Thor 3 & Others - Skipping and Video Problems

[mike_mgoblue]

I recently converted Thor 3: Ragnarok from Blu-ray to MKV.

When I watched the Blu-ray version, there were no problems.

When I later watched the MKV version, I did so using my Laptop that is connected to an 8TB external hard drive via USB 3.0. I connected a wired HDMI cable from my laptop to my A/V Receiver. 99.9% of the time, this works fine.

However, while watching Thor 3, at about 6 Minutes into the movie (actually from 6:20 to 6:40) there were some video problems. The movie switches view to a bald character. When this bald character rotates and walked to the left, the screen froze and it was as if multiple frames were skipping back and forth over and over.

I then went to the computer, where I was playing the video with MPC-BE. ... I placed the video at about 5:30. ... When the movie once again reached 6:20, it started skipping frames again in the exact same spot. So, I thought it was going to be like this every time - perhaps as if there was a problem in the conversion to MKV.

But, I tried again. I once again placed the video at about 5:30. This time when the movie reached 6:20, it played fine without any "skipping" in the video frames.

I then tried several more times, and there was no "skipping" in that spot anymore. So, I thought it was a fluke.

I watched the rest of the movie without any problems. Near the end of the movie at about 1 hour 58 minutes, Loki appears to Thor. Thor tosses something at Loki to see if Loki is real. The moment Loki caught what was thrown at him, the screen froze. The movie was frozen for about 20 seconds. ... I waited and didn't touch anything at all during this time. ... When the movie eventually started playing on its own again, it had skipped forward and was now playing in a fast forward level speed. It did this for about five seconds with no audio. The video then started playing at normal speed with normal audio on its own. So, I went and watched that part of the movie again several times. This problem did not repeat itself again in that spot.

However, just for the heck of it, I went back to the scene from 6:20 to 6:40 to see what would happen. The first five times I did this, there were no problems. But the sixth time, the problem repeated itself with the "skipped frames" when the bald character rotated and quickly walked to the left.

I then tried watching this scene from 6:20 to 6:40 a seventh time. This time it not only "skipped frames," but it "froze" for several seconds. Then, when it started playing it had skipped forward and was in a fast forward level of speed playing with no audio for quite some time. The video then eventually went back to normal speed with normal audio on its own.

I tried about five more times to get this problem to occur again, but I could not. It seems very "random," but it is unfortunately something that seems more likely to occur in that spot that other spots. ... I tried other "random" spots, just watching them over and over. Nothing ever had that problem.

I have two questions:

1. Does anyone know why this happens?

2. Does anyone know a way to prevent this from happening in the future or correct the problem?

UPDATE:

I just started watching an MKV movie called "Replicant" that I got from a Blu-ray I own.

I was again watching from my laptop computer (AMD8 Quad Core 2Ghz with 16GB of DDR3 RAM).

This time the movie was playing well. Then, I needed to pause the movie for a couple minutes. When I pushed Play on MPC-BD, the movie started off playing well for about 10 seconds. Then, the video of Replicant froze in one spot. You could continue to hear the audio this time. But this time the video remained completely frozen. Then, after about 10 to 15 seconds, the video started playing normally again.

Why does this "freezing" and "stuttering" happen like that? ... How can you prevent the problem?

[Grauhaar]

Looks like that there is a problem with the Playback Software and/or Decoder pack.

[mike_mgoblue]

Looks like that there is a problem with the Playback Software and/or Decoder pack.

You are correct. ... I am going to explain why in another post I am going to make. ... But, I have been able to confirm severe problems with VLC, MPC-HC, MPC-BE, and multiple Codec packs. ... Audio could not be heard from multiple videos while using some media players such as MPC-BE and VLC, but it could be heard while using MPC-HC. ... In that same way, some videos could be heard with MPC-BE and VLC, but not with MPC-HC.

I eventually found a solution. ... If you download Windows Codec 10 2.1.1 with MPC-HC, all problems are solved.

