Topic: Import MKV (Read 7719 times)

jroyale · « **on:** November 16, 2007, 02:16:37 pm »

I can play mkv files fine but they will not import. Tried both to list it in auto import library as well as import a folder and it doesn't import it.

Any ideas?

rjm · « **Reply #1 on:** November 16, 2007, 02:31:36 pm »

MKV import works fine for me.

Try going to Tools\Auto-Import Options\Auto-Import Folders, choose the root folder that is giving you problems, and select Settings For This Folder...

In the video section, ensure that the media type "Media Containers (mkv,ogm)" is selected.

fitbrit · « **Reply #2 on:** November 16, 2007, 02:35:21 pm »

Are you sure that the ones not being imported are also able to play? I've noticed that some mkvs show up as data, rather than video under media type. Once that tag was corrected, it was fine to import and play. If this is the cause with your problematic mkvs, they won't be playing back fine. I've had a whole folder of mkvs recognised fine except for one file on occasion.

jroyale · « **Reply #3 on:** November 16, 2007, 05:16:29 pm »

That got it...thanks.

fitbrit · « **Reply #4 on:** November 17, 2007, 12:15:22 pm »

Since there were two different suggestions, can you tell us which worked; it will be helpful for anyone else having your problem. Cheers, and congratulations on getting it fixed.

jroyale · « **Reply #5 on:** November 22, 2007, 08:54:40 am »

Actually problem wasn't solved. I tried to first suggestion to tick of containers and that worked for a few but now I'm trying to import a few others and no go so I'll try the other suggestion although I'm not quire sure what he meant by once that tag was corrected so I'll play around unless somebody else has a suggestion.

I've found a very, very easy work around this issue though...just rename them to .avi and you'll be fine.

MrHaugen · « **Reply #6 on:** November 22, 2007, 09:01:14 am »

Quote from: jroyale on November 22, 2007, 08:54:40 am

Actually problem wasn't solved. I tried to first suggestion to tick of containers and that worked for a few but now I'm trying to import a few others and no go so I'll try the other suggestion although I'm not quire sure what he meant by once that tag was corrected so I'll play around unless somebody else has a suggestion.

I've found a very, very easy work around this issue though...just rename them to .avi and you'll be fine.

Would not recommend renaming the files. Might give you some problems later.
I belive your problem is that the mkv files shows up as "Data", not video?
If that is the case, select alle the files and hit Tag in the action menu. Scroll down to media type, and change it from data to video.
Hope it works.

jroyale · « **Reply #7 on:** November 22, 2007, 01:19:31 pm »

Will i have to do this all the time? If so would kind of suck because my HTPC doesn't ever leave the theatre view because it's easiest for my wife...I'll try it and see but not sure why an MKV would show up as data in a media center program....

glynor · « **Reply #8 on:** November 22, 2007, 01:36:32 pm »

It should only happen very occasionally... Are all or most of your MKV files showing up as Data?

If so... You probably have some DirectShow filter issues. What filters and codecs do you have installed? What is handling MKV splitting? What video format are the files in (XviD, x264, etc)?

fitbrit · « **Reply #9 on:** November 22, 2007, 01:45:26 pm »

glynor, it happens frequently, but these play back just fine in any other video player. From what I can tell you, it didn't happen (that I noticed) before about build 12.0.365.
Some folders have all or almost all as data, and in other folders it' the other way around. Almost all are x264 encodes.

When I first downloaded the trial, all mkv files I had were recognised and played back perfectly. Now they play back just fine, once changed from data to video. Doesn't seem to be a filter issue as far as I can tell.
I'm using CoreAVC, AC3 filter and Haali renderer (not sure abotu the last one, as I'm at work).

jroyale · « **Reply #10 on:** November 27, 2007, 10:23:59 am »

I'm using Haali splitter and Ffdshow. I tend to agree that it shouldn't be an issue on this end...I would think anyway.

Maybe an admin could impart some wisdom here and tell us if it's a known issue.

glynor · « **Reply #11 on:** November 27, 2007, 10:31:48 am »

Quote from: jroyale on November 27, 2007, 10:23:59 am

Maybe an admin could impart some wisdom here and tell us if it's a known issue.

I'm no admin, but it is a "known issue" but not to this degree. Perhaps something changed. In the past, I'd see it happen, but only very occasionally (maybe 1 out of every 30 MKV files imported or so).

I use FFDSHOW and Haali (via CCCP) and I have very few, but occasional, import problems. I actually just finished a huge batch of x264 MKV encodes last night. I'll check when I get home and see how they import.

