BDP5100 and MKV - what am I doing wrong

[slumdogs]

Hi -

I would be really grateful if anyone can please help on this?

It's really simple in theory - I want to encode and archive three MKVs to play on the BDP5100. To encode I'm using Handbrake on a Mac.

After three weeks of trying to get the settings right, I've finally managed to find what seem to the correct ones. So I create a test MKV of two chapters which plays perfectly on USB and when burnt to BD-R. Satisfied that this works, I then proceed to spend three days encoding the complete MKVs using EXACTLY THE SAME settings within Handbrake, finally burn to BD-R and I get "Unsupported video format". Nothing has changed in Handbrake, yet the full film shows 0:00:00 in the browser for length of time and just won't play.

The media info for one of the MKVs is as follows:

Complete name : /Users/me/Desktop/Film_MKVs/Movie1.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 5.52 GiB
Duration : 2h 34mn
Overall bit rate : 5 118 Kbps
Writing application : HandBrake 0.9.5
Writing library : libmkv 0.6.4.1

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 34mn
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate : 24.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Writing library : x264 core 112
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English
Color primaries : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177
Transfer characteristics : BT.709-5, BT.1361
Matrix coefficients : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : A_AAC
Duration : 2h 34mn
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Language : English

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 2h 34mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 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 : 706 MiB (13%)
Language : English

Audio #3
ID : 4
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 2h 34mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 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 : 706 MiB (13%)
Language : English

(I'm encoding three versions of audio until I decide which version works best on a 5.1 sound system.)

If I'm burning using Toast, is there any difference in the disc format when burning between DVD-R and BD-R that would cause the problem?

All MKVs work perfectly on a Sony Blu-ray player, just not the BDP5100. I've had two Philips upscaling DVD players previously which have worked perfectly, but this Blu-ray player just doesn't seem to work for me. I have audio drops on all media (only two per hour, but still annoying) so I fear my player may be faulty. In which case, I will reluctantly make the decision to move to another brand of player, after having spent three weeks trying to get this to work.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me.

[Oscar]

Sounds very strange this whole story.....

Assume latest FW is installed. Also what are thecharacteristics of the burning process (speed, disc type). You say these exact same files work on other brands? Did you check with handbrake also?

[slumdogs]

Hi Oscar -

I'm burning Traxdata BD-Rs on a Mac using Toast 10. The discs and MKVs play perfectly on the Mac using my external LG burner and VLC to play the file, and also on my friends Sony BDPS370. Without wishing to be melodramatic, despite excellent experiences with previous Philips DVD players, I'm now serious considering giving away the BDP5100 to my girlfriend's father and buying the same Sony that I know works...

I've spent the past 15 years working with hi-res digital files (whether they be photographic or video), so genuinely do know my way around archiving materials, and this is the most frustrating experience I can recall.

(I presume I now unable to return the player to HMV since I have watched the three BBC Blu-rays that came with the pack. And technically, the player does work - the audio drops aside - it just doesn't do one thing that it is ought to.)

Out of interest, the technical support person who dealt with me via online chat said that this player only handles MKVs via USB and not disc?

[Oscar]

They indeed should work on both USB as DVD. When you say: So I create a test MKV of two chapters which plays perfectly on USB and when burnt to BD-R. Satisfied that this works, I then proceed to spend three days encoding the complete MKVs using EXACTLY THE SAME settings within Handbrake, finally burn to BD-R and I get "Unsupported video format".

What happens with the complete encoded file if you play this via USB, does that work? Since you mention you put it on BD-R this is interesting to know....

Regards,

[slumdogs]

Unfortunately, I don't have a USB memory stick over 4gb and my external drive (partitioned by my Mac) isn't being recognised. So, I'm now trying to connect to the BDP5100 over DNLA, but not having much luck there either. Am going to take one last stab at getting this to work this weekend, and then giving up.

Out of interest, anyone know how to connect a Mac to this player by DNLA?

Thanks in advance

[Oscar]

Don´t have an idea about MAC so cannot help you with that....

Still would be interesting to see what happens if you can get the file on a USB ( maybe a friend or relative might lent you one for some days...) My quess is that if playback also don´t go well there is an issue with the file and not the device.......

[sereshk]

Well, I have been using the device for about two months and also experienced the behaviour the OP describes: A number of mkv files work fine, when used from USB, but not from (in my case) data-DVD.

Here is what I found out today: Reducing (i.e. splitting) the exact same .mkv-file into ~2GB chunks and burning those to a data-DVD made the chunks playable from that disc! So - go figure... ;-) But I am not entirely happy with that solution... If a large file plays from USB, why not from disc... (Don't know about BluRay, haven't got a burner, yet...)

[cybernesto]

Hi sereshk, for dlna I use platinum upnp on my Mac. It works perfectly but as far as I know it is only available as a source. The Xcode project is straightforward to build though.
The problem you describe sounds almost as it was a file system problem. Even though fat32 should support 4gb files I also have to split my files in 2gb chunks if I want them to work on my bdp5100 player.

[Doobyduck]

Update to 1.57 and that should solve problems...

[sereshk]

@cybernesto
Thanks for your suggestions but for now my setup is not ready to use dlna (mainly because my home isn't... ;-) ) But my problem was the playing of large files from discs, like data-DVDs. Perhaps I didn't make myself quite clear.

