Life (2009 BBC) (David Attenborough Version), Episode 9

[CoderJoe]

Episode 9 ("Plants") is the 2nd episode on Disc Four. It appears to rip correctly, but it won't play. I've tried Totem 2.32.0, VLC 1.1.4, and MPlayer 1.0rc4-4.4.5.

I'm also unable to re-encode it with ffmpeg 0.8.3. (Actually, it's libav 0.8.3. Ubuntu packages libav instead of the ffmpeg.) It core dumps:

Code: Select all

Error while decoding stream #0.0
[vc1 @ 0x19548c0] concealing 0 DC, 0 AC, 0 MV errors
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

MakeMKV output:

Code: Select all

003307:0000 File 00110.mpls was added as title #1
...
005014:0000 Saving 1 titles into directory /storage/rips
004001:0000 Forced subtitles track #3 turned out to be empty and was removed from output file
005005:0080 1 titles saved
005036:0104 Copy complete. 1 titles saved.

Attached is the full MakeMKV_log.

[Wondercow]

The issue isn't with MakeMKV. That episode was recorded as 1080i60 while every other episode is 1080p24; this, in and of itself, isn't really a problem—however—all of the content is encoded in VC1 and an open-source codec for VC1 *interlaced* does not exist yet. The most recent version of VLC (2.0.3) can play some interlaced VC1 content (not very well, however) but the more demanding files simply crash it.

I used RipBot264 to transcode all of my interlaced VC1 rips to AVC and it worked really well, though it takes about three hours to get through a one hour long video.

-WC

[CoderJoe]

That episode was recorded as 1080i60 while every other episode is 1080p24; this, in and of itself, isn't really a problem—however—all of the content is encoded in VC1 and an open-source codec for VC1 *interlaced* does not exist yet.

Thanks! It all makes sense now. Except why would they encode this episode differently? Is it just a mistake?

I used RipBot264 to transcode all of my interlaced VC1 rips to AVC and it worked really well, though it takes about three hours to get through a one hour long video.

Does RipBot264 have its own VC1 codec to handle interlaced video?

[Wondercow]

Thanks! It all makes sense now. Except why would they encode this episode differently? Is it just a mistake?

I have no idea, but if you check the box it says something to the effect of "all content 24p except episode 9 ..."

I used RipBot264 to transcode all of my interlaced VC1 rips to AVC and it worked really well, though it takes about three hours to get through a one hour long video.

Does RipBot264 have its own VC1 codec to handle interlaced video?

As I understand it, RipBot can access the official MS codec that Media Player uses. Thus it decodes a frame using VC1 then re-encodes it using h.264. Sorry I can't get more in-depth than that--I'm a Mac guy and I don't really care to learn the complexities of Windows, so I just assume it all done through fairies and magic

Edit:
I should also mention that it took 2.5-3 hours to transcode each hour of video on my machine. I'm running Windows 7 64-bit through Parallels Desktop with eight CPUs (@2.26 GHz) and four GB of RAM allocated to the VM.

[Romansh]

Note that under OS X, Flip4Mac's WMV decoder may reportedly be able to decode interlaced VC-1.

[Wondercow]

Note that under OS X, Flip4Mac's WMV decoder may reportedly be able to decode interlaced VC-1.

Have you ever tried to watch a feature-length HD MKV in QuickTime? That said it does actually work, but the performance is really bad with lots of jumping, freezing, etc. (I just tested it on a 150 MB clip of the intro to Earth: The Biography).

[Romansh]

Note that under OS X, Flip4Mac's WMV decoder may reportedly be able to decode interlaced VC-1.

Have you ever tried to watch a feature-length HD MKV in QuickTime? That said it does actually work, but the performance is really bad with lots of jumping, freezing, etc. (I just tested it on a 150 MB clip of the intro to Earth: The Biography).

I never said it was playable. It *might* be worthwhile in a scenario where you re-encode the video though.

[CoderJoe]

I have no idea, but if you check the box it says something to the effect of "all content 24p except episode 9 ..."

Sure enough, the box says "1080p *Except PLANTS which is 1080i".

As I understand it, RipBot can access the official MS codec that Media Player uses. .. I just assume it all done through fairies and magic

I think I'll go with your 1st explanation. The problem with the 2nd explanation is... well, how do fairies and magic work, huh?

I should also mention that it took 2.5-3 hours to transcode each hour of video on my machine. I'm running Windows 7 64-bit through Parallels Desktop with eight CPUs (@2.26 GHz) and four GB of RAM allocated to the VM.

I guess I shouldn't bother with my ancient Athlon Windows box. My Linux desktop has a Core i5 2500k quad core with 8GB RAM. I'll probably try Windows on VirtualBox.