Quality of MKV not the same as DVD (which shouldn't happen)

[bjarne_slamon]

Hi all,

I have searched the forums for the answer to this so my apologies if it has been answered before.

I have just started using MKV. Prior to this I always just ripped my DVD as VIDEO_TS rips so as to keep the full original. I'm quite paranoid about quality. The reason I've switched to MKV is to keep full quality while gaining the benefits that the media players like Plex offer. Streaming, etc, etc.

I am using MakeMKV on a mac and Plex/VLC to view my movies.

I have just converted a children's TV show from DVD (one of the In The Night Garden Series..). I extracted each episode as a separate MKV. However when I play it in either Plex or VLC there is a lot of pixelation and horizontal lines appearing around any object that is moving quickly on the screen. They dissapear when the object stops moving.

I thought it must be bad quality DVD but when I watch the DVD using DVD Player on the mac the quality is fine. There is no equivalent pixelation of quality loss around moving objects.

Given I thought MKV was basically just a container around the original with no loss of quality, I'm at a loss as to explain why. I thought it might be related to the player but I've tried multiple players all with the same result. I'm quite concerned as I'm mid way through converting a large collection of DVD's to MKV and if this quality loss is to be expected then I'd have to go back to the original VIDEO_TS format.

Is this expected/normal? Is there some config I have wrong?

Any help would be most appreciated.

Wayne

[Woodstock]

How does the DVD look when you play it with VLC on the Mac? Are you playing it at "native resolution", or "full screen"?

I've noticed different artifacts when playing both DVDs and MKVs at something other than the actual resolution (or integral multiple), but they're consistent - if I play the DVD directly, it looks just like the MKV, in the same app at the same resolution.

[bjarne_slamon]

Hi Woodstock,

good question!

I just tried the VIDEO_TS file via VLC on the Mac and it shares the same artifacts as the MKV. So it stands to reason it's the two players that are having the issues rather than the MKV file itself.

I am playing it in full screen mode.

This is still strange to me...why the DVD Player program would not have the artifacts but VLC and Plex would.

Many thanks,
Wayne

[paulster]

I've always found that VLC Player is more miss than hit for quality playback. Useful for checking what a file contains, for instance, but not a lot more than that.

My MKVs generally look terrible in VLC Player but play flawlessly on my hardware players.

[setarip_old]

@bjarne_slamon

Hi!

horizontal lines appearing around any object that is moving quickly on the screen. They dissapear when the object stops moving.

Sounds like you're describing interlaced video...

[bjarne_slamon]

@setarip_old

Highly likely given it's a kid's BBC TV show...

Is there any reason why VLC or Plex would struggle to play interlaced video though while a program like Mac DVD Player does not?

I'll scour around and try find some other MKV players and see what the result of playing on those are...

Many thanks to all for the responses to date.

Wayne

[Tolken]

Answer!

VLC 1.x has auto-detecting interlaced video off by default! Additionally from what I remember the auto-detection was considered "poor".
(*No idea on 2x) You can manually change deinterlacing settings under the video menu.

As far as plex, I'm guessing either the deinterlacer is off, or it's not auto-detecting...(I know Plex has one, and that it's often off, but I don't know about defaults as I haven't used it in ages)

[bjarne_slamon]

Spot ON!

I enabled the De-Interlacing mode on VLC and problem all solved and now looks every bit the same as the original DVD did under DVD PLayer.

Many thanks for all the help from all who responded.

Wayne

[MilesAhead]

Spot ON!

I enabled the De-Interlacing mode on VLC and problem all solved and now looks every bit the same as the original DVD did under DVD PLayer.

Many thanks for all the help from all who responded.

Wayne

I found lately VLC to be very fragile. More often than not once the video has started playing, if I touch the player with the mouse, it goes away and I get a crash dialog on next start. I keep trying nightly builds hoping they've fixed it. But they all act the same. I loved this player until it went 1.0. Then all the crap hit the fan.

I've found SPlayer Portable to be very good on Windows Seven. Especially if you have a slightly under-powered video card. I don't recommend the installed version as it had some problems with orphaned video file type associations on uninstall. I don't associate file types. I just add a shortcut to SPlayer portable to my SendTo Menu. I find SPlayer doesn't hiccup when you move the slider on mkv or mp4 HD videos. Also the subs tend not to go out of sync either. Nice little program.

[Woodstock]

VLC 2.0 has some interesting anomalies... Try using the Playback/Chapters menu a few times, and watch what happens with the menu itself.

I'm getting ready to go back to the 1.1.11 version, which was at least stable.

[MilesAhead]

VLC 2.0 has some interesting anomalies... Try using the Playback/Chapters menu a few times, and watch what happens with the menu itself.

I'm getting ready to go back to the 1.1.11 version, which was at least stable.

I wish it was for me. I had no problems at all until 1.0. Then I started getting this crash when touched syndrome. Since I found how to check PGS subs with WMP 12 there's no reason to use VLC other than you can play an iso without mounting it first. It's too much hassle to bother with anymore.

[Icetrips]

Also have in mind that mac software build by the fruit company (Quicktimes, ect...) downgrade the quality if your cpu aren't totally idle. (quality drop occur when your cpu is over 50%)
Playability over quality.

I saw this problem on few laptops who can't handle hi-res movie. (since they don't have great videocard)

Seem your problem with VLC is another thing... but I just tell this could cause also some problems.

It's one main reason if you want play "quality" video... you shouldn't buy a mac.

anyway...