Quick Free Remux MKV to MP4 for Windows

[chillstatus]

I've seen this question appear in several threads, so I figured I would make a new one that explains the fastest way to remux your existing 1080p MKV files into MP4. I just did an 8gb 1080p mkv in under 5 mins on an Core i7 920 12 GB RAM machine.

I use XMedia Recode, which is free and can be found here:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/XMedia-Recode

Step by step instructions can be found at the following link

Before I was trying to use Handbrake, but it always transcodes and ends up taking an hour or so for one movie.

 

[NameUndecided]

I found out about Subler for Mac yesterday from a different thread. I think it's great! It sounds like it does much the same thing as this other program.

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

My only problem with Subler is I tried converting an mkv with DTS and I couldn't get it to carry over the soundtrack no matter which conversion option I tried. I'm not sure yet if this will be the case with every mkv that has a DTS soundtrack.

 

[chillstatus]

I found out about Subler for Mac yesterday from a different thread. I think it's great! It sounds like it does much the same thing as this other program.

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

My only problem with Subler is I tried converting an mkv with DTS and I couldn't get it to carry over the soundtrack no matter which conversion option I tried. I'm not sure yet if this will be the case with every mkv that has a DTS soundtrack.

I also came across Subler, but it only exists for Mac. So I had to find a Windows option.

 

[Los]

I found out about Subler for Mac yesterday from a different thread. I think it's great! It sounds like it does much the same thing as this other program.

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

My only problem with Subler is I tried converting an mkv with DTS and I couldn't get it to carry over the soundtrack no matter which conversion option I tried. I'm not sure yet if this will be the case with every mkv that has a DTS soundtrack.

DTS is a lost cause when it comes to any iOS device. I tried it on my AppleTV and it won't work. Subler definitely has trouble passing it, and I believe the new beta can handle it, but it's too buggy for me to use it.

Then, if I do end up encoding, Handbrake can thankfully passthrough the DTS soundtrack, but then I come up with a problem when TrueHD soundtracks come up on some of my blurays. You can convert the trueHD track to DTS, but it's impossible on a Mac, and a painful process on a windows PC.

So I gave up and instead settled in with AC3 at 640 kb/s. Better compatibility, smaller files, and less work to deal with. It's a good compromise, I am backing up my Blu-rays to stream to the AppleTV, so smaller the file the better.

Just giving my two cents.

 

[felixroqu3]

I found out about Subler for Mac yesterday from a different thread. I think it's great! It sounds like it does much the same thing as this other program.

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

My only problem with Subler is I tried converting an mkv with DTS and I couldn't get it to carry over the soundtrack no matter which conversion option I tried. I'm not sure yet if this will be the case with every mkv that has a DTS soundtrack.

I downloaded subler but i have no clue how to convert the video codec only. Can you tell me how to do this?

 

[NameUndecided]

DTS is a lost cause when it comes to any iOS device. I tried it on my AppleTV and it won't work. Subler definitely has trouble passing it, and I believe the new beta can handle it, but it's too buggy for me to use it.

Then, if I do end up encoding, Handbrake can thankfully passthrough the DTS soundtrack, but then I come up with a problem when TrueHD soundtracks come up on some of my blurays. You can convert the trueHD track to DTS, but it's impossible on a Mac, and a painful process on a windows PC.

So I gave up and instead settled in with AC3 at 640 kb/s. Better compatibility, smaller files, and less work to deal with. It's a good compromise, I am backing up my Blu-rays to stream to the AppleTV, so smaller the file the better.

Just giving my two cents.

Thing is, it looks like it allows to convert the DTS track into one of multiple options of AAC -- either into Pro Logic, Pro Logic II, mono or stereo, etc. But no matter which option I choose, it comes out silent in whatever video player I open up the resulting file with on my Mac.

If I choose "pass thru" for the DTS track, then it will leave the DTS and the resulting file will have that soundtrack in the video players on my Mac that support it.

It looks like the version of Subler that I downloaded was the latest beta. I might try it out soon with most recent non-beta version.

I downloaded subler but i have no clue how to convert the video codec only. Can you tell me how to do this?

As far as I know, Subler only creates m4v files from mkvs that already use the h264 codec. I'm not big on technical aspects of this sort of thing, but from what I've seen in playing with it, I don't think that the software is actually meant to convert the actual video inside of the mkv package. That seems to be why it works so quickly. Handbrake is probably your better option for converting video codecs.

 

[felixroqu3]

Thing is, it looks like it allows to convert the DTS track into one of multiple options of AAC -- either into Pro Logic, Pro Logic II, mono or stereo, etc. But no matter which option I choose, it comes out silent in whatever video player I open up the resulting file with on my Mac.

If I choose "pass thru" for the DTS track, then it will leave the DTS and the resulting file will have that soundtrack in the video players on my Mac that support it.

It looks like the version of Subler that I downloaded was the latest beta. I might try it out soon with most recent non-beta version.



As far as I know, Subler only creates m4v files from mkvs that already use the h264 codec. I'm not big on technical aspects of this sort of thing, but from what I've seen in playing with it, I don't think that the software is actually meant to convert the actual video inside of the mkv package. That seems to be why it works so quickly. Handbrake is probably your better option for converting video codecs.

So Subler is only for converting video files to m4v? So its like a regular video converter.

 

[NameUndecided]

So Subler is only for converting video files to m4v? So its like a regular video converter.

As far as I've seen, it doesn't look like it will open avi files or anything other than mkv. I think that it's mostly just an h264 repackager rather than something that converts the video codec.

I've got quite a few mkv movies -- high definition and standard. For me, it's a very cool find that I'm surprised I wasn't aware of before. I suddenly have a whole lot more files that I don't have to put through hours in Handbrake if I want to move them onto my iPad.

