Haali Media Splitter FAQ

Q: AVCHD playback/editing is broken in some software after install the splitter
A: Disable MPEG-TS/PS support when installing the splitter.

Q: I don't see any subtitles, Vsfilter is not running
A: Open splitter properties, choose Compatibility-Autoload VSfilter and set it to Yes.

Q: I have vorbis sound and playback is wrong after seeking in the file
A: This is a bug in old CoreVorbis decoder, upgrade to the latest decoder or use ffdshow.

Q: Various problems with AVC playback: blinking subs with mkv, stutering in mkv and mp4, etc...
A: Your file has invalid timecodes. Period. This means on decoder output timecodes are not properly ordered, so vsfilter displays subs one frame and may hide them on the next one, and then show them again. At the time of this writing there is only one tool that generates correct timecodes for AVC video with out of order frames (B-frames, multi frame references): Nero Recode.

But it works with nero parser and/or nero decoder!
Nero decoder has a special workaround for invalid timecodes. If it sees out of order timecodes on its decoder output pin, It starts ignoring input timecodes and recalculates them from the frame rate field in the mediatype. When parsing MP4 I don't provide frame rate (there is no such field in MP4 container, actual encoded bitstream needs to be parsed and decoded to get frame rate, and I'm not going to do this), so the problem is even worse than blinking subs: frames are played at max speed for some period, then they sync again, etc.

So what to do now?
Use Nero Recode for now, until other mp4 tools get fixed. Another option is to turn off B-frames and distant references, so all presentation timestamps equal decoding timestamps and are always properly ordered. Don't use mkvmerge v3 timecode files, because it destroys correct b-frames timing when remuxing with v3 timecode files.

Update 08/04/2005
I was told that timestamps issue was recently resolved in mp4box CVS, mp4creator still generates incorrect timestamps for avc streams with >1 bframes.
Update
mp4creator has been fixed as well.
Update
mkvmerge now works correctly when using timecode files.