Could those people who are having issues maybe try:

1. Providing exact details on how many imports are failing. Perhaps remove a big group of MKVs from your library (make a backup first if they have a bunch of tag data stored), re-import them, and tell us how many failed to how many worked.
2. Provide us with your exact filter chain, including Source Filter, Transform Filters, and Video Renderer. Read this if you don't know what I mean.
3. After this test, try rolling back a few builds prior to 265 (there were some big code changes right then) and see if you can reproduce the problem again using the exact same file set.

jroyale · « **Reply #12 on:** December 18, 2007, 09:51:19 am »

It's happening on virtually all mkv files for me now.

Could you run through a detailed explanation on how I change it from data to video. I can't seem to find that option. I'm not sure what the problem is here but i've noticed that it has a haali icon when it's mkv and when I change it to avi it moves to the movie icon...not sure if that means anything or not.

gappie · « **Reply #13 on:** December 18, 2007, 10:02:30 am »

Quote from: jroyale on December 18, 2007, 09:51:19 am

It's happening on virtually all mkv files for me now.

Could you run through a detailed explanation on how I change it from data to video. I can't seem to find that option. I'm not sure what the problem is here but i've noticed that it has a haali icon when it's mkv and when I change it to avi it moves to the movie icon...not sure if that means anything or not.

ive seen it in the past a few times. yeah, maybe 1 out of 30, and it is a while back now that it happened for the last time.

to change data to media. click the file. open the tag window. look if you see media type there. if not choose show all tags (via the symbol left from the header 'tag'). change the media type to video.

jroyale · « **Reply #14 on:** December 18, 2007, 10:04:37 am »

Thaks Gappie...love your cat btw. Still...I have to do this on virtually every mkv file.

Any Admin want to impart some wisdom as to if this is a known issue and if there is going to be a fix.

And here is a perfect expample of why this type of support lacks any real substance....they end up getting the user to answer most of their problems and when we have a pointed question that only an admin can answer they are no where to be found.

JimH · « **Reply #15 on:** December 18, 2007, 10:21:42 am »

The users often know more than the developers about how to use the program.

Your problem is probably in the DirectShow area. Please read about MKV (it's a container) and read the wiki here for help on DirectShow.

And to address your comment about support lacking "any real substance", please take a look at this poll we did recently.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=43107.0;viewResults

gappie · « **Reply #16 on:** December 18, 2007, 10:40:07 am »

what i think the problem is, jim, that at one end you can choose mkv under video as a format to import. so someone could expect that it then is imported as video. when the files end up as data it feels as something goes wrong.

gappie · « **Reply #17 on:** December 18, 2007, 10:42:43 am »

Quote from: jroyale on December 18, 2007, 10:04:37 am

Thaks Gappie...love your cat btw. Still...I have to do this on virtually every mkv file.

just select all the files with data as media type and change them at the same time to video.

JimH · « **Reply #18 on:** December 18, 2007, 10:43:56 am »

Quote from: gappie on December 18, 2007, 10:40:07 am

what i think the problem is, jim, that at one end you can choose mkv under video as a format to import. so someone could expect that it then is imported as video. when the files end up as data it feels as something goes wrong.

That happens if MC can't find a way to read whatever is inside the MKV file.

gappie · « **Reply #19 on:** December 18, 2007, 10:46:02 am »

Quote from: JimH on December 18, 2007, 10:43:56 am

That happens if MC can't find a way to read whatever is inside the MKV file.

i know.

JimH · « **Reply #20 on:** December 18, 2007, 10:58:07 am »

I thought you knew.

To go any further, we'd need to understand what filetype is inside the file, and how MC is configured to play that filetype.

gappie · « **Reply #21 on:** December 18, 2007, 11:20:25 am »

Quote from: JimH on December 18, 2007, 10:58:07 am

I thought you knew.

To go any further, we'd need to understand what filetype is inside the file, and how MC is configured to play that filetype.

i understand what you are saying. and i dont know the solution. but from point of view from someone who just started to use mc and is not reading the forum for a while, it can be dificult to understand why the files he just said to be imported under video, ends up as data. if on the other hand, the files would import under video, but would not play back right (or maybe they would as seen in this thread), the story of the direct filters, which is rather complex imo, would get an other perspective.
for instance, in my understanding, an mkv file should always be a video file (the V), the question: why does my mkv file not play? would be an easier road then: why dont (some of) my mkv files get imported?

just my thoughts about it, trying to understand why sometimes people get upset about it.

