[Matroska-users] Matrroska not worth it

[Christian HJ Wiesner]

Simple thing. We just receive too many emails like yours, from people 
who are normally just too lazy to invest at least some thought on what 
they are trying to do. After a while, you are burned out. Bear in mind, 
we invest quite a lot of time in what we are doing, and we receive no 
form of payment for that. And, we normally never ever receive any 
feedback from those hundreds of thousands of files which are working 
fine. Only those few giving problems, for whatever reasons normally not 
being in our responsibility are turning to us for complaints. And you 
can not even in your worst expectations think of what we have to listen 
to every day.

I sincerely apologize if you really invested the amount of time in 
playing the file as you are claiming you are. However, from somebody who 
was programming servers as you are, why didnt you think of the most 
likely problem first, i.e. a corrupt download ? Why would anybody want 
to distribute a file which doesnt work at all ?

Be it as it is, i am glad your 2nd MKV file did work fine. Never forget, 
matroska is nothing else but a simple, but very versatile, video and 
audio container. Primarily, it was never intended to be used a content 
distribution file format (its in fact not really suitable for this) but 
to replace old, outdated AVI as a general use video container, but with 
the ability to support modern compression formats such as h.264 (AVC) 
video and Vorbis and AAC audio, and advanced video editing capabilities. 
It were basically our users who decided it would also be a good 
container to distribute video, mainly because it does allow to have 
Realvideo (RV9, RV10) in combination with Vorbis audio and also h.264 
high-definition video with AC 3 audio (as used on HD-DVDs).

Enjoy your MKV video, whoever was distributing them, and for whatever 
reasons.

Regards

Christian
matroska project admin

Patrick Simmons schrieb:
> Christian,
>
> Must have been a real stressful day for you.... that likely explains 
> the attitude.
>
> Yes, it was my first experience. And rather than bad mouthing anyone 
> (note that I previously indicated the *effort* required
> to run a Matroska file was not worth it; I didn't intend for anyone to 
> think that I condemned the format itself), I decided to
> make the company aware of the issues that I experienced, /from a 
> user's point of view/. I heard about the format, located
> a server, downloaded a Matroska file, and it didn't play for me. Other 
> downloads have been performed in a similar fashion
> and worked w/o issue. Why would I think there was anything wrong with 
> either the server or the download utility??
>
> Unlike many e-mails you must receive daily, I was being honest and 
> forthright. I expect my opinions to be treated with both
> courtesy and respect. Instead of simply pointing out that the file was 
> likely corrupt due to a missing header and that I should
> try another file (or server), I received your vitriolic response 
> below. Nice. Well, you might not be a programming god, but
> you've definitely got a god-awful grasp on tact.
>
> Just because I'm honest, I'll let you know that after I downloaded 
> another .mkv file and tried to play it, it worked.
>
> Over time, my first experience with .mkv files will dim as more of 
> them work for me (I hope). But I will never forget the type
> of persons behind the technology ("you dare to question the whole 
> project"). Good man.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Christian HJ Wiesner wrote:
>>
>> Good man. You downloaded a MKV file from any questionary P2P site or 
>> from a tracker. Nice. The download was corrupted and now you condemn 
>> the file type you were trying to download, because of this single 
>> experience ?? There are millions of MKV files out there which run 
>> just perfect, MKV is the preferred container for HD h.264 rips these 
>> days, and you dare to question the whole project because you met one 
>> illegal server distributing a stupid, corrupt MKV file ??
>>
>> Sorry, but if you really programmed bussiness servers, i should be a 
>> programming god ....... and i stopped programming 20 years ago, using 
>> BASIC :-D ....
>>
>> Christian
>> matroska project admin
>>
>> P.S. http://team-mkv-homedns.org <--- a tracker distributing 
>> non-corrupt MKV and MKA files
>>
>> Patrick Simmons schrieb:
>>> I recently (two days ago) decided to try downloading an .MKV file, 
>>> just to see if it was as good as I've read on the 'net.
>>>
>>> Now, after much web searching, forum searching, downloads, program 
>>> crashes and so on, I've decided that the format
>>> isn't worth it.
>>>
>>> My needs are simple: high quality audio and video playback. 
>>> Shouldn't be too hard with today's technology, right?
>>> Apparently not with an .MKV file.
>>>
>>> (VERY brief summary of my own difficulties)
>>> Tried CCCP pack; couldn't play the file (Possible error with corrupt 
>>> file, missing filters, hardware conflict, etc., etc.)
>>> Downloaded your diagnostic tool and ran it against the file. It 
>>> reported no EBML header.
>>> Downloaded and installed the VideoLAN VLC player. Surprise! It 
>>> started to play the file! Well, for a few seconds
>>> before it got choppy, then crashed with a Microsoft C+ runtime 
>>> library error. Glad to see that the BETA software at
>>> least got further than the (supposedly) stable CCCP pack...
>>>
>>> I'll be going back to the site to flag this file as corrupt and 
>>> recommend others not use this format (unless they have a lot
>>> of time to kill).
>>>
>>> Maybe your container is technologically superior to Microsoft's, but 
>>> at least I can play theirs without having to learn about
>>> codecs, filters, encoding, libraries, etc. Most people just want to 
>>> watch the content, not struggle with it. And saying it's either
>>> a fault of the author's encoding, or a fault of the user for not 
>>> having the correct software installed won't help your format's
>>> cause any.
>>>
>>> Remember, users aren't programmers.
>>>
>>> And, before you dismiss this as just a rant, I've programmed 
>>> business applications for over 10 years, and have administered
>>> both servers (Windows, Unix, OS/400) and networks for over 20 years. 
>>> I'm no stranger to software installation and
>>> configuration.
>>>
>>> If you read this far, thank you for your time.
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>>>
>>
>