How do I play a 1080p.AAC2.0.AV1.mkv video file?

I usually use MPC-HC for video files, currently updated with K-Lite_Codec_Pack_1890_Mega. When that didn't work I tried Movies & TV and Media Player.

I searched for a solution which said to install the free AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store. I already had it installed so I tried another suggestion of installing the latest VLC.

The beginning of the file plays for about 2 min then the video gets distorted, the audio is fine. It looks like a rendering error.

VLC opens all kinds of media files. I've used it for many years. Official download of VLC media player, the best Open Source player - VideoLAN

I installed the latest VLC and the same thing happened.

When installing VLC, If you did not select VLC to be your default media player for all file types it can open, you will have to change the default player for that file type.
Right click on the .mkv file, select "open with" (you may find this under more options if you use the new context menu) I do not use the new context menu.
a list of apps will popup. select VLC from the list. It will ask if "just once" or "every time" select every time.

Alternately, you can go to Settings>apps>default apps> type MKV into the search box and change it to open with VLC

If it happens with all the players, the file may be corrupt ?

@glasskuter I tried that, no change. It must be the files.

@cineman195 It's about 10 files all from the same source so I was hoping this wasn't it, but I think you're right.

Maybe rename the file with a single . before mkv to end up looking like:

1080p_AAC2_0_AV1.mkv​

Just a thought!

Try converting them using Handbreak.
It may correct them.

tinutuva said:

I usually use MPC-HC for video files, currently updated with K-Lite_Codec_Pack_1890_Mega.

Click to expand...

Too many codecs can actually cause issues. I install no codecs and I use MPC-BE, thus far it was able to play everything, even videos that failed to play in MPC-HC with codecs. I would suggest to uninstall everything, then try portable players like VLC, MPC-BE, PotPlayer.

tinutuva said:

I usually use MPC-HC for video files, currently updated with K-Lite_Codec_Pack_1890_Mega. When that didn't work I tried Movies & TV and Media Player.

I searched for a solution which said to install the free AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store. I already had it installed so I tried another suggestion of installing the latest VLC.

The beginning of the file plays for about 2 min then the video gets distorted, the audio is fine. It looks like a rendering error.

Click to expand...

Can you post a sample of this type of file so I can test it -- just a couple of minutes worth should be enough.
.
VLC hasn't failed yet on anything I've tried playing with it - however if you play commercial / drm protected stuff you might need to add the libdvdcss libraries (not sure if those work on Windows though) or "de-drm" the source before playing.

cheers
jimbo

try mpc-be

MPC-BE or Foobar...
(I use foobar mostly for concert videos)

Check if the content of the video file has corruptions:

1. Get the latest ffmpeg.exe if you haven't done that already.
2. Extract the file ffprobe.exe from the bin folder (that's in the downloaded .7z archive) to the folder where your video file is stored.
3. Open a command prompt or Windows Terminal, and navigate to the folder where your video file and ffprobe.exe are stored.
4. Run ffprobe -v error video.mkv (Substitute video.mkv with the name of the file, and wrap the name in doublequotes if the name contains space characters.)

K-Like Codec Pack (Basic/Standard/Full/Mega) is solid. I have been using it for almost 16 years, it's one of the first things that get installed after I buy a new laptop. The installer has the ability to detect codec installations that are outdated/broken/misconfigured, and, whenever it detects any such problems, it asks for your consent before it fixes them, then fixes them reliably. To add/remove features, you can always simply run the installer again anytime you like.

To get the best video playback results, I generally recommend—in the installer of the K-Lite Codec Pack (Full/Mega)—to choose MPC-HC as the player with madVR as the renderer. Besides codecs and a few included tools, K-Lite Codec Pack adds the benefit of easily setting it all up plus knowing that clsid2 has gone through rigorous testing each time before he decides to publish a new stable release or update package.

That said, for music listening, foobar2000 has its merits, as it does gapless playback among several other things that, for music listening, I find compulsory. However, for concert videos you don't normally need to add multiple individual tracks to a playlist for the purpose of gapless playback. Instead, you just want to play the whole concert as one track only, from start to finish without interruptions. Otherwise it will be heresy. IMO anyway.

Also IMO, MPC-BE is overhyped. MPC-HC has fewer features I call bloat, I want to watch the effing movie instead of watch the "more modern" UI of MPC-BE, and MPC-HC is more lightweight and IME it generally runs more stable across many different systems and hardware configurations. Use MPC-HC with WASAPI exclusive mode (or audio bitstreaming over HDMI if you must have surround sound through HDMI, BUT... I don't know too many music albums in surround sound that 1/ don't make my ears puke and 2/ weren't made by Steven Wilson).

I just got back to this, thank you to everyone for your ideas.

I checked all 10 files and saw that they all played normal for 2 minutes, then the video became distorted. That doesn't look like a corrupt file, it looks like their encoding software was not fully activated and only allowed them 2 minutes before intentionally distorting the video while leaving the audio clear.

Right after I posted #6 I went back to the source and I saw a post that said the files couldn't be played. There were a lot of versions of the set with different encodings and they didn't say which version they tried. I've gone through 10,000s of video and audio files over the years so I know it was a single poster and not the source. I had the same issue with one file earlier this year so I just got a different version then. This post was old so I found a different source for the files and they all checked out fine.

The issue had nothing to do with codecs, either not the right one or too many, I've dealt with both issues before. It also had nothing to do with which player(s) I used.

The files would probably not show corruptions since it appears to be an intentional distortion. Whatever program they used would probably fix it with a fully enabled version. Without knowing this no reencoding or conversion would help.