[nonhuman]

Does anyone know if there are any video players that will play .mkv files other/better than VLC?

I'm trying to play .mkv video off a striped eSATA RAID on a dual 2 GHz G5 with 2.5 GB of RAM and the video is still choppy in VLC. Is my computer just showing it's age?

[mduell]

mkv is just a container. What's the actual video codec?

Are you running the latest vlc (0.86)? Are you using post-processing in vlc?

[nonhuman]

I don't know why I always forget to include all that relevant info... The codec is H.264, and it's in 720p...

I am using VLC 0.86, and no post-processing.

[mduell]

You can use VLC's wizard to change the container so the files play in another app, but I doubt it will help much.

[angelmb]

This topic comes handy… I had tried to open a .mkv file and had no luck with latest VLC nor MPlayer, I get sound but video is MIA.

I have also tried it under VirtualPC and XP Home but that was worse, I got a weird old school red alert box yelling at me something gone bad…

What is that VLC's post-processing are you talking about Mark?

edit: VLC output what seems to be a missing REAL (?) codec…

mkv: unknow codec id=`A_REAL/COOK'
mkv: unknow codec id=`V_REAL/RV40'
main: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `undf'.
VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.
main: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `undf'.
VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.

You can use VLC's wizard to change the container so the files play in another app, but I doubt it will help much.

I got the same error since the REAL whatever stuff is not present…
Do I really need to install REAL stuff on my Mac?

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by angelmb 

This topic comes handy… I had tried to open a .mkv file and had no luck with latest VLC nor MPlayer, I get sound but video is MIA.

I have also tried it under VirtualPC and XP Home but that was worse, I got a weird old school red alert box yelling at me something gone bad…

What is that VLC's post-processing are you talking about Mark?

I've played .mkv video in VLC before. But it's always choppy. The one I'm trying to play now is particularly bad.

I've always assumed it has something to do with the fact that the only .mkv videos I try to watch are in HD, but without any non-HD .mkv files or any other video player that will open them, it's hard to test that theory.

[RevEvs]

I think mplayer plays mkv's a bit better than VLC - give it a go.

[nonhuman]

Mplayer (2.0b9r5) won't even open them for me. :/

[mduell]

Originally Posted by angelmb 

This topic comes handy… I had tried to open a .mkv file and had no luck with latest VLC nor MPlayer, I get sound but video is MIA.

I have also tried it under VirtualPC and XP Home but that was worse, I got a weird old school red alert box yelling at me something gone bad…

What is that VLC's post-processing are you talking about Mark?

edit: VLC output what seems to be a missing REAL (?) codec…

mkv: unknow codec id=`A_REAL/COOK'
mkv: unknow codec id=`V_REAL/RV40'
main: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `undf'.
VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.
main: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `undf'.
VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.

I got the same error since the REAL whatever stuff is not present…
Do I really need to install REAL stuff on my Mac?

That means your computer doesn't have a codec to decode whatever audio and video formats were used to encode that file. In this case, as you correctly deduced, those FourCCs are for RealAudio and RealVideo, so you'll need to install Real Network's client, or a compatible set of codecs, on your Mac.

[angelmb]

Thanks, will try that.

[angelmb]

OK, that didn't work… weird.

[Uncle Skeleton]

That wasn't going to work. VLC doesn't have a plugin framework (for users), and Real Player doesn't parse mkv files. MPlayer might work, but I doubt it. I'm pretty sure nothing else for Mac OS will play RV40 in mkv.

You can try using VLC (or ffmpeg) to transfer the streams to a new container (rm) and then use Real Player, but the chances of it working are not high.

[angelmb]

Thanks for the input Uncle Skeleton, but as guessed MPlayer didn't work either… so unfriendly Mac file goes to the Trash :-P

[angelmb]

OK, solved:

- download and install this: MKVtoolnix 2.0 - MacUpdate
- open Terminal:
bold as user input --> press intro once you write the bold text down
italic as Terminal output

…file movie.mkv located on my Desktop…

Speed-Holes:~/Desktop AMB$ mkvmerge -i movie.mkv
File 'movie.mkv': container: Matroska
Track ID 1: audio (A_REAL/COOK)
Track ID 2: video (V_REAL/RV40)

I am told here that the contained movie is a Real audio/video movie then on my next Terminal input I shall use a .rmvb file as target file

Speed-Holes:~/Desktop AMB$ mkvextract tracks movie.mkv 1:movie.rmvb 2:movie.rmvbExtracting track 1 with the CodecID 'A_REAL/COOK' to the file 'movie.rmvb'. Container format: RMFF (RealMedia File Format)
Extracting track 2 with the CodecID 'V_REAL/RV40' to the file 'movie.rmvb'. Container format: RMFF (RealMedia File Format)
progress: 100%
Speed-Holes:~/Desktop AMB$

As said I am extracting the contained .rmvb files inside of the .mkv file.

It is pretty fast -under 1 minute with a 1,25GHz G4-, the resulting movie.rmvb plays nicely with REAL player (oximoron!!)

[mduell]

Or you can do the same thing (change container) graphically in VLC with the poorly-named "streaming wizard" (which does so much more than just streaming).

[nonhuman]

Ah ha, VLC seems to be transcoding it fine. I've tried this before and it didn't work at all, so I didn't think to try it this time. Hopefully the file it leaves me with will work.

[mduell]

You don't want to do any transcoding; all you want to do is change the container, so leave the audio and video transcoding options unchecked.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Except VLC doesn't even offer a Real Media file format for exporting...