Convert mkv movies into mp4

[macshodan]

@dilemma: I'll be very happy to try your app. Especially the level changing trick, because right now I'm changing the level with a simple hex editor, but only in the video file header. If this method works with mp4 container it won't work with an mpeg container which can support ac3 audio tracks on ps3.
Other thing is that you can encode the audio to AAC 5.1 instead of stereo, because the ps3 will automatically demux it to stereo if there's no compatible receiver attached to the hdmi port.

@mikeymoves: I know of the existence of mkv2vob under windows, the point is the lack of something like h264info under osx, which is the trivial point to make the video file works into the mpeg container. The point is that if it can be done under windows, it can be done under osx, and I personally don't like the idea of installing Parallels and Windows only to convert some bunch of files...

 

[roderick]

Ditto!

Does anyone know why I'm able to pass through some .mkv and not others? I have passed through many mkv files, bother 720p and 1080p , with no problem what so ever, but then I have like 3 or 4 that I cannot pass through no matter what I try. I've tried to mess with the settings in Perian and everything. Nothing. And I can't figure out what's different from these videos from the other ones that did work.

I too have a file that won't allow me to choose passthrough in Quicktime. The audio is already AC3 and the video settings are: 720p.x264.DD2.0-HDL.mkv
I am trying to find an EASY way to convert .mkv files to stream via Connect360.

 

[skeley69]

chaps you need to read some of the posts from the beginning of this thread. especially stomers posts. with perian now, you could load the mkv file in quicktime and save as a .mov file if you wanted. otherwise its converting the video in visualhub. ive done many mkv's in visualhub using the medium setting and you dont loose any quality.

hope this helps

- sKells

 

[roderick]

but there's no need to re-encode the video. pass-through takes about 10 minutes. re-encoding takes a very long time. just trying to see if someone knows why some files will not allow a pass-through conversion. and i've read every single post in this thread.

 

[Diode]

but there's no need to re-encode the video. pass-through takes about 10 minutes. re-encoding takes a very long time. just trying to see if someone knows why some files will not allow a pass-through conversion. and i've read every single post in this thread.

Because they are encoded in a version of h.264 (High Profile) that is not compatible with the atv.

High profile essentially allows smaller file size at the cost of high cpu utilization during playback ... trivial on a full blown computer but too much for the atv.

 

[stomer]

I use QTPro to passthrough video and audio of mkv files. The x264 encoded video in those mkvs is almost never compatible with AppleTV. I always have to re-encode. This doesn't bother me too much as it doesn't take very long and I don't lose that much in quality.

 

[roderick]

ok i see but i've gotten a little off topic. i'm not using atv, i'm trying to convert this .mkv file with quicktime and it does not allow me to select passthrough (its greyed out). i tried putting in visual hub but it will only let me pass through the audio. i posted the specs in my 1st post. where's the guy who mentioned that he has an app that does this?

 

[Josh396]

dilemma I'd also be willing to try out your app if you don't mind

 

[miketick]

There is an app for PC that I run in Parallels that re-wraps the mkv's in an mpg or vob wrapper for the ps3. The whole process takes about 10 minutes (for a 1080p/DTS file!!!) The DTS is converted to ac3. These files play great via MediaLink. The app is called mkv2vob

I thought I'd write a quick summery of my MKV to PS3 journey. The journey ends with mkv2vob which has worked with every MKV I have thrown at it (well apart from 1 for which it said could not parse header). It runs in parallels and when it can it just repackages the MKV and when it has to it automatically transcodes. It splits large files either to fit on FAT32 or DVD-5. The outputs work on the PS3 with surround sound and no lip sync issues.

Now back to the start.

Based on the guidance at http://oddmanout.wordpress.com/2008...e-to-ps3-mp4-without-re-encoding-on-mac-os-x/ I knocked up a shell script (below). This worked for some files. It created some which generated errors when on the PS3. For some files the app generated errors which I never spent enough time getting to understand.

It took a while to get mediatomb set up and workign right. After compiling with the extra protocol info flag set I forgot to add the relevant line to the config.xml

Then I discovered a simple way. http://blog.kifr.net/2007/12/convert-mkv-to-mp4-with-your-mac.html just open in quick time and save the file. What could be easier? Well for some files the pass though was greyed out. Again this generated some files which would not play and mp4 is limited to stereo audio on the PS3.

I tried ffmpegx, but never got the settings right so never got a file from it that the PS3 would play.

Then I stumbled across mp4box, so I ported their windows dos commands to the osx shell and came up with a script which turned out some usable files. Occasionally the outputs had lip sync errors, but not very often. Non of the big files would play and I have read rumours about a 4gb limit on the PS3.

