Project Meteorite: Matroska / MKV Repair Engine

I've just found this cracking little tool, "mkvrepair", although it's been around since 2009. Yea, better late than never.

http://www.mkvrepair.com/

Made by the author of "DivFix++ ", and already it's made playable over a dozen .mkv files I've been having problems with.

To clarify ... I've a dozen .mkv files, a complete TV series, season one, which play fine through my TV's USB socket, but my Sony Blu-ray player will only play the first 5 mins approx of each file, and then freezes with the audio continuing to play. The videos couldn't "seek" either.

I want to play them through the Sony because it upscales them significantly.

A little research shows this freezing to be an apparently common problem.

Running each file through "mkvrepair" fixed them. They now play through the Sony and I can fast forward/backward.

I have a number of other mkv files which play through my TV but the Sony spits them out with an "unknown format or corrupt file" message.

A run through "mkvrepair" fixed these also.

I'm sure there will be mkv files which can't be repaired, but in my case, it's fixed every problem mkv file I've put through it.

For anyone trying it, be aware that there are no controls whatsoever, just a small window into which you drag and drop your file, and the "copy" is immediately created in the same folder as the original file with the same name but with a "Meteorite." tag affixed to the start of the name to differentiate it from the original.

Good find Dennis :)

Thanks, Dennis. Got it. :)

It seems handy. Thanks Dennis.

I'll have to remember mkvrepair for future use.

In the past I've converted the .mkv file into a .mp4 or .avi to get past problems.

Thankfully MKV is a format someone can work with in an attempt to repair. I'll keep that MKV repair tool in mind

In the past I've converted the .mkv file into a .mp4 or .avi to get past problems.

Don't know if this is of any use to you or if you're going the MP4 or AVI route to support a gaming console, but I've been using Mkv2Vob for two years - of course you sometimes have to repair the MKV before it can work with them which is where DennisD's tool can help it. Edit: Basically it takes an MKV and losslessly makes it into an MPG that the PlayStation 3, etc., can play.

I'll have to remember mkvrepair for future use.

In the past I've converted the .mkv file into a .mp4 or .avi to get past problems.

Would an alternative to mkvrepair be an .mkv to (.mp4 or .avi) conversion followed by a (.mp4 or .avi) to .mkv conversion

Very interesting. I've never had any mkv playback problems, but I suppose if I do, this'll sort me out!

Alan, I would imagine that converting to .avi would murder the picture quality, due to the compression, probably a similar result with mp4.

Would an alternative to mkvrepair be an .mkv to (.mp4 or .avi) conversion followed by a (.mp4 or .avi) to .mkv conversion

Winapp's right about the quality, but apart from that, this little tool does it's stuff in the time it takes to copy the file, and with very little CPU resource. The freeware avi (divx) tools, although slightly more hands on, are also very very quick.

Re-encoding is just not an option in comparison.

I get what I can for Free - regardless of Quality :)

I get what I can for Free - regardless of Quality :)

Get into audio and video enough and run into transcoded ("re-encoded") crap quality enough and you may change your mind rather quickly.