VLC player/Media Player not playing correctly

[bearcat]

A bit of apuzzle! after making .mkv of Frost/Nixon via Elby Virtual CloneDrive. On trying VLC player the following message from within VLC Player comes up "No suitable decoder module:
VLC does not support the audio or video format "undf". Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this." BUT audio plays!!!! no video...
When opening in Microsoft Media Player the video is OK but no audio! I have applied ffdshow and haali spliter codec but no good..
but it all works OK playing the same file through WD media player which was my main objective! but i am concerned that i cannot play on PC? any views anybody?

[mike admin]

this is VC-1 video - VLC can't play it. Audio should play on windows - something is broken.

[bearcat]

thanks for replying...windows media player plays other mkv files with no problem i appreciate that something is broken but what i wonder, very frustrating..

[Chiasmos]

VC-1 can be difficult at times, and as mentioned, will not play in VLC.

Something is Broken....Do you see the FDDSHOW Audio, Video and Haali Icons in the System Tray when using Windows Media Player?.....and they need to be same 32 or 64bit versions as your OS, and if your OS is 64bit, then make certain you have the 64bit Gabest/Haali. Have you tried another Player like Media Player Classic Home Cinema or KMPlayer?

[Oldman]

Bearcat, keep in mind MKV is a *container* file. It can hold many different kinds of audio and video types. The video codec for commercial blu-rays is usually either H.264 or VC-1 (occasionally MPEG for older ones). So MakeMKV puts the H264 or VC-1 encoded video into the MKV container file. VideoLAN/VLC can only play H264 videos not VC-1 and that is why you got the error. With the latest firmware the WDTV player will play either H264 or VC-1 in an MKV file. Also H264 MKV files can be various bit rates (the rate at which the video plays/streams in real time) and resolutions and that can affect playback. So VLC may play just fine with a 720P H264 MKV downloaded from the internet, but will choke and die on a high bit rate 1080P H264 MKV ripped straight from blu-ray with no conversion (MakeMKV).

[xenomorph05]

I can watch my BD rips in VLC even though it does say there is an error. I also get weird jaggies while playing the mkv in VLC but I want to play them with SMPlayer but it won't play the mkv. What software will play these files perfectly that MakeMKV creates?