Best bet would be to stop using a program that is no longer being developed, or supported. If you used visualhub to convert it to a file with only 5.1 sound, then as of the current firmware on the apple tv it will not play. The specs for an .m4v file with 5.1 surround in it state that there must be an aac track as well. You can look around on the 'net and find a few people that have been able to make these files playable again by adding a couple seconds of an aac audio file with quicktime pro. Move to handbrake, its actively being developed, and is keeping up with the changes to/for the apple TV.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Convert mkv movies into mp4
- Thread starter Aegelward
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If handbrake is giving you horrible video, then you are using it wrong. Just using the default apple TV preset in the newest release gives great video quality. Use the preset, and make change the video resolution to as close to 1280 X * as you can get.
I have resolution set at 1280 x 720 but handbrake is trying to compress this file to 2500 kbps.... which in return makes the files smaller and you loose a great deal of quality.... would setting the bit rate or target size back to the original file fix this?
It sounds like you're using the Universal preset. Start with the AppleTV preset and adjust your settings from there.
Regards,
Michael
Regards,
Michael
The latest builds of handbrake don't set an average bit rate anymore, but rather use a constant quality of 59%. Make sure you have updated to at least the latest snapshot of handbrake .93, and that you have erased and then updated the built in presets.
I'm trying to use Handbrake to convert an MKV into a PS3-compatible MP4. Is the PS3 preset the best option or should I try the Apple TV preset? I've noticed the PS3 preset doesn't allow for AC3 passthrough. Is this because the PS3 will not recognise an AC3 stream inside an MP4 container?
Very true. Note: there is no snapshot since 0.9.3 was released, to the public release is the latest.
Presets > Update Built In presets will automatically erase then recreate 0.9.3's built in presets in one step (any custom presets will be left alone).
The PS3 does not allow AC3 in the MP4 container. Your best option is to use MKV2VOB (PC Program). This will keep the 5.1 sound. It is also better because it means you don't have to re-encode the file, only repackage. Only takes about 5-10 minutes
Interesting thread. I want to encode my MKV files for playing on Xbox 360 with 5.1 surround sound and hi-def vid quality. I have Toast Titanium 9 but it is very slow, Quicktime Pro seems to take hours too and VLC crashes a lot when transcoding on the fly. Handbrake seems to do the job except for a few small issues.
1) Handbrake will only encode the audio of my MKV files to stereo. It strips the audio down to two channels. How can I get 5.1? I've tried using the presets and various codecs in Handrake to no avail.
2) Are there any other decent professional packages for the Mac I can get to do this. I'd like to avoid messing around with terminal commands.
3) What are the ideal codecs/settings to get optimum video/audio results from my encoded MKV file?
4) Why is MKV so difficult and slow to work with?
I should point out I don't have an Apple TV so my files need to play in a DVD player or Xbox 360. I am using and iMac Dual Core Extreme with 3GB RAM.
1) Handbrake will only encode the audio of my MKV files to stereo. It strips the audio down to two channels. How can I get 5.1? I've tried using the presets and various codecs in Handrake to no avail.
2) Are there any other decent professional packages for the Mac I can get to do this. I'd like to avoid messing around with terminal commands.
3) What are the ideal codecs/settings to get optimum video/audio results from my encoded MKV file?
4) Why is MKV so difficult and slow to work with?
I should point out I don't have an Apple TV so my files need to play in a DVD player or Xbox 360. I am using and iMac Dual Core Extreme with 3GB RAM.
This is all great. I've also created my own script to process these files.
But this process is no longer necessary since the PS3 Media Server came out. It runs on your mac as an DLNA compliant Upnp media server. You just share a folder (or more), and this folder you can browse on your PS3 - when you see a MKV file, just press play - and the media server will process real-time video transcoding via MEncoder to the PS3. This means the PS3 will play MKVs. Even with external .srt / .sub subtitles.
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/
But this process is no longer necessary since the PS3 Media Server came out. It runs on your mac as an DLNA compliant Upnp media server. You just share a folder (or more), and this folder you can browse on your PS3 - when you see a MKV file, just press play - and the media server will process real-time video transcoding via MEncoder to the PS3. This means the PS3 will play MKVs. Even with external .srt / .sub subtitles.
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/
I think you just saved me a LOT of grief!
I converted a french movie from mkv to mp4 in VisualHub (AppleTV 5.1 + 2.0 preset, Go Nuts, H264 Encoding), which ran fine, only to not give me subtitles.. So I deleted the file in grief.
Puzzled, I ran across this thread and found MKVTools, which I used to extract the .srt English subtitles file.
Looks like all I have to do is convert with VisualHub again, then run Submerge with the extracted subtitles file!
I have been doing conversions using Handbrake (which I prefer), but it seems like about 1/3 of the time Handbrake "ends unexpectedly" when encoding the MKV format.
At this point, I usually end up trying VisualHub, which works fine.
However, right now I have a problem file that terminates Handbrake, and VisualHub tries to convert to .MOV instead of .MP4.
Any ideas?
At this point, I usually end up trying VisualHub, which works fine.
