How to play .mkv file?

[deepakdeshp]

Hello,
I have tried playing .mkv file with vlc media player but I am nt successful I am using Mint 19 Cinnamon edition. I want to play it preferably without converting to any other format.

The additional vlc packages I could install are

Code: Select all

vlc                        vlc-plugin-qt
vlc-bin                    vlc-plugin-samba
vlc-data                   vlc-plugin-skins2
vlc-l10n                   vlc-plugin-svg
vlc-nox                    vlc-plugin-video-output
vlc-plugin-access-extra    vlc-plugin-video-splitter
vlc-plugin-base            vlc-plugin-visualization
vlc-plugin-fluidsynth      vlc-plugin-vlsub
vlc-plugin-jack            vlc-plugin-zvbi

[Schultz]

Does it play in Mint's "generic" video player?

[deepakdeshp]

Does it play in Mint's "generic" video player?

No it doesn't.

[rene]

MKV (Matroska) is just a container format and certainly supported ootb here on Mint 19 Cinnamon; the issue is likely that you have no support for the specific video and/or audio codec contained within. Did you install proprietary codecs when you installed Mint 19? If not, I believe you should have a menu entry somewhere to do so now, or be able to do so from "mintwelcome".

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mkvinfo foo.mkv | grep "Codec ID"

will show you what codecs are in fact used.

[kyphi]

Downloaded some mkv sample videos from here: https://www.sample-videos.com/

They all played fine in both Xplayer and VLC (v. 3.0.3).

I did not need the configurations mentioned in the following URL but there may be some value here: https://videoconverter.wondershare.com/ ... n-vlc.html

[rene]

Oh, wow. Kyphi edited his post above and there's now two notifications of his one post in my Notifications list. If that's standard I must have been annoying people with my habit of hitting "Submit" as soon as I'm done typing and then taking some twenty-odd edits on average to filter out all the typo's, grammo's and other nonsense I just typed. I thought those edits were "private" ...

[MrEen]

Oh, wow. Kyphi edited his post above and there's now two notifications of his one post in my Notifications list. If that's standard I must have been annoying people with my habit of hitting "Submit" as soon as I'm done typing and then taking some twenty-odd edits on average to filter out all the typo's, grammo's and other nonsense I just typed. I thought those edits were "private" ...

Also quite guilty of that...

I guess we should take a few more minutes before hitting Submit.

[rene]

Let try and confirm. I will edit this message after posting so as to have the last word of this very sentence be "foo" rather than "foo". We can then see if if I appear in your Notifications list twice for this one message -- so please wait with a reply until you see the "bar" having become "foo"

[kyphi]

@ MrEen and @ rene - Relax, this website seems to have developed a few glitches such as difficulties with logging in, not remembering my password, problems with editing and posting duplicates, etc.

My edit was twofold: one was to correct a typo and the second to delete a duplicate I had not requested.

[rene]

Thanks much. Phew

[Hoser Rob]

As mentioned "mkv" is just a Matroska container. It's very versatile and can contain more codecs/formats than others I know of, but usually it'll be x264 or x265 video.

Are you talking about just ONE .mkv or any of them? If it's just the one, open it with mediainfo (mediainfo-gui if you don't have it installed) and post the results from the program's text mode.

BTW, VLC, like smplayer, comes with its own codec library. Installing mint-meta-codecs, which should be done anyway, has no effect on programs that come with their own codecs.

[deepakdeshp]

As mentioned "mkv" is just a Matroska container. It's very versatile and can contain more codecs/formats than others I know of, but usually it'll be x264 or x265 video.

Are you talking about just ONE .mkv or any of them? If it's just the one, open it with mediainfo (mediainfo-gui if you don't have it installed) and post the results from the program's text mode.

BTW, VLC, like smplayer, comes with its own codec library. Installing mint-meta-codecs, which should be done anyway, has no effect on programs that come with their own codecs.

I tried multiple .vlc files and am not able to run any of them. I tried installing mint-meta-codecs but they are already installed.

[deepakdeshp]

MKV (Matroska) is just a container format and certainly supported ootb here on Mint 19 Cinnamon; the issue is likely that you have no support for the specific video and/or audio codec contained within. Did you install proprietary codecs when you installed Mint 19? If not, I believe you should have a menu entry somewhere to do so now, or be able to do so from "mintwelcome".

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mkvinfo foo.mkv | grep "Codec ID"

will show you what codecs are in fact used.

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mkvinfo Shane.1953.720p.BluRay.X264-AMIABLE.mkv | grep "Codec ID"

Does not give any output. I am not sure if I have installed the proprietary codecs as I have upgraded from 18.3 hence dont remember if I did quite some time ago.
I didnt get anything about codecs in Mintwelcome screen

[gm10]

Did you test the sample videos on the site linked above? You might just have corrupt files. Maybe also try from a live USB. If the codec is x264, as the filename suggests, there should be no problem in playing it.

[deepakdeshp]

Did you test the sample videos on the site linked above? You might just have corrupt files. Maybe also try from a live USB. If the codec is x264, as the filename suggests, there should be no problem in playing it.

You are Right. I downloaded a sample file and it did run. Looks like I have 2 corrupt .mkv files. UNfortunately both are rather large and were downloaded from internet. I feel I have to redownload. I dont think there is any checksum for the downloaded .mkvs just like Mint iso. The file name has blueray as a string. Does it have anything to do with the issue?

[rene]

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mkvinfo Shane.1953.720p.BluRay.X264-AMIABLE.mkv | grep "Codec ID"

Does not give any output.

Given that I have many MKVs yet not a single one that doesn't, that likely means it's corrupted indeed. I see it's 5,87G; that is also rather large for 720p x264...

[gm10]

You are Right. I downloaded a sample file and it did run. Looks like I have 2 corrupt .mkv files. UNfortunately both are rather large and were downloaded from internet. I feel I have to redownload. I dont think there is any checksum for the downloaded .mkvs just like Mint iso. The file name has blueray as a string. Does it have anything to do with the issue?

Well, before you toss the files, see what file Shane.1953.720p.BluRay.X264-AMIABLE.mkv says, it might just be badly named files (they might be in another format and/or container), maybe also just try to launch them from a terminal like vlc Shane.1953.720p.BluRay.X264-AMIABLE.mkv and check the error message.

Given that I have many MKVs yet not a single one that doesn't, that likely means it's corrupted indeed. I see it's 5,87G; that is also rather large for 720p x264...

That's what I was thinking, that would be the size of 1080p at x264 unless some crazy bitrate was chosen.

[Hoser Rob]

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mkvinfo Shane.1953.720p.BluRay.X264-AMIABLE.mkv | grep "Codec ID"

Does not give any output.

Given that I have many MKVs yet not a single one that doesn't, that likely means it's corrupted indeed. I see it's 5,87G; that is also rather large for 720p x264...

That file size is not a red flag at all, it's actually common, but I agree the file(s) are probably corrupted. Bittorrents actually do have a checksum (it's part of the protocol AFAIK) but it's not nearly as foolproof as md5sum or sha256.

[deepakdeshp]

The error when I try running the file is could not determine the type stream I have another file-blueray.mp4 file which has name blueray in the file name. It doesnt run and gives the same error too' I suspect that it is something to do with blueray which is preventing the files to be played

[gm10]

The error when I try running the file is could not determine the type stream I have another file-blueray.mp4 file which has name blueray in the file name. It doesnt run and gives the same error too' I suspect that it is something to do with blueray which is preventing the files to be played

That means that it could not find the required codec to play the file. Try this:

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apt install --reinstall gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly