Help with playing .mkv files

Format profile: High@L5.1
That's most likely a problem. BD and HD-DVD is only 4.1

If you have the original mpeg2 source file you can re-encode it to a lower profile. Once it's encoded to h.264/mpeg4 I'm not sure there's much you can do with the video portion after that.
Maybe someone else can offer more info, I do encoding myself- but not much much with pre-encoded MKV's other that converting their DTS sountrack to AC3 so my PopcornHour can play it.

L5.1 isn't a problem if you have:

A high powered dual core or more CPU at 2.4 GHz, or a slightly lesser one with CoreAVC.

Or:

If you had a CUDA compatible nVidia card with CoreAVC 1.9.5

I have the same processor as you and the difference with CUDA/CoreAVC is great - made some of the unplayable videos play back smoothly. This is with an 8800GT, but my 9600GT is even better.

You don't even need to use CUDA. The latest drivers from Nvidia support the use of DXVA with L5.1 encoded videos. I have some files that play perfectly on my P4 3.2 GHz with an 8400GS that otherwise choke on my HTPC (AMD 5000+ with HD4550) because the 8400GS can use DXVA. ATI needs to step up, but their tech support on their forum is playing dumb saying "you can't just support some standards and not others". Well, you should if you want your stuff to work better and you want to remain competitive. Be conservative in what you send and liberal in what you accept.

See the thread at game.amd.com: http://forums.amd.com/game/messagevi...&enterthread=y

thought this was the right place to ask. I have an MKV movie encoded from broadast at 720p

I want to play this on my Pioneer 5010. I have:

Pioneer SC-05 Receiver
Pioneer BDP-51FD Blu-ray
Xbox 360
Macbook Pro

I'd rather not hook my Macbook up to my TV. Is there any way to play this with Connect360, or a jump drive? Or even off a disc?

Thanks!

You need to do a full-on re-encode using the DXVA profile with meGUI or another such program. Some files will allow what you attempted and actually work as a result, but that's from the luck of the draw of the original encoder's settings.

Once you encode the original mpeg2 video to h.264 the profile is set. All you're doing with h264info is changing the video header info not the actual video data. Even though your software now reports 4.1 the video was encoded to h.264 as 5.1 High profile... and you see the results as stutter.

Like sneakerx said- you need to do a full re-encode of the original mpeg2 file to a true 4.1 Main profile with Megiu or some other transcoding suite. Trying to fake out your playback software isn't working

There's a near infinite amount of combinations of settings and tweaks to use when encoding videos. As such, any number of things could have gone wrong. I'm not sure what you mean by grainy as I don't think it's standard for video encoders to introduce grain that wasn't present in the original video. If you smooth out all the grain you lose the original detail.

Your original MKV File size was 4.37GB, what is your new XviD file size?
If it's significantly smaller than the (already compressed MKV) you may want to use less aggressive compression. Excessive compression results in poor PQ.