However, right now I have a problem file that terminates Handbrake, and VisualHub tries to convert to .MOV instead of .MP4.
Any ideas?
I made a new build from SVN Handbrake
Yesterday I downloaded the source code of Handbrake out of the SVN and compiled it on mu iMac.
There are a lot of improvements since the last official build.
As mentioned before use the latest presets. Sometime then manualy adjust the resolution if you need real HD output (1280*720)
Still no options to add subtitle using a .srt file or so. If you want to add a subtitle after the conversion to a .m4v/.mp4 file I would advise to use roadmovie or it's little sister submerge wich I believe is free. You will loose some of the meta-tags. Becouse the output of roadmovie is .mov files. With the proper commands it will not re-encode just add the subtitle. Normaly done in a couple of minutes.
On the latest version of the AppleTV software multiple subtitles and audio tracks are supported. So you can choose wich subtitle you want to see or not.
Does anyone knows a way to easily convert a .mov file to a .m4v file without re-encoding?
Yesterday I downloaded the source code of Handbrake out of the SVN and compiled it on mu iMac.
There are a lot of improvements since the last official build.
As mentioned before use the latest presets. Sometime then manualy adjust the resolution if you need real HD output (1280*720)
Still no options to add subtitle using a .srt file or so. If you want to add a subtitle after the conversion to a .m4v/.mp4 file I would advise to use roadmovie or it's little sister submerge wich I believe is free. You will loose some of the meta-tags. Becouse the output of roadmovie is .mov files. With the proper commands it will not re-encode just add the subtitle. Normaly done in a couple of minutes.
On the latest version of the AppleTV software multiple subtitles and audio tracks are supported. So you can choose wich subtitle you want to see or not.
Does anyone knows a way to easily convert a .mov file to a .m4v file without re-encoding?
I used the tip on QuickTime conversion and though it took quite a while to process I now have an HD movie my G4 MDD can play.
Does QuickTime have a setting that can convert an mkv file to something more universal to be played on computer and a standard television? I tried the QuickTime converted video and the player responded that it couldn't be played.
Previous downloaded movies in DivX were compatible on the G4 and TV, but the HD files seem to come in MKV which is not?
Does QuickTime have a setting that can convert an mkv file to something more universal to be played on computer and a standard television? I tried the QuickTime converted video and the player responded that it couldn't be played.
Previous downloaded movies in DivX were compatible on the G4 and TV, but the HD files seem to come in MKV which is not?
Attachments
i know most of you are trying the free route with it,but i've used mostly roxio popcorn and toast for my converting. the newest toast can convert an HD .mov file,so i just open the file with quicktime,save as .mov and use toast...sometimes this doesnt result in a file that 
tv recognizes as HD but oh well...it converts it and it's the same quality so it doesnt really matter to me...i'd LIKE it to be tagged correctly,but what cha gonna do
tv recognizes as HD but oh well...it converts it and it's the same quality so it doesnt really matter to me...i'd LIKE it to be tagged correctly,but what cha gonna do
I haven't bothered to read through this whole thing but Quicktime Pro will do the job. It takes a while but it works.
Subler
I started using Subler and it rocks. But I found out that it's better to always use the save & optimize option when saving your movie. Otherwise it's sometimes is corrupted.
Later I will share my workflow how to convert a .mkv movie into a working .mp4 movie with multiple subtitles and multiple languages.
Conrad
I started using Subler and it rocks. But I found out that it's better to always use the save & optimize option when saving your movie. Otherwise it's sometimes is corrupted.
Later I will share my workflow how to convert a .mkv movie into a working .mp4 movie with multiple subtitles and multiple languages.
Conrad
MKV to MP4 : use Mpeg Streamclip and QTPro
Hi
I have fiddled with a few of the various apps and suggestions in the voluminous thread above and settled on a combination which seems slightly different so i thought I would post it for comments.
I had a couple of HD mkv files (720p) and wanted to play these on my PS3 thus needed to convert to mp4 but hoped to skip the laborious transcoding for hours per file. Also, do not want to use Windows so mkv2vob is out.
Suggested solution as follows :
1. download and install Perian (www.perian.org)
2. download and install Mpeg Streamclip (www.squared5.com)
use mpegstreamclip to convert mkv file to mov
(File menu -> open file -> [choose ALL FILES as mkv files will be greyed out] -> open anyway (takes a minute or so to open the file) -> "Save as" MOV (tried "Save as" MP4 but sound did not work. Also do NOT use "Export to")
3. open mov file in QTPro and EXPORT it to mpeg4
NB!!! click the OPTIONS button first and check file type is MP4 and then click the video tab and change to "passthrough". On the audio tab I changed the type to AAC-LC and, importantly, the output sample rate from the default 44.1 MHz to 48 MHz (as this was the setting of the original mkv audio) and the encoding up to the max of 320.
The file is converted by QTPro in a couple of minutes. The only loss I believe is the 5.1 sound becomes stereo but HD picture quality unaffected.
This was the product of trial and error but results in a working mp4 file from a mkv file in only a few minutes.
