Z9X Won't Play this file

Here's the Mediainfo for the ffmpeg conversion as above:

Code:

General
Unique ID                                : 207880934855092730025596288713893036104 (0x9C6469672AEBA552A56A54FB702F4048)
Complete name                            : C:\Users\(deleted)x265.mkv.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 880 MiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 15 min
Overall bit rate                         : 1 620 kb/s
Writing application                      : Lavf58.29.100
Writing library                          : Lavf58.29.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4
Format settings                          : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 15 min
Width                                    : 960 pixels
Height                                   : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.810 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Writing library                          : x264 core 159
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=18.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
ENCODER_APPLICATION                      : Internet Friendly Media Encoder
ENCODER_LIBRARY                          : Nemu 7

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC SBR
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replication
Commercial name                          : HE-AAC
Format settings                          : Explicit
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 1 h 15 min
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate                               : 21.533 FPS (2048 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : 33 ms
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Frame Rate is different?

Here is a clip from the original file:

 

Latest MKVToolnix 56.1.0 (April 9, 2021) https://www.videohelp.com/software/MKVToolNix

 

Yeah I know. Versions after 43 don't fit the screen of my laptop and I haven't been able to adjust the font size, etc to make it fit without having to hit the scroll bar all the time.

 

If you are interested in conducting a quick experiment - try remuxing one of your troublesome files but only leaving the video track. No sound, subs or chapters and then see if it will play.

This MIGHT be associated with "
* mkvmerge: AAC reader: fixed mkvmerge aborting to read AAC files bigger than
2 GB with a message about not being able to allocate memory.

This was fixed around the release of version 54

If this temp remux allows the file to play then it's an easy matter to convert the AAC audio to AC3.

 

I'll give it a try tomorrow, although the size of the problem files are around 500 MB or less.

 

Not only framerate, but also color bitdepth. You may want to consider keeping original bitdepth during transcode.

 

Think I've sussed it.

This is a really odd file - the frame rate is 23.976 (24000/1001) but the Default Duration in the header is listed as 42000000 nanoseconds. This is the duration of a frame and this means the header shows an incorrect frame rate of 23.8095... fps.

Also, as @Whitfield pointed out, the colour subsampling is 4:4:4 - this is lossless which is generally only used for acquisition and deliverables, and this is why the Zidoo chokes on it - it's not a standard consumer format.

So in order to fix these files you need to first reset the default duration to 41708333 nanoseconds which equates to 23.976fps and then re-encode.

If you don't reset the default duration first you'll encode at 23.810fps and get lipsync issues.

A "fixed" sample is attached.

I reset the header with MKVToolnix and encoded to 10-bit H.265 (4:2:0!) with Staxrip using NVenc. FFMpeg would be fine but as I say, the default duration must be changed first.

 

Nice work, Mark.

A writing library can end up with a wrong framerate header because of faulty timecodes within the videostream.
Should there be incorrect timestamps, MKVToolnix will not correct these when you would only change the Default duration header to its proper value.
The file is indeed rather odd. With "dodgy" files like this I always do a remux with setting the Default duration/FPS to its proper value, but also checking "Fix bitstream timing info".
Even then things can go wrong. Sometimes you'll need to do a demux to the elementary streams and work from there.

 

Thanks Mark. I'm still on the learning curve but I should be able to fix the files although there are quite a few of them.
Got to get Staxrip to try out.

 

Staxrip is a frontend for many other programs (ffmpeg included) but once it's set up properly it's a very powerful interface - worth a look - as I say I use it with NVEnc which gives me hardware encoding with an NVidia graphics card which is very fast (>200fps for 2K and about 65fps for 4K).

 

Alright, I think that Vidcoder can do a one-stop conversion. I converted my test file in about 45 minutes.
It has framerate settings and appears to have worked as expected and the Zidoo plays the file.
Vidcoder can do batch conversions. Let me know if you see anything that's unusual.
Thanks for your help with these weird files.

