0Problems with DS splitters playing a range of m2ts files

Ever since set­tings up a HTPC run­ning Win7 Media Cen­ter I have had the occa­sion­al prob­lem play­ing m2ts files. ffd­show sup­ports all of the codecs used in m2ts files but still a few files play without without either audio or video, or the play­back isn’t smooth des­pite more than ample hard­ware. I have exper­i­mented extens­ively with both haali matroska split­ter and [int­link id=“58” type=“post”]gabests mpeg splitter[/intlink] but both have their flaws.

haali does­n’t seem to cor­rectly sup­port HD audio formats, and whilst gabest does it has prob­lems with some of my files — par­tic­u­larly those that are 1440×1080 rather than 1920×1080. Even­tu­ally I dis­covered the fol­low­ing simple work-around.

1. Install both gabest and haali split­ters (enabling mpeg-ts in haali).
2. In the registry browse to [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTMedia TypeExtensions]
3. Make sure there is an entry for .m2ts and add an entry for .m2t
4. Inside each there should be a string named “Source Filter”
5. Set the source fil­ter for each of the 2 files to the CLSIDs (see below) of each of the split­ters (e.g. set m2t to haali and m2ts to gabest).
6. Change the file exten­sion of any .m2ts files that are prob­lem­at­ic to .m2t. They will then play via the oth­er split­ter — which hope­fully won’t have any prob­lems with them!

Gabest CLSID = {1365BE7A-C86A-473C-9A41-C0A6E82C9FA3}
Haali CLSID = {55DA30FC-F16B-49FC-BAA5-AE59FC65F82D}

Please note — the above refers entirely to x64 codecs, split­ters and play­ers. It should work the same for x86 32bit but I haven’t tested it

—update

I am now using .m2ts and .ts to dis­crim­in­ate as the .m2t exten­sion isn’t recog­nised by Media Cen­ter Mas­ter. .ts and .m2ts are also sup­posed to be inter­change­able — they both rep­res­ent an mpeg‑2 trans­port stream.