www.makemkv.com

Hi - I am using the latest 1.8.11 version on Win7/64 to encode "U571" from Blu Ray - I select either the core DTS 5.1 or DTS HD HRA but both MKV files fail to play back on Win 7/64/VLC or XBMC on the Pi. I have used MakeMKV successfully before this for other disks. Has anyone else bumped into this issue with this particular title? Thanks!

MakeMKV is a ripper, not encoder. You are not encoding anything with MakeMKV.

Post Mediainfo of the mkv produced by MakeMKV. Also what error did you see?

Hi - thanks for the reply! MakeMKV finishes normally every time I run it for this disk so I guess I wont have a mediainfo file ? I have searched the C: drive and found nothing. I have downloaded the latest VLC version and playback now works on the laptop (Win 7/64) albeit that the video quality is very "jaggy" with lines visible. My laptop is running at 1600 x 900 but this shouldn't be the reason for the poor video quality. I have tried running the mkv file through XBMC on the Pi and it is treated as an audio file (17.5gb of DTS soundtrack but no video available seemingly). I might just give up on this disk.

The laptop's video resolution means that VLC has to scale every frame to fit it. Try setting the Video->Zoom value to half size, to make that math easy, and see if the jaggedness remains.

Mediainfo is a free program you can download to tell you the properties of many different video file formats.

It is possible that the video in U571 is encoded with the interlaced version of VC1, which has had limited support in software players until earlier this year. Updating your VLC got you a version that supports it.

According to this,
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/U-571-Blu-ray/834/

U571 uses 1080 progressive VC-1 video with DTS-HD Master Audio. It may be possible that Blu-ray.com got the spec wronged, but we won't know for sure unless you download Mediainfo and use it to scan the mkv file.

Hi - the version of the disk that I own has DTS HD HRA which I guess is a stripped down version of DTS HD MA that is advertised on the web site referenced above for this disk in the previous post - this is fine as I only need basic DTS as this is adequate for PC and Pi. The output MKV file still plays as a music file on the Pi /XBMC - no video is recognised at all. I have never come across this before with files from MakeMKV. I tried to attach the 5KB of output from Mediainfo in txt format but "the board attachment quota has been reached" (not sure why that is). Here is some info extracted ...
General
Unique ID : 299736138887605133424224247346614022140 (0xE17F149D9AF097EBF479F673C880AFFC)
Complete name : D:\U571.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 17.5 GiB
Duration : 1h 56mn
Overall bit rate : 21.5 Mbps
Movie name : U571
Encoded date : UTC 2014-07-24 15:46:53
Writing application : MakeMKV v1.8.11 win(x64-release)
Writing library : libmakemkv v1.8.11 (1.3.0/1.4.1) win(x64-release)

Video
ID : 1
Format : VC-1
Format profile : Advanced@L3
Codec ID : V_MS/VFW/FOURCC / WVC1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 1h 56mn
Bit rate : 19.6 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.315
Stream size : 15.9 GiB (91%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No

Audio
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Mode : 16
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 1h 56mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 509 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 1.22 GiB (7%)
Title : Surround 5.1
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Text
ID : 3
Format : PGS
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No

That's just odd. I saw this thread, thought maybe it was interlaced VC-1, went to Blu-ray.com and looked it up, saw that the audio didn't match and that it was a movie, not a TV show which meant interlaced VC-1 was highly unlikely and made me too confused to post anything.

Where did that disc come from?

-edit- the UK version is the only one I can find with HRA:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/U-571-Blu-ray/2246/

This was bought in the UK.

Region Free->Interlaced 29.970

That's part of the equation... There's still something missing though.

VC-1 and interlaced... Not a good combination, but newer versions of VLC should be able to deal with it. You will want to play with the deinterlace settings though... sometimes, it doesn't do well with that in "automatic" mode.

My suggestion is to re-encode it into H.264 progressive using Handbrake. I would start with decomb default and set frame rate to 59.94 constant. This should produce a video file that Pi can play.

BTW. Pi requires that one purchase VC-1 license in order to play VC-1 video. Not sure if it can handle interlaced VC-1 though.

New users of Handbrake would not be able to recode it, until they discover the nightly builds. When the "release" version of HB came out, VC-1 Interlaced support was not available.

Hi all - thanks for all the help - I ran the MKV via Handbrake as suggested above and the output MKV file is playable on PC and Pi but quality is not the best (settings as above with RF=16). I think I will just give up on this disk and leave it to the Blu Ray player. Case closed.