)p( · « **Reply #22 on:** December 18, 2007, 11:28:06 am »

Quote from: gappie on December 18, 2007, 11:20:25 am

for instance, in my understanding, an mkv file should always be a video file (the V), the question: why does my mkv file not play? would be an easier road then: why dont (some of) my mkv files get imported?

just my thoughts about it, trying to understand why sometimes people get upset about it.

Yeah I agree. As a new user I also was surprised that my mkv's did not show up at first under video. If a filteype is set to be imported as video you expect it to find it there even if you can't play it. After a quick search on the forum I found out where they went and why. After that I did setup .mkv properly on my server using haali/coreavc and now they also import correctly

peter

fitbrit · « **Reply #23 on:** December 19, 2007, 09:26:04 am »

Quote from: JimH on December 18, 2007, 10:58:07 am

I thought you knew.

To go any further, we'd need to understand what filetype is inside the file, and how MC is configured to play that filetype.

Well, it's still happening a lot with my MKV files. In fact last night as I imported a folder to which I'd made additions, some of existing mkv videos changed to "data"! These were files that had been in my library for weeks and had been played.
They're x264 encoded, with AC3 5.1 audio.

I have these split/decoded with Haali/CoreAVC and AC3Filter. Playback is perfect once I manually change the mediatype to Video from data. In fact, I just made a smartlist last night so any files that are mkv with mediatype data or unknown get added to it. I'll be monitoring to fix the problem as it occurs. The only pain is that I have to manually make the thumbnail from a screenshot.

glynor · « **Reply #24 on:** December 19, 2007, 09:39:26 am »

I agree... I'm not using CoreAVC (I'm using FFDSHOW and Haali) and I'm still seeing the issue as well with a significant number of my x264 encodes. Almost all of them that are improperly identified in my case are x264 MKVs with AAC (Nero) audio. I also have had a few with AC3 audio.

I strongly suspect that this issue has something to do with a timeout when MC imports the files. I think that sometimes x264 is just slower than whatever timeout is set to determine if the MKV will play in DirectShow as part of MC's testing phase to determine media type, perhaps particularly with big files or those on a slower network drive (even though my network is pretty fast).

For me, in almost every single case the MKVs which "failed" were ones I actually encoded myself, and in all cases are ones which work perfectly once the media type is fixed.

fitbrit · « **Reply #25 on:** December 19, 2007, 01:44:00 pm »

Quote from: glynor on December 19, 2007, 09:39:26 am

I agree... I'm not using CoreAVC (I'm using FFDSHOW and Haali) and I'm still seeing the issue as well with a significant number of my x264 encodes. Almost all of them that are improperly identified in my case are x264 MKVs with AAC (Nero) audio. I also have had a few with AC3 audio.

I strongly suspect that this issue has something to do with a timeout when MC imports the files. I think that sometimes x264 is just slower than whatever timeout is set to determine if the MKV will play in DirectShow as part of MC's testing phase to determine media type, perhaps particularly with big files or those on a slower network drive (even though my network is pretty fast).

For me, in almost every single case the MKVs which "failed" were ones I actually encoded myself, and in all cases are ones which work perfectly once the media type is fixed.

Your speculative explanation seems to make sense. All my videos are stored on NAS devices, feeding the PC via gigabit ethernet. I started another thread a couple of days ago (no replies as yet) about a "bug" where certain files wouldn't play from within MC, but would play with MC fine if launched from Windows Explorer. I wonder if there's a similar issue with different timeouts set as default, depending on how a file is launched?

glynor · « **Reply #26 on:** December 19, 2007, 01:47:09 pm »

Most of mine are too, though I've seen MC import MKV files "wrong" that were on a fast, local, RAID5 drive... So it isn't JUST file location. It probably has more to do with the speed of the system and x264 and the size of the file itself. I don't really know. It certainly isn't easy to reproduce on command, but is simple to see in aggregate!

gundan · « **Reply #27 on:** December 21, 2007, 11:56:47 am »

I have noticed a similar problem, I added a bunch of new mkv's into the system, but MC would never auto import it. I vaguely remember seeing a similar problem in a different forum, and one of the fix was to rename the file to make it much smaller, I did the same here. The files in question had LONG names. I truncated it to something smaller, lo and behold everything shows up in the library just fine.

