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Definative GUIDE for converting .MKV files to .MP4 files for PS3 usage!

Great guide. Thanks so much. I have some questions though.

1. Do you have to split the files into smaller than 4GB size if you just want to stream them? I understand the PS3 FAT32 thing prevents copying to the hard drive, but shouldn't you be able to stream any size file?

2. Is there any file format that can be copied to the PS3 in sizes larger than 4GB? I've heard that .VOB files will copy and play fine no matter what size? Does anyone know if that is true?

3. Is the HD streaming stutter on the PS3 a wireless issue or a PS3 hardware issue? I have a wireless G network through an AEBS. If I went hard wired to the PS3 or upgraded to wireless N would that stop any HD content stuttering? Now that I think about it, isn't the PS3 limited to wireless G speed? If so can that be upgraded?

Thanks again for the guide. Great solution, it's just kind of annoying to have to split files, especially 1080P MKV's that could be 11-12 GB's in size.
 
No video is not playing. It just sits on the black screen.
It isn't like the Xbox froze up or anything, I can pull up the navigation bar.

Also, if the video wasn't playable, there would be an instant error message.
 
Myotis85 said:
No video is not playing. It just sits on the black screen.
It isn't like the Xbox froze up or anything, I can pull up the navigation bar.

Also, if the video wasn't playable, there would be an instant error message.
Click to expand...

Google a program called MediaInfo Mac and load the MKV file in there check for AVC codec level: it has to be 4.1 or under not 5.1. Also make sure your file is under 4GB.
 
mscriv said:
Great guide. Thanks so much. I have some questions though.

1. Do you have to split the files into smaller than 4GB size if you just want to stream them? I understand the PS3 FAT32 thing prevents copying to the hard drive, but shouldn't you be able to stream any size file?

2. Is there any file format that can be copied to the PS3 in sizes larger than 4GB? I've heard that .VOB files will copy and play fine no matter what size? Does anyone know if that is true?

3. Is the HD streaming stutter on the PS3 a wireless issue or a PS3 hardware issue? I have a wireless G network through an AEBS. If I went hard wired to the PS3 or upgraded to wireless N would that stop any HD content stuttering? Now that I think about it, isn't the PS3 limited to wireless G speed? If so can that be upgraded?

Thanks again for the guide. Great solution, it's just kind of annoying to have to split files, especially 1080P MKV's that could be 11-12 GB's in size.
Click to expand...

I think regardless of if you stream or not the 4GB size limit is still in effect. I haven't tried .vob to PS3 but I know that if the file is over 4GB and is an mp4 it will not play.

The stutter could be from a busy router, even if wired. Some people have this problem and others don't.
 
Ever since I switched to a Mac everything has become easier and faster...with the exception of video converting. With Window's Video 9 PS3 Converter....it was simple. As I downloaded millions of conversion tools to get my videos on to my ps3, none worked.

Until your guide. I signed up on this website to personally thank you. Not only is it loseless video/audio...its ALOT faster to convert files in comparisons Video 9.

Thanks again, mate!
 
I'm glad that I could be of some help. Waiting hours and hours isn't fun especially when you want to watch the movie now. I do believe though if you are completely re-encoding everything, a program called Handbrake is coming along quite nicely and it's quite simplified, but it will take hours to convert your video.

Again, glad you liked the guide.
 
MacSeda said:
Google a program called MediaInfo Mac and load the MKV file in there check for AVC codec level: it has to be 4.1 or under not 5.1. Also make sure your file is under 4GB.
Click to expand...

Ok, I see now that my problem is that the AVC codec level is at 5.1. I have searched for a way to change this to 4.1 but keep coming up with windows programs.

Any suggestions on how to do this?
 
Myotis85 said:
Ok, I see now that my problem is that the AVC codec level is at 5.1. I have searched for a way to change this to 4.1 but keep coming up with windows programs.

Any suggestions on how to do this?
Click to expand...

You can use hexedit, but the one movie that I tried that on it didn't work. but your have to use a program called "iMKVextract" to separate the video and audio. The video will then be saved as an .h264 file. Open that file via hexedit and in the first line you'll see the number 33 towards the end. Change that to 29 and save the file.