One thing I noticed, though, is that when I re-installed VLC, it completely ruined Windows Codec 10.2.1.1 and MPC-HC. ... The audio problems came back to MPC-HC.

So, I uninstalled everything again and started over. I installed only Windows Codec 10 2.1.1 and all the audio problems disappeared. Everything worked fine.

My advice is to forget about all other players and all other codec packages. Use only Windows Codec 10 2.1.1 with MPC-HC. ... If you try to use VLC afterwards, MPC-HC is messed up. So, just use the MPC-HC that comes with Windows Codec 10 2.1.1.

[spl147]

Looks like that there is a problem with the Playback Software and/or Decoder pack.

You are correct. ... I am going to explain why in another post I am going to make. ... But, I have been able to confirm severe problems with VLC, MPC-HC, MPC-BE, and multiple Codec packs. ... Audio could not be heard from multiple videos while using some media players such as MPC-BE and VLC, but it could be heard while using MPC-HC. ... In that same way, some videos could be heard with MPC-BE and VLC, but not with MPC-HC.

I eventually found a solution. ... If you download Windows Codec 10 2.1.1 with MPC-HC, all problems are solved.

One thing I noticed, though, is that when I re-installed VLC, it completely ruined Windows Codec 10.2.1.1 and MPC-HC. ... The audio problems came back to MPC-HC.

So, I uninstalled everything again and started over. I installed only Windows Codec 10 2.1.1 and all the audio problems disappeared. Everything worked fine.

My advice is to forget about all other players and all other codec packages. Use only Windows Codec 10 2.1.1 with MPC-HC. ... If you try to use VLC afterwards, MPC-HC is messed up. So, just use the MPC-HC that comes with Windows Codec 10 2.1.1.

Why not just purchase a Dedicated Media Player, Dune HD 4k Pro, Zidoo X9S?

[mike_mgoblue]

Looks like that there is a problem with the Playback Software and/or Decoder pack.

You are correct. ... I am going to explain why in another post I am going to make. ... But, I have been able to confirm severe problems with VLC, MPC-HC, MPC-BE, and multiple Codec packs. ... Audio could not be heard from multiple videos while using some media players such as MPC-BE and VLC, but it could be heard while using MPC-HC. ... In that same way, some videos could be heard with MPC-BE and VLC, but not with MPC-HC.

I eventually found a solution. ... If you download Windows Codec 10 2.1.1 with MPC-HC, all problems are solved.

One thing I noticed, though, is that when I re-installed VLC, it completely ruined Windows Codec 10.2.1.1 and MPC-HC. ... The audio problems came back to MPC-HC.

So, I uninstalled everything again and started over. I installed only Windows Codec 10 2.1.1 and all the audio problems disappeared. Everything worked fine.

My advice is to forget about all other players and all other codec packages. Use only Windows Codec 10 2.1.1 with MPC-HC. ... If you try to use VLC afterwards, MPC-HC is messed up. So, just use the MPC-HC that comes with Windows Codec 10 2.1.1.

Why not just purchase a Dedicated Media Player, Dune HD 4k Pro, Zidoo X9S?

Thank you for your advice. ... I didn't even know there were such devices as "Dune HD 4k Pro" and "Zidoo X9S." I looked at a dedicated "Media Player" on Amazon and saw a produce called "Micca MPLAY," too. There are several problems, though:

First, I don't have a lot of money. I looked at Dune HD 4K Pro and it ranged from $200 to $400. That is out of my price range for now. This product also had a problem where the largest hard drive it could use is 4TB in size. I use two external 8TB hard drives that I got a good deal on when they were on sale.

