MP4tools beta released

[chille]

I've been using MKVtools to convert my video files to MP4/M4V for compability with my ATV2. Since it seems like MKVtools has been the only (as far as I have discovered) app that can use passthru on h.264 MKV files (no conversion needed) I have been in love with the application since i first installed it.

On my MBP 2.4 it takes just a few minutes to "convert" a 720p 42 min tv episode (~1 gb) from MKV to MP4, instead of several hours using tools that have to process the h.264 video.

However, since I installed OS X Lion DP MKVtools stopped working for me. I have since then relied on AirVideo to convert my MKV's in real-time and stream to mu iPad, then used AirPlay to my ATV2. The downside to this, if your PC is powerful enough to process 720p in real-time, is that AirVideo converts the 5.1 audio to stereo.

Yesterday I discovered that the guy(s?) who makes MKVtools have released a beta version of MP4tools, which is basically the same as MKVtools but more focused on the MP4 format, and with quick settings for iPhone/iPad/ATV2 that seems to work fine, EVEN in Lion. ) The app is free with a $5 registration that enables queing of files and gets rid of the "popup wait 5sec" dialog when opening a file.

Since MKV seems to be the format of choice for all "scenes" that provide movies and tv shows via torrents etc, i just love MP4tools/MKVtools since it is just what I need. Unfortunatly, these apps is for OS X only.

Also, I have been using an app called iSubtitle (can be purchased in the Mac App Store) for fetching and editing the meta tags, movie cover images and inserting subtitles. It's a really intuitive and smooth process with lots of easy-to-use tweaks, like syncing subtitles if they are out of sync. It comes with automatic fetching of meta tags from TagChimp, so a lot of movies automatically gets the right title, description, cover image, genre, etc, which makes it look really good when browsing your iTunes library frothe ATV2.

Just wanted to share this with you people, I think there's many out there that is frustrated with the lack of supported file formats for the ATV2 and dont want to wait several hours of converting their files.
MP4tools can be foubd here: http://www.emmgunn.com/mp4tools/mp4toolshome.html

Now, my guts tell me that there MUST be some drawback on using passthru when converting... I am sure that someone here can point them out?

PS. Sorry for rambling.

 

[spacepower7]

MKVtools is a good app and the developer posts on this forum sometimes.

Like the developer says for the price of a cheeseburger ( or beer ) you get a nice app. I like MKVtools and some of the free alternatives, and as a consumer, competition pushes both forward into better apps.

One great thing about MKVtools is that it can convert 5.1 aac to ac-3.

 

[kabubuki]

Will try out MP4tools...

Thank you for the tip...

I've used MKVtools for the same thing for over a year and like you, it stopped working after my Lion upgrade... Yes, I've been slow in the upgrade...

Will give MP4tools a shot and see if it works...

 

[HandySam]

Watch out with MP4tools. You can have Audio Video sync issues with this. Sometimes when you passthrough the video stream and you re-encode the audio stream than you have the chance that you will run into A/V sync issues. (sound is not in sync anymore with movie, more noticeable to the end of the movie)

I have encountered this a few times with only some movies but it is something that can be very frustrating.

XVID4PSP is a converter for windows which can passthrough video and re-encode audio but it has a feature called smart sync, which takes care of these A/V sync issues. The files I'm having trouble with in MP4tools convert perfectly in XVID4PSP.

I definitely recommend Subler for metadata tags and combining multiple audio streams, subtitles in MP4/M4V files.

 

[kabubuki]

MP4tools does not work with Lion either

I tried using MP4tools but the audio is all garbled up in AC3 to AAC audio conversion.

 

[kuwisdelu]

MKVTools works under Lion for me.

Granted, I only use it to extract subtitles, and I use Subler for my muxing, so maybe I'm just not running into the issues others are having due to my use case.

I will look into MP4tools, though, so thanks for the tip.

 

[kabubuki]

Subler also works for me for muxing in Lion. The nice thing about MKVtools is to be able to setup a queue and do batch conversion. With Subler, I have to do it one by one.

I did some more experiment with MKVtools. Seems like the problem pertains only to AC3 to AAC audio conversion.

Do I need to update any audio codec in Lion?

 

[Mackan]

Watch out with MP4tools. You can have Audio Video sync issues with this. Sometimes when you passthrough the video stream and you re-encode the audio stream than you have the chance that you will run into A/V sync issues. (sound is not in sync anymore with movie, more noticeable to the end of the movie)

I have encountered this a few times with only some movies but it is something that can be very frustrating.

I can confirm this. Had several mkv movies, and when adding 2 channel audio to them, they were out of sync. I don't think it's a framerate issue, because MediaInfo and MP4tools both reported same framerate. So, when remixing and converting audio, one always need to check for sync issues... Very annoying, but that's just how it is.

 

[Pedro Julio]

Forgive me if this is a novice question, but what advantage or additional functionality does MKVTools or MP4Tools have over a program such as HandBrake? That's what I have been using for ripping DVDs and for format conversions.

I've got a growing collection of MP4 video files in iTunes that I stream or sync to my various devices and I haven't had any video or audio issues. It ain't 1080p Blu-Ray or anything, but it looks and sounds pretty damn good. If I could derive an improvement from the Tools programs I'd be happy to try them though.

 

[Mackan]

Forgive me if this is a novice question, but what advantage or additional functionality does MKVTools or MP4Tools have over a program such as HandBrake? That's what I have been using for ripping DVDs and for format conversions.

I've got a growing collection of MP4 video files in iTunes that I stream or sync to my various devices and I haven't had any video or audio issues. It ain't 1080p Blu-Ray or anything, but it looks and sounds pretty damn good. If I could derive an improvement from the Tools programs I'd be happy to try them though.

MP4Tools allows a pass-thru of the video stream (no reencoding), if you so wish. This is very useful when you want to convert .mkv files to .mp4 files, and similar. It also allows extracting of the video and audio tracks, and subtitle tracks, for later remixing with another program if you so wish. I find it an excellent tool, except from the fact that it causes audio sync issues on some .mkv files when converting audio from AVC-3 to 2 channel AAC, and then remixing. I don't use Handbrake, because it does not allow pass-thru of video stream.

 

[RYMAJ]

HELP with MKVtools

Hi, this is a noob question, sorry.

Im "converting" my videos with MKVtools , but actually I dont know where didi it put the converted file... yeah I know really stpid but ive been searching for 2 days....

Any suggestion?
Thanks
Rod

 

[mic j]

Hi, this is a noob question, sorry.

Im "converting" my videos with MKVtools , but actually I dont know where didi it put the converted file... yeah I know really stpid but ive been searching for 2 days....

Any suggestion?
Thanks
Rod

1) Look in Preferences and see where it says it saves output files.
2) Do a Finder search for all mkv files

 

[Menneisyys2]

Now, my guts tell me that there MUST be some drawback on using passthru when converting...

1, There isn't if you don't want to resize the footage / make it smaller etc.

2, I've very thoroughly tested the current beta, comparing it to the non-beta. The beta turned out to be FAR faster and FAR more reliable. Will publish my benchmark & compatibility report later. For the time being, read https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/15599629/