Audio/Video skips and playback issues in all of my 4k rips

[Atmos4k]

Hi everyone,

Recently got into ripping my 4k UHD collection as I just moved into a new house and set up a dedicated theater space and want to be able to play my whole collection digitally. I've only ripped about 15 movies to date, and so far they all have major audio/video issues, to the point that I can't watch any of them. Most of them have the first skip or playback issue within the first few minutes, and happens every 1-2 minutes.

A bit more info about my setup:

- Ripping using a Pioneer BDR-212 I bought from Billycar11 on this forum
- Tested using some old movies from my collection as well as brand new sealed disks - same issue presents
- Playing back primarily via Plex on a Shield TV Pro (have tried connecting HDD directly to Shield as well as HDD connected to Mac Mini and streamed to the Shield)
- Files stored on an 18TB WD HDD

While I am primarily running this through Plex on a ShieldTV, I can reproduce these skips and audio/ideo issues pretty much anywhere I try to play them. Other places I've tried these files and experienced the same issues:

- Playing back on my Mac Mini using VLC direct from the HDD
- Playing the file directly on the shield through the fil explorer
- Playing the file through Kodi
- Playing the file through Plex on an Apple TV

Every one of these methods will reproduce the skips and audio/video issue in the same place, so I'm pretty sure it's an issue with the output file and not the playback. The way the skip/issue appears is slightly different for each of the playback methods above (some will stop playback entirely, others will skip over it in slightly different ways).

I've also tried ripping the same disc over again in the case of Dune, )which I bought brand new as a test to rule out dirty discs from my collection) and the output file still had the skip in the exact same section. The first time I ripped Dune the output did show me an AV sync issue saying that the subtitle track I selected didn't exist or something similar. Thinking this may be causing the issue, I ripped the disk again only selecting one subtitle track and it output the MKV file without any AV sync issues noted, but when playing back the file I still get the same skips and issues at the exact same spot.

I've been so excited to finally have my whole collection available to watch in my new theater space digitally, but so far it has not resulted in a single watchable MKV file and I'm still constantly switching and managing disks.

What am I doing wrong? I know people aren't watching their collections with these sorts of skips and just living with it. The fact that it's happening to me with every single disk/rip suggests that I'm just doing something wrong or having a setting incorrectly applied.

[Monkberry]

I don't have a solution for you (hoping you might have one for me), but I wanted to say I'm seeing the exact same thing on my new MacBook Pro M2.

For several years now I've been using an older intel MacBook Pro with an Intel chip and had no issue ripping any Blu-ray or 4K disc. After moving to the new MacBook Pro M2, I see a few second visual blocking issue around the 2-3 min mark on my 4K rips. I'm seeing this on two brand new and recently released 4K discs:

1. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
2. Tremors 2: Aftershocks

After trying several things to resolve the issue on my M2 Mac, I went back to my Intel Mac and both discs ripped flawlessly. The resultant file size on the older Mac was slightly different too, but perhaps this variation is always expected due to metadata?

In any case, here is an overview of the two systems:

MacBook Pro (2016 - Works)
Chip: Intel Core i7
OS: macOS 12 Monterey
MakeMKV Version: 1.17.3

MacBook Pro (2023 - Does Not Work)
Chip: M2
OS: macOS 14 Sonoma
MakeMKV Version: 1.17.3, 1.17.4, 1.17.5 (I've tried all three most recent releases to address the problem with no luck)

I spent a good amount of time yesterday combing through the MakeMKV forum to see if anyone else had seen this issue, and other than this post I did find a post from back in 2021 which may have pointed to the same problem. Unfortunately the solution here was to move to release 1.15.4 of MakeMKV. I plan to try that version tonight but have little hope.

Any thoughts from the experts here?

[dcoke22]

I play back 4k rips via Plex on my AppleTV 4K regularly and I don't have any skips to speak of.

I just tried playing back a 4K rip via VLC version 3.0.20 Ventinari (Apple Silicon) on a M1 MacBook Air (running Ventura 13.6.1) and I had a couple of dropped video frames and a few audio glitches that I saw and were recorded in VLC's stats, but they were not repeatable. After a glitch, if I tried playing that part again, it would work fine. It sorta seems like occasionally VLC would dump its buffer and have to reload, causing a skip. In any case, it feels more like a VLC issue than a MakeMKV issue (or maybe some OS bug VLC is bumping into).

I don't have a Shield nor do I have Kodi setup.

My rips were made on an Intel Mac. I'll try dragging one of my optical drives to my Apple Silicon Mac later tonight and trying it.

[dcoke22]

I used MakeMKV 1.17.5 to rip a 4K disc using a Pioneer 212U on my Apple Silicon Mac running macOS Ventura 13.6.1. I watched the first 7 or 8 minutes in full screen mode using both MPV and VLC. No skips or visual artifacts. This was all from internal storage.

I first used MakeMKV to make a decrypted backup then made a .mkv file from that backup.

[Monkberry]

Interesting. Thanks a ton for checking!!

I did not test creating an MKV from a backup yet. I've only went straight from disc to mkv. I will give that a try tonight and see how it goes.

If it fails perhaps it would be an issue that is unique to Sonoma? Atmos4k, could you confirm your ripping setup (Chipset, OS)? I know looking through the change log I saw a note about changes that were needed to support Monterey (back on version 1.16.4), and with Sonoma being so recent perhaps that could be part of the problem?

[Monkberry]

I did try backing up my disc to the HDD and then creating an mkv from the backup, and lo and behold it worked! So there’s a work around for my issue! Thanks a lot for the suggestion, dcoke22!

Is ripping to HDD the preferred method for most? I’ve always gone from disc to mkv to save time.

[dcoke22]

There shouldn't be an issue with either method.

It is my custom to make a decrypted backup first since I typically rip the movie and all the 'extras'. Having the decrypted backup lets me figure out what the various titles on the disc are easier by playing the .m2ts file associated with a title and/or creating a .mkv file and perhaps doing it a second or third time to get the naming of things correct. In any case, I did things that way just out of habit.

[Monkberry]

After yesterday finding that creating an mkv from a backup worked for me, I’ve been continuing to try different things to do what else I can learn about what’s going on here. Today I think I’ve found the key issue that’s causing my problem and it seems to be the use of an external HDD as a temporary location for my rips.

If I rip directly to my Mac’s SSD I have no issues, no matter which method I use (disc -> mkv, backup -> mkv).

I’ve used this same external HDD for years, and I even used it when I did my test rip on my older MacBook, so I’m not sure what’s going on here but it seems to be a compound issue which involves: MacOS Sonoma, Use of an External HDD, and ripping a 4K disc.

Obviously a lot of variables here and some (my Specific HDD) which may be wholly unique to me. At this point I’m happy with my situation and am only posting my findings here in case it might be helpful to others.

[dcoke22]

Is your HDD directly connected to your Mac or is it plugged into a USB hub?

[Monkberry]

Directly plugged into the Mac through a USB-C cable.

[onlysleeping23]

I also seem to be having this issue on my M1 mac mini. I thought it was an issue with tsmuxer initially, as remuxing from the source rip seems to cause freezing at different points. Attempting to remux from source again after that may either work, or simply present the issue in completely different parts of the rip. Very frustrating.