Dificulty transcoding MKVs with Handbrake

[Pooneil]

I ripped 10 BDs to MKV files, all play perfectly in VLC on my computer. I then tried to transcoding the files in Handbrake and only some came out as playable in VLC. Avatar, some Harry Potters and others failed as m4v files. The failed conversions also made file sizes that were much larger than the correctly working files. I tried converting only 90 seconds of Prisoner of Azkaban, which produced a good video even though the full file wasn't playable. All were done with the same settings.

ETA: By won't play I mean VLC does not start the movie or show a running time nor will Windows show a length property.

I am looking for some help in investigating the reasons for some MKVs to work while others don't. Any pointers?

I am currently transcoding a new rip of Avatar, to see if it makes any difference, but the a trial and error process is time consuming.

[Woodstock]

When I ran Avatar through HB, it really only worked when I had MakeMKV back up the Bluray, then turned HB loose on the unencrypted backup. Otherwise, it had problems with the subtitles. But that's been a few (nightly build) versions ago. And if you're not using a nightly build, don't bother using HB on BD video (personal opinion).

[Romansh]

"Large file size" checkbox, anyone?

[Smithcraft]

Encode log from a file that doesn't play?

SC

[Chetwood]

Asking on the right forum?

[Pooneil]

When I ran Avatar through HB, it really only worked when I had MakeMKV back up the Bluray, then turned HB loose on the unencrypted backup. Otherwise, it had problems with the subtitles. But that's been a few (nightly build) versions ago. And if you're not using a nightly build, don't bother using HB on BD video (personal opinion).

From this suggestion I tried a disk backup. The file was still not playable.

OTOH, if I transcode only a few chapters at a time, the file is playable. So far transcoding chapters 1 to 15 produces a file of 3.690 gig that was playable while Chapters 21 to 36 at 4.468 gig was not playable. Also transcoding to a much smaller resolution with a 1 gig files size for streaming purposes had no problem playing. My working hypothesis at this time is that the file size is simply too large.

This may be a function of handbrake or my Windows 7 system. So I guess it is time to try on my old and single core XP computer. I'll also try a nightly build as you suggest.

[Woodstock]

What version of HB are you using? If it is a recent nightly build, the "High Profile" setting will default to checking "Large file size" when dealing with MP4 files. If that is NOT checked when you start the transcoding, the file will still be created, but it will be invalid if it exceeds 4GB in size.

Now, not all player software is compatible with 64-bit ("Large") MP4 files, which is why you can go back to 32-bit ("Not large") encoding.

VLC 2.x is definitely capable of playing large MP4s.

[Pooneil]

Thanks for the suggestion, Woodstock. I am a newby to MakeMKV and ripping BR disks.

I typically have used HB in Normal mode without large file size checked because in my experience with DVDs it makes no difference in visible quality. I am running a new transcode of my backup of Avatar now in high profile with the large file size box checked.

Avatar has transcoded into a 10 gig file for me (albeit unplayable) where as other BR disks of movies of similar length transcode into files of less that 4 gig. Such as HP & the Half-blood Prince, which is about 7 minutes shorter. What is the reason for that? Is there anything I can do to reduce the Avatar file size while maintaining quality or is the movie just that much more complex?

I am currently using the latest nightly build of HB.

ETA I see that the HB wiki confirms what you say Woodstock. Now I can just hope that my TV will play these files from a hard drive.

[shane.cole]

Do a memory health check on your computer, encoding is very taxing on your system and can end up with files that never encode or stop.

Any other stability software is worth testing too. Not all problems create blue screens sometimes they just cause weird things too happen.

You said small runs like a chapter often works fine but a whole movie it creates files that won't play or encode to very large sizes... If you can test on another computer with the same files to see if they encode ok is another option.

[Pooneil]

Thanks Woodstock, your suggestion of using Large File Size did the trick.