 

[felixroqu3]

As far as I've seen, it doesn't look like it will open avi files or anything other than mkv. I think that it's mostly just an h264 repackager rather than something that converts the video codec.

I've got quite a few mkv movies -- high definition and standard. For me, it's a very cool find that I'm surprised I wasn't aware of before. I suddenly have a whole lot more files that I don't have to put through hours in Handbrake if I want to move them onto my iPad.

Interesting. Can you give me a step by step guide on how to convert an mkv to m4v?

 

[NameUndecided]

Interesting. Can you give me a step by step guide on how to convert an mkv to m4v?

Sorry, but no, I can't take the time. Subler is really pretty straightforward. Just open it up, go to File - Open, then open an mkv file and see what's what. It shouldn't take too long to figure out at all, and it's intuitive enough that going through a step by step probably isn't going to cut down your time in figuring it out. A lot less options than Handbrake.

The only other thing is: If you don't see a Queue window, just go to Window - Show Queue.

 

[BigButa]

I've seen this question appear in several threads, so I figured I would make a new one that explains the fastest way to remux your existing 1080p MKV files into MP4. I just did an 8gb 1080p mkv in under 5 mins on an Core i7 920 12 GB RAM machine.

I use XMedia Recode, which is free and can be found here:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/XMedia-Recode

Step by step instructions can be found at the following link

Before I was trying to use Handbrake, but it always transcodes and ends up taking an hour or so for one movie.

I installed Xmedia Recode, but I can't figure out how to get it to change just a wrapper for an mkv, as you say, instead of reencoding the whole video (which takes forever).

 

[felixroqu3]

Sorry, but no, I can't take the time. Subler is really pretty straightforward. Just open it up, go to File - Open, then open an mkv file and see what's what. It shouldn't take too long to figure out at all, and it's intuitive enough that going through a step by step probably isn't going to cut down your time in figuring it out. A lot less options than Handbrake.

The only other thing is: If you don't see a Queue window, just go to Window - Show Queue.

Thanks!

 

[chillstatus]

I installed Xmedia Recode, but I can't figure out how to get it to change just a wrapper for an mkv, as you say, instead of reencoding the whole video (which takes forever).

Did you follow the instructions link to apartmenttherapy? You have to select the MKV you want to convert after you add it to the list, then change the output format to MP4. It's still takes about 5-13 minutes depending on the size of your file (at least on my PC). I did a 16gb 1080p mkv in about 13 minutes last night.

 

[Drag'nGT]

Thanks for this. My HTPC has all my video and plenty of power to run this. Keeps my other computers free.

I don't keep a lot of video on the iPad until I travel. This looks like its gonna make it easy for me to quickly throw a few videos on it for trips.

 

[WARSTIN]

Cheers TS, just what i've been looking for.

 

[EdwardsNH]

I installed Xmedia Recode, but I can't figure out how to get it to change just a wrapper for an mkv, as you say, instead of reencoding the whole video (which takes forever).

Read the directions...

6) Under the Video Tab, check the box that says "Video copy."

This is vital!

 

[ValentinoV]

how do we hardcode subs?

 

[ValentinoV]

how do we hardcode subs?

anyone please?

 

[SR71]

how do we hardcode subs?

I would also like to know this, if anyone knows how.

 

[pure3d2]

I would also like to know this, if anyone knows how.

I think there are 2 ways to do this:

1) re-encode the video with the subs
2) repack the mp4 and set the subs as the default language and forced subs attributes.

I will go test it out on a movie using XMedia Recode and then let you know how it goes.

EDIT: I can't get XMedia Recode to keep the subs when using the mp4 container/format.

 

[ValentinoV]

I think there are 2 ways to do this:

1) re-encode the video with the subs
2) repack the mp4 and set the subs as the default language and forced subs attributes.

I will go test it out on a movie using XMedia Recode and then let you know how it goes.

EDIT: I can't get XMedia Recode to keep the subs when using the mp4 container/format.

So what are our options?

Can you please tell me how to reencode ?

 

[pure3d2]

So what are our options?

Can you please tell me how to reencode ?

You can use MeGUI which is on Windows. You'll have to install a bunch of other tools because MeGUI is just a front-end. You'll also need the VSFilter (google for it).

This guy has a pretty good tutorial on how to do it. But in his video, he links you to a forum which requires registration in order to view the links.

 

[BigButa]

Got it! But...

Did you follow the instructions link to apartmenttherapy? You have to select the MKV you want to convert after you add it to the list, then change the output format to MP4. It's still takes about 5-13 minutes depending on the size of your file (at least on my PC). I did a 16gb 1080p mkv in about 13 minutes last night.

Following the instructions is always a good idea, isn't it?

OK, so I remuxed a few files and put them on the iPad. No problem. However, when I go to play them, they are extremely choppy and will sometimes just freeze (on the new iPad). If I do a full convert through Handbrake, however, it works.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

 

[IT Troll]

I've seen this question appear in several threads, so I figured I would make a new one that explains the fastest way to remux your existing 1080p MKV files into MP4...

Many thanks, I've been looking for a Windows equivalent of Subler.

 

[chillstatus]

Following the instructions is always a good idea, isn't it?

OK, so I remuxed a few files and put them on the iPad. No problem. However, when I go to play them, they are extremely choppy and will sometimes just freeze (on the new iPad). If I do a full convert through Handbrake, however, it works.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

I haven't experienced this issue, so I'm not sure if you missed any settings during the conversion or not. I would double check all your settings make sure you check that one box (I forgot the name of it, but a previous poster also mentioned it in this thread).