Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MKV to M4V via Handbrake

mallbritton

mallbritton

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 26, 2006
1,063
369
So I've been fooling about with some 720p video files that I've downloaded just so I know how to convert them using HB 0.9.3. I've got the settings down to take the 720p video to a really good SD video at 1.78:1, and I think I've got the settings down too keep the quality of the cross-encoded video the same. However I'm curious what settings others are using.

For example I have a video that is 1280x720, approximately 3600kbps/s, and 1.07 GB in size. What I've been doing to maintain relatively the same size and quality is choose the AppleTV pre-set change the "Quality" to Target Size the same at the MKV file, in the case of this particular file 1100 MB; click 2-pass encode and turbo first pass; click Picture Settings and choose Anamorphic Strict.

These settings give me a M4V file very close to the same size and quality of the MKV file. So, what settings are others using?

Regards,
Michael
 
A related question I also have is, is there a way to make the two files show up as one listing in iTunes like purchased content does? I think I would have to modify something within the file with a hex editor.

Regards,
Michael
 
Well I have a couple HD-DVD rips and what I am doing is ripping them using AnyDVD, Run the files through ToNMT to remux into a .ts file then use HB to re-encode. My HB settings are new Apple TV preset but change the quality to average bitrate 6000 kpbs ( or change quality to 75% depends on some movies as it can balloon the bitrate) and change the video output to 1280 x whatever (as long as aspect ratio is kept)

Same goes for mkv files
 
I'm not sure that setting the bitrate that high for my files would do anything for me except ballon the file sizes, since the bit rates are not that high to begin with.

I have been experimenting some more and have encoded a few .mkv HD files using the new AppleTV pre-set in HB, and setting the constant quality to 60%. This also results in good results for me.

My main goal is to not loose any quality when cross-encoding.

Regards.
Michael
 
mallbritton said:
My main goal is to not loose any quality when cross-encoding.
Click to expand...
You can minimize it to the point of possibly not noticing it, but you will always lose some quality encoding an already compressed source another time. Basically Lossy format -> Lossy format == more lossy.
 
Very true. I should have typed "try not to lose too much quality."

Regards,
Michael
 
I make m-BD's use 2500kbps and 992 width and what ever the height would be (It depends on file) and it looks like HD quality :D try it
 
If the MKV's video and audio are already in a Low-Complexity h.264 and aac, I would recommend remuxing into an MP4/M4V container for no quality loss.
 
Sorry for digging this up from the grave but has anyone got tried and tested settings for going from .mkv to .m4v in handbrake now to give the best HD quality?
 
mallbritton said:
A related question I also have is, is there a way to make the two files show up as one listing in iTunes like purchased content does? I think I would have to modify something within the file with a hex editor.

Regards,
Michael
Click to expand...

Yes there is. I do it all the time.

I use a program called "Subler". It's a program that allows you to play around with mp4 streams and tags. All you essentially need to do is to get 2 copies a movie, use subler (or another tagging program) to tag one as HD, the other non-HD (this is simply a switch on one of the tabs in subler), and then ensure they both have the same cnID tag number (you can use the plus icon at the bottom left of subler to add a cnID). Once they are both tagged, drag them both at the same time into iTunes and they'll show up as just one entry in iTunes but with an "HD/SD" icon! They work the same way as iTunes HD/SD content.
Subler also handles importing metadata from other mp4 or m4v files, so i basically tag the HD one first (inc cover art), then use subler to copy all the metadata over to the SD version (but without the HD flag)...

One extra trick with the cnID; you can either make one up yourself, or you can use the actual cnID from iTunes... Just find the link to a movie in iTunes, right click on it and "Copy Link", then paste into TextEdit; the number after the id= bit is the correct iTunes cnID number, i've read that one advantage of doing this is that your genius recommendations work correctly as iTunes knows what the movie is...

I've been doing this for a while and it's really working out well...! :)
 
SaturnStrobe said:
Sorry for digging this up from the grave but has anyone got tried and tested settings for going from .mkv to .m4v in handbrake now to give the best HD quality?
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, I've done a handful of my blu-rays and as it's been said in a few threads, if you use the Apple TV preset, use Constant Quality, either leave it at 60.78 or drop it down in the 59% range (I haven't tried adjusting it, I leave it at the default 60.78) Change the framerate to 24 fps and change the picture settings to 1280 x (whatever)

That results in a damn near good picture quality!

Granted, I'm changing the fps to 24 and the picture size to 1280 to help with compatibility for Apple TV playback...

If you don't care if it's compatible with ATV and have tons of free space to spare, you could probably get away with using a higher fps and the 1920 x (default) picture size.. I just don't want to waste my external harddrive with the huge file sizes and again Apple TV wouldn't be able to play it...
 
I just open my mkv's with Quicktime Player 7 Pro (and perian) then export as mpeg4 with the video and audio set to passthrough. or you can do the same thing with MKVTools. works great for playing them on my PS3
 
mallbritton said:
For example I have a video that is 1280x720, approximately 3600kbps/s, and 1.07 GB in size. What I've been doing to maintain relatively the same size and quality is choose the AppleTV pre-set change the "Quality" to Target Size the same at the MKV file, in the case of this particular file 1100 MB; click 2-pass encode and turbo first pass; click Picture Settings and choose Anamorphic Strict.
Click to expand...

