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Windows Media Center Vista x64 issues with mkv

Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:28 am
by DigitalFool
I just started to work on my HTPC and everything has been working out great using the constant quality preset in HandBrake. Now I've run into a few of my movies that will not play in Windows Media Center (via Media Browser), all I hear is the sound. I can play the same mkv rip with VLC without any problems. Does anyone have any ideas with this? Is WMC that quirky?

I suppose I could try a different container, but I like the flexibility of mkv.

Re: Windows Media Center Vista x64 issues with mkv

Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:23 pm
by rhester
If you are getting audio, it's not a container issue - it's a video codec issue.

Rodney

Re: Windows Media Center Vista x64 issues with mkv

Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:31 pm
by hunterk
WMC is indeed picky and doesn't like foreign containers/codecs. I believe there is a plugin available that will give you wider codec support, but all it does is transcode the files to WMC-friendly formats on-the-fly :(

AFAIK, if you plan to use Windows Media Center exclusively, it's often easier to go ahead and encode to the supported formats to begin with.

Re: Windows Media Center Vista x64 issues with mkv

Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:16 pm
by DigitalFool
I suppose what I'm failing to grasp is why some mkv rips work great and others just the audio - I'm using the exact same presets in Handbrake.

I know VLC has built in codecs, so that explains why that always works, but I've downloaded the necessary codecs (I think) for WMC otherwise none of them should work (which is the problem I started with) but a majority do.

Re: Windows Media Center Vista x64 issues with mkv

Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:22 am
by TedJ
Two things that WMC may be choking on, if you're using the same preset and HB version:-
  • Frame size - Perhaps WMC demands frame sizes to be mod16 and your preset is using strict anamorphic.
  • Frame rate - perhaps WMC is inflexible regarding variable frame rate encodes.
This is all supposition on my part since I have no experience of WMC, but those would be my likely candidates. Any chance you could post an activity log for one of the non working encodes?

Re: Windows Media Center Vista x64 issues with mkv

Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 3:27 am
by DigitalFool
The anamorphic size is set to strict as with the preset.

I believe I've pinpointed the issue though - if I have any left/right crop with the auto crop, it fails. If I set the left/right crop to 0 manually, it works. Problem now is, those films have a black border on the edges...blah...

So the ones I've ripped that worked, didn't need any cropping.

Any way to correct this?

Re: Windows Media Center Vista x64 issues with mkv

Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 5:50 am
by TedJ
Select your desired preset, change anamorphic mode to "Loose" then save a copy of the new preset.

Loose anamorphic will round the encodes dimensions to be mod16, then adjust the PAR to compensate. An added bonus is that for constant quality encodes this will also result in a slightly smaller encode.

Re: Windows Media Center Vista x64 issues with mkv

Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 3:23 pm
by DigitalFool
Thanks, TedJ - do I need to make any changes to the auto crop or put in a value when I select 'loose'?

Re: Windows Media Center Vista x64 issues with mkv

Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 3:45 pm
by TedJ
No need to adjust auto cropping or output size...

Re: Windows Media Center Vista x64 issues with mkv

Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:33 am
by DigitalFool
That was it, thanks!