Constant crashes with 2.6.7 and m2ts file

[LonelyPixel]

I've just started playing with Blu-Ray video files and found that it was very easy to shrink an m2ts to x264 with Avidemux. Well, that was the first video file. The second file on that disc causes a lot of pain. I already noticed that there were a few error frames at the beginning, but I could easily skip them in my ouput mkv file.

In the second video file, there are also random frames but I cannot skip them. Whenever I try to navigate to any time frame, it says it can't do that, and stays where it is. What is the index then good for? Also, when jumping to the beginning or end, the app just crashes. That's all I know.

Avidemux 2.6.7 32-bit, Windows 7 SP1 x64, no other anomalies known. What can I do to provide more details?

Also, I cannot open an m2ts file directly from the STREAM directory or it will take longer to index but only see 1m37s instead of the whole file (over 50 minutes). Copying the file elsewhere solves that problem at least.

PS: When I try to simply copy all streams without any trimming or converting, Avidemux crashes immediately when saving the output file. Again, that's all I know.

Update: For now, I can use Tsmuxer to "re-mux" the input m2ts file into a new ts file which then works fine in Avidemux. So probably, there's something in the Blu-Ray file container that first needs to be cleaned up before Avidemux an read it. Nevertheless, it would be nice to see when Avidemux could read it directly - and at least report problems with a meaningful message instead of plain crashing. But the latter seems to be the fate of native applications...

[AQUAR]

By remuxing the transport stream you are re-writing/interpreting video time stamps.
Avidemux relies on these time stamps and probably by remuxing you are fixing some issue.

Sometimes I use MKVToolnix to remux TS data into an MKV container (multimedia container) to 'recalculate' time stamp information.

Also noticed you posted the same on doom9.

When avidemux crashes on a particular file, one thing that may help is is to delete the avidemux configuration files (everything set back to default).

[LonelyPixel]

Umm, too bad. That helped for exactly one file. The third file crashes again, re-muxing doesn't help. Any ideas why this is so unstable?

[AQUAR]

You reset avidemux and it helped for one file?
Logically, if that file makes avidemux crash then a re-load of that file means you have just defeated the reset.

Why avidemux does that?
Think of it at a beta, that is almost stable, but reacting uncomfortably to a problematic file.

Have you tried the MKV remux with MKVmerge?

[LonelyPixel]

No, didn't delete anything. What should I delete? I just tried converting the next file and it failed. Loading previously successfully loaded files generally works.

Do you have any quick links for mkvmerge for me? Can't find anything useful without going on a very long search again.

If Avidemux is known unstable (I had that impression, too, but was surprised how well it worked this time), are there more reliable alternatives? Or is video editing in 2013 still as unstable as 15 years ago?

[AQUAR]

Its very stable with proper media files.
For mkvmerge try http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/

[LonelyPixel]

I've converted the m2ts file to mkv now, with mkvtoolnix. The resulting file is of similar size and plays well in MPC-HC. While it does convert in Avidemux, the result is not satisfying. The frame rate is reduced to something varying around 15-20, from the original 23.9. Writing the mkv from mkv with Avidemux before, with no transcoding, doesn't help.

The source videos are all VC-1-encoded. Doesn't that always work?

[mean]

VC1 is not so common, so not tested much

[LonelyPixel]

Oh, and it seems DTS is also a bit uncommon. It's entirely unsupported as well. That's on another disc I got today. So I guess I can forget about Avidemux for Blu-Rays anyway and need something else.

[mean]

I dont have a sample for such file
If you can provide a short one ... (2mn is enough)

[AQUAR]

Its might be mixed interlaced / progressive, and maybe  needs a M$ WMV decoder.
Not come across this type of codec either but it seems to be a difficult one to transcode.

Could try avisynth with ffdshow set to use wmv9 for decoding and avidemux for further recoding to whatever.
With a sample I could try.   

Ripbot264 might have all the tools needed to do this via a GUI.

 

[LonelyPixel]

Is it VC-1 or DTS you didn't hear of? DTS is audio, seems to be equally common as DD (AC3).

Anyway, I've found that Tsmuxer seems to be pretty stable in demuxing things; x264 can easily transcode a VC-1 elementary stream (with not too many arguments), and eac3to should be able to transcode audio should I want to do that; and mkvmerge (mkvtoolnix) can mux it into an mkv file in the end. It's more hand work, but seems to be reliable for now.

Without an editor that can cut things, I'm afraid I can't provide you anything shorter than 8 GB. The smaller snippets on that disc don't cause any trouble in Avidemux.

[mean]

Just cut the first 50 MEg or so

[LonelyPixel]

Doesn't work. I've cut the first 50 MB and the resulting file works fine in Avidemux. Plays, navigates everywhere, saves. You couldn't use it to reproduce the crash or any other observed problem.

[AQUAR]

Neither!
Such a question to the co-founder/creator of this video program is like "Teaching grandmother to suck eggs".
The sample asked for can be dissected for its complexities - something most endusers (like me!) are not able to do.
Maybe then, avidemux can be fine tuned so as to be able to edit this type of media file.

VC-1 is a ratified microsoft codec that seems to be gaining use on blueray disks.
It can have interlaced video fields plus interlaced video frames plus progressive video frames all as part of the one video stream.
Add container types, timestamps and DRM to the mix and it isn't surprising that there are issues with editing and transcoding these media files.

Now you implied that remuxing with Tsmuxer or MKVmerge didn't work for one of these .m2ts with vc-1 in it.
Are you now saying it does work, you are able to edit and transcode and your problem is resolved?