After that you'll have to use MKVmerge to mux the .h264 file with the audio file then you can check the mkv again in MediaInfo Mac.
 
Myotis85 said:
Ok, I see now that my problem is that the AVC codec level is at 5.1. I have searched for a way to change this to 4.1 but keep coming up with windows programs.

Any suggestions on how to do this?
Click to expand...

DISCLAIMER: I'm new at this and barely know what I'm doing.

I'm having the same problem as you. I've found two things (so far) that might help. First, check out Odd Man Out's wonderful blog about how to convert an mkv file to an mp4. It seems that opening up the file in hexedit and changing a few bytes may fool decoders into thinking that it's an AVC4.1 file. In addition he has an amazing script that will convert an mkv file into mp4s as well. Just download/install the dependencies from the first link and then run the script. Unfortunately it didn't work for the one mkv I tried it with but I'm definitely going to use the script again.

Another option is to try MKVTools. I'm trying it out right now on the mkv that Odd Man Out's script didn't work on. I'll post my results when it's done. It's slow but it's worth a shot...

EDIT: I stumbled across this little gem: http://indy.zippysoft.com/~faye/264level.html I don't know if it works or not, though. I tried it on my mp4 that I created using QuickTime (thanks to these instructions) but I only get black video.
 
ChiaJesus said:
DISCLAIMER: I'm new at this and barely know what I'm doing.

I'm having the same problem as you. I've found two things (so far) that might help. First, check out Odd Man Out's wonderful blog about how to convert an mkv file to an mp4. It seems that opening up the file in hexedit and changing a few bytes may fool decoders into thinking that it's an AVC4.1 file. In addition he has an amazing script that will convert an mkv file into mp4s as well. Just download/install the dependencies from the first link and then run the script. Unfortunately it didn't work for the one mkv I tried it with but I'm definitely going to use the script again.

Another option is to try MKVTools. I'm trying it out right now on the mkv that Odd Man Out's script didn't work on. I'll post my results when it's done. It's slow but it's worth a shot...

EDIT: I stumbled across this little gem: http://indy.zippysoft.com/~faye/264level.html I don't know if it works or not, though. I tried it on my mp4 that I created using QuickTime (thanks to these instructions) but I only get black video.
Click to expand...

If you by chance get this method to work successfully please let me know. Also be aware that you may or may not have to download approx. 2gbs of sdk tools to use this method.
 
MacSeda said:
If you by chance get this method to work successfully please let me know. Also be aware that you may or may not have to download approx. 2gbs of sdk tools to use this method.
Click to expand...

I already have Xcode and Mac Ports installed so compiling some ports was no big deal to me at all. I like open source software.

Unfortunately, neither the script nor your tutorial worked for me. MKVTools is way too godawful slow for me too. I ended up having to boot into Vista and use mkv2vob to get it transcoded. I believe the problems were with some of the advanced h.264 options, such as pyramid and other things that I have read are not compatible with the PS3.

Mkv2vob worked great but it's a shame that I had to boot into Vista to do it. It's just a wrapper around free tools. If I could figure out what mencode parameters the developer is using (in the event that the video needs transcoding) I think it would be pretty easy to script your technique.

Great article, btw. I have it bookmarked and hope that it works for me the next time I download some HD content.
 
The method used in this guide is great but it has worked on exactly zero of the MKVs that I have. This method does not take into consideration that if certain H.264 advanced options are enabled that it will not be readable on a PS3 under any circumstances. Furthermore, if the method in this guide does work, you end up with a mixed down audio track that is in stereo format only.

To truly make this guide "definitive" it must be expressed that there WILL be times when you will have no choice but to transcode your MKV into a format that the PS3 can read (ala mkv2vob under Windows). After doing some serious snooping on how mk2vob works I have created a BASH script that does exactly that. The end result is an M2TS container (Blu-Ray) that contains a transcoded H.264 video and an AC3 audio track that contains UP TO 6 channels. In addition, there is NO file size constraints. I have copied and watched 8+GB movies to my PS3 and they play perfectly.

The script requires tools that must be downloaded and installed which takes away from the OPs intention of keeping things easy. However, it will work 100% of the time, whereas the method in this guide will not. In fact, as far as I know, this script is the only way that I know of that will work 100% time under Mac OS X.

