Mkv File Support


mystique

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Jan 29, 2010
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Both me and the BF hate this file type and yes I know how to convert them. I just wondered if there was anyone working on a video player port like VLC that supports this.

I'm not familiar with the Wiz internals so I don't know if it even has the power to support this. I know we often find we need to use our most powerful computer to play them.

Misty
 
I rather like the file type, I would not mind seeing it supported however most MKVs I have are HD quality and would therefore not even run at a decent frame rate on the wiz. Anything to increase file type support would be great though. Not sure if VLC is portable but I think Mplayer could do it. I think the trouble is more what's inside the MKV than the container itself right?
 
mystique said:
Both me and the BF hate this file type and yes I know how to convert them. I just wondered if there was anyone working on a video player port like VLC that supports this.

I'm not familiar with the Wiz internals so I don't know if it even has the power to support this. I know we often find we need to use our most powerful computer to play them.

Misty
MKV is a container format - most often it contains H.264 video. It's a nice format because of the options it offers; it's frequently used for anime because of the flexibility with subtitles, etc. But h.264 is almost standard these days, since it gives very high compression ratios.

This is, as you've found, quite CPU-intensive to decode (the higher the compression ratio, generally, the more CPU power it takes to decompress the file). It's often used to encode HD-quality video for this reason, which the Wiz is not powerful enough to decode (it took an overclocked 2.66 GHz P4 to play 720p h.264 for me, and my Athlon 64 FX-55 will barely do 1080p).

However, it's quite possible to place lower-resolution h.264 video in the MKV container. Not only that, but depending on the options used to encode the file, it may be more or less CPU-intensive to decode. So the answer is "yes and no" - I don't see why VLC couldn't be ported, but whether the Wiz has the power to decode the files depends on the resolution and the encoding options. Unfortunately, the majority of h.264 videos are likely to be unusable on the Wiz without transcoding.
 
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Tom` said:
mystique said:
Both me and the BF hate this file type and yes I know how to convert them. I just wondered if there was anyone working on a video player port like VLC that supports this.

I'm not familiar with the Wiz internals so I don't know if it even has the power to support this. I know we often find we need to use our most powerful computer to play them.

Misty
MKV is a container format - most often it contains H.264 video. It's a nice format because of the options it offers; it's frequently used for anime because of the flexibility with subtitles, etc. But h.264 is almost standard these days, since it gives very high compression ratios.

This is, as you've found, quite CPU-intensive to decode (the higher the compression ratio, generally, the more CPU power it takes to decompress the file). It's often used to encode HD-quality video for this reason, which the Wiz is not powerful enough to decode (it took an overclocked 2.66 GHz P4 to play 720p h.264 for me, and my Athlon 64 FX-55 will barely do 1080p).

However, it's quite possible to place lower-resolution h.264 video in the MKV container. Not only that, but depending on the options used to encode the file, it may be more or less CPU-intensive to decode. So the answer is "yes and no" - I don't see why VLC couldn't be ported, but whether the Wiz has the power to decode the files depends on the resolution and the encoding options. Unfortunately, the majority of h.264 videos are likely to be unusable on the Wiz without transcoding.


I understand believe me. Even converting things to avi for the wiz you have to be careful about the frame size and bitrates. The only thing we hate about the mkv format is that it usually contains alot more "stuff" than people want in a certain region. Of course that is why it was created. It's adds all those audio and video options and tidbits.
 
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Tom` said:
This is, as you've found, quite CPU-intensive to decode (the higher the compression ratio, generally, the more CPU power it takes to decompress the file). It's often used to encode HD-quality video for this reason, which the Wiz is not powerful enough to decode (it took an overclocked 2.66 GHz P4 to play 720p h.264 for me, and my Athlon 64 FX-55 will barely do 1080p).

woot ?! , my 2.6 Celeron single core ( 32bit ) does 1080p , :-||
 
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