[Peter_A]

Originally Posted by Lathe

I do pretty much what you do most of the time, making files playable on my OPPO Blu-ray player (which can be VERY touchy sometimes...) So, I feel your pain about occasional MKV files that mysteriously just don't play either natively or when you place them in a BDMV folder (using TSMuxer, for example)

If you don't already have MediaInfo, I strongly suggest that you get it. It isn't always exactly right, but it will help you examine the MKV files and if you can become more familiar with the x264 settings (which I did until I became blind and sterile, and I STILL don't know much, as Sharc will tell you...) then you can open the MKV file in MediaInfo, choose 'text' in the view drop-down menu, and scroll down under the VIDEO section until you come to the x264 settings that usually start with cabac=1 ref=4, etc.

I know for my OPPO that if the ref or 'B' frames are too high for the resolution or the level (4.1) it won't play. I can fudge it a LITTLE, like get away with maybe ref=5 and B=7 on occasion, but not any higher or it simply will not play as an MKV. And, if you put that kind of file into a BDMV folder using say TSMuxer, the player still won't play it.

So, hopefully that might give you a bit of a start in being able to read these files ahead of time and maybe learn some of the 'acceptable' parameters for Blu-ray.

BUT... as JD said, you are best off with any 'off' MKV files letting BDRB re-encode them so that you KNOW that they will be compliant. It's no biggie really. When I have an MKV file that is pesky but I don't want to lose any real quality, even if the file is small, simply choose an output size slightly smaller than the MKV file size. If you choose a slightly smaller size, and then choose either 'auto' or whatever quality you want at that point, you won't lose any appreciable quality at all AND then the file will be encoded properly when done. And, as far as the audio, you can keep whatever you want.

Hope that helps...

Thanks, Lathe. You hit the nail on the head about what I'm trying to do (and determine in advance). Yes, I have been using MediaInfo, but unfortunately, I'm not knowledgeable enough (yet), to determine if any of the reported video data is out of spec. For instance, these 2 below do not work. Does anything jump out as being out of spec, on these? Thanks in advance for any insight.

MKV #1:
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1 h 41 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 30.0 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate : 38.0 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.603
Stream size : 21.2 GiB (97%)
Title : MOVIE_1
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709


MKV #2:
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1 h 36 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 23.0 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.462
Stream size : 15.5 GiB (91%)
Title : MOVIE_2
Default : Yes
Forced : No