Playback problems with VC-1 .mkv files.

[OsloBergen]

I recently discovered a problem with a few discs having choppy playback with blocky artifacts in VLC after ripping to .mkv. This only happens with the special features on Batman Returns, Green Zone and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. All playback is fine in a set-top player, no scratches on the new discs and a few discs have been replaced with the same result. Anyone else have a problem with these titles. I thought that it might be a codec issue and just VLC couldn't play them but after conversion of Batman Returns with Handbrake they still look the same. I've done straight rips with MakeMKV as well as ripping backups with and without decryption selected. The backup logs and conversion logs from the decrypted backup for each title are below. If there is any more information I can give please let me know. In an effort to condense this post if a line was repeated I added (x0) at the end to show how many times it was repeated

Batman Returns

Backup Log:
DAFD=PAAAADAAAAEABDQkEEQEBAQIBDQAAAAAgAAAAAAAAAAA=
DCE=ISpPdEPUcHzgXN9yXxTUo6ty/FKNgIhLcdJxD//tnnCam6+4NnU9C6Q5ICXtu8px0gCXKWqtSjn9uqd4MXtpgkHZPgRfRdb7bvqbVMDWLis1xoyq23K/Y8ds7EYz36hzU6Ggb+FhiscQXaHnP6zU+MFE5TA8XhuVyA==
005085:0000 Loaded content hash table, will verify integrity of M2TS files.
005070:0080 Backup done
005081:0104 Backup done.
001003:0020 DEBUG: Code 2281701379 at 4*QFv]2$L9s\k[>i:213134699 (x175)

Conversion Log:
002008:0020 Program reads data faster than it can write to disk,
consider upgrading your hard drive if you see many of these messages. (x7)

AV sync issues in /Users/OsBerg/Movies/Batman Returns/title01.mkv
AV sync in 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 at 0:03:07.320 (7.533ms) : encountered overlapping frame, audio skew is +7.533ms
AV sync issues in /Users/OsBerg/Movies/Batman Returns/title02.mkv
AV sync in 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 at 0:04:29.569 (30.7ms) : encountered overlapping frame, audio skew is +30.7ms
AV sync in 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 at 0:09:02.241 (31.6ms) : encountered overlapping frame, audio skew is +62.3ms
AV sync in 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 at 0:09:02.304 (32ms) : 1 frame(s) dropped to reduce audio skew to +30.3ms
AV sync issues in /Users/OsBerg/Movies/Batman Returns/title03.mkv
AV sync in 1,2,3,4 at 0:03:07.320 (7.533ms) : encountered overlapping frame, audio skew is +7.533ms
AV sync issues in /Users/OsBerg/Movies/Batman Returns/title04.mkv
AV sync in 1,2,3,4 at 0:04:29.569 (30.7ms) : encountered overlapping frame, audio skew is +30.7ms
AV sync in 1,2,3,4 at 0:09:02.241 (31.6ms) : encountered overlapping frame, audio skew is +62.3ms
AV sync in 1,2,3,4 at 0:09:02.304 (32ms) : 1 frame(s) dropped to reduce audio skew to +30.3ms

Green Zone

Backup Log:
DAFD=PAAAADAAAAEABDQkEEQEBAQIBDQAAAAAgAAAAAAAAAAA=
DCE=5fTlmB9bQofaGmpQ96zBVu5TsfLWrwZnV8DB6iRGfECg4vCSz9NVHfOLpDdhpk9FLhTh1gMGtQ27dFgRa1jTf9pFoJmM0LDqAAD1JJzHn0OWenIh/dXbE+6XG+BZup4pPJiYn7PYy63Rm0rMsycKAAi0N3rcoUvShw==
005085:0000 Loaded content hash table, will verify integrity of M2TS files.
005070:0080 Backup done
005081:0104 Backup done.


Conversion Log:
002008:0020 Program reads data faster than it can write to disk,
consider upgrading your hard drive if you see many of these messages. (x2)

AV sync issues in /Users/OsBerg/Movies/Green_Zone/Green_Zone_t01.mkv
AV sync in 1 at 0:01:09.819 (4.25ms) : encountered overlapping frame, audio skew is +4.25ms

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Backup Log:
DAFD=PAAAADAAAAEABDQkEEQEBAQIBDQAAAAAgAAAAAAAAAAA=
DCE=KpupXzUcXSFlOaU4aFyy+ctwEAw2nqoyeqSlMyASkqSgkBuNKIUiQA6teVxk9TTnLCp+vNsZoi/GRimWZxJ7psn1kv6bCGg1FwTbQbRM/RiiU/qWCXdPqSstbi/YDVjtqw+NrMK2J4ZD5m0gjZsTUMhO3vlRx6YhOA==
005085:0000 Loaded content hash table, will verify integrity of M2TS files.
005070:0080 Backup done
005081:0104 Backup done.

Conversion Log:
Nothing other than removing forced subtitle tracks that are empty.

Forgot to add that I'm using MakeMKV v1.8.6.

[Woodstock]

Blocky playback can describe several problems. One of which is issues with BD+ translation, but your log do not contain the portion where BD+ error messages would be displayed.

However, it can also describe the drive not supplying video to VLC fast enough. If you pause VLC, and back it up over a section that had blocky output, can it "suddenly" play it fine? When you're playing back, you do you ever see the time window (lower right corner in Windows version) go dark and show VLC's read buffer being refilled?