Anyway, the disc problem hasn't been resolved with the new firmware, as I just tried by burning a DVD-RW (which has worked before with Video-DVDs and data...so it's not the media) - I get the message stating "...video format not supported" (in German) and then the audio starts playing...
If I take the same file and split it into smalller parts (s.a.) those play fine without changing the container or re-encoding anything.

Thanks for your kind help and suggestions!
I hope the issue will be resolved soon!

[kwinnie]

i hv tried burning a mkv concert file to the data dvd...
it s absolutely fine with my BDP5100...

i m using this application for your information:
http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/6293352/640/6293352.jpg

(seriously, the image uploader here is rather unstable...)

let me know what s your steps... and file info...mine is big as well...

http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/6293368/640/6293368.jpg

[sereshk]

Well, so far I've burned with a very stable and reliable burning app, Prassi ONES, although not developed anymore and not for BluRay, it has served me well for years...
Tried Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010 (and V 9),too, to no avail.

I burned a data-DVD-RW, with ISO 9660 and UDF set, the below given specs are the same in both cases, only the one file is small (this time, for testing purposes about 600 MB, last time up to ~2 GB) and played fine. The same file using the whole available space of a DVD-RW 4,7 GB ('to the brim', same media) will not play, but throws an error stating "video format not supported".
:confused:

--------------
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Sony PSP
Codec ID : MSNV
File size : 609 MiB
Duration : 16min
Overall bit rate : 5 308 Kbps

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Ja
Format settings, ReFrames : 6 frames
Muxing mode : Container profile=High@5.1
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 16min
Bit rate mode : variabel
Bit rate : 4 920 Kbps
Width : 1 280 Pixel
Height : 720 Pixel
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : konstant
Frame rate : 25,000 FPS
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : progressiv
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.214
Stream size : 565 MiB (93%)

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Codec ID : ac-3
Duration : 16min
Bit rate mode : konstant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Surround: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48,0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 44,1 MiB (7%)

[Toengel]

Hi,

I think that "Muxing mode: Container profile=High@5.1" could be the problem...

Toengel@Alex

[kwinnie]

Using mediainfo, I just have the below info...dont have the "muxing mode"
can you advise what tool you use?


General
Unique ID : 241872748271369024764901747068323187312 (0xB5F6FF3264F34BAABF5054746B174A70)
Complete name : D:\duo 奕迅2010演唱.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 5.64 GiB
Duration : 3h 14mn
Overall bit rate : 4 141 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2010-08-16 23:49:01
Writing application : mkvmerge v3.0.0 ('Hang up your Hang-Ups') 编译于 Dec 12 2009 15:20:35
Writing library : libebml v0.7.9 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 3h 14mn
Bit rate : 2 437 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.088
Stream size : 3.21 GiB (57%)
Writing library : x264 core 98 r1649 20cbe10
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:-3:-2 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.10 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=2437 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Format profile : 96/24 / Core
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 3h 14mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 96.0 KHz / 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 2.06 GiB (36%)

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 3h 14mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 268 MiB (5%)

Text
ID : 4
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text

[sereshk]

Hi,

I think that "Muxing mode: Container profile=High@5.1" could be the problem...

Toengel@Alex

But why can I play this file just fine from
- USB or
- smaller-sized chunks from DVD?
The only problem is burning it to and playing it in whole from a DVD...
EDIT: I'd rather not re-encode, if possible, that's why I am so persistent - repeating myself...EDIT

[Kiro]

Hi sereshk

I would also change the following: Format settings, ReFrames : 6 frames

into: Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames

To re-encode it seems the only way....


Andrea

[sereshk]

I would also change the following: Format settings, ReFrames : 6 frames
into: Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
To re-encode it seems the only way....
Andrea

Hey Andrea, thanks, this worked partly: I can burn and playback the file to/from DVD now, in whole! (By the way, did it with h264info, very useful little tool to change the information contained in an h264-file...) But the image shows faulty pixels here and there during playback...
I STILL would like to understand why the file plays (fine!) as a small split clip, but not as a whole, if I do nothing to it... If it wasn't compatible at all, it shouldn't play back even in smaller chunks, should it?
Thanks for any information on this point!

[Kiro]

But the image shows faulty pixels here and there during playback...

Can be because of this tool you are using to change h.264 without re-encode, though. Since you are in "testing-mood" worth giving a try!! ;)


STILL would like to understand why the file plays (fine!) as a small split clip

Me too! :confused:

[sereshk]

Hey there, I figured it out - to a certain extend, I believe. My explanation may not be quite correct in technical detail, but I thought this way:
The device is meant - during playback - to process just so much data in a given time period. Also data (video,etc.) seems to be preloaded to a certain extend. That means to me, some kind of "RAM" or other memory is being used.
So, certain configurations of the video stream, especially using up more data/sec. (like: 1000/kbps instead of 500kbps, which is "kilobit per second" in so many words) would (together with the frames-setting) possibly mean, that too much video-data at one time would have to be preloaded and played back (=processed) and there's the limitation.
On the other hand, if the same clip is short, less data would have to be preloaded in connection to size and so there would be 'room' in the memory-part of the device to process the larger amount of data connected to the relevant encoding profile...
Don't know if this makes any sense to more knowledgable people, but thought I'd post it anyway.
;)