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Some sort of automation will probably be coming in a future version of MKVtools, but I haven't had a chance to start down that road yet. For now, if you are comfortable with applescript, you might want to try googling "applescript gui scripting". It's a way of scripting any application via system events and the app's gui.
 
Today i got a 6,26 gb movie out of MKV Tools (original size is 7,68) that will play fine on iTunes but not on AppleTV (2 gen). Is it because of the size?
 
Some remarks about MKVtools

Some sort of automation will probably be coming in a future version of MKVtools, but I haven't had a chance to start down that road yet. For now, if you are comfortable with applescript, you might want to try googling "applescript gui scripting". It's a way of scripting any application via system events and the app's gui.

Hi Emmgunn,

Thanks for the great tool. I registered yesterday.
2 remarks.

If I convert to m4v for AppleTV from MKV all video streams start with a with screen for about 1 second. Manualy I set in Itunes to start the movie at 00:01. Is it possible to get ride of those white screens?

Secondly. All sound tracks are called 'Sound Track' but if I use handbrake to convert the AAC 2-ch track is called 'Stereo' and the AC-3 track is called 'Surround'. Can you change this behauvior in your program?

Anyway a handy tool to convert mkv to m4v files with Pass Thru option.

Thanks.
Conrad
 
I seem to remember trying MKVTools when if was in v 2.4.1 and I was able to put a 720p mkv file (without any transcoding) on both my ATV2 and my wife's iPhone 4. But today using MKVTools 2.4.3 I cant seem to get it working on the iPhone. All files work on the ATV2 when I´ve used the Apple TV preset in MKVTools and adding a 2-channel track, but none work on the iPhone. The files transfer onto the iPhone but it cannot play them.

Any advice? Could it be that the 2-channel track should be presented in some specific way for the iPhone/iPad to understand to use it? When I try to play the files on the iPhone it states that the files cannot be played.

/Niklas
 
When I use mkvtools to convert mkv to mp4, I let the resolution stay at 1280, but it downsizes to 960 anyway, anyone knows why?
 
I wrote a shell script to automate HandbrakeCLI, works better than any other tool I've ever used. It is by far faster than any GUI tool.
 
For some reason when using MKVTools when I try to convert mkv to mp4 without re-encoding, I get an mp4 with audio but a black video in Quicktime. The resulting mp4 plays with video in MPlayer, though. It's all just H.264 video and AAC audio, so I don't understand. I'm just using the pass-through setting under the mp4 tab. Any ideas?
 
For some reason when using MKVTools when I try to convert mkv to mp4 without re-encoding, I get an mp4 with audio but a black video in Quicktime. The resulting mp4 plays with video in MPlayer, though. It's all just H.264 video and AAC audio, so I don't understand. I'm just using the pass-through setting under the mp4 tab. Any ideas?

H.264 comes in various profiles and levels and only some will be playable in Quicktime (and even fewer on Apple devices). You can run the file through MediaInfo or similar to see what the underlying specifications are; a lot of things are still encoded at High Profile Level 5.1 and will often cause problems.

If you make sure MKVTools is set to mux for a particular device (eg Apple TV) instead of just General, that can help -- as MKVTools will change the reported H.264 profile and level.
 
H.264 comes in various profiles and levels and only some will be playable in Quicktime (and even fewer on Apple devices). You can run the file through MediaInfo or similar to see what the underlying specifications are; a lot of things are still encoded at High Profile Level 5.1 and will often cause problems.

If you make sure MKVTools is set to mux for a particular device (eg Apple TV) instead of just General, that can help -- as MKVTools will change the reported H.264 profile and level.

Hmm thanks, I was wondering if it was something like that, but changing it to Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, etc, still doesn't work. I'm trying to download MediaInfo at the moment (really crappy internet connection here). What's strange is the original mkv will play fine in Quicktime + Perian, so I was thinking the H.264 in it should be compatible, unless Perian expands the H.264 codecs as well? (And even so, since Perian's still there, the container shouldn't be the problem if the same video stream worked in the mkv, should it?) I just tried putting the output mp4 file into iTunes and it plays fine in iTunes, too. Last time this happened (with audio instead of video), the QT incompatibility was AC3 audio, but this output is H.264 + AAC.

Meh. *hopes QTX gains much more functionality in Lion*
 
Another issue I've come across with MKVTools:

When converting H.264 video with .ogg audio to AAC audio, the audio conversion always seems to stop halfway through. The rest of the converting happens fine (whether it's re-encoding video too or pass-thru). The output mp4 file has perfect video, but audio that dies halfway through because it stopped encoding. Anyone else experiencing this? Any fixes?

Does anyone have a recommended method for transcoding H.264 + Ogg to H.264 + AAC?

ETA: NEVERMIND! The latest version of MKVTools from last week fixed this issue. :D Thanks!
 
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