http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/ Engadget HD Comments for http://hd.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://hd.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2010 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/
But still, this is huge.

Also, what about m2ts files that aren't h.264/ac3... like vc1/ac3 or h.264/dts. Maybe DiVX or another group can make a media foundation filter that allows for these files to be played by MS programs.

What's to stop ffdshow from going media foundation then?]]>May 1st 2009 12:08PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 12:39PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 12:42PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 12:34PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/
This is good news!!!]]>May 1st 2009 12:37PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 12:43PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 12:48PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 1:35PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/Alton: don't know, was unaware of play/pause bug]]>May 1st 2009 1:50PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 2:01PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 11:34PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 1:49PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 1:50PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_container_formats]]>May 1st 2009 2:17PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 2:20PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/
AVI can happily support AC3 as well. Subtitles, less so; there's ways to get them in there that some clients recognize, but I believe that it's technically an invalid AVI file. (There are backwards-compatible documented AVI extensions, like the .DIVX format, that include subtitles and other features, though.)

However, while both can work, using MKV instead a) avoids Windows' poor QuickTime support; and b) doesn't get people confused when they can't play their H.264 AVI with AC3 audio, when their H.263/MP3 ones work just fine, because most people just look at the extension and not what's inside.]]>May 1st 2009 2:19PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 3:01PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/
I don't get why they use MKV when they could just use MP4...]]>May 1st 2009 4:38PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 5:30PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 8:51PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/
It is true the anime fansub scene uses MKV the most, but they've also always been at the bleeding edge of this sort of thing anyway. You don't have to be into anime to see the usefulness of these technologies.]]>May 1st 2009 11:25PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/
Just a couple responses to whats been said. As for why not use .mp4 instead of .mkv, well mp4 implies AVC video and AAC audio. Hell, I don't even think I've ever seen an .mp4 with ac3 audio, but I'm sure someone can easily prove me wrong. Back to .mp4, YES, it supports subtitles, and YES, it supports multiple audio tracks, but most devices do NOT allow you to switch between them anyway.

Meanwhile, you can have a .mkv with a TrueHD audio track, or even a FLAC audio. I have one THD .mkv, and a few with FLAC audio.]]>May 1st 2009 11:33PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 2nd 2009 10:18AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/
MKV is much much simple. There were no full MP4 implementations until very recently. Even now there are only few commercial options - because of apparent feature bloat. (Hint: MP4 can do all what MP2 (DVD) could do and more.) That means that supporting full MP4 with all bells and whistles is relatively expensive and potentially taxing on hardware.

MKV does all what people want - subtitles, multiple audio channels, chapters - without need to resort to expensive commercial software.

MP4 is superior format, but it is too bloated and expensive. MKV is dead simple and cheap.]]>May 3rd 2009 3:08PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 5:04PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/What about the scene in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" starring Keanu Reeves. Which is a Hollywood movie.
About 52 minutes into the movie The Alien played by Mr. Reeves speaks Chinese to an older Chinese alien who has been living on earth for approximately 70 Years.
Without subtitles in this movie you just wouldn't understand what the hell was being said.
Unless:
a) You are also an alien who can speak Chinese. (Improbable this one)
b) You are of non Chinese descent who can speak Chinese.
c) You are actually Chinese.
d) you are a phonetic genius who can look up the translation in real time.

If none of these are true then you are totally screwed because what is said in that scene is fundamental to the story. And is not repeated anywhere else in the movie.]]>Jun 12th 2009 2:18PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/
.mp4 only supports 2-channel audio.]]>May 1st 2009 8:21PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/May 1st 2009 8:53PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/
The MP4 specification was updated to support AC3 audio but very few players support the official spec. This is of course the problem with such containers and why MKV is better.]]>May 4th 2009 7:42AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/A) Is open source
B) Is a universal container so can hold any video/audio type
C) Has lots of features (subtitles, menus, attachments, chapters, multiple streams & more)

AVI/MOV/MP4/M2TS all have varying problems such as being proprietary, limited to selected codecs, missing features etc.

That is why MKV will replace this mess and as players even select Blu-ray players are adding MKV support.

As for the DivX preview I gave it a go and it works well enough though there are bugs of course, I was also able to play MKV videos on my Xbox 360 media center extender.]]>May 4th 2009 7:38AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/
On the other hand "Native windows 7 cdoecs" has NOTHING to do with the 360 extender issue. It is a demux/splitter issue that the divix guys have fixed with their implementation.

The "whatever reason " MKV exposes H.264 as "AVC1" is that the content IS AVC1. The divx implementation is just masking that to enable compatibility with the 360 extender solution.

So now all three extender users can stream their MKV files without transcoding.

]]>May 4th 2009 4:28PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/I'm not going to pretend I know the difference between AVC1 and H.264, but if the Windows native codecs can decode either, than why does it matter which sub type the splitter presents?

As far as I'm concerned DivX's implementation is a work around for a Microsoft bug, not the other way around. I think MS knows this and is just too far into the development cycle to address it. Luckily it seems it is easy enough for the splitter component developer to work around it.

I have three extenders myself, and I know three other people who use them, so it seems the last statement in your post is just as inaccurate as the rest of it. ]]>May 4th 2009 4:32PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/
http://labs.divx.com/mkvwin7preview

Changes since initial Tech Preview:

* MKV thumbnails now work on Windows 7 RC1 (7100)
* Fixed disconnect from extenders after 30 minutes issue
* Now uses the Microsoft AAC decoder (now supports 5.1 AAC in WMC Extenders)
* Windows 7 RC1 (7100) is now required (will no longer install on older builds)
* Fixed file association issue when installed on 64-bit Windows 7

-- peskypescado, DivX Inc.]]>May 14th 2009 11:58AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/01/divx-fills-in-the-gaps-and-adds-mkv-support-to-windows-7/Jun 29th 2009 12:02PM