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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > How to play large .mkv files?

How to play large .mkv files?
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ShortcutToMoncton
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May 6, 2012, 08:59 AM
 
I've got a buddy who converted his massive Blu-Ray library to video files, so now and again I'll grab a movie off him (transfer the file over to my computer via USB stick). I've been running into trouble with large 720p/1080p .mkv files - I haven't had a problem playing ones around 4-5 gigs or less in size, but for whatever reason a couple that are very large (Dark Knight is about 9 gigs) simply seem to "cut out" after a relatively brief period playing the movie. (I have no idea what, if anything, the size of the file has to do with it - that's just the only apparently difference I can see.) This happens in VLC and Plex. After some brief research I downloaded MPlayerX; it actually plays the files through, but the video often skips and shows all sorts of artifacts and stuff. It's not watchable. My buddy on the other hand has a Windows machine with a bunch of codecs and he can play these movies just fine.

Is there a Mac program I'm missing? Or should I be using a program like Handbrake to convert these files into another format?
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angelmb
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May 6, 2012, 09:25 AM
 
Largest I've ever tried was 8,8 GB on size. Both of the apps listed below were able to play it.

MPlayer OSX Extended

DivX Player

There are apps like Media Inspector to analyze and get a report on the codecs the movies use.
     
ShortcutToMoncton  (op)
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May 6, 2012, 09:47 AM
 
How is that MPlayer OSX Extended different from MPlayerX, I wonder?
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Waragainstsleep
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May 6, 2012, 10:33 AM
 
He's probably using some crappy codec that doesn't work properly cross platform.

I never had an issue playing 8GB 720p mkvs in VLC. I do tend to convert them to m4v for my Apple TV more often than I watch the mkv versions though.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
angelmb
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May 6, 2012, 11:16 AM
 
How is that MPlayer OSX Extended different from MPlayerX, I wonder?
It seems that the developer of MPlayerX didn't like MPlayer OS X Extended and came with his own version of the player.

As for Media Inspector, there are free alternatives like VideoSpec or iMediaHUD. My apologies for pointing you to a paid software instead.

He's probably using some crappy codec that doesn't work properly cross platform.
I guess that has to be the issue we're getting here.
     
angelmb
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May 6, 2012, 11:27 AM
 
My apologies for pointing you to a paid software instead.
All right, I cleared up things a bit regarding MediaI Inspector. I recall this app was free when it was dubbed "MediaInfo Mac" and turned out to be true. You still can download old builds from the developer' site.

Please avoid the 1.0 version as it'll download a 4 Kb file. Go with 0.7.36.0 instead.
     
Art Vandelay
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May 6, 2012, 01:02 PM
 
No problems playing >10GB MKVs with Plex on a mini.
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mduell
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May 6, 2012, 01:34 PM
 
1) 4-8 GB is already heavily recompressed, Blu-rays are 20-35GB for the main movie. I wouldn't suggest recompressing it again.

2) I thought I was crazy for this, but I've also noticed persistent issues playing mkv on OS X. The container really shouldn't matter that much, the codecs are the hard part of decoding. It's almost like libmatroska has some OS X performance issue, which is crazy.

Try remuxing (changing the container without modifying the audio/video streams) to mp4 with mp4box or subler and see if it plays better then. Note you'll need to choose "64-bit MP4" or "large file support" or whatever they call it since your movies are over 4GB (the 32-bit MP4 limit).

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep View Post
He's probably using some crappy codec that doesn't work properly cross platform.
Possible but I doubt it. Hard to imagine anyone is going to the effort of finding a workflow that includes BR ripping and Indeo/DivX/something similarly goofy encoding in mkv. Almost certainly H.264.
     
reader50
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May 6, 2012, 02:00 PM
 
What hardware are you playing it on?

Assuming you have a dual-core or better, go into MPlayer OSX Extended preferences -> MPlayer tab -> choose to use the multithreaded video playback binary.
     
ShortcutToMoncton  (op)
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May 6, 2012, 02:49 PM
 
I'm on an iMac i5 2.66 GHz - I can't imagine processing power is the bottleneck here?
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mduell
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May 6, 2012, 03:09 PM
 
It might be if you're not multi-threaded or using the GPU.
     
ShortcutToMoncton  (op)
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May 6, 2012, 03:23 PM
 
Well MPlayer Extended won't play the files either - it simply cuts out just like VLC or Plex. MPlayerX at least plays through it, although it skips and artifacts and seems to delay the audio as a result.

Simply weird.
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mduell
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May 6, 2012, 03:49 PM
 
Try running the mkv through mkvmerge. There's been some issues lately with some library versions generating files with issues.
     
The Final Shortcut
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May 8, 2012, 02:24 PM
 
I'll give that a try. This guy uses some sort of bundle of codecs called CCCP but apparently it's Windows-only. Checked it out on his computer and they play perfectly.

The fact that MPlayerX does play the files - with errors/artifacts - but VLC or any other player simply won't play it at all seems telling I guess.
     
   
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