Occasionally, I find a "troublesome" file that I'd like to check to see whether it's a problem with the video or the player. I usually just try it in different players (starting with VLC) to see whether it is actually playable, but that doesn't give me a lot of details. And, sometimes, it gives me variable results... Some things can be checked/resolved with mkvmerge, but not everything.
(An example, a video file that mkvmerge and some versions of VLC say is 14 minutes long with 7 chapters, but other VLC versions and, unfortunately, handbrake, say is 11 minutes long with 5 chapters, even if I strip out the chapters track.)
What (free or inexpensive) tools should I add to the video toolbox? I run Windows mainly, but have a Linux machine here at the desk, too.
What tools for troubleshooting video?
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Deleted User 13735
Re: What tools for troubleshooting video?
MediaInfo is a good nuts-n-bolts tool, but like VLC and the rest, is fallable with individual files.
Assuming we had a perfect analysis tool in our hands, it would be only as good as what information is in the media file header or can be quickly scanned.
Hope that helps.
Assuming we had a perfect analysis tool in our hands, it would be only as good as what information is in the media file header or can be quickly scanned.
Hope that helps.
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Deleted User 11865
Re: What tools for troubleshooting video?
MediaInfo, avconv, and various media players (VLC, MPlayerX, QuickTime(s)), and that's pretty much it. Otherwise I just add some debug logging to either avconv of HandBrake 
Re: What tools for troubleshooting video?
Thanks, I'll look into those. Unfortunately, I don't think they would have helped a lot in what got me searching for tools...
For what it is worth, I found the answer this time by using a methodology used by some to find out what titles are "correct" on the recent trend of DVD and BD authors to put lots of fake titles on a disk.... Find a player that can play the disk "correctly", and see what files it opens in a process monitor.
Turns out the video uses a variation of "seamless branching", and when the version of VLC that worked hit the chapters that the "broken" programs were missing, it suddenly opened EVERY file in the directory, closed most of them, and played the file that contained opening or closing credits, as appropriate.
That screwed up any hope of taking the fansub subtitles from these files and applying them to the video from the original Japanese DVD, because the subtitle timing would be off. The original fansubs I'd found are REALLY bad, apparently having been translated to English from a Chinese fansub.... But at least they'd been done against a broadcast signal with non-branching video.
I guess I COULD go and edit the time stamps on all of them. Have to go look at subtitle editors.... I think I saw that some of the free ones can move the timing of whole blocks at once....
Oh, well... Liz at Viz Media told me last year that importing DVDs direct from Japan showed I already was otaku.... What's a few hours editing subtitle tracks for a 300-minute series I watch a couple of times per year?
For what it is worth, I found the answer this time by using a methodology used by some to find out what titles are "correct" on the recent trend of DVD and BD authors to put lots of fake titles on a disk.... Find a player that can play the disk "correctly", and see what files it opens in a process monitor.
Turns out the video uses a variation of "seamless branching", and when the version of VLC that worked hit the chapters that the "broken" programs were missing, it suddenly opened EVERY file in the directory, closed most of them, and played the file that contained opening or closing credits, as appropriate.
That screwed up any hope of taking the fansub subtitles from these files and applying them to the video from the original Japanese DVD, because the subtitle timing would be off. The original fansubs I'd found are REALLY bad, apparently having been translated to English from a Chinese fansub.... But at least they'd been done against a broadcast signal with non-branching video.
I guess I COULD go and edit the time stamps on all of them. Have to go look at subtitle editors.... I think I saw that some of the free ones can move the timing of whole blocks at once....
Oh, well... Liz at Viz Media told me last year that importing DVDs direct from Japan showed I already was otaku.... What's a few hours editing subtitle tracks for a 300-minute series I watch a couple of times per year?