[noggin]

Code:

General
Unique ID                                :
Complete name                            : movie.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 1
File size                                : 4.38 GiB
Duration                                 : 1h 47mn
Overall bit rate                         : 5 801 Kbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 2007-03-03 08:29:30
Writing application                      : mkvmerge v1.8.1 ('Little By Little') built on Nov 25 2006 16:14:30
Writing library                          : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.0

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 8 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 1h 47mn
Bit rate                                 : 5 414 Kbps
Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
Height                                   : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.245
Stream size                              : 4.00 GiB (91%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 54 svn-623M
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=hex / subme=7 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=2 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=2 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=5414 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

No idea who mastered that - but it's a ridiculous encode. 1280x720/23.976p at High@LeVeL 5.1 with 8 reference frames at 5.4Mbs? That sounds like a re-encode done by someone who possibly doesn't know quite what they are doing

A 1280x720/23.976p really only needs to be encoded at Level 3.1 or Level 4 really... And 8 reference frames sounds like too many for a sane encode. That file may be out-of-spec for many hardware decoders.

Or I may be talking rubbish. I know there were lots of hardware players that refused to play Level 5.1 stuff with ridiculous reference frame counts.