JimH · « **Reply #28 on:** December 21, 2007, 11:58:34 am »

Quote from: gundan on December 21, 2007, 11:56:47 am

I have noticed a similar problem, I added a bunch of new mkv's into the system, but MC would never auto import it. I vaguely remember seeing a similar problem in a different forum, and one of the fix was to rename the file to make it much smaller, I did the same here. The files in question had LONG names. I truncated it to something smaller, lo and behold everything shows up in the library just fine.

Quicktime has a 64 character limit for the full path and file name.

Yaobing · « **Reply #29 on:** December 21, 2007, 12:22:23 pm »

Quote from: JimH on December 21, 2007, 11:58:34 am

Quicktime has a 64 character limit for the full path and file name.

This should not be an issue with mkv since we do not play mkv in QT engine. I have not heard of Haali Media Splitter having problem with long file names.

Yaobing · « **Reply #30 on:** December 21, 2007, 02:02:03 pm »

jroyale/glynor/fitbrit:

Can you email me a log file so I can try identify a pattern? I am not sure whether this will accomplish anything, but I will have a look anyway.

fitbrit · « **Reply #31 on:** December 21, 2007, 03:06:49 pm »

Quote from: Yaobing on December 21, 2007, 02:02:03 pm

jroyale/glynor/fitbrit:

Can you email me a log file so I can try identify a pattern? I am not sure whether this will accomplish anything, but I will have a look anyway.

Yeah, it's about time I learned about the log and where to find it etc. I'll send you an email as soon as I can figure it out.

glynor · « **Reply #32 on:** December 21, 2007, 03:26:25 pm »

Quote from: Yaobing on December 21, 2007, 02:02:03 pm

jroyale/glynor/fitbrit:

Can you email me a log file so I can try identify a pattern? I am not sure whether this will accomplish anything, but I will have a look anyway.

I'll do what I can, but I'm leaving for the holidays on Sunday so it might be a bit hectic around here...

jroyale · « **Reply #33 on:** March 05, 2008, 01:40:54 pm »

It's been a while since I've been back here. A few things...there was a user who tackled the problem. If you could go through an extensive explanation that would be great. Again, I'm using FFDSHOW and HAALI MEDIA MEDIA SPLITTER. Second, someone said something about a log. Not sure where that is.

JimH · « **Reply #34 on:** March 05, 2008, 02:09:50 pm »

MC Help has logging options.

fitbrit · « **Reply #35 on:** March 05, 2008, 06:11:16 pm »

Quote from: jroyale on March 05, 2008, 01:40:54 pm

It's been a while since I've been back here. A few things...there was a user who tackled the problem. If you could go through an extensive explanation that would be great. Again, I'm using FFDSHOW and HAALI MEDIA MEDIA SPLITTER. Second, someone said something about a log. Not sure where that is.

The "mkv not being imported as video" issue has been fixed in recent builds. It works great now.

jroyale · « **Reply #36 on:** March 31, 2008, 02:22:03 pm »

I just got back from a vacation so I'll work on the log. I have the most recent version and I can assure you that it doesn't work great now.

Thanks.

fitbrit · « **Reply #37 on:** March 31, 2008, 03:05:30 pm »

Quote from: jroyale on March 31, 2008, 02:22:03 pm

I just got back from a vacation so I'll work on the log. I have the most recent version and I can assure you that it doesn't work great now.

Thanks.

Damn, I'm sorry to hear that. It really does work fine for me.

leezer3 · « **Reply #38 on:** March 31, 2008, 03:32:03 pm »

I've never had any issues with MKV

Most of my 20,000 file video library is in MKV & I'm slowly converting the rest to conform.
There's a right mix of stuf in mine, both x264 with AAC/ AC3 & much older DivX stuff. They're stored both on local drives and the network, so I don't see an issue here. Directshow/ Haali should also be pretty common to all, so I'd look elsewhere again- Operating system or processor speed?
FWIW-
E6320 @ 2.6ghz
2gb RAM
2.5tb local disks & 2tb network server
Windows Vista Business

Cheers

-Leezer-

jroyale · « **Reply #39 on:** April 01, 2008, 06:16:55 am »

I'm running win xp sp2 with a intel duo core 2 processor at I think 1.8. I love MC and now have set up 2 other HTPC's running the software on my recommendation and all of them have the same issue. I will say however they are all runnning the same software (FFDSSHOW AND HAALI) that I am so it may be an issue there.

With the logging...if I can find it I turn it on and then try and import and video and it will log that is that correct?

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Author Topic: Import MKV (Read 7719 times)