"Corrupt or unsupported file" when playing some MKV videos on Sony BDV-E380

[EViLdEAD6661666]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to get to the bottom of a file type/video/audio codec support problem. I've asked the Sony community and their tech support, but nobody seemed to understand how I might go about solving my problem. I know from reading threads on Digital Video Forums, that the level of cleverness and knowledge in this community is really high, so I'm hoping you guys will be able to help me solve my problem. If this post is in the wrong forum, please let me know and I'll move it.

I have a Sony BDV-E380 home theatre system. It is connected by a network cable to my ASUS RT-N66U router. I have a 2TB USB HDD plugged into one of the routers USB ports. The router allows the USB HDD to be accessed as a NAS and provides DLNA functionality for it. I use the BDV-E380 to watch movies from the HDD on my TV. All quite straightforward.

Here's the thing. Some MKVs will play. Some will not.

The tech spec for the BDV-E380 says MKVs are supported. This is obviously true as some MKVs will play. Now I know this is a common problem for various systems, as I've spent hours looking into it. What I'm specifically trying to do is to work out what it is about the MKVs that determines whether or not it will play.

I read somewhere about "header stripping" being a problem. That lead me to a tool called MediaInfo, which I've used to look at lots of the files that I'm trying to play. This has shown that some files with header stripping will play just fine, while others report "corrupt or unsupported file". So clearly header stripping is not the problem. I've also looked for different video and audio encoding types to see if there is any correlation there, but can't spot anything.

Does anyone have any suggestions how I might refine or change what I'm doing to get to the bottom this?

My ultimate goal is to re-encode the MKVs so that they will play on my BDV-E380, but I can't even look into that until I know what will play, what won't and why.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions or help of any kind, as this has been bugging me for ages!

AtB

ED

[paglamon]

Can you please upload a small portion(even a minute will do) of any MKV file which is not playing? You can use AVIDemux to cut out a part of your MKV.

[dado101]

playing MKVs

I have a similar problem playing MKVs. I have a sony blu ray player
BDP S370 along with a sony TV. I cannot play MKVs so I simply convert them to MP4s which show as a VLC icon with M4V beneath it. This reduces the file size and the picture quality is very good.
I have an imac and I use Visual Hub to convert them. I also have a DivX converter which takes much longer to convert. There are plenty of converters out there if that is the way you want to go. I wouldn't worry about why they don't play. Hope this helps you.
dado101

[dado101]

re MKV files

Just to let you know that the new sony blu ray players will play MKVs.
Models S1100, S3100 & S5100. If you want to invest in one.
dado101

[abeha]

My ultimate goal is to re-encode the MKVs so that they will play on my BDV-E380, but I can't even look into that until I know what will play, what won't and why.





emma

[MilesAhead]

My ultimate goal is to re-encode the MKVs so that they will play on my BDV-E380, but I can't even look into that until I know what will play, what won't and why.
emma

Sometimes just remuxing them will get them to play. See this free tool:

MKVExtractGUI-2 2.2.2.9

Also you can convert to a BD format file using
BD Rebuilder

BDRB does need a machine with a bit of horse power even for "good" quality setting. How much quality you need depends largely on screen size. For a large wall mounted flat screen you need more quality than if you play on a Sony WEGA 21" CRT type HDTV.