Playing *.mkv (Matroska) files

[Greenlizard0]

In a nutshell, this is doing my er nuts in. :mad:

I have some files of the aforementioned format that refuse to play properly, irrespective of what codec/program setup I use to run them.

I started off with the trusty VLC Media Player, which stuttered sound and video every few seconds with them, suggesting that the codecs running were too intensive. However, my CPU wasn't running close to full capacity at any point during load up and initial play of the file.

I install Media Player Classic - Home Cinema, which appears to run the first few movies fine, but then one appeared over the hill which played the audio and video fine, but lost synchronicity. Maybe the one I had was just a dud. I got another file today, that has exactly the same problems suggesting something more software based is up.

Perhaps the codecs used were now out of date compared to the software that originally formed the files. So I updated the codecs using the Combined Community Codec Pack (with new version of MPCHC), but to no avail. Edit - I also tried the Zoom player that the CCCP (!) comes with.

Uninstalling that, I tried using ffdshow and VLC, and then WMP, but the same thing again.

The last thing that I did was to then try running the x86 version of MPCHC instead of x64 just incase an incompatibility was present. Same problem again.

Can anybody suggest what to do? This is quite annoying now, and I'm still googling away as we speak.

My system is based on :

AMD AM2 6000+
Asus M2N-E SLI
4GB DDR2 PC6400 ram
Sata II 1Tb hard drive where file is stored

Thanks in advanced.