Then mkv2vob came along and all was well in the world. It did mean that I never fully developed the script below, but I no longer had a need to.

echo ${1}
echo usage is mkv.sh file.mkv video_track_number
mkvextract tracks ${1} ${2}:${1}.h264
ffmpeg -i ${1} -sameq -vn -acodec libfaac -ac 2 ${1}.aac
echo replace 33 with 29 in second column
hexedit ${1}.h264
FPS=`mkvinfo ${1} | awk '/[0-9.]\ fps/ { print $6 }' | awk -F\( '{ print $2 }' | tail -1`
mp4creator -create=${1}.h264 -rate=${FPS} ${1}.mp4
mp4creator -hint=1 ${1}.mp4
mp4creator -c ${1}.aac -interleave -optimize ${1}.mp4

Which later became:

echo ${1}
echo usage is mkv.sh file.mkv video_track_number
mkvinfo ${1} | grep -e Track -e "Codec ID" -e fps
#add code to auto populate fps and track ID
mkvextract tracks ${1} ${2}:${1}.h264
ffmpeg -i ${1} -sameq -vn -acodec libfaac -ac 2 ${1}.aac
echo replace 33 with 29 in second column
hexedit ${1}.h264
FPS=`mkvinfo ${1} | awk '/[0-9.]\ fps/ { print $6 }' | awk -F\( '{ print $2 }' | tail -1`
MP4Box -add ${x}.h264 -fps $FPS -add ${x}.aac -new ${x}.mp4box.mp4

Hope that helps someone.

Mike

 

[macshodan]

I thought I'd write a quick summery of my MKV to PS3 journey. The journey ends with mkv2vob which has worked with every MKV I have thrown at it (well apart from 1 for which it said could not parse header). It runs in parallels and when it can it just repackages the MKV and when it has to it automatically transcodes. It splits large files either to fit on FAT32 or DVD-5. The outputs work on the PS3 with surround sound and no lip sync issues.

Now back to the start.

Based on the guidance at http://oddmanout.wordpress.com/2008...e-to-ps3-mp4-without-re-encoding-on-mac-os-x/ I knocked up a shell script (below). This worked for some files. It created some which generated errors when on the PS3. For some files the app generated errors which I never spent enough time getting to understand.

It took a while to get mediatomb set up and workign right. After compiling with the extra protocol info flag set I forgot to add the relevant line to the config.xml

Then I discovered a simple way. http://blog.kifr.net/2007/12/convert-mkv-to-mp4-with-your-mac.html just open in quick time and save the file. What could be easier? Well for some files the pass though was greyed out. Again this generated some files which would not play and mp4 is limited to stereo audio on the PS3.

I tried ffmpegx, but never got the settings right so never got a file from it that the PS3 would play.

Then I stumbled across mp4box, so I ported their windows dos commands to the osx shell and came up with a script which turned out some usable files. Occasionally the outputs had lip sync errors, but not very often. Non of the big files would play and I have read rumours about a 4gb limit on the PS3.

Then mkv2vob came along and all was well in the world. It did mean that I never fully developed the script below, but I no longer had a need to.

echo ${1}
echo usage is mkv.sh file.mkv video_track_number
mkvextract tracks ${1} ${2}:${1}.h264
ffmpeg -i ${1} -sameq -vn -acodec libfaac -ac 2 ${1}.aac
echo replace 33 with 29 in second column
hexedit ${1}.h264
FPS=`mkvinfo ${1} | awk '/[0-9.]\ fps/ { print $6 }' | awk -F\( '{ print $2 }' | tail -1`
mp4creator -create=${1}.h264 -rate=${FPS} ${1}.mp4
mp4creator -hint=1 ${1}.mp4
mp4creator -c ${1}.aac -interleave -optimize ${1}.mp4

Which later became:

echo ${1}
echo usage is mkv.sh file.mkv video_track_number
mkvinfo ${1} | grep -e Track -e "Codec ID" -e fps
#add code to auto populate fps and track ID
mkvextract tracks ${1} ${2}:${1}.h264
ffmpeg -i ${1} -sameq -vn -acodec libfaac -ac 2 ${1}.aac
echo replace 33 with 29 in second column
hexedit ${1}.h264
FPS=`mkvinfo ${1} | awk '/[0-9.]\ fps/ { print $6 }' | awk -F\( '{ print $2 }' | tail -1`
MP4Box -add ${x}.h264 -fps $FPS -add ${x}.aac -new ${x}.mp4box.mp4

Hope that helps someone.

Mike

Thanks for posting your experience, and I'd like to know some facts from you. First, have you ever tried to create an AAC 5.1 soundtrack with ffmpeg? Because every time I've tried i've got a file with incorrect channels assignment (eg: the center speaker is mapped to the front right, etc...). No matter what I've tried I haven't found any way to change the channels mapping. Second, I can't use MP4Box with files larger than 1Gb... it simply stucks here, using a lot of CPU resources but doin'g nothing... is the same happening to you too? I'm using an universal binary (i'm on macintel) pre-compiled version of MP4Box...

Thanks for your help...

