How do you remux M4V to MKV?

[Jim.R]

There's lots of threads on how to remux MKVs into M4Vs, but is there a quick, easy and prefferably free way to remux a M4V to MKV?

I have a purchased (M4V) film which for some strange reason came in two parts and I'd like to stitch them into a single file. I've done this successfully in the past with MKVs using mkvtoolnix, but as I'd ripped all the bits myself, I had easy access to the original MKVs. In this case, I don't

I had a quick try with Subler, but that only seems to let you save as M4V or MP4.

I've also tried joining the M4Vs in Quicktime, but it claimed it was going to take ~200 hours to save the file, so I'm assuming it was going to re-encode which I'd like to avoid if possible.

Any pointers to some (Mac) software to help with this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[eliehass]

There's lots of threads on how to remux MKVs into M4Vs, but is there a quick, easy and prefferably free way to remux a M4V to MKV?

I have a purchased (M4V) film which for some strange reason came in two parts and I'd like to stitch them into a single file. I've done this successfully in the past with MKVs using mkvtoolnix, but as I'd ripped all the bits myself, I had easy access to the original MKVs. In this case, I don't

I had a quick try with Subler, but that only seems to let you save as M4V or MP4.

I've also tried joining the M4Vs in Quicktime, but it claimed it was going to take ~200 hours to save the file, so I'm assuming it was going to re-encode which I'd like to avoid if possible.

Any pointers to some (Mac) software to help with this would be greatly appreciated.

MKVTools might do what you want. Do you specifically need the resulting video to be a mkv? If not, MP4Tools can stitch together multiple mp4's, Otherwise, MKVTools is your best bet in my opinion.

The software can be used for free, but some features require you to purchase it.

 

[Jim.R]

Do you specifically need the resulting video to be a mkv?

Thanks for the reply.
Ironically, no, once converted to a single file I'll be using Subler to convert it right back to M4V to go into iTunes
I've tried joining mp4s with MP4Tools before without much success and was advised at the time to do this with MKVs as it worked better (and it did).

However...

Things are further complicated it seems by the producer sticking an "End of part 1" screen up for a few seconds at the end of the first file. Honestly, who the hell thought that was a good idea?!?!
So it looks like I'm gonna have to trim the last couple of seconds off the first part to get rid of that before stitching them together if I want a single seamless movie.

Just been reading the full docs for mkvmerge, and it looks like this should be able to do all that I need. Will have a play tonight and see.

 

[mic j]

Thanks for the reply.
Ironically, no, once converted to a single file I'll be using Subler to convert it right back to M4V to go into iTunes
I've tried joining mp4s with MP4Tools before without much success and was advised at the time to do this with MKVs as it worked better (and it did).

However...

Things are further complicated it seems by the producer sticking an "End of part 1" screen up for a few seconds at the end of the first file. Honestly, who the hell thought that was a good idea?!?!
So it looks like I'm gonna have to trim the last couple of seconds off the first part to get rid of that before stitching them together if I want a single seamless movie.

Just been reading the full docs for mkvmerge, and it looks like this should be able to do all that I need. Will have a play tonight and see.

Have you tried using the mp4tools beta version? It is much improved over the original version.

 

[Jim.R]

Have you tried using the mp4tools beta version? It is much improved over the original version.

Really? Cool, thanks for the tip. Will take a look and hope it saves a lot of needless conversion

 

[mic j]

Really? Cool, thanks for the tip. Will take a look and hope it saves a lot of needless conversion

Hope, it works better for you too. But if not, I think your conversion back to mkv is about all you can do.

 

[Consultant]

1. You can watch the videos using VLC.
2. Stop buying film from pirates.

 

[Jim.R]

Hope, it works better for you too. But if not, I think your conversion back to mkv is about all you can do.

Well, MP4tools managed 50%. Trimmed the offending few seconds off the file successfully, but joining the two together results in a file of the correct size, but which only actually plays the video from the second file. So went down the MKV route.

To convert MP4 to MKV, just add the MP4s into mkvmerge and click start. 5 mins later, you'll have your MKV. Simples
So simple that you don't even need to convert both files before joining them. Just add the first file, click "append" and select the second and it'll spit out a joined file. This then only take a few mins to convert back to M4V with Subler.

No transcoding, no loss in quality and no huge amount of hours to run. Just what I was after.

1. You can watch the videos using VLC.
2. Stop buying film from pirates.

1. And your point is?
2. WTF? Please, get back in your box if you've nothing helpful to add

 

[mic j]

Well, MP4tools managed 50%. Trimmed the offending few seconds off the file successfully, but joining the two together results in a file of the correct size, but which only actually plays the video from the second file. So went down the MKV route.

To convert MP4 to MKV, just add the MP4s into mkvmerge and click start. 5 mins later, you'll have your MKV. Simples
So simple that you don't even need to convert both files before joining them. Just add the first file, click "append" and select the second and it'll spit out a joined file. This then only take a few mins to convert back to M4V with Subler.

1. And your point is?
2. WTF? Please, get back in your box if you've nothing helpful to add

Glad you found the solutions. MKVMerge is a great program. I hadn't done what you were wanting to do, so I was sure what was involved. I used it to joint mkv's from the LOTR multiple disc's into a single file and it worked flawlessly. But I have never converted from mp4 back to mkv.

 

[Cinephi1e]

Well, MP4tools managed 50%. Trimmed the offending few seconds off the file successfully, but joining the two together results in a file of the correct size, but which only actually plays the video from the second file. So went down the MKV route.

To convert MP4 to MKV, just add the MP4s into mkvmerge and click start. 5 mins later, you'll have your MKV. Simples
So simple that you don't even need to convert both files before joining them. Just add the first file, click "append" and select the second and it'll spit out a joined file. This then only take a few mins to convert back to M4V with Subler.

No transcoding, no loss in quality and no huge amount of hours to run. Just what I was after.

I have a question. Did you have chapters on each MP4? If so what happened to them after everything was completely merged?

 

[Jim.R]

Glad you found the solutions. MKVMerge is a great program. I hadn't done what you were wanting to do, so I was sure what was involved. I used it to joint mkv's from the LOTR multiple disc's into a single file and it worked flawlessly. But I have never converted from mp4 back to mkv.

Yep, so much better than the majority of MP4 tools available. I've used it many times when ripping disks to add the special features onto the end of the main movie.
I didn't realise you could use MP4 as an input until last night though. MP4 > MKV doesn't seem to be a very common thing, given the lack of hits I got on Google.

I have a question. Did you have chapters on each MP4? If so what happened to them after everything was completely merged?

Thats a good question. Will check when I'm back in front of the mac later.
When I've joined MKVs in the past, it's sorted the chapter track out properly, re-aligning the times of the chapters in the appended files correctly.

 

[Cinephi1e]

Thats a good question. Will check when I'm back in front of the mac later. When I've joined MKVs in the past, it's sorted the chapter track out properly, re-aligning the times of the chapters in the appended files correctly.

Did you get a chance to check this? Thanks.

 

[Jim.R]

Ah yes, sorry. All chapters were retained correctly