[MPlayer-users] linked mkv files

[Anton Khirnov]

Hi,
I have a couple of mkv files, which are linked together, so opening,
ending and previews are in separate files. The show can also be
watched in sever viewing orders, so there are several "playlist"
files, that contain only links to other files. The problem is, mplayer
doesn't see the links. When playing normally:
mplayer \[Hitsuji\].The.Melancholy.of.Haruhi.Suzumiya.Play.All.Airing.Order.mkv
MPlayer dev-SVN-r22771-4.1.2 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.80GHz (Family: 15, Model: 4, Stepping: 9)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 SSE SSE2
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing [Hitsuji].The.Melancholy.of.Haruhi.Suzumiya.Play.All.Airing.Order.mkv.
[mkv] Track ID 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC) "The Melancholy of Haruhi
Suzumiya: Airing Order", -vid 0
[mkv] Track ID 2: audio (A_VORBIS) "2ch Vorbis", -aid 0, -alang jpn
[mkv] Track ID 3: subtitles (S_TEXT/ASS) "Styled ASS", -sid 0, -slang eng
[mkv] Track ID 4: subtitles (S_TEXT/ASS) "Styled ASS (Simple)", -sid
1, -slang eng
[mkv] Track ID 5: subtitles (S_TEXT/UTF8) "Plain SRT", -sid 2, -slang eng
[mkv] Will play video track 1.
[mkv] Will display subtitle track 3.
Matroska file format detected.
VIDEO:  [avc1]  704x480  24bpp  29.970 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
[ass] auto-open
[ass] Init
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 0.0 kbit/0.00% (ratio: 0->192000)
Selected audio codec: [ffvorbis] afm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg Vorbis decoder)
==========================================================================
AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 704 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 704x480 => 852x480 Planar YV12
A:   0.0 V:   0.9 A-V: -0.933 ct: -0.097  29/ 29 21%  5%  0.0% 0 0

Exiting... (End of file)

If I use -demuxer lavf, i at least get some errors:
mplayer -demuxer lavf
\[Hitsuji\].The.Melancholy.of.Haruhi.Suzumiya.Play.All.Airing.Order.mkv
MPlayer dev-SVN-r22771-4.1.2 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.80GHz (Family: 15, Model: 4, Stepping: 9)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 SSE SSE2
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing [Hitsuji].The.Melancholy.of.Haruhi.Suzumiya.Play.All.Airing.Order.mkv.
libavformat file format detected.
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Ignoring seekhead entry for ID=0x1549a966
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Ignoring seekhead entry for ID=0x1654ae6b
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Ignoring seekhead entry for ID=0x114d9b74
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Ignoring seekhead entry for ID=0x1043a770
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown entry 0x73a4 in info header
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x55aa - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x23314f - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x55ee - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0xaa - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x55aa - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x23314f - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x55ee - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0xaa - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x55aa - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x23314f - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x55ee - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0xaa - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x55aa - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x23314f - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x55ee - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0xaa - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x55aa - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x23314f - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0x55ee - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown track header entry 0xaa - ignoring
[matroska @ 0x87b0028]Unknown matroska file header ID 0x1043a770

Here's the release notes:
 ====================================================
"Title: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Year: 2006
Video: H.264/AVC (x264 r614-635), 704x480 Anamorphic (853x480 playback)
Framerate: 23.976/29.970 VFR
Audio: Japanese 2ch Vorbis Q5, ~160 kbit/s
Subtitles: English ASS, English ASS (Simple), English SRT
Source: R2 DVD
Size: 4.36 GB (1 DVD5)
====================================================


Release notes:

The DVD ordering was used for this release. To alleviate some
confusion, episode titles are included in the filenames. a.f.k.'s
translations were used, without significant editin
g. Aside from the main styled ASS subtitle track a simplified version
is included which cuts down on effects used, for people with lesser
PCs (it's safe to enable subpicture pre-
buffering is VSFilter settings with this track). The DVD version
episode previews are different from the TV version's (well, the same,
just with Nagato as voice over). The TV Ver
sion previews were included as extra's on the DVDs, these are appended
to the end of the episodes, so the episodes have both versions.

This is somewhat of an experimental release overall. The opening is
externalized, and is linked to the episodes using Matroska's ordered
chapters feature. This means that the epi
sodes themselves don't have the OP integrated, but basically insert
the clean OP into their timeline. In effect, only one copy of the OP
needs to be encoded, which saves a tremen
dous amount of bits, especially on a fairly bitrate-intensive OP like
this one. The clean OP has to reside in the same directory as the rest
of the episodes, or it won't be found
, in which case the episodes will still play as normal, but without
the OP. You can rename the files to whatever you like, as it searches
for internal segment ID's, not names. Ho
wever, a remux changes this ID, so be careful with that. Only Haali's
splitter currently supports the ordered chapters feature fully. Make
sure you have either the latest CCCP or
 just a recent version of the Haali splitter installed, as slightly
older versions had some issues with subs disappearing after segment
changes. Also make sure the "Try to open l
inked files" option in the "input" menu in the splitter settings is
enabled (I think it's enabled by default in recent versions, but it
didn't used to be).

In light of the multiple viewing orders this show has, I tried to make
this release as versatile as possible. Several linking files are
included (the "Play.All" files), which bas
ically only contain ordered chapter info. Their purpose is to link
together the series in various ways. Running one of these files means
you get a single (virtual) 5 hour+ long v
ideo, navigable through chapters. Files are provided to link together
the series in DVD order, chronological order (the only difference with
the DVD ordering is the Mikuru episod
e, which is here inserted before Live Alive), and airing order, both
with and without OPs, EDs, and previews.

It is always possible to split and re-append the release in whatever
way you want, for instance to reintegrate the OP into the episodes.
This might be an option for non-Windows p
eople, as mplayer doesn't support ordered chapters yet. Splitting
timecodes which can be entered in mkvmerge, separating pre/post-OP
parts and previews if present, are as follows
:

Episode 00: 00:24:15,00:24:32
Episode 01: 00:02:29,00:23:11,00:23:28
Episode 02: 00:01:51,00:21:54,00:22:11
Episode 03: 00:00:27,00:23:09,00:23:27
Episode 04: 00:23:55,00:24:12
Episode 05: 00:00:32,00:22:45,00:23:02
Episode 06: 00:23:39
Episode 07: 00:01:20,00:21:54,00:22:11
Episode 08: 00:00:31,00:22:44,00:23:01
Episode 09: 00:01:08,00:21:54,00:22:11
Episode 10: 00:01:35,00:21:54,00:22:11
Episode 11: 00:00:50,00:22:23,00:22:40
Episode 12: 00:01:39,00:21:54,00:22:11
Episode 13: 00:00:31,00:21:54

Don't forget to check the "no chapters" box when splitting, or things
might get broken."


Of course I could always rebuild the files as they say, but I would
rather leave them as they are. Thanks for any help and sorry for my
bad english.
Anton