Upgrade 1.04 to 1.10.5 results in broken MKV playback

[The1stOne]

Hi,

I recently upgraded from 1.04 to 1.10.5 and now I can't play back any of my .mkv-files.
I had the same issue in 1.10.1 and had hoped that the addressed fixed flaw concerning transcoding might had solved it, which it didn't.

When just trying to play a file (usine MEncoder?), the error I usually get is "The data is corrupted." followed by an icon saying the same thing.
So I choose the #-TRANSCODE-#-option where I get four (4) options:
sample.mkv [MEncoder]*
[TsMuxer]*
MEncoder {Audio: AC3/Undetermined}*
TsMuxer {Audio: AC3/Undetermined}*

All these four options show the correct timestamp for the file, 1'04".
None of them can play the file though, not even the audio.

In 1.04 it works if I transcode using TsMuxer but not in 1.10.1 or 1.10.5
In 1.10.5 I get this:
[main] TRACE 17:55:59.208 It's ready! You should see the server appears on XMB
[Thread-115] TRACE 17:56:08.125 Starting transcode/remux of sample.mkv
[Thread-115] TRACE 17:56:08.167 Process ffmpeg has a return code of 1! Maybe an error occured... check the log file

Log:
[Thread-115] INFO 17:56:08.124 HTTP: get/0$0$13$1$0$0/sample.mkv / 0-0
[Thread-115] DEBUG 17:56:08.124 Wrote on socket: HTTP/1.0 200 OK
[Thread-115] DEBUG 17:56:08.124 Searching for objectId: 0$0$13$1$0$0 with children option: false
[Thread-115] DEBUG 17:56:08.124 Asked stream chunk [0-0] timeseek: 0.0 of sample.mkv and player MEncoder
[Thread-115] TRACE 17:56:08.125 Starting transcode/remux of sample.mkv
[Thread-115] DEBUG 17:56:08.125 Searching an audio track with lang: eng
[Thread-119] DEBUG 17:56:08.165 Seems that stream 0 comes from film source: 1000.00 (1000000000/1000000) -> 0.08 (1/12)
[Thread-119] DEBUG 17:56:08.165 Input #0, matroska, from 'sample.mkv':
[Thread-119] DEBUG 17:56:08.165 Duration: 00:01:04.4, bitrate: N/A
[Thread-119] DEBUG 17:56:08.165 Stream #0.0: Video: h264, yuv420p, 1280x720, 0.08 fps(r)
[Thread-119] DEBUG 17:56:08.165 Stream #0.1: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5:1
[Thread-119] DEBUG 17:56:08.165 Unkown bitstream filter h264_mp4toannexb
[Thread-115] DEBUG 17:56:08.167 EOF
[Thread-115] TRACE 17:56:08.167 Process ffmpeg has a return code of 1! Maybe an error occured... check the log file
[Thread-115] DEBUG 17:56:08.167 Ready to Stop: true

The result sometimes is: The data type is not supported.

The ffmpeg I use is the latest in the stable-branch of Debian:
[/usr/apps/pms-linux/]ffmpeg -version
FFmpeg version SVN-rUNKNOWN, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-pthreads --enable-vorbis --enable-libogg --enable-a52 --enable-dts --enable-libgsm --enable-dc1394 --disable-debug --enable-shared --prefix=/usr
libavutil version: 0d.49.0.0
libavcodec version: 0d.51.11.0
libavformat version: 0d.50.5.0
built on Mar 26 2007 15:50:40, gcc: 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)
ffmpeg SVN-rUNKNOWN
libavutil 3211264
libavcodec 3345152
libavformat 3278080

Any clues as to why this works in 1.04 and not in 1.10.5?

[shagrath]

Unkown bitstream filter h264_mp4toannexb

Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard

ffmpeg is way too old

[The1stOne]

Hi, and thanks for the quick answer.
However, your answer is not constructive in any way.
If ffmpeg is way too old, why does playback work in 1.04 and not in 1.10.5?
Isn't it MEncoder or TsMuxer that is used also?

[shagrath]

Hi, and thanks for the quick answer.
However, your answer is not constructive in any way.
If ffmpeg is way too old, why does playback work in 1.04 and not in 1.10.5?
Isn't it MEncoder or TsMuxer that is used also?

because 1.10.X versions introduce features who needs a recent ffmpeg

[The1stOne]

Ahh, that would explain it.
It was easier said than done to update ffmpeg.
I'm a bit paranoid about using too many unstable/testing packages in Debian, but finally managed to get a ffmpeg-version from 20090303.
Not it seems to work alot better.
Many of the files play without using the #-TRANSCODE-#-option now, but sometimes I must use TsMuxer to get them to work.