vu duo struggles to play some mkv files - why?

[hiohaa]

im struggling to play a lot of the mkv files sat on the vu duo's hard drive.

the video will sometimes stop, but the audio keeps going. sometimes its the other way around - the audio stops and video keeps going.
I have to press pause, wait for the VIX logo to appear for a few seconds whilst its thinking, then press play again - and it will 'resync'.
this will make everything okay again......for about 10 minutes. then the same thing happens again.

it seems to happen and completely random points in a film.

i thought maybe it was because i was recording 2 different channels at the same time, whilst trying to watch a film.
However it has the same problems even when im not recording anything at the same time.

why is the vu duo like this with mkv? Can it not play mkv consistently? is it the mkv files? some mkv's play okay, some don't - however all play perfectly all my PC.
it seems to happen more with larger MKV files, where the bitrate is higher - but again, all plays perfectly on PC.

is there anything i can do to fix this? if not im going to have to buy a dedicated media player just to play mkv files.....or work out a way to stream the files from my PC via the network (which i dont know how to do - created a seperate thread for that)

please help.

[Maxwell]

Thats because MKV is just a file container not a format and can contain different encoding methods some of which are not compatable with the mediaplayer its dependent on how they were ripped

[Rob van der Does]

Thats because MKV is just a file container not a format and can contain different encoding methods some of which are not compatable with the mediaplayer its dependent on how they were ripped
Exactly, as has been stated on this (and many other) forum dozens of times.
An STB has only limited processing power, and certainly not enough for videodecoding. That's why that is done in hardware, requiring the used codecs to be compliant.

And indeed there's a good work around: re-code the files on your PC.

[ijssgerb]

Sorry but the codecs story is totally true, but the same mkv files played perfectly with the old VU+ drivers, so I guess this also is because the new Vu Duo drivers are full with faults.

[Rob van der Does]

Sorry but the codecs story is totally true, but the same mkv files played perfectly with the old VU+ drivers, so I guess this also is because the new Vu Duo drivers are full with faults.
Ah, that's a good catch then.
Drivers should enable all hardware functionality of the chipset. It is very well possible that VU+ should still do some homework in this area.

[hiohaa]

so just to confirm then.
vu duo will never be capable enough to play all mkv files with no problems, like a PC can?
can you advise what i'd have to re-code the files to for them to play perfectly on the vuduo?
what can the vuduo handle?

here is an example of a video its struggling with:


SOURCE TYPE.....: Bluray H.264 1080p DTSMA5.1
ViDEO BiTRATE...: x264 L4.1 High 2pass @ 14510 kbps
FRAME RATE......: 23.976 fps
AUDiO...........: English DTS 5.1 @ 1510 kbps (from DTSHD)
RUNTiME.........: 1:57:14 (h:m:s)
ASPECT RATiO....: 1.853:1
RESOLUTiON......: 1920x1036
SUBTiTLES.......: N/A
FilE SiZE.......: 13.1 GB

so the vuduo definitely cannot play the above perfectly?
does this mean i'm going to have to buy a dedicated mkv player....

have i got that right?

[Rob van der Does]

I can't give you the exact details about what can/cannot be played.
But generally spoken: a STB is definitely not an all-round mediaplayer. Whether the capabilities are OK for you, or that you accept re-coding once in a while, is only for you to decide.
Especially files 'found' on the internet tend to be sluggish encoded; so if you want to play those often a dedicated mediaplayer seems to be a logical choice.

[markus625]

The perfect solution to this would be to use xbmc htpc with either a plugin to stream a live feed from your duo or to have the xbmc machine to have a dedicated dvb-s card or usb device to receive satellite feeds, and a pvr skin.
Its something id like to do myself but would also need to consider softcams etc.

[hiohaa]

The perfect solution to this would be to use xbmc htpc with either a plugin to stream a live feed from your duo or to have the xbmc machine to have a dedicated dvb-s card or usb device to receive satellite feeds, and a pvr skin.
Its something id like to do myself but would also need to consider softcams etc.

i aint really fussed about an all-in-one solution.
just need to find something other than a pc that will deffo play high bitrate stuff with no issues...

or find a 40metre cable to connect my pc to the tv downstairs.

[markus625]

i aint really fussed about an all-in-one solution.
just need to find something other than a pc that will deffo play high bitrate stuff with no issues...

or find a 40metre cable to connect my pc to the tv downstairs.

Well i have a asrock ION3d http://www.asrock.com/nettop/overview.asp?Model=ION%203D%20Series with openelec plays everything i throw at it even bluray iso's but without the menu's.

[hiohaa]

Well i have a asrock ION3d http://www.asrock.com/nettop/overview.asp?Model=ION%203D%20Series with openelec plays everything i throw at it even bluray iso's but without the menu's.

this looks perfect. should i bother doing more research or is this the best little pc media box you can get?
im trying to find the genre name so i can google a bunch of them and compare.

what do you refer to them as? mini HTPC's? what's their category name? this is the final question, promise!

[markus625]

best to look on xbmc's forums really, or have alook at openelec's forums or supported hardware.

But i think the genral term is mulimedia pc or barebones atom pc

Try this link, http://openelec.tv/find-help/documentation/supported-hardware/systems

or have alook at xtreamer for a all in one solution http://www.xtreamer.co.uk/

or the xtreamer Elvira (http://xtreamer.net/2012/)for £49 would you believe.

But best systems are
asrock
asus eee box
zotac
shuttle
xtreamer

[hiohaa]

best to look on xbmc's forums really, or have alook at openelec's forums or supported hardware.

But i think the genral term is mulimedia pc or barebones atom pc

Try this link, http://openelec.tv/find-help/documentation/supported-hardware/systems

or have alook at xtreamer for a all in one solution http://www.xtreamer.co.uk/

or the xtreamer Elvira (http://xtreamer.net/2012/)for £49 would you believe.

But best systems are
asrock
asus eee box
zotac
shuttle
xtreamer

i think im gona go with what you've got - shuttle/asus dont do optical out, xtreamer aren't mini pc's and i want the full functionality of a pc (they do 1 model in their range but ...ASrock seem to be the kings of htpc)

I have 1 last question for you then. I hear that the Asrock ION 3d you've got cannot bitstream audio like TrueHD/Dts etc.... i presume this doesnt matter if im just going to be sending audio via the SPDIF optical out, to the AV receiver to decode - correct??

this is what i read ''The ASRock ION 3D lost points for two reasons. The first and the greatest offender was the inability to bitstream high-end codecs such as TrueHD and several DTS variations.''
i presume thats just if you want it to send the audio via HDMI?