Second, I looked at the Zidoo X95. That product was priced better at $149. And this product apparently has the ability to read hard drives up to 10TB in size. But, it only has one USB 3.0 output and two USB 2.0 outputs. Is a USB 2.0 fast enough to read those large 35GB MKV video files? ... Or would I need to use a device that expands the USB 3.0 inputs? ... The reason I'm asking is because I have a device on my laptop that expands the one USB 3.0 input all the way to four USB 3.0 inputs. But, the instructions to that USB 3.0 expansion device say it is okay to have multiple low-power things such as a mouse and keyboard connected; however, it says a hard drive uses a lot of power and it is not a good idea to have more than one hard drive at a time connected. I actually use two 8TB external hard drives, so that is why I'm asking. Both would need to be connected at the same time, and I presume that at some point in the future I would add a third.

Third, the product called Micca MPLAY is only $49, but it doesn't seem to be designed to work with an external hard drive. It seems like it is designed to work with USB flash drives.

Do you know of a dedicated media player device that has the following criteria:

* Affordable price
* Compatible with multiple formats such as MKV, MP4, VP9, DTS, Atmos
* Needs to be compatible with large external hard drives of 8TB. I have two right now, but there would be a need for more later
* I currently have a 1080p HDTV, but in the future it seems reasonable I would have a 4K. So, compatibility with that would be nice.

This is why I was content to just use an HDMI cable connected to my TV for now. I just don't have the money to spend several hundred dollars on such a device right now. If my laptop could avoid playing "choppy" video and could output 23.976 frames to the TV via HDMI, I would be a happy camper.

[Woodstock]

You can always use a hub to support more than one USB3 port, but USB2 should be fine for a single stream of UHD.

More important would be to consider network support; using a dedicated media server in the future solves a number of problems, including "what drive does it support?" or "is it expandable"? With network support, the storage issue becomes moot.

The problem I've had with some brands is that they stop booting after a while. The hardware is actually rather common, but sold by different companies, sometimes in the same case with labels changed.

I have an older Micca player that was wonderful for many months. Then it stopped booting. It was still under warranty, but not worth the trouble to return.

If you see Uebo or KDLinks, consider them to be 12-14 month wonders. The 7xx series have nice software (better than their Android units), but I'm looking for a replacement of the 5th one in 7 years. All just ceased being able to complete the boot process (this most recent one last month, at 14 months old).

There are a number of cheap Android-based units out there. And there are simple players from obscure companies with no network ports (but USB connections) for $25-$50.

[Grauhaar]

Is a USB 2.0 fast enough to read those large 35GB MKV video files? ... Or would I need to use a device that expands the USB 3.0 inputs?

USB 2 supports up to 480Mbit/s, an Blu-ray stream (Video and Audio to together) has a maximum of 50MBit/s.

I actually use two 8TB external hard drives, so that is why I'm asking. Both would need to be connected at the same time, and I presume that at some point in the future I would add a third.

USB Single drives are bad in handling and you have no backup. Think about an NAS system and put the drives into it and create at least a RAID-5 array (a least 3 drives, 2 drives storage capacity, 1 drive for parity information), the Storage volume can be expanded with more drives as long if there a free slots in the NAS system. f.e. If you have an 12 slot NAS, the Storage volume has 11 drive capacity plus 1 drive for parity (one can fail). For RAID-6 two drives for parity are used, so two drives can fail and all is still there. Anyway, 3 drives are at least neeed, but the ratio for parity capacity is better if more drives are used. A use "Synology" NAS systems.

Do you know of a dedicated media player device that has the following criteria:

I use products from "Dune HD"

[mike_mgoblue]

I have never used an NAS before and I'm not sure what those are or how to operate them. Any information you have can help out.

One thing I should tell you is the only reason I have those two 8TB external hard drives is because there was such a good sale I was able to purchase them for a low price. I would not be able to afford an expensive NAS type of hard drive capable of holding 16TB of space. If there are other suggestions you may have or other advice, feel free to share. I very much appreciate it.

[Grauhaar]

How NAS works and so on: Use google serach

As told, if one of your single 8TB drives failes, you lost any data on them. Using an NAS with RAID5 or 6 it is no problem if one (or two in case of RAID6) drives failes, the drive is replaced and the NAS starts an RAID rebuild with parity data from the other drives.