I'm not going to release the script to the public right now because I intend to add a few more options to it, such as transcoding to MPG-2 or XviD for those people willing to sacrifice quality for time. It should be ready within a week or two for people who are interested.
 
Great Work!!!

ChiaJesus said:
The method used in this guide is great but it has worked on exactly zero of the MKVs that I have. This method does not take into consideration that if certain H.264 advanced options are enabled that it will not be readable on a PS3 under any circumstances. Furthermore, if the method in this guide does work, you end up with a mixed down audio track that is in stereo format only.

To truly make this guide "definitive" it must be expressed that there WILL be times when you will have no choice but to transcode your MKV into a format that the PS3 can read (ala mkv2vob under Windows). After doing some serious snooping on how mk2vob works I have created a BASH script that does exactly that. The end result is an M2TS container (Blu-Ray) that contains a transcoded H.264 video and an AC3 audio track that contains UP TO 6 channels. In addition, there is NO file size constraints. I have copied and watched 8+GB movies to my PS3 and they play perfectly.

The script requires tools that must be downloaded and installed which takes away from the OPs intention of keeping things easy. However, it will work 100% of the time, whereas the method in this guide will not. In fact, as far as I know, this script is the only way that I know of that will work 100% time under Mac OS X.

I'm not going to release the script to the public right now because I intend to add a few more options to it, such as transcoding to MPG-2 or XviD for those people willing to sacrifice quality for time. It should be ready within a week or two for people who are interested.
Click to expand...

Very interested!!! Let me know when it is complete!
 
this is a great guide. can't wait to try it out to see if i get it to work. No more MKV to MP4 in Visualhub :D
 
Thank you for the guide.

However, I'm having a problem.

Some of the final mp4 files show up on the PS3 as unsupported data. I don't really understand this as it only happens with some files. When I use the PS3 option to look at the information of the files, the only difference is the resolution. The video formats all read as avc, so I don't know why some of them would work and some wouldn't. Also, the video codecs show up the same when I have them in MKVMerge.

Please help me!
 
I have a question about this. I do have a PS3 but what about using QT Pro and taking an MKV file and exporting it into the .mp4 format to use on an iPod or my Macbook Pro. I still want to have zero quality lose but the MKV file itself is only like 250 MB. The setting are below:

Video Format: MPEG-4 Improved
Data Rate: 256 kbits/sec
Image Size: 640 x 480 (which is the same as the MKV file)
Frame Rate: 30
Audio: ACC-LC (music), Stereo, 160 kbps, 44.100 kHz

Would this be the correct setting so I have no quality lose while being able to play on the Mac, iPod, and PS3?
 
MacRacer said:
I have a question about this. I do have a PS3 but what about using QT Pro and taking an MKV file and exporting it into the .mp4 format to use on an iPod or my Macbook Pro. I still want to have zero quality lose but the MKV file itself is only like 250 MB. The setting are below:

Video Format: MPEG-4 Improved
Data Rate: 256 kbits/sec
Image Size: 640 x 480 (which is the same as the MKV file)
Frame Rate: 30
Audio: ACC-LC (music), Stereo, 160 kbps, 44.100 kHz

Would this be the correct setting so I have no quality lose while being able to play on the Mac, iPod, and PS3?
Click to expand...

Just found out in trial that this setting won't work. Their is a major quality lost in the video.
 
DoFoT9 said:
im presuming that PS3's hard drives use FAT32 as their File System, FAT32 only supports files up to 4gb, anything larger then that and you cannot copy it over/read it.
Click to expand...

This is true. The Windows limitation of a 32 GB partition does not exist, however the 4 GB file size limit still remains due to the FAT32 file system.
 
Files bigger than 400M?!?!

Hi. I've done this absolutely to the word and cannot seem to get my files to stay within 400Mb. It seems to completely ignore the size warning and I end up with 3 files. The original file is 7.68Gb and now it splits into three items. Two of the files are 358.5Mb and the other one is 7Gb. Obviously, this is useless. Does anyone know of a fix for this? Am I the only one this is happening to?

Cheers.
 
Doh, I'm a dumbass!

Don't worry, I was typing in 400M in the size pane! Haha.
I feel rather silly now...
 
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