MKV creation question/issue

MrKrawk

When I download from Netflix, I get different file lengths reported on the final file.
Example -- The Witcher Blood Origin Episode 1, Windows 10 reports the length as 1:03:38, and VLC Player concurs. MKVToolnix also reports this length.
Media Player Classic reports the episode as 1:01:10.
This is where it gets interesting, if I play the file in VLC, any time stamp AFTER 1:01:10, the player simply shows a black screen and is paused, and it bounces back to 1:01:10. Pressing play does nothing. Of course playing the file in MPC, once it gets to 1:01:10 the player stops because it thinks it has reached the end of file.
I am merely guessing here, but if I were watching the episode live on my Roku player, the time after 1:01:10 is the alternate/foreign credits?
Is something about the final file noncompliant?

jpp72

When I download from Netflix, I get different file lengths reported on the final file.
Example -- The Witcher Blood Origin Episode 1, Windows 10 reports the length as 1:03:38, and VLC Player concurs. MKVToolnix also reports this length.
Media Player Classic reports the episode as 1:01:10.
This is where it gets interesting, if I play the file in VLC, any time stamp AFTER 1:01:10, the player simply shows a black screen and is paused, and it bounces back to 1:01:10. Pressing play does nothing. Of course playing the file in MPC, once it gets to 1:01:10 the player stops because it thinks it has reached the end of file.
I am merely guessing here, but if I were watching the episode live on my Roku player, the time after 1:01:10 is the alternate/foreign credits?
Is something about the final file noncompliant?
MrKrawk

re you muxing with MKV Toolnix or FFMpeg? I have had issues with MKV toolnix in previous versions so i switched to FFMpeg and no issues since

Cats4U

jpp,
I wouldn't be surprised if there is a problem with MKVToolnix (MKVMerge specifically). The version they are using is almost a year old. It came out in May of 2022. The version number is 68 and the latest out is 75. That can be remedied very easily by replacing the old MKVMerge.exe file with the one from the latest release. I do it with every StreamFab update and I don't have any problem. Same is true for FFMpeg. StreamFab is using version 4.4-81 from July of 2021. When a new StreamFab update comes out I replace all the FFMpeg files with the latest nightly version. That means I'm currently running version 6.0-12 from the other night. StreamFab is three major releases behind with FFMpeg. Python and possibly yt-dlp are way behind as well but I'm not touching them because they are embedded too deeply with the StreamFab program itself.

MrKrawk

re you muxing with MKV Toolnix or FFMpeg? I have had issues with MKV toolnix in previous versions so i switched to FFMpeg and no issues since
jpp72

Using the default (FFMpeg).

Wanna try a quick example? Download an episode of Space Force with H265/HDR10.

WTH? SF uses FFMpeg from July 2021? That's insane! Am I looking at things correctly? FFMPeg appears to be only 360kb in size while the latest download has an 81Mb exe. Is the true exe in a different folder?

Cats4U

FFMpeg comes in two forms. One has, for lack of a better word, the helper files built right into the FFMpeg.exe file. The other form has the helper files as separate .dll files such as avcodec-60.dll and avformat-60.dll and etc. StreamFab uses the latter form which has the smaller size FFmpeg.exe file. Some programs use one form and other programs use the other. It shouldn't make any different performance-wise.

Mona

When I download from Netflix, I get different file lengths reported on the final file.
Example -- The Witcher Blood Origin Episode 1, Windows 10 reports the length as 1:03:38, and VLC Player concurs. MKVToolnix also reports this length.
Media Player Classic reports the episode as 1:01:10.
This is where it gets interesting, if I play the file in VLC, any time stamp AFTER 1:01:10, the player simply shows a black screen and is paused, and it bounces back to 1:01:10. Pressing play does nothing. Of course playing the file in MPC, once it gets to 1:01:10 the player stops because it thinks it has reached the end of file.
I am merely guessing here, but if I were watching the episode live on my Roku player, the time after 1:01:10 is the alternate/foreign credits?
Is something about the final file noncompliant?
MrKrawk

Hi, please use the MediaInfo tool to analyze the file The Witcher Blood Origin Episode 1 and provide the result to us.
Also, please zip the whole log folder from StreamFab for the download process too. Thanks for your support.

MrKrawk

Hi, please use the MediaInfo tool to analyze the file The Witcher Blood Origin Episode 1 and provide the result to us.
Also, please zip the whole log folder from StreamFab for the download process too. Thanks for your support.
Mona

I will move this conversation to the support ticket area. I am unsure of what else might be contained in the logs.
I also update Kodi, it has the same behavior as VLC, it bounces back if you try to play the file 100%.

MrKrawk

FFMpeg comes in two forms. One has, for lack of a better word, the helper files built right into the FFMpeg.exe file. The other form has the helper files as separate .dll files such as avcodec-60.dll and avformat-60.dll and etc. StreamFab uses the latter form which has the smaller size FFmpeg.exe file. Some programs use one form and other programs use the other. It shouldn't make any different performance-wise.
Cats4U

So you just simply replace the two EXE files and all is good. Theoretically you can delete the helper DLLs? Or should I say, best you can tell, the commands get sent to FFMpeg and it does not launch the helper dlls because it has what it needs built in?

Cats4U

So you just simply replace the two EXE files and all is good. Theoretically you can delete the helper DLLs? Or should I say, best you can tell, the commands get sent to FFMpeg and it does not launch the helper dlls because it has what it needs built in?

MrKrawk

If you want to word it that way, as in "best you can tell", yes, that is as best I can tell but I can not be absolutely certain because I obviously do not have access to StreamFab's source code. That is why I provide the equivalent type form as a replacement along with the updated helper files. Also, and this is key, the compilation configuration must be the same as the original used by StreamFab. And that is:
configuration: --prefix=/ffbuild/prefix --pkg-config-flags=--static --pkg-config=pkg-config --cross-prefix=x86_64-w64-mingw32- --arch=x86_64 --target-os=mingw32 --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-debug --enable-shared --disable-static --disable-w32threads --enable-pthreads --enable-iconv --enable-libxml2 --enable-zlib --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-gmp --enable-lzma --enable-fontconfig --enable-libvorbis --enable-opencl --enable-libvmaf --enable-vulkan --disable-libxcb --disable-xlib --enable-amf --enable-libaom --enable-avisynth --enable-libdav1d --enable-libdavs2 --disable-libfdk-aac --enable-ffnvcodec --enable-cuda-llvm --enable-libglslang --enable-libgme --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-libtheora --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-lv2 --enable-libmfx --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-librav1e --enable-librubberband --enable-schannel --enable-sdl2 --enable-libsoxr --enable-libsrt --enable-libsvtav1 --enable-libtwolame --enable-libuavs3d --disable-libdrm --disable-vaapi --enable-libvidstab --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --extra-cflags=-DLIBTWOLAME_STATIC --extra-cxxflags= --extra-ldflags=-pthread --extra-ldexeflags= --extra-libs=-lgomp
So,no, you can not necessarily just grab any FFMpeg.exe file and slap it in there and throw away the .dlls and get it to work.
Let me just state now infaticly that I do NOT encourage anyone else to try this. This is purely experimental on my part. I had studied this for quite some time before ever copying even one file. I have made several backups and have made the process semi-automated. If something goes wrong with a download (such as the problem I have with the Beach Boys Special) I can (and have) switched back to the stock StreamFab files in under two minutes. This is not something you do willy-nilly. It is my hope that the StreamFab developers will update all the dependencies so that we are using the latest bug-free and secure components in the program so I won't feel the need to continue in experimenting.

Additional info: I should add that going back to the original files does not fix my Beach Boys problem.