[mythtv-users] Will the builtin player play MKVs these days?

Michael Stucky mike at stucky.us
Fri Dec 13 16:10:56 UTC 2013


On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 10:38 AM, Dan Wilga <
mythtv-users2 at dwilga-linux1.amherst.edu> wrote:

>  On 12/13/13, 10:11 AM, Michael Stucky wrote:
>
>  On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 9:00 AM, Dan Wilga <
> mythtv-users2 at dwilga-linux1.amherst.edu> wrote:
>
>> On 12/12/13, 6:47 PM, John Pilkington wrote:
>>
>>> I had this comment from Michael Stucky in July, after I had added his
>>> suggested mkv output option to my mythDVBcut script to enable it to cut HD
>>> mpeg recordings, with which the mplex remuxer apparently failed.
>>>
>>>> I should have mentioned above, once the file is in an MKV container it
>>>> is no longer in a format that MythTV considers a "recording". In other
>>>> words, it is not editable or seekable as a recording. You need to use
>>>> "mythexport" or some other script like that to move it to your MythTV Video
>>>> library where you can play, fastforward, rewind, etc. as you would any
>>>> imported video.
>>>>
>>> Is that still true?
>>>
>>  Not entirely. I have converted a large number of recordings to MKV and
>> the ability to skip/fast forward/rewind/bookmark/etc. is still available.
>> It's just necessary to run "mythcommflag --rebuild" on the file after the
>> change, to rebuild the seektable.
>>
>> However, despite having done this, my attempts to edit these recordings
>> with the built-in editor result in a complaint that there is no seektable.
>> I've been using avidemux to cut commercials, instead.
>>
>>    It is my understanding that running "mythcommflag --rebuild" on an
> MKV will actually remove the seektable from the database (at least that is
> how it worked for MythTV 0.26, I have not tested it under 0.27 as I have
> gone back to using mythtranscode). Thus, my comment to John that the MKV
> files were not editable or seekable. This was correct behavior (which could
> have changed for 0.27) since MythTV wasn't designed (this is my
> understanding which could be incorrect -- and hopefully someone more
> knowledgeable will correct me) to edit/seek within an MKV container.
>
> My point is that they are always seekable in 0.27 (and were usually in
> 0.26 as well), after the "--rebuild". They are just not editable.
>
> Maybe I need to define my terms... When I say the file isn't seekable I'm
not talking about the ability to fast forward/rewind within the playback
(which has always worked fine for all of the recordings that I have
converted to MKV using 0.25 and 0.26). Seekable, the way I am using it,
means the file has a seektable in the database, I know for a fact that when
I was using 0.26 if I ran "--rebuild" the seektable that existed in the
database from before the conversion to MKV would be removed because the
recording/file was no longer editable/seekable by MythTV. Maybe that has
changed since I upgraded to 0.27 and went back to using mythtranscode. So,
does a seektable exist in the database for your MKV files after running
"--rebuild" (which would imply that they are editable) or not? I suspect
not, since they are not editable. The bottom line, going back to the OP's
question, is that MKV files should be playable by the internal player but
not editable unless something has changed since about July of this year.
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