MKV 1080p's all randomly stutter / freeze at least once during playback ! Options

[seanjackdan]

Hi, sorry if this has been asked before, but i have a really frustrating problem...

I normally play 720p MKV files (via 3 different hdd's), and every single one plays flawlessly, but recently, I have started to use 1080p files, and have about 20 films now (all vary between 6-8gb), but whilst watching these films, the picture will freeze up / stutter at least once during the film....on ALL of these (at some stage).. if I rewind it back to the same section it freezes up again, and again, and again, etc....

All these 1080p films will freeze / stutter randomly, and only for about a minute or so, then resume "normal" playback.... some will do it after 5mins, some after 45mins, some after an hour, etc.... no logic !!

It cannot be the actual film, as these films / scenes play fine on various laptops / pcs..

I have the first generation of player, and have tried different firmwares in case that's the problem...

I have no idea what is causing this, as all other media types i play is fine, i am just getting it at some stage with ALL 1080p files, and it's really frustrating....

Somebody said "turn-off" the subtitles, and once or twice i've tried rewinding the film after it stutters, played that section again, and to be honest it did play the scene fine the 2nd time, but being hard of hearing i do like to have the subs on ! - Has anyone heard of this before, and where is the logic in this - turning subs off ?...but then again, why would all 720p's play fine with subs on ??

Thanks for reading this, and any help would be greatly appreciated... Sean !!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[ToJa92]

My guess would be that the media you're playing from is too slow for 1080p. Have you tried different harddrives?

[Rev Drew]

I agree with ToJa92, it sounds like whatever drive your media is on is to slow for 1080p playback.
subtitles wont make that big a difference.

what kind of drive is your media files on? flash drive, hard drive, is it bus powered, self powered, etc
more info required

[WDUser]

Could also be an issue with how the 1080p files have been encoded. Too many re-frames, bitrate that's too high etc. will all cause problems.

[seanjackdan]

...thank you for your replies:

I have about 5 different external hard drives, a mixture of 500gb, 1tb, 2tb, etc... they are well known makes like WD, Samsung, Iomega, Toshiba, and some are direct usb connections, and the larger ones, are "powered supply" as well as usb...

So can all of these really not be able to cope with 1080p then, so do you still think this is the problem I have - surely not.... and would EVERY 1080p film (i.e all 20 or so) all be "bad encodes" ??

Any more suggestions please !

Sean....

[WDUser]

There's a difference between a "bad encode" and an "incompatible encode". Too many re-frames etc. is not bad per se, but causes problems for the player. Remux the MKVs once and make sure header compression is not turned on (follow this tutorial). Then if you have (or can borrow) a fast pen drive, such as a Corsair Flash Voyager GTR or SanDisk Extreme Cruzer Contour or Kingston DataTraveler 200, try the remuxed files on that (after a reformat) and see. If the same symptoms show up, either it's a problem with the files, or a limitation of the old Gen. 1 player (the latter can't be fixed obviously).

[seanjackdan]

...thank you for your prompt reply.... i am familiar with the demuxing process, and have had to use that on some of my 720p files recently, but hadn't considered doing it with these 1080p files, as it is only usually about one "20 sec" scene that "stutters" thoughout each film, but will give it a go nevertheless...

...as for putting it on a "pen-drive", unfortunately i dont have access to one of these...but will report back once i've "demuxed" these files, to see if it removes the "stuttering"...and once again, thanks for the response!

Sean !

[WDUser]

TBH, if it's just a few scenes that stutter, most likely an issue with high-action scenes requiring high bitrates which the Gen. 1 can't handle for 1080p, but can for 720p video. No 'fix' for this except to re-encode and lose quality, or use a newer player.

[ToJa92]

Blu-ray rips wont work, sure, but most recodes ~8-15GB should work alright, at least over ethernet. Maybe OP needs to lower the overall bitrate of the file?

[Rev Drew]

I have a 32GB copy of avatar and it stutters like crazy on the original WDTV and that is with the file on an attached 7200RPM hard drive.
the same movie plays fine on the live, so there is a possibility that the file bitrate is to high for the original WDTV.

run mediainfo on a file, post the output and perhaps we can tell if that's it or at least (hopefully) point you in the right direction.

[seanjackdan]

...thanks for all your replies, you have all been very helpful, and it is most appreciated.... if anyone is interested, it looks like I have cracked it, (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) and will try to explain what I did, in case other people ever have this issue:

It actually WAS a subtitle issue (sort of):

All my films have 2 files - the actiual MKV file AND the subtitle as a seperate .SRT file, and it looks like this has caused the stuttering...

I have just added the subtitle into the actual mkv file using MKVMerge, remuxed it, and I have just tried out 5 films that were definitely stuttering - i've then gone to those particular scenes, and voila, ALL 5 now play perfectly. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

..now I can't explain the logic behind this, but I am over the moon, as these 1080p's now play perfectly, and all it seemed to be was removing the "seperate" subtitle file (.srt)...and embedding it into the MKV container, along with the audio and video parts.

Cheers..... Sean !! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Rev Drew]

weird indeed but at least it seems to be working for you now..
I'm thinking perhaps something else was done during the remuxing process too.

but hey, watch and enjoy!

[seanjackdan]

... I thought that too, so prior to this I also tried remuxing without the subtitles included, and they still had the "stuttering / freezing" !!

....weird....but works now !

Sean !

[PangaDayWalker]

I had this problem before. And that is why now I am used to recreate all containers with SRT inside. The support inside is better then outside. Not sure why though.

I do have the SRT inside and a SUB outside (gray colored) to stop screen brightness fluctuations that is caused on my tv by the white SRT subtitles.

But like said before, if the bitrate is too high, I then need to switch back to the SRT (that is why I said above I have both).

Cheers

[Alexis]

Thank you very much !!! Now, I can see perfectly my 1080 movies !!!!

I have my WDTV generation 1, with the same symptoms that sean has explained before, but now it works perfect with the subtitle inside.

[caper26]

Thank you very much !!! Now, I can see perfectly my 1080 movies !!!!

I have my WDTV generation 1, with the same symptoms that sean has explained before, but now it works perfect with the subtitle inside.

Just received a WDTV Gen1 for free (since PS3 is now supporting Cinavia protection...bummer). Tried watching first movie last night with subs (srt file) and got the "slow motion" randomly throughout movie... UGH !! I will give this a try. Thanks for the tip...