshow, it's a directshow issue" is also not the way to go for a product which after all you paid for. Maybe JRiver could test some filter combinations, decide which is the most stable and have an optional checkbox during installation which allows you to playback at least mp4 and mkv containers with subs, mp4 video and/or audio and mp3/aac audio in them?

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glynor

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Re: MP4 playback problem continued
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2007, 09:27:04 am »

bbrip... I too am at a loss on your issue.  My only guess is that there is some rogue filter that is causing problems, but the whole thing is bizarre.

Larry and trott... You might not be aware of this, but we worked quite hard on this issue a few weeks ago (there was a three or four page thread).  He has all the appropriate filters installed.  If I recall properly, the MP4 files play back fine in all other DirectShow players (ZoomPlayer, MPC, WiMP, etc) and local-media MP4 files play back fine in MC.  The issue affects ONLY MC12 and affects ONLY network-located files.

bbrip... Could you maybe give me a refresher on what you've tried?  I know we tried manually fixing the MC12 registry for the DirectShow filters, and checked all the filters themselves.  But remind me...

1. Did you do a complete uninstall of MC12 (including deleting all registry entries), reboot, and reinstall?
2. Did you try with a blank library (after the reinstall)?
3. Do the files work if you manually change the extension to MKV or AVI?
4. Have you checked to ensure your network can handle the traffic without corrupting data?  I realize that the other players work, but they may be less sensitive to data corruption than MC is.

Regarding #4, if you haven't done serious testing on this... I have a little story.  A year or two ago I was having an issue where playback of video files with MC from a network drive would work, but the videos would occasionally (and randomly) freeze during playback.  Sometimes they would stop completely, and sometimes the audio or video stream would continue but the other wouldn't.  If you simply skipped ahead or back a bit then it would "fix itself" and continue playing, but soon enough it would freeze again.

I couldn't figure it out and it only happened with MC.  VLC and MPC both worked fine as far as I could tell.

Then... A little while later I noticed that in large groups of photos in MC, where the photos were saved on a network drive, the thumbnails would get "corrupted" (there's some screenshots on Interact if you care to search).  It was random, and it was only the thumbs.  The pictures themselves were fine.  If I cleared my thumbnail cache, and re-thumbed, then different ones would get corrupted.

Turned out that it was my network.  Specifically, I had a bad piece of network hardware (a bad NIC card) on one machine, AND a messed up Windows install on another machine (which was caused by installing the craptastic Nvidia firewall program that came with my Nforce3 motherboard, which was impossible to remove without wiping the drive and starting from scratch).  The way I diagnosed this was:

1. I created a few sets of known-good files and transferred them manually to my network drive (via an external drive).  These sets were: a bunch of pictures (I grabbed a set of images from my photo collection), a set of game maps and textures from the original UT, a collection of 5-10 AVI files (TV shows), and 2 huge MPEG-2 movie recordings.  All told the collection of test files was about 10GB and consisted of a blend of a few big monolithic files, a bunch medium sized JPEGs, and a HUGE number of small files (the UT maps and textures).

2. I then created MD5 hashes of these files (this is easy using MD5Summer but you can use a command line MD5 generator if you want).  I stored these MD5 files along with the test sets on the network drive.

3. I would then systematically start MULTIPLE copy operations from each of my machines from the network drive, over to the C drive on the "receiving" computer.  I discovered that grabbing the whole batch at once and copying over was FAR more reliable with my system than copying each folder independently but simultaneously.  In other words, I'd start one set copying, and while it was going, I'd start the next, and the next, and the next, so that they were all copying over at the same time.  This, of course, makes it go slower, but it is harder on the network as well.

4. Once the copies were finished, I'd check the MD5 file against the new copies (using MD5Summer).  While my network was messed up, it would almost always throw errors all over the place.  Again, just copying the whole batch would usually work properly (I'd only get one or two corrupt files in the batch), but doing it the way I described above I'd get tons of corrupt files.  You shouldn't get ANY at all.

5. I did this over and over, while making changes (swapping out hardware, changing network settings, changing cables, etc, etc, etc).  I didn't consider the situation fixed until I was able to do this 3 times in a row with no corrupt files at all.  On a few occasions I thought I had it because I'd make it through one "run" with no corrupt files, but then I'd run it again and it would fail.  It turned out to be a long nightmare (as I said, there were two different issues) but I did eventually get it figured out.
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trott

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Re: MP4 playback problem continued
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2007, 10:07:31 am »

Right, I feel a bit silly now for typing out all that stuff then...

Did you try to render the file in graphedit to make sure all your filters are working correctly?
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glynor

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Re: MP4 playback problem continued
« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2007, 10:56:35 am »

Did you try to render the file in graphedit to make sure all your filters are working correctly?

Not a bad idea, just to see in detail what's going on.

If you don't know what GraphEdit is or how to use it, you can get it and see a little description on the DirectShow Playback Guide in the Wiki here: http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DirectShow_Playback_Guide#What_is_DirectShow.3F_What_is_a_DirectShow_filter.3F and in the Filter Types addition here: http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DirectShow_Playback_Guide:Filter_Types
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bbrip

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Re: MP4 playback problem continued
« Reply #6 on: November 11, 2007, 03:08:53 pm »

bbrip... I too am at a loss on your issue.  My only guess is that there is some rogue filter that is causing problems, but the whole thing is bizarre.


I have changed the datatyp from "mp4" to "mp2", now MC12 DOES use the ffdshow filters rather then asking for Quicktime.

But it gives strange colors on playback.... All very pale etc...

Can that be changed somewhere?

Again, why MC12 cant play mp4 correctly by default is just beyond me. I've got everything set up as requested, and - yes - CCCP is installed as well.  MP4 works on any other player, just not on MC12.

Anyway, changing filetype to mp2 is a workaround for now - if someone could offer some ideas on how to fix the funny color issue...

Thanks
BBrip
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