MKV -> MP4 without conversion?

KeegoSupremo said:

What settings do you use for Mkv files then? Thanks

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I don't have any MKV files. I use handbrake for converting DVDs and h264 TS files.
For AVIs and other files, I use VisualHub.

In the picture below you can see the difference between the default AppleTV preset (the one at the top), and my modified preset (the one at the bottom). My modified one generally gets me about 18-23 fps when encoding a DVD, whilst the default AppleTV one gets me about 6-9 fps. I don't really understand what the actual difference is but I'm happy enough with the output generating from my preset.

Re: Just use Handbrake

ibglowin said:

Its easier, it works and no difference in audio or video quality. Use the TV settings, and make sure if it has 5.1 audio that you pass through the 5.1 as well as a 2.0 AAC to playback properly on an TV. It takes about an hour on a 2.2 C2D Mac

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I'm sorry, but I cannot get handbrake (MacOS) to select a Movie File (not video_ts folder) as a source. In macs, this app can only be used to convert DVDs to movie files, or am I wrong?

You ...

... need to get the newest version 0.9.3 to transcode other formats:http://handbrake.fr/

post solved!!!!

Avidemux solves all the problems for mac users! Was having a similar problem with my xbox and the fact that it does not play mkv files. The settings that worked for me for xbox was just setting the video to copy (not convert). and setting the audio to aac and setting the filter to stereo as i believe xbox cannot handle 5.1. It extracted a 3GB to MP4 in about 4mins. Also i had to rename the file as .avi for it to be seen on the xbox!

polarbear72 said:

Avidemux solves all the problems for mac users! Was having a similar problem with my xbox and the fact that it does not play mkv files. The settings that worked for me for xbox was just setting the video to copy (not convert). and setting the audio to aac and setting the filter to stereo as i believe xbox cannot handle 5.1. It extracted a 3GB to MP4 in about 4mins. Also i had to rename the file as .avi for it to be seen on the xbox!

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Bloody hell, you are right. After unsuccessfully trying for a whole day to get an mkv converted to mp4 with 5.1 surround sound and video passthrough, I almost gave up. Thanks for the valuable hint.

The simplest way

1. Install Perian http://perian.org/
2. Open the Mkv file with Quicktime
3. When the Mkv is open in Quicktime go to File > Save as > and select the Format 'Movie'. This usually takes under a minute.
4. You should now have a .mov version that will play in both Quicktime and Front Row. This method will also remove the big loading times you get with mkv files.

This works in Quicktime X, not sure about other Quicktime versions.

Playback works as Perian includes an ac3 Quicktime codec, but the .mov file will only play when Perian is installed.

noitiznt said:

1. Install Perian http://perian.org/
2. Open the Mkv file with Quicktime
3. When the Mkv is open in Quicktime go to File > Save as > and select the Format 'Movie'. This usually takes under a minute.
4. You should now have a .mov version that will play in both Quicktime and Front Row. This method will also remove the big loading times you get with mkv files.

This works in Quicktime X, not sure about other Quicktime versions.

Playback works as Perian includes an ac3 Quicktime codec, but the .mov file will only play when Perian is installed.

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Under Quicktime 7 (also having perian installed) you select export, choose mp4, under video select passthru. you keep the video quality, the only thing it encodes is the audio.

still trying to figure out how to comvert AAC 5.1 audio to AC3 5.1.

... or use the most excellent subler to remux your own mp4/m4v from an mkv. Written by ritsuka, a great hb dev.

http://code.google.com/p/subler/

1. Launch Subler
2. Choose "File > New".
3. Click on the "+" button up in the far left corner
4. Choose an mkv source from the file open window
5. Choose the tracks from the mkv you wish to use (probably the video and audio).
6. Choose "File > Save".
7. *(optional) Choose "File > Optimize" to add qt's fast start pseudo streaming capabilities (this causes subler to rewrite the entire file so is a much longer process than File > Save).

Voila, a remuxed mp4 from an mkv. Note: Subler uses libmp4v2 the same muxer HB uses, but avoids the transcoding step that HandBrake uses so therefore is much faster since it keeps the original mkv's video and audio tracks and remuxes them in an mp4 container.

* Note on the "Optimize" function in subler: From http://code.google.com/p/subler/wiki/FAQ
"It interleaves the audio and video samples, and puts the "MooV" atom at the begining of the file, restoring the Quicktime "fast-start" (also known as "pseudo-streaming") ability of the file".

MacinJosh said:

This is funny. I just bought my first ATV (still waiting for it to arrive) and I thought I'd check out the status of the MKV -> MP4 issue since I last looked into it. Funny because I ran into my old thread and funny that it's still going. Looks like we've made progress. Thanks Dynaflash for suggesting Subler and for HB.

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I wanted to buy one too, but the price was a big turndown... AND the playback limitation on widely popular movie files.

I got me a WD Live HD. No regrets. It plays everything I throw at it. Including 1080p MKV files.
I am yet to find a movie file it wont play.

I simply got tired of converting al my mkv's to mp4 and losing the 5.1 surround & subtitles.

Why should you convert all movies? You should be able to play anything on one device.

How long should a 10Gb mkv Movie, with 1080p take to convert to mp4 format? Also do you lose any picture quality between the two? I hear that you lose the 5.1 surround as well?

littlebudha said:

How long should a 10Gb mkv Movie, with 1080p take to convert to mp4 format? Also do you lose any picture quality between the two? I hear that you lose the 5.1 surround as well?

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How long it takes depends on your machine. Can be done in 3 hours, can also be done in 40 hours.

