No sound on newer MKV files?

[meskibob]

You can check both... DTS will remain as DTS, and FLAC should get converted to LPCM.

[Oyasumi]

Anyone figure out how to enable ASS/SSA subtitles? The mencoder fix allows me to play all the files that I was having issues with, but it's a waste if I can't use my subtitles.

[gastric]

I replaced my mencoder_mt.exe per the previous suggestions couple pages ago and can report it did indeed fix my MKV issues. Files that previously wouldn't play correctly now do. I quickly tested a couple AVI and found no issues. I don't use subtitles often and didn't bother to test that. Whew!

Bah, the latest True Blood sounds like chipmunks the entire time. I even AVI-MUX and it didn't correct the issue. The same files play using MPlayer on my PC just fine, of course. I'm running out of patience with the never ending audio problems with the PS3 lately. I need a solution that doesn't require me to constantly run back to my PC to try to fix files, it's maddening.

[serpent2005]

Here are my findings (Running beta version 1.20.409 on Win Vista 32bit, AMD 64 X2 dual core 2.8GHz):

First change:
Replaced only mencoder.exe & mplayer.exe in the "ps3 media server\win32\" directory with the mencoder.exe & mplayer.exe from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mplayer-win32/files/MPlayer%20and%20MEncoder/revision%2031878. (MPlayer-p4-svn-31878.7z)

Result:
Transcoding with mencoder and "Enhanced multicore support for H264 HD" selected still lacks audio.
Transcoding with mencoder and "Enhanced multicore support for H264 HD" unselected works (not verified with subtitles though). One core used of course then.
Streaming with tsMuxer now also works !?! when "Switch to tsMuxer..." option is enabled under mencoder settings. (No mistake, the PS3 now can do the decoding fine (5.1 sound & h264) which I find strange.)

Second change:
Replaced mencoder_mt.exe in the "ps3 media server\win32\" directory with mencoder.exe (yes, renamed file to _mt.exe) from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mplayer-win32/files/MPlayer%20MT/revision%2031878. (MPlayer-p4-svn-31878-mt.7z) <-- NOTICE this is a different link and file than the previous... "MT"

Result:
Transcoding with mencoder and "Enhanced multicore support for H264 HD" selected works! Both my cores are running at 100%, video and (5.1) audio works!
Transcoding with mencoder and "Enhanced multicore support for H264 HD" unselected works (not verified with subtitles though). One core used of course then.
Streaming with tsMuxer now also works !?! when "Switch to tsMuxer..." option is enabled under mencoder settings. (No mistake, the PS3 now can do the decoding fine (5.1 sound & h264) which I find strange.)

Tests have been done on two recent 720p/5.1audio episodes of different series.

EDIT: Subtitles seem to work too if the "ASS/SSA subtitles" option under mencoder settings is disabled (not ticked).

Thank you, Scepticer! I followed your steps exactly and it is now working.

[drem]

I tried this also, downloading the latest mencoder mt and renaming it to mt. Actually picture quality seems to have improved a bit which is nice. However a new problem arose with subtitles. In this case, on a .mkv with embedded .srt subs, just before the new line with text appears, the previous flashes for a millisecond, just above the new one. Anyone see this? I put the old mencoder_mt back there and the issue disappeared. Anyone else see this?

[YK_Ho]

You can check both... DTS will remain as DTS, and FLAC should get converted to LPCM.

Actually, I tried the "check both" setting on two of my laptops with the updated M-encoder.
The Transcoding Buffer would simply pause at 84987935 bytes and not do anything.

Same thing happens when I check "keep DTS in stream" only.
The new m-encoder just won't allow me to play DTS MKV.