For HD movies that I'm encoding in 720p for Apple TV, I use the Apple TV preset, but set anamorphic to "None", and the width to 1280, letting the height be dictated by the source aspect. If I'm encoding SD content, I just select the Apple TV preset and let it do its thing.

I second the advice for "nesting" movies in iTunes using Subler. Even if your "big" version of the movie is still only SD, you should still check the HD tag in Subler so that iTunes knows which is the higher and which is the lower resolution version of the movie. iTunes will show the "HD-SD" flag, but Apple TV knows if it's being fed an HD file or not, and will only flag movies as "HD" if the resolution is greater than 480.
 
FSUSem1noles said:
As far as I can tell, I've done a handful of my blu-rays and as it's been said in a few threads, if you use the Apple TV preset, use Constant Quality, either leave it at 60.78 or drop it down in the 59% range (I haven't tried adjusting it, I leave it at the default 60.78) Change the framerate to 24 fps and change the picture settings to 1280 x (whatever)

That results in a damn near good picture quality!

Granted, I'm changing the fps to 24 and the picture size to 1280 to help with compatibility for Apple TV playback...

If you don't care if it's compatible with ATV and have tons of free space to spare, you could probably get away with using a higher fps and the 1920 x (default) picture size.. I just don't want to waste my external harddrive with the huge file sizes and again Apple TV wouldn't be able to play it...
Click to expand...

My only suggestion is to only change the fps to 24 if you are dealing with content that has a higher framerate than 24fps. Most blu-ray movies are at 23.976 fps and in that case, you should use "Same As Source".
 
GermanSuplex said:
My only suggestion is to only change the fps to 24 if you are dealing with content that has a higher framerate than 24fps. Most blu-ray movies are at 23.976 fps and in that case, you should use "Same As Source".
Click to expand...

Is there a way to find out before sending it through Handbrake whether or not it's above the 24 fps? or is it just trial and error???
 
FSUSem1noles said:
Is there a way to find out before sending it through Handbrake whether or not it's above the 24 fps? or is it just trial and error???
Click to expand...

I use Mediainfo....
http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

Just use it to open up whatever video file you're feeding Handbrake (VOB, mkv, avi, mp4, etc.) and it'll tell you all the details of the file. If an mkv is 23.976 fps, then you can safely use the "Same as source" setting in Handbrake. Based on all the movies I have, all of my regular movies are 23.976 fps, but sports videos and concerts are at a higher frame rate. The films I can encode to 1280x720 mp4 in around 2 - 4 hours, and the others take anywhere from 10 - 16 hours when I change the frame rate to 24fps.
 
GermanSuplex said:
I use Mediainfo....
http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

Just use it to open up whatever video file you're feeding Handbrake (VOB, mkv, avi, mp4, etc.) and it'll tell you all the details of the file. If an mkv is 23.976 fps, then you can safely use the "Same as source" setting in Handbrake. Based on all the movies I have, all of my regular movies are 23.976 fps, but sports videos and concerts are at a higher frame rate. The films I can encode to 1280x720 mp4 in around 2 - 4 hours, and the others take anywhere from 10 - 16 hours when I change the frame rate to 24fps.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much!!! I'm d/l'ing it and going to try it out...
 
yes, I've been using Handbrake for this. Usually works great with no problems. Takes a long time on my iMac though (avg 4 hours per 1.5 hour movie)., and unfortunately it will be a lossy process, And I also have the latest version. My brother used a program called iSky to do this and he said it was pretty good.
 
You guys helped me out a lot. I have been having problems with my macbook pro 17" 2.4 GHZ 4GB Ram running Snow Leopard 10.6.4 playing .MKV lately. I am thinking it is a problem with the graphics card since it used to play files as large as 10 GB with no problems. I was using XBMC and Boxee, and now PLEX and all them are having issues with delays or the video jumping or being slow then catching up. Then of course I tried the old faithful VLC and also had issues. So I started to check out encoding all my .MKV files to M4V/MP4 format to make them smaller and being able to use front row/itunes to watch them on my flat screen 1080i TV. I ran across this thread and started to set my handbreak as you guys/girls indicated. I was able to encode a movie that was 8GB to MP4 in an hour and 35 minutes using the settings suggested.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

mallbritton said:
I'm not sure that setting the bitrate that high for my files would do anything for me except ballon the file sizes, since the bit rates are not that high to begin with.

I have been experimenting some more and have encoded a few .mkv HD files using the new AppleTV pre-set in HB, and setting the constant quality to 60%. This also results in good results for me.

My main goal is to not loose any quality when cross-encoding.

Regards.
Michael
Click to expand...

Don't use handbrake to transcode mkv to mp4!

Simply use mkvtools to passthru the 264 or mpeg4 tracks!
 
Sparky9292 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)



Don't use handbrake to transcode mkv to mp4!

Simply use mkvtools to passthru the 264 or mpeg4 tracks!
Click to expand...
Will this work on iPads or Apple TVs?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back