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MKV tv shows to m4v handbrake settings help
- Thread starter neo179neo
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Do you have a link? What I can find as the official site it wasn't available for DL.
Right, and the version is 2.3.1, and the beta page, where 2.4 was, is now longer showing a link for 2.4, unless I am missing something completely.
Confirmed that using 2.4 to convert a file (same one I have been working with for 2 days) now shows profile of High 3.1. The same file I converted previously that should High4.1.
I watched this on my ATV last night from of my encode using Handbrake. When I get home this evening, I will import the MKVTools version in to iTunes and compare the results.
I watched this on my ATV last night from of my encode using Handbrake. When I get home this evening, I will import the MKVTools version in to iTunes and compare the results.
I don't download many MKV's other than anime and all the ones i have downloaded so far don't work with this method. They must be re encoded.
Would be fantastic if it did.
Would be fantastic if it did.
Thanks all for the suggestions and explanations. Here's a quick update (not a lot of new info):
I used MediaInfo Mac to look at the MKVtools-'converted' file. Video profile was at High@3.1, meaning that MKVtools successfully changed the profile from what was originally High@4.1 or 5.1 (not sure because I deleted the original MKV file). I am still not clear as to whether ATV should play all High@3.1 files or if it can only play some. As others have noted, the maximum officially supported profile is Main@3.1.
One other thing I learned from MediaInfo is that my audio codec was still AC3 -- I do not believe this format is supported by ATV (can someone confirm?), so that may have caused the error message.
I downloaded the newest version of MKVtools (2.4) and ran the already 'converted' M4V file through again, this time with video set to Pass Thru, audio set to AAC (2 ch) and device set to Apple TV. Upon inspecting the newly created file in MediaInfo, I saw that the profile remained unchanged from the previously converted file (High@3.1), but the audio is now AAC.
In summary, either the file did not play because this particular file with the High@3.1 profile does not fly on ATV, or it saw the AC3 audio and said no go. I will try this newly created file on ATV tonight and see what happens.
Thanks again everyone, solid info here.
I used MediaInfo Mac to look at the MKVtools-'converted' file. Video profile was at High@3.1, meaning that MKVtools successfully changed the profile from what was originally High@4.1 or 5.1 (not sure because I deleted the original MKV file). I am still not clear as to whether ATV should play all High@3.1 files or if it can only play some. As others have noted, the maximum officially supported profile is Main@3.1.
One other thing I learned from MediaInfo is that my audio codec was still AC3 -- I do not believe this format is supported by ATV (can someone confirm?), so that may have caused the error message.
I downloaded the newest version of MKVtools (2.4) and ran the already 'converted' M4V file through again, this time with video set to Pass Thru, audio set to AAC (2 ch) and device set to Apple TV. Upon inspecting the newly created file in MediaInfo, I saw that the profile remained unchanged from the previously converted file (High@3.1), but the audio is now AAC.
In summary, either the file did not play because this particular file with the High@3.1 profile does not fly on ATV, or it saw the AC3 audio and said no go. I will try this newly created file on ATV tonight and see what happens.
Thanks again everyone, solid info here.
The AppleTV may require aac in addition to the ac3, otherwise it would be unplayable on iPads iPhones etc...
AC3 is supported as far as I know, it always has been in the past.
AC3 is supported as far as I know, it always has been in the past.
Final update. I grabbed a new copy of a show (yeah, yeah, I know, it's Fringe). I ran it through MKVtools 2.4 with the settings depicted in the attached image (video set to pass thru, audio set to AAC 2 channel, device set to Apple TV). Happy to report that the resulting MP4 file played flawlessly on my ATV, and it only took ~6 minutes from start to finish.
Looks like the problem has been solved. Thanks again for the help everyone, and let me know if anyone has questions.
Looks like the problem has been solved. Thanks again for the help everyone, and let me know if anyone has questions.
Attachments
It all depends on how the original was encoded, i have many videos that wont play on the Apple Tv by just passing the audio through.
Nice. I will give it a try, I am working on The Office and Fringe myself
My bitrate is 3101, yours is 3971. That might make the difference.
I think that may be a little bit overly optimistic
. Based on other comments I've seen, I think that the best that can be said is that your mileage will vary when you pass thru the video and adjust the profile level "label". I wonder what the success rate is. I've yet to find a video, including High@L5.1, that I can't pass thru and play on my iPad and it has the same video specs as the ATV, and so theoretically the ATV should have the same success rate. Theory, however usually gets chucked out the door in the real world . Clearly, however, it's not possible to determine whether or not you can pass thru the video based on the avc profile. I'm thinking that there is some specific "feature" or "features" in High Profile that the ATV can't process, and some videos are encoded with this feature(s) and some are not. The trick would be to find what it is, and if it's something that is identifiable by mediaInfo, it wouldn't be too difficult to have MKVtools let you know when you can passthru the video track for playback on ATV. Perhaps the Handbrake group has some ideas regarding the true specs of the ATV.