And yes, you lose quality. Every conversion will reduce the picture quality. With HB the colours of the re-encoded file are generally a little flatter.

Transporteur said:

How long it takes depends on your machine. Can be done in 3 hours, can also be done in 40 hours.

And yes, you lose quality. Every conversion will reduce the picture quality. With HB the colours of the re-encoded file are generally a little flatter.

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Is this also true with using subler?

Haven't used subler, but if it re-converts the movie, a quality loss is inevitable.

With handbrake you won't see the difference unless you play both videos directly side by side. It really isn't much. I wouldn't worry about that.

latafairam said:

I got me a WD Live HD. No regrets. It plays everything I throw at it. Including 1080p MKV files.
I am yet to find a movie file it wont play.

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Interesting. I had never heard of that, but it looks good. Couldn't find anywhere on the specs, though, that list hard drive size. What size drive does it come with?

littlebudha said:

Is this also true with using subler?

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No, Subler simply remuxes the original audio and video track into an mp4 container. Both the audio and video tracks remain in tact and in their original form.

Yes, Handbrake transcodes the tracks themselves though with the correct settings it *can* be virtually indistinguishable to the human eye in many cases depending on source.

dynaflash said:

No, Subler simply remuxes the original audio and video track into an mp4 container. Both the audio and video tracks remain in tact and in their original form.

Yes, Handbrake transcodes the tracks themselves though with the correct settings it *can* be virtually indistinguishable to the human eye in many cases depending on source.

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Am I simply stupid? I used Subler & the resulting .mp4 wouldn't sync to my ATV... Original file was a .mkv of a 720p blueray rip. I also tried it on a downloaded 720p TV show episode, changed resolution manually to 1280x720, and same story...wouldn't sync to my ATV. Am I not understanding correctly what Subler is for? It can be used as a Handbrake alternative?

cubbie5150 said:

Am I simply stupid? I used Subler & the resulting .mp4 wouldn't sync to my ATV... Original file was a .mkv of a 720p blueray rip. I also tried it on a downloaded 720p TV show episode, changed resolution manually to 1280x720, and same story...wouldn't sync to my ATV. Am I not understanding correctly what Subler is for? It can be used as a Handbrake alternative?

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If the resulting .m4v does not play/transfer to your AppleTV, than most likely the bit rate is larger than the device can handle.

Compare your video frame rate/ bit rate to AppleTV specs Here

cubbie5150 said:

Am I simply stupid? I used Subler & the resulting .mp4 wouldn't sync to my ATV... Original file was a .mkv of a 720p blueray rip. I also tried it on a downloaded 720p TV show episode, changed resolution manually to 1280x720, and same story...wouldn't sync to my ATV. Am I not understanding correctly what Subler is for? It can be used as a Handbrake alternative?

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No, its not a HandBrake alternative *unless* you simply want to change the container. In which case subler is exactly what you want. Problem is when it comes to the atv mkv vs. mp4/m4v may not be the only barrier, in which case imo HandBrake is your weapon of choice.

I wish the .m4v container supported DTS!!!
Subler 0.9.7 has not been working for me, it always outputs an unplayable file. Yet 0.9.6 works fine.

Thanks all for telling me about Subler. I finally watched a full quality (no encoding, just transcoding) Blu-Ray in iTunes : )

Is there any plans in the future for DTS support in the .m4v/.mp4 container? and technically speaking why is DTS not supported? i'm guessing licensing issues.

Mr Dobey said:

Is there any plans in the future for DTS support in the .m4v/.mp4 container? and technically speaking why is DTS not supported? i'm guessing licensing issues.

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You can put almost anything in an mp4 container via the private tracks (this is how ac3 was originally included by apple). As far as supporting DTS pass thru in HandBrake (like AC3 is now) ... not much point since there is nothing that really will play it.

dynaflash said:

You can put almost anything in an mp4 container via the private tracks (this is how ac3 was originally included by apple). As far as supporting DTS pass thru in HandBrake (like AC3 is now) ... not much point since there is nothing that really will play it.

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When you say there is no point I'm a little confused.
If you can play DTS from a .mkv why would there be no point to have it in .m4v?

if mp4 can contain almost anything how come I can only transcode .mkv Blu-Ray rips that are AVC Video/AC3 Audio with Subler?

So now we've got appletv (mk2). It seems to play back pretty much any 264 encodings as long as the audio is in a suitable format. So I'm looking for a method of demuxing 264 encoded mkv files into m4v files suitable for playing on appletv (mk2). Subler does a great job, but doesn't automate. Any suggestions?

Shoesy said:

So now we've got appletv (mk2). It seems to play back pretty much any 264 encodings as long as the audio is in a suitable format. So I'm looking for a method of demuxing 264 encoded mkv files into m4v files suitable for playing on appletv (mk2). Subler does a great job, but doesn't automate. Any suggestions?

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what kind of automation do you need? is it something AppleScript could handle?

after just basically trying everything for OSX to date, MKVtools is far and away the best tool for the job. i test-converted a movie and played it on my xbox. the video passed through, and it did some conversion on the audio (probably ac3 -> aac?). substantially faster than HandBrake since it didnt have to encode any video. but it is very much nagware.
for managing the audio, video, and subtitle tracks, Subler is the best, however MKVtools can do most of what Subler does.

Shoesy said:

So now we've got appletv (mk2). It seems to play back pretty much any 264 encodings as long as the audio is in a suitable format. So I'm looking for a method of demuxing 264 encoded mkv files into m4v files suitable for playing on appletv (mk2). Subler does a great job, but doesn't automate. Any suggestions?

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If you're okay with the command line, just get SublerCLI instead.