Here's the Mediainfo data for my converted file:

Code:

General
Unique ID                                : 37461207150508976713279974008650916202 (0x1C2EC41C88E5E031A4DB2195C77EE16A)
Complete name                            : C:\Users\(deleted)720p.x265.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 252 MiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 15 min
Overall bit rate                         : 464 kb/s
Encoded date                             : UTC 2021-05-06 20:16:30
Writing application                      : HandBrake 1.3.3 2020061300
Writing library                          : Lavf58.29.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L4@Main
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 15 min
Width                                    : 960 pixels
Height                                   : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 10 bits
Writing library                          : x265 3.2.1+1-b5c86a64bbbe:[Windows][GCC 9.2.0][64 bit] 10bit
Encoding settings                        : cpuid=1049583 / frame-threads=3 / numa-pools=8 / wpp / no-pmode / no-pme / no-psnr / no-ssim / log-level=2 / input-csp=1 / input-res=960x720 / interlace=0 / total-frames=0 / level-idc=40 / high-tier=1 / uhd-bd=0 / ref=2 / no-allow-non-conformance / no-repeat-headers / annexb / no-aud / no-hrd / info / hash=0 / no-temporal-layers / open-gop / min-keyint=24 / keyint=240 / gop-lookahead=0 / bframes=4 / b-adapt=0 / b-pyramid / bframe-bias=0 / rc-lookahead=15 / lookahead-slices=4 / scenecut=40 / radl=0 / no-splice / no-intra-refresh / ctu=64 / min-cu-size=8 / no-rect / no-amp / max-tu-size=32 / tu-inter-depth=1 / tu-intra-depth=1 / limit-tu=0 / rdoq-level=0 / dynamic-rd=0.00 / no-ssim-rd / signhide / no-tskip / nr-intra=0 / nr-inter=0 / no-constrained-intra / strong-intra-smoothing / max-merge=2 / limit-refs=3 / no-limit-modes / me=1 / subme=1 / merange=57 / temporal-mvp / no-hme / weightp / no-weightb / no-analyze-src-pics / deblock=0:0 / sao / no-sao-non-deblock / rd=2 / selective-sao=4 / early-skip / rskip / fast-intra / no-tskip-fast / no-cu-lossless / no-b-intra / no-splitrd-skip / rdpenalty=0 / psy-rd=2.00 / psy-rdoq=0.00 / no-rd-refine / no-lossless / cbqpoffs=0 / crqpoffs=0 / rc=abr / bitrate=420 / qcomp=0.60 / qpstep=4 / stats-write=0 / stats-read=0 / ipratio=1.40 / pbratio=1.30 / aq-mode=2 / aq-strength=1.00 / cutree / zone-count=0 / no-strict-cbr / qg-size=32 / no-rc-grain / qpmax=69 / qpmin=0 / no-const-vbv / sar=1 / overscan=0 / videoformat=5 / range=0 / colorprim=1 / transfer=1 / colormatrix=1 / chromaloc=0 / display-window=0 / cll=0,0 / min-luma=0 / max-luma=1023 / log2-max-poc-lsb=8 / vui-timing-info / vui-hrd-info / slices=1 / no-opt-qp-pps / no-opt-ref-list-length-pps / no-multi-pass-opt-rps / scenecut-bias=0.05 / no-opt-cu-delta-qp / no-aq-motion / no-hdr / no-hdr-opt / no-dhdr10-opt / no-idr-recovery-sei / analysis-reuse-level=5 / scale-factor=0 / refine-intra=0 / refine-inter=0 / refine-mv=1 / refine-ctu-distortion=0 / no-limit-sao / ctu-info=0 / no-lowpass-dct / refine-analysis-type=0 / copy-pic=1 / max-ausize-factor=1.0 / no-dynamic-refine / no-single-sei / no-hevc-aq / no-svt / no-field / qp-adaptation-range=1.00
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC SBR
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replication
Commercial name                          : HE-AAC
Format settings                          : Explicit
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 1 h 15 min
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate                               : 21.533 FPS (2048 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : 33 ms
Title                                    : Stereo
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Menu
00:00:00.000                             : :00:00:00.000
00:06:00.610                             : :00:06:00.560

 

That looks fine - the Profile and Level is higher than needed but that doesn't matter.

Just before you let rip, is lipsync ok? - I'd expect it to be but just worth a check...

By the way - it really took me back seeing a bit of Columbo again

 

Lipsync looks good, I always worry about that.
Don't know when I'll let 'er rip, got to plan to have enough disk space, etc.
These old shows are great, especially seeing actors who are no longer with us.