Let me know if this works across the board or if I was just lucky in the two mkv files I used!
**** Unbelievable. I have found a more detailed and comprehensive description of this process elsewhere in these forums today after posting the above yesterday. Why is it this eluded me over the last three months.. Anyway, it appears that after installing Perian into QTPro [step 1 above] using Mpeg Streamclip [step 2 above] is not required. Try skipping straight to step 3. The mkv file does now open in QT and although it does so a bit more slowly than the mov file it obviates the middle step completely. The other point in the other (decidedly better) post was using MKVMerge to split files larger than 4Gig first if required. ******
Hi
I have fiddled with a few of the various apps and suggestions in the voluminous thread above and settled on a combination which seems slightly different so i thought I would post it for comments.
I had a couple of HD mkv files (720p) and wanted to play these on my PS3 thus needed to convert to mp4 but hoped to skip the laborious transcoding for hours per file. Also, do not want to use Windows so mkv2vob is out.
Suggested solution as follows :
1. download and install Perian (www.perian.org)
2. download and install Mpeg Streamclip (www.squared5.com)
use mpegstreamclip to convert mkv file to mov
(File menu -> open file -> [choose ALL FILES as mkv files will be greyed out] -> open anyway (takes a minute or so to open the file) -> "Save as" MOV (tried "Save as" MP4 but sound did not work. Also do NOT use "Export to")
3. open mov file in QTPro and EXPORT it to mpeg4
NB!!! click the OPTIONS button first and check file type is MP4 and then click the video tab and change to "passthrough". On the audio tab I changed the type to AAC-LC and, importantly, the output sample rate from the default 44.1 MHz to 48 MHz (as this was the setting of the original mkv audio) and the encoding up to the max of 320.
The file is converted by QTPro in a couple of minutes. The only loss I believe is the 5.1 sound becomes stereo but HD picture quality unaffected.
This was the product of trial and error but results in a working mp4 file from a mkv file in only a few minutes.
Let me know if this works across the board or if I was just lucky in the two mkv files I used!
**** Unbelievable. I have found a more detailed and comprehensive description of this process elsewhere in these forums today after posting the above yesterday. Why is it this eluded me over the last three months.. Anyway, it appears that after installing Perian into QTPro [step 1 above] using Mpeg Streamclip [step 2 above] is not required. Try skipping straight to step 3. The mkv file does now open in QT and although it does so a bit more slowly than the mov file it obviates the middle step completely. The other point in the other (decidedly better) post was using MKVMerge to split files larger than 4Gig first if required. ******
Play MKV many other format
Yes there is a device call EP6000B - it is a Network HD media player support 1080p
I bought it without HDD, then get at Fry's a 1.5TB HDD at $135.00, it costs me about $380.00, for the initial, but later it costs me more.
I was waiting for AppleTV to support MKV, but the wait was too long, I'm tire of converting video, so I try this device...
The GUI is not nice as AppleTV, but it plays any video file i throw at it. I have tried MKV, M2TS, AVI, MP2/4, MOV, VOB, TS, TR, ISO, MKV, AVI, DIVX, XVID, IFO... it all play including an odd format RVMB?!!
At first I did not like this device because of the interface, but i love it more by time goes by
This device costs me additional a Onkyo DTS-HD reciever, because it states 7.1 sound supported.., I have to tried it out - I love the DTS-HD MA sound, it's awsome
Currently, I stream most of my ripped Blu ray from my MAC Pro, via SMB protocol, but i also have some MKVs are in the internal HDD and in USB flash drive
I'm playing with the built-in torrent.cgi, right now. Don't know is there any bug or not? But it's pretty fast to download video music from Vuze.com (small file)
Anyway - I will post some more if you want to know more
FireWire2
No more converting MKV - love it
Yes there is a device call EP6000B - it is a Network HD media player support 1080p
I bought it without HDD, then get at Fry's a 1.5TB HDD at $135.00, it costs me about $380.00, for the initial, but later it costs me more.
I was waiting for AppleTV to support MKV, but the wait was too long, I'm tire of converting video, so I try this device...
The GUI is not nice as AppleTV, but it plays any video file i throw at it
. I have tried MKV, M2TS, AVI, MP2/4, MOV, VOB, TS, TR, ISO, MKV, AVI, DIVX, XVID, IFO... it all play including an odd format RVMB?!!At first I did not like this device because of the interface, but i love it more by time goes by
This device costs me additional a Onkyo DTS-HD reciever, because it states 7.1 sound supported.., I have to tried it out
- I love the DTS-HD MA sound, it's awsomeCurrently, I stream most of my ripped Blu ray from my MAC Pro, via SMB protocol, but i also have some MKVs are in the internal HDD and in USB flash drive
I'm playing with the built-in torrent.cgi, right now. Don't know is there any bug or not? But it's pretty fast to download video music from Vuze.com (small file)
Anyway - I will post some more if you want to know more
FireWire2
No more converting MKV - love it
Yup, read through this whole thread today, doesn't seem to be an alternative for Apple TV other than the looooong Handbrake way.