[OsloBergen]

Blocky playback can describe several problems. One of which is issues with BD+ translation, but your log do not contain the portion where BD+ error messages would be displayed.

However, it can also describe the drive not supplying video to VLC fast enough. If you pause VLC, and back it up over a section that had blocky output, can it "suddenly" play it fine? When you're playing back, you do you ever see the time window (lower right corner in Windows version) go dark and show VLC's read buffer being refilled?

Thanks for the reply.

No BD+ error codes in the debug log files.

In regard to VLC I opened The Bat, The Cat and The Penguin an old promo that was on the Batman Returns disc. Although the video was slow and almost stuttered it managed to get through the title before the blocky artifacts began, which is the same as previous times I tried playing it. I scanned back to the beginning of the track and the artifacts started immediately which makes me assume that they are not on the video itself and have something to do with playback.

I'm on a Mac, but I never noticed a buffer of any kind appear during playback.

If it's just playback though why, after running through Handbrake, would the artifacts also be present when the .m4v file is played through Quicktime?

I don't know, I've ripped a few hundred discs over the last couple of years and this is the first time I've seen this. Actually the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory disc was about a year ago, but I just figured it was a bad disc until the Batman Returns and Green Zone discs earlier this week.

[crowfax]

I have always tried to use SMplayer it has never given me a problem. Perhaps you can try it and report back.

[OsloBergen]

I have always tried to use SMplayer it has never given me a problem. Perhaps you can try it and report back.

I found a version of Mplayer and that seemed to work with only minor artifacts popping up occasionally. It's not the main movie so I can live with that. Ultimately I would like to convert them to .m4v to play on the aTV, but if Quicktime is picking up on the same artifacts after a Handbrake encode I don't know how easy that will be. I have a few other converters I could try.

Thanks for the software advice.

[Woodstock]

If the artifacts come and go, that's not a file problem, but a bandwidth problem... Either the data isn't getting to the player fast enough for it to render, or the player isn't getting enough processor time to do the decoding. Sometimes it is both.

If I'm doing a handbrake encode, my CPU stays pinned at 95-100% on all cores for the duration, so sometimes playback suffers.

If I'm ripping multiple disks (really fun to have 3 or 4 going at one time!), the drives sometimes just can't keep up, and I get the much-hated "reads faster than it can write" warning, and yes, I get video buffering issues if I'm playing back during those times.

If the files themselves are corrupted, the problem would be the same every time you play the file. That is, you would see the same artifacts in the same frames, every time. If you use the advanced tool bar on VLC and play frame-by-frame, the frames would be corrupted the same, every time you look at them. That does not seem to be what you are describing, though.

[OsloBergen]

If the artifacts come and go, that's not a file problem, but a bandwidth problem... Either the data isn't getting to the player fast enough for it to render, or the player isn't getting enough processor time to do the decoding. Sometimes it is both.

If I'm doing a handbrake encode, my CPU stays pinned at 95-100% on all cores for the duration, so sometimes playback suffers.

If I'm ripping multiple disks (really fun to have 3 or 4 going at one time!), the drives sometimes just can't keep up, and I get the much-hated "reads faster than it can write" warning, and yes, I get video buffering issues if I'm playing back during those times.

If the files themselves are corrupted, the problem would be the same every time you play the file. That is, you would see the same artifacts in the same frames, every time. If you use the advanced tool bar on VLC and play frame-by-frame, the frames would be corrupted the same, every time you look at them. That does not seem to be what you are describing, though.

Yeah, after trying some of the suggestions given I'm fairly confident that MakeMKV is not the problem. How to fix the problem is where I'm at now. As these titles are the only discs with issues there must be something in the way they were encoded.

[Woodstock]

The most effective way to reduce the bandwidth required is to recode the video; Some ways of encoding the video just take a lot more bandwidth than others. Handbrake is one of the tools that works for that.

And sometimes, rearranging how the pieces of the file are multiplexed together can make a big difference; When creating MP4 files, Handbrake gives an option to optimize the multiplexing for lower-bandwidth connections ("Web optimized"). I think the merge tool in MKVToolnix has that, but I have not needed to find out.

[Romansh]

And sometimes, rearranging how the pieces of the file are multiplexed together can make a big difference; When creating MP4 files, Handbrake gives an option to optimize the multiplexing for lower-bandwidth connections ("Web optimized"). I think the merge tool in MKVToolnix has that, but I have not needed to find out.

Not AFAIK. IIRC libavformat can place the cues at the start of the file, but I'm not 100% sure that patch has been committed, TBH.

[OsloBergen]

And sometimes, rearranging how the pieces of the file are multiplexed together can make a big difference; When creating MP4 files, Handbrake gives an option to optimize the multiplexing for lower-bandwidth connections ("Web optimized"). I think the merge tool in MKVToolnix has that, but I have not needed to find out.

Unfortunately, checking the "web optimize" box in Handbrake didn't do anything, in fact it made The Goonies bonus worse, another problem disc I found. Something odd in Handbrake though, when I would click through segments in the preview window the frames would have those blocks that show up when the video is played. Add 300 to the list of discs I've had problems with, so far they're all VC-1 and all Warner Brothers, with the exception of Green Zone.