So im a bit of a novice but have been playing around with handbrake using data from some m4v 720p torrents ive got... ive just converted fringe and south park 720p MKV's keeping the picture size the same, changing the audio to 160kbps and the video to 3230 bitrate and the pumped out results look and sound great...
Ive only viewed these on a macbook displayed to my tv and on my iphone 4 which looks amazing!
Im not sure what im actually doing but it works for me!
One question i do have though is im manually inputting the data for the show... titles... artwork etc etc... The torrents ive downloaded have like all the information with the little HD tags on too... how do you do this exactly?
Ive only viewed these on a macbook displayed to my tv and on my iphone 4 which looks amazing!
Im not sure what im actually doing but it works for me!
One question i do have though is im manually inputting the data for the show... titles... artwork etc etc... The torrents ive downloaded have like all the information with the little HD tags on too... how do you do this exactly?
alright trying this on a 1080p mkv 2 hour movie .. i just wanna be able to play these on my appletv .. so i can get rid of some of my other devices
I use Playback and it works great. I've never tried it with an mkv with two audio tracks or subs or 5.1 so I can't attest as to how it works but for single track audio with no subs, perfect. Only takes about five minutes per hour of video.
I'm guessing it's doing video passthrough and re-encoding the audio. You can also do batch files.
http://www.yazsoft.com/products/playback/take-the-tour/?convert
Before I found Playback I would use Quicktime Player 7 Pro.
Perian needs to be installed.
1. Load your MKV into Quicktime. Make sure its fully loaded once the timeline is dark gray.
2. Once loaded click file ->export.
3. Choose Export: Movie to MPEG-4, Use: Most Recent Settings.
4. Options: File Format MP4. Video - Pass through
5. Audio: AAC-LC (Music), 128kpbs, Stereo, 44.1kHz, Best
6. Streaming I left unchecked.
Once done just drag to iTunes and it works on AppleTV 2 and iPhone 4. I don't have anything else to check it on.
This works great for TV shows. Once you get into 5.1, I don't know how well this works or if at all. But if you don't mind stereo tracks for your TV shows, this method is guaranteed to work.
(or your money back)
I'm guessing it's doing video passthrough and re-encoding the audio. You can also do batch files.
http://www.yazsoft.com/products/playback/take-the-tour/?convert
Before I found Playback I would use Quicktime Player 7 Pro.
Perian needs to be installed.
1. Load your MKV into Quicktime. Make sure its fully loaded once the timeline is dark gray.
2. Once loaded click file ->export.
3. Choose Export: Movie to MPEG-4, Use: Most Recent Settings.
4. Options: File Format MP4. Video - Pass through
5. Audio: AAC-LC (Music), 128kpbs, Stereo, 44.1kHz, Best
6. Streaming I left unchecked.
Once done just drag to iTunes and it works on AppleTV 2 and iPhone 4. I don't have anything else to check it on.
This works great for TV shows. Once you get into 5.1, I don't know how well this works or if at all. But if you don't mind stereo tracks for your TV shows, this method is guaranteed to work.
(or your money back)
Some of my experiments on the MKVs that I have...
These are conversions done in MKVTools 4.2, also converting AC3 -> AAC5.1/6.1 with Stereo fallback.
Main@L4.1, Main@L5.1 -- These converted fine.
High@L3.1, High@L4.1, High@L5.1 -- Dropped frames/sync issues
--------
For transcoding, I have been using Handbrake with the Main profile, no special settings. The video is kept at 720p with no filters. RF20. These look and play great.
I hope someone finds the sweet spot for transcoding. It would be nice if the pro-encoders.. you know what I mean... would just use the main profile.
Or if CBS would be willing to work with Apple, that would be great too. $.99 for 30 minute shows, $1.99 for hour shows. I'd be willing to pay that if not a rental model. Hell, I just checked if some of my favorite cbs shows were on Amazon, and they aren't. Who are you kidding CBS??
These are conversions done in MKVTools 4.2, also converting AC3 -> AAC5.1/6.1 with Stereo fallback.
Main@L4.1, Main@L5.1 -- These converted fine.
High@L3.1, High@L4.1, High@L5.1 -- Dropped frames/sync issues
--------
For transcoding, I have been using Handbrake with the Main profile, no special settings. The video is kept at 720p with no filters. RF20. These look and play great.
I hope someone finds the sweet spot for transcoding. It would be nice if the pro-encoders.. you know what I mean... would just use the main profile.
Or if CBS would be willing to work with Apple, that would be great too. $.99 for 30 minute shows, $1.99 for hour shows. I'd be willing to pay that if not a rental model. Hell, I just checked if some of my favorite cbs shows were on Amazon, and they aren't. Who are you kidding CBS??
mkvtools has worked fine for me with all files. I just use passthru for both video and audio. I normally have 720p MKV's with 5.1 ac3. However if I tick the box to add 2 ch track then the apple tv and ps3 will only play the file as 2ch. If I don't tick the 2 ch box then it won't play on my iphone or ipad.. if this small problem could be fixed then mkvtools would be perfect.