A300 plays MKV's with audio but no video

[fakir2]

Just recently I've encountered two occurences of MKV files which start playing on the A-300 but without video. Everything seems to be working (info shows the bit rate and the seconds keep going) but it only shows a black screen. The audio of the movie can be heard fine.

Please find below the media info on one of the 2 mkv's. Do you see anything obvious why this mkv is not supported on the A300?

General
Complete name : (snip)
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 9.49 GiB
Duration : 1h 46mn
Overall bit rate : 12.7 Mbps
Movie name : (snip)
Encoded date : UTC 2012-02-28 18:24:44
Writing application : mkvmerge v5.3.0 ('I could have danced') built on Feb 9 2012 10:38:07
Writing library : libebml v1.2.3 + libmatroska v1.3.0
Attachment : Yes / Yes / Yes

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High 10@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Muxing mode : Header stripping
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 46mn
Bit rate : 11.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 816 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.35:1
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 10 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.292
Stream size : 8.17 GiB (86%)
Writing library : x264 core
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Format profile : ES
Muxing mode : Header stripping
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 1h 46mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s) : 7 channels / 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, Back: C, LFE / Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 1.13 GiB (12%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Text #1
ID : 3
Format : ASS
Codec ID : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Compression mode : Lossless
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Text #2
ID : 4
Format : ASS
Codec ID : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Compression mode : Lossless
Language : French
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #3
ID : 5
Format : ASS
Codec ID : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Compression mode : Lossless
Language : Dutch
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #4
ID : 6
Format : ASS
Codec ID : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Compression mode : Lossless
Language : Romanian
Default : No
Forced : No

[Pain]

Try rebooting the A300 first, and then play the file. It might work.

[fakir2]

(04-11-2012 01:07 PM)Pain Wrote:  Try rebooting the A300 first, and then play the file. It might work.

Thanks, but this is not something which is just recent.

I've rebooted my A-300 many times since this has first happened. It happens every time with these specific 2 .mkv movies. All other video files work perfectly.

By the way, I'm not running the latest firmware version, but rather -1. Looking at the latest firmware thread I've decided to not upgrade as I'm not having any issues (except for the out of sync subtitles).

[wilfried]

(04-11-2012 12:50 PM)fakir2 Wrote:  Please find below the media info on one of the 2 mkv's. Do you see anything obvious why this mkv is not supported on the A300?
...
Video
...
Bit depth : 10 bits
...

This

[fakir2]

(04-11-2012 03:22 PM)wilfried Wrote:  

(04-11-2012 12:50 PM)fakir2 Wrote:  Please find below the media info on one of the 2 mkv's. Do you see anything obvious why this mkv is not supported on the A300?
...
Video
...
Bit depth : 10 bits
...

This

Wow, thanks for that info! Any reason why? Any place where I can read more about it? I mean, does it say anywhere in the A-300 specs that a bit depth of max 8 bits is supported for example?

[Shirai]

Some info on 10bit MKV here.
http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showth...ight=10bit

What it basically boils down to is that you'll have to reencode the files to 8bit MKV or another format.
Or download another version.

Can't say if 10bit support will be implemented in any (near) future firmware updates or if it's even possible to do so, but PCH isn't the only player with this issue.