Does the new m-encoder require more memory or quicker CPU?
Here are the spec of my 2 laptops
Old Toshiba Satellite:
[email protected] 1.60GHZ
RAM: 2.5GB

Lenovo SL400
[email protected] 2.2GHZ
RAM: 2.0GB

THank you^_^

[Scepticer]

I tried this also, downloading the latest mencoder mt and renaming it to mt. Actually picture quality seems to have improved a bit which is nice. However a new problem arose with subtitles. In this case, on a .mkv with embedded .srt subs, just before the new line with text appears, the previous flashes for a millisecond, just above the new one. Anyone see this? I put the old mencoder_mt back there and the issue disappeared. Anyone else see this?

Yes, I have seen the same issue. Quite annoying. Don't have any solution...

[gastric]

I'm looking into viable replacements for my PS3 at this point. The PS3 and PMS solution worked truly flawlessly for the past 2+ years. My entire family uses it as the sole source of all of our home theatre needs - EVERYTYHING. It's easy to use when it works, looks and sounds great.

But the past 2 months has totally killed my ability to easily watch video media on the PS3. I'm constantly having to try shows and movies, watch them fail, run back to my office, re-mux, run back, see if the now work, etc. The problems are growing it seems.

* Audio and video out of sync
* Audio sounds like chipmunks
* Videos not playing in a linear fashion and skipping around randomly
* Plus everything previously noted

Every one of these videos plays fine on my computer. I tried XBMC Live on an old PC today (pulling files from PMS and not directly from shares so I could compare the two hardware boxes directly) and it played all of the files perfectly as well, though the one file with the video-audio sync issue was still having perfect sync issues towards the end of the movie. But with the PS3 it was grossly out of sync from the start.

The lack of continued development on PMS doesn't give me any warm fuzzies these issues will be corrected anytime soon.

My other option is to try to whip up some script that constantly watches for new MKV and automatically re-muxes them. That's probably beyond my DOS batch file programming level skills though. But it was one of my thoughts.

I actually came from XMBC on an XBOX original, so going back to XMBC is actually fairly attractive. And the thanks to fairly inexpensive dual core ATOM and NVIDIA ION hardware available now it wouldn't be that expensive to migrate. Though I love that the PS3 can (could) literally do it all - BluRay, games, and stream. It beat out Popcorn Hour and an (at the time) seriously expensive HTPC build to run XBMC.

Just me venting.

[krause27]

As specified earlier, the problem is with the use of compression during the initial creation of the mkv file. I was able to do an easy(for me) compression check on any new mkv files, and if there is compression then I used TsMuxer GUI to remux the file with all compression turned off. I have not read all post on this subject, so there is a chance that I am only repeating what someone else has already posted.

Follow the steps below:

1st: find and download the latest version of MKVtoolnix & install.
2nd: open mkvinfo & load the file in question. This will show the attributes this file was created with. If you see anything stating compression then goto step three, otherwise the file should run as is.
3rd: now open mkvmerge & load the file, there will multiple lines within the "tracks, chapters and tags:" box. Select the first, then select the "Extra options" tab, you will notice compression is no longer greyed out(as in previous versions: the ones that worked), select the drop down and select "none". The problem is that a blank is as good as Default and the default now is to do compression.
4th: I do this also, select "General track options" and make sure the language is specified, that both "* track flag" settings are to "NO". I only do this because all the previously working files had those turned off as well.
5th: Repeat 3 & 4 for every line in the "tracks, chapters and tags:" box.
6th: select "Start muxing", this should take no more then 5 minutes(depending on size of mkv file)

All of my remuxed files worked flawlessly, and I did not change any of the files in the PMS/win32 folder.

I tried to load screen shots but was unable to, if you would like some please pm me.

hope this helps.

[Coltaine79]

krause27's post above is pretty much THE method used to fix any problematic MKVs that people have been downloading from "internet sources". I've been using this method on all the popular stuff, even the recent 720p release of the flick about a group of sentient toys...

The problem is that the initial "release group" of these files have not muxed the MKV correctly - i.e. with compression set to "none".

As an FYI, I have yet to come across anything which continues to fail after a proper RE-MUX!

BTW krause how do you do a "compression check" on the file? MediaInfo doesn't seem to indicate if a stream is using header compression or not.