 

[roderick]

what settings did you use for mkv2vob? when i tried it took forever to do its thing?
here's what i did and it worked once. I use both Quicktime Pro and Connect360. I loaded the .mkv into Quicktime pro then followed this guide: http://blog.kifr.net/2007/12/convert-mkv-to-mp4-with-your-mac.html

However the xbox still wouldn't play the mp4, i just got a black screen. So i decided to save it as .mov. i then found out that the xbox360 won't play anything over 4 GB so i just trimmed the end credits off of the .mov and ended up with a 3.95 HD .mov that i could stream with Connect360. there was no quality loss at all and if there was it wasn't noticeable. But now i've tried the same thing with another .mkv file and it won't work. it seems that this is not consistent. Both files even have the same format (AAC stereo, 48 khz, H.264)
the only thing that is different is that the one that works is 1280x544 and the one that doesn't is 1280x688. Does anyone know why this could not be working? it's really bugging me!

 

[miketick]

First, have you ever tried to create an AAC 5.1 soundtrack with ffmpeg?

No. Nothing I tried with ffmpegx worked and the command line ffmmpeg was limited to the scripts above. I think an MP4 is limited to 2 channels

Second, I can't use MP4Box with files larger than 1Gb...

I used it with some 2gb files OK.

what settings did you use for mkv2vob? when i tried it took forever to do its thing?

I set it to split files for fat32 (so they will work on the xbox and ps3), transcode as auto, and left all the other settings as there were. When it starts on a file if the status is transcode no it is very fast - limited by your hard disk speed as it creates wav files for each audio track and these are huge.
If transcode goes from auto to yes when it starts to process the files then it will take a while - the file is not in the right video format. Just batch them up and let it run over night.


Mike

 

[macshodan]

No. Nothing I tried with ffmpegx worked and the command line ffmmpeg was limited to the scripts above. I think an MP4 is limited to 2 channels

I used it with some 2gb files OK.

No no, the mp4 container can support AAC audio track with multichannel, in fact if you convert the AC3 track to aiff and then the aiff to aac 5.1 it will output the correct channles mapping.

Can you upload somewhere your MP4Box binary file?!? Or can you send me in email (macshodan@gmail.com), I would love to test it to see if it works...

Thanks!

 

[miketick]

No no, the mp4 container can support AAC audio track with multichannel,

The container might - the ps3 will not


Mike

 

[macshodan]

The container might - the ps3 will not


Mike

The PS3 can believe me... If you have a capable audio receiver (like mine ONKY SR-605) you will have multichannel AAC passed to the receiver, otherwise it will be downmixed to 2 channels. That's the way, imo, the audio track should be always done in multichannel AAC, so you can have it ready for when you'll have capable audio receiver.

 

[Volante]

Can someone please help i have a couple of MKV files with ACC audio but i get no sound when i try to play them is there a codec i need. I have attached a image with the movie properties. Thanks in advance Rob

How are you getting all that info, some application?

 

[northy124]

In Quicktime Pro When Passing Through Has Anyone Noticed That You Can't Tag The Video Afterwards Or Is It Just Me?

 

[Rabb1t]

Hello, I converted a .mkv file into a mp4 using visualhub and I extracted the .ass file using MoKgVm2dvd. Is there a way to combine the two?

 

[northy124]

Who Has Tried MKV2VOB Is It Good? Can I Convert The vob File In Handbrake?

BTW Don't Passthrough Or You Can't Tag Just Spent 1 Hour Last Night Passing Through Only Not To Be Allowed To Tag

Sorry Rabb1t Can't Help You With Your Subtitles (.Ass Is Subtitles Yes?)

 

[Rabb1t]

yes .ass as in subtitles.

 

[northy124]

MKV2VOB Is Great Shame Handbrake Can't Pick Up On It But I'm Going To Try VisualHub With The Vob And See What It Does. I Want Playback On PS3 And In iTunes

 

[macshodan]

Too bad the mac lack a simple passthrough tool for mkv to mp4 files.
I believe the main problem is the bugs we have on MP4Box or mp4creator in handling large files... I hate doing this manually and have to split the files because of the crappy binaries...

 

[northy124]

Too bad the mac lack a simple passthrough tool for mkv to mp4 files.
I believe the main problem is the bugs we have on MP4Box or mp4creator in handling large files... I hate doing this manually and have to split the files because of the crappy binaries...

You Can Passthrough With QT Pro But After Last Night I'd Never Passthrough As you Can't Tag The Files Afterwards

Edit: The Vob In VisualHub Make's mov Not Mp4 BS Absolutely BS

 

[Andrew Henry]

So I read this whole thread, and what is the simplest way to convert 720p .mkv to MPG4 without quality loss ?

This is only for AppleTV btw. It's looking like, VisualHub, on the go nuts setting?

Some of the posts in here are confusing and contradictory so I'm just trying to figure out the all around best solution.

 

[northy124]

If You Don't Mind Loosing The Tagging Function In MetaX Or Lostify Passthrough To mp4 Using QT Pro Or VisualHub If It Allows It (Haven't Seen Passthrough In VisualHub Yet). If You Re-Encode You Will Lose Quality And Alot From What Have Done/Seen My Self.