MKV issue, playback freezes once per boot.

long story short, lve found that some mkv files freeze my system for a few seconds after reboot/startup.

originally l thought the problem was intermittent, however lve found its file specific l was able to recreate the issue on a specific file and as a benchmark l tried the first file l opened yesterday which didnt cause an issue and the one that previously did second which created the problem again.

as l said this issue occurs once per boot and has consistently happened on one file, crc on the file matches so l dont suspect corruption that coupled with the fact it happens on other files l just didnt note before which one until today as l thought the problem was intermittent but seeing as l can consistently recreate the problem my guess would be its a codec issue.

l use MPC-HC to play mostly but the problem is recreateable via media player as well.


here is the media info obtained from MPC:

no problems with this file, used as a benchmark:
General
Unique ID : 225306137320184535135382861822922733388 (0xA98062370312D01FA1B73C5C277A374C)
Complete name : D:\#H1\#TO SORT\[Anim8S] TEHHH[AA29323B].mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 329 MiB
Duration : 17mn 48s
Overall bit rate : 2 581 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2012-04-12 05:43:25
Writing application : mkvmerge v5.5.0 ('Healer') built on Apr 6 2012 21:43:24
Writing library : libebml v1.2.3 + libmatroska v1.3.0
Attachment : Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High 4:4:4 Predictive@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Muxing mode : Header stripping
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 17mn 48s
Bit rate : 2 337 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:4:4
Bit depth : 10 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.106
Stream size : 298 MiB (91%)
Title : HHH トリプルエッチ 4th. しぐれ編 おかわりっ
Writing library : x264 core 123 r2192+664+26 bd75503 tMod [10-bit@all X86]
Encoding settings : Powered / Darkstalkers
Language : Japanese
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color primaries : BT.601 PAL
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.601

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Muxing mode : Header stripping
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 17mn 48s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 24.5 MiB (7%)
Title : Original
Language : Japanese
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Text
ID : 3
Format : ASS
Codec ID : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Compression mode : Lossless
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Chapter 1
00:01:30.657 : en:Chapter 2
00:03:29.347 : en:Chapter 3
00:10:02.260 : en:Chapter 4
00:12:07.071 : en:Chapter 5
00:14:30.600 : en:Chapter 6
00:16:31.073 : en:Chapter 7
00:17:37.758 : en:Chapter 8

and this is the file the few second freeze happened on:

General
Unique ID : 213993752469175480029778342821068253725 (0xA0FDB2948D358D548E2920437C93AA1D)
Complete name : D:\#H1\#TO SORT\Ride of the Valkyrie\[KH]_Ride_of_the_Valkerie(h264)_[CB1A2512].mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 1
File size : 257 MiB
Duration : 28mn 19s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 268 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2008-09-28 19:12:00
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.0.2 ('You're My Flame') built on Feb 21 2007 23:40:55
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1
Attachment : Yes / Yes

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 28mn 19s
Bit rate : 987 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 1 300 Kbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Original frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.134
Stream size : 200 MiB (78%)
Title : Ride of the Valkerie 1 (h264)
Writing library : x264 core 46 svn-504
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=1 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=5 / brdo=0 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / slices=1 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / bframes=2 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=2 / wpredb=1 / bime=0 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / rc=2pass / bitrate=1300 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30
Language : Japanese
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : Vorbis
Format settings, Floor : 1
Codec ID : A_VORBIS
Duration : 28mn 19s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 25.9 MiB (10%)
Writing library : libVorbis 1.0.1 (UTC 2003-09-09)
Language : Japanese
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Writing application : Made with BeSweet v1.5b30
Encoded_Application/Url : http://DSPguru.doom9.org

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : Vorbis
Format settings, Floor : 1
Codec ID : A_VORBIS
Duration : 28mn 19s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 25.9 MiB (10%)
Writing library : libVorbis 1.0.1 (UTC 2003-09-09)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Writing application : Made with BeSweet v1.5b30
Encoded_Application/Url : http://DSPguru.doom9.org

Text #1
ID : 4
Format : ASS
Codec ID : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Compression mode : Lossless
Title : ass
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Text #2
ID : 5
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Title : srt
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No

my thought was to visit the differences between the files..

so far lve updated DirectX and graphics drivers (fixed a dcom issue recently with an update). could sound card be causing this? using an external sound blaster as l didnt have enough jacks on the system for my 5.1s.. that being said l assume it wouldnt play a part as it only happens once per boot.

regardless lm happy to provide any information l can to find a solution.

There is one setting you could test:
Haali Media Splitter > Options > Input > Try to open linked files

lve checked, its set to yes currently, l guess your suggesting for me to set it to no?

just out of curiosity what would this affect? would make more sense if you could give me a basic explanation.. tho lm speculating that it has something to do with whats contained wintin the mkv container like "linked" subtitles but lm only guessing.

The Matroska container has a feature where multiple files can be linked. It means a single video can be divided in multiple files, but can still be played as a whole by opening a single file. It can trigger a file search, which can sometimes cause a short delay if there are many files in the same folder. It is a rarely used feature, so I doubt your file uses it.

You could try monitoring system activity with this tool:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx
Maybe that can show something interesting with regard to file activity.

Hard drives can go into sleep mode. But I don't think that is the case here, because then the problem would have show with any file.

so lm assuming by linked that means external *.ssa *.ass type subtitles which arent stored within the mkv container, rarely have mkvs like that occasionally have avi/wmv files that have external subs.

that being said if l change said setting l guess that wouldnt affect subtitle loading as l watch allot of subtitled files.

No, I mean one .mkv file linking to another .mkv file. But just forget about this whole linked files thing. I highly doubt it is the problem.

Try changing the preferred splitter to LAV with the Codec Tweak Tool. Maybe that works better for you.

just an update, had an issue with a windows service called WinSat.exe.. was watching a video file (avi) when the service started maxing out rebooted and disabled.

heres the weird part, after disabling the service the file l got consistent freezes the last few reboots running my tests didnt freeze this time. any ideas.

Interesting. That is the Windows System Assessment Tool. It calculates a performance index score. I dont know if it recalculates periodically, or only after hardware changes and driver updates. I dont think it is an essential service, so keeping it disabled should not be a problem.

You could try running it manually from the Windows Control Panel. Maybe it fails to calculate the index (which can happen for many reasons, including disabled MS codecs in Win7DSFilterTweaker).

for the time being lm keeping it disabled, so far l havent had any freezes but l'll be keeping an eye on it.

funny thing is l havent changed hardware tho l did update graphics drivers.. l originally thought my problem was related as l noticed a Dcom timeout but after updating drivers l rectified that until l realised l could reproduce the freeze in a specific file.. which happened on three different reboots and stopped when l disabled winsat.

just an update, since disabling winsat l havent had any freezes since.

Good to know.

back to square one it seems, just had another freeze.. annoyingly before the winsat issue it was pretty consistent on one file, but it went away for three reboots until today

equally when l tested my browser was open.. l cant remember if that was always the case as before but one thing l remember is when l ran the first few tests l likely wasnt running my usual programs in the background. maybe on future reboots l should try running one program at a time to find a correlation.

Browsers may use the graphics card for hardware acceleration when rendering pages. So it could be a driver issue.

did a couple of reboots this morning to see what happened, seems it does it consistently again without anything running apart from the mkv l caused the issues with.

You could try remuxing the file with MkvToolNix to see if that makes any difference.

just thought l would share an update, l disabled ccc.exe (Catalyst control centre) which also disabled mom.exe and its been a few weeks now and the issue l originally had hasnt reoccurred since, hoping l found the culprit.