Problems with fansubbed anime

So lately I've been having problems with some anime not wanting to play correctly.

Yes, I'll get it out of the way. I'm not using WMC with CCCP. I'm running on Ubuntu, where essentially my best alternative is MPlayer. Let's be productive shall we? I don't really want to hear anyone go "Well too bad. You should go back to Windows and use WMC."

Anyway, several recent releases (not seemingly centered around one anime) error up a lot for me while running on MPlayer, or absolutely don't run at all.

Some examples:

[Mochi] Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (episode 13)
[Mazui]Angel Beats! (episode 05 - episode 09)
[CoalGuys] K-ON!! (episode 06 - episode 09)
[AnCo^2]Durarara!! (episode 20)

The videos all end up giving me the same error:



decode_slice_header_error

---

At first I thought it was just me because quite frankly anything outside of Windows Media Classic doesn't get much support from fansubbers now, and if you are using a different OS then you are just shit out of luck.

However, when reading the comments on AnimeCounil's page regarding the 20th episode of Durarara, someone mentioned he had been having errors with several recently downloaded anime episodes not playing for him even though he was using WMC. I thought that sounded a lot like my problem.

Well, turns out someone on AnimeCouncil mentioned that all of the releases that this guy mentioned that happened to not be working from him all ended up coming from [ElitistFags] raws. To which he mentioned that a lot of fansubbers have been having trouble with, but that they were considerably faster than most others so everyone has been overlooking it.

I can't seem to confirm if their raws are also used with K-ON, Angel Beats! and Durarara! but at this point I'm willing to bet it is true - though I kind of question its relevance but I don't know anything about subbing.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is - has anyone else been having trouble with recent anime episodes they've downloaded? Or perhaps does someone have a solution that even I could take advantage of as an Ubuntu MPlayer user?

I wouldn't know what to do with Linux but I remember some time ago they switched up how x264 and h264 worked and if you didn't update your codec you would have similar problems to what you are having. So if possible search around for updates on your codecs and software and hopefully that will solve your problem.

I've also heard VLC is decent with Linux and you should try playing those episodes with it in the mean time.

Ah, now that sounds like it makes more sense.

I usually do end up playing those episodes in VLC, but even VLC will error up time to time what with random freezing, or apparent dropped frames - and as a result dropped subs.

Ironically, the standard MoviePlayer will often play the videos with little to no hindrance. So it isn't as though it is imperative that I get this fixed, but it is starting to really annoy me now.

Concerning the decode_slice_header error, this might help you if you have a NVidia graphics card (HD video with MPlayer and VDPAU (NVidia)):
* http://wiki.mymediasystem.org/wiki/index.php/Tips_%26_Tricks#How_can_I_play_HD_videos.3F
* http://forum.mymediasystem.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2600

Afraid not. I've got a crappy ol' Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 in this hunk a junk.

It is starting to look like one of my only concrete options might actually be to put Windows back on this computer, but it certainly can't handle Vista well. I guess I'll have to put XP on it or simply save up for a new computer.

I tried getting some help on the Ubuntu forums and all explanations were either irrelevant or completely over my head. Heh.

I take it you are referring to the torrents?

Mazui_Angel_Beats_-_09v2_F337C583.mkv.torrent
Mazui_Angel_Beats_-_08_7788F256.mkv.torrent
Mazui_Angel_Beats_-_07_A3DD1EB5.mkv.torrent
Mazui_Angel_Beats_-_06v2_6960BA3C.mkv.torrent
Mazui_Angel_Beats_-_05_3667FE98.mkv.torrent

Do ep1-4 by Mazui still work and can I assume you are using the latest mplayer?

They seem to work just fine for me. Only episode five on don't play in MPlayer, and barely functional in VLC.

Yeah, I'm almost positive I am, but I can certainly double-check.

Edit: Yes, yes I am using the latest.

Well I talked to the encoder and did some checks on the background stuff he did. He only changed one thing between ep 1 and 5 which doesn't explain how things are breaking. I don't understand how him changing his CRF settings will destroy it.

Not sure what to tell ya without seeing it first hand.

Thanks anyway. VLC will play most of these with little trouble (with the exception of I think episodes 8 and 9 of Angel Beats! - in which case I'll just have to download the xvids from now on) so it's not like its important that I have any of this fixed. It just has been bugging me that all of this started a few weeks ago. I would understand if it had something to do with the recent MPlayer update, but that was on the 30th of May, way after I started having these problems.

Understand there are many front-ends to MPlayer. Front ends like 'Gnome MPlayer' or 'SMPlayer' (the one I use) can help you play with codecs and video output. I have learned there are certain video outputs that are picky with a few codecs like .ogm and some others. In those front-ends you can open up "Preferences" and select the various video outputs/codecs and see if that changes your result. 'gl2" seems to be friendly to me, but I don't know how it would run on Intel integrated graphics.

Also this problem could be caused from a very large range of ailments. First, the video files could be corrupt. This is a common thing to happen to video files when downloading via torrent (I just had Eva 2.22 corrupt) because the videos are pieced together. Clients like Deluge or Transmission can "Force Re-Check" these files, see if they downloaded improperly, and then fix them. Also it could be caused from the update, which didn't recompile/add required dependencies, which cause certain videos to crash.

I have all the [Mazui]Angel_Beats_****.mkv files that you have listed, and on my MPlayer they run perfectly. However, I am on Arch Linux, and I am using VDPAU (video acceleration) with my Nvidia card. So there are differences between your system and mine. I don't really like VLC because it can't buffer videos very well, and the video acceleration is poor.

I have most of the MPlayer versions installed for various reasons and so far none of them are working. However, I'm not knowledgeable about how they work so I haven't played around with the Preferences yet, but I might try that as long as I can remember to set them back to default for when I inevitably screw something up.

I doubt they are corrupt. Four episodes in a row? That seems highly unlikely as well as other anime episodes with seemingly the same problem. It might just be my system. She's an old hunk a junk that just can't handle a lot. I switched to Ubuntu from Vista because trying to watch x264 MKV anime videos was becoming practically impossible for my system.

For the files that have the [71FE550C] stuff at the end that is called the CRC32 check. You need a program to check the file hash and it should be the same as that. If its not the same then it is corrupted and you should download it again. I use hashtab in windows to do it but I'm not sure what you would do for Linux. Maybe try googling around?

Okay, some more news on it. It definitely is a problem on my end. I watch watching a hentai video that I've had on my computer for several months now. I went to play it in MPlayer and guess what? I got decode_slice_header error. I know I've played this video in MPlayer before multiple times.

So I'm guessing I've inadvertently screwed MPlayer up somehow. I wouldn't know what I did though. I never adjust it's settings, and I actually went back and I was wrong. I DON'T have the newest version. I didn't get the May 30th MPlayer update. Maybe I need to do that, but that still seems odd.

I'd say delete it and all of your settings first before you install the latest Mplayer just to be sure.

I have the newest version now, and I still get the same error with all of the same episodes.

Ugh, I simply don't know what to do anymore. I also fiddled with a lot of the stuff in Preferences and didn't have any success there either. Guess I'm just going to have to make VLC my default player for now.