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badlydrawnboy

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 20, 2003
1,531
418
I have an .mkv file I'd like to put on my iPhone, which I plug into my SDTV to watch videos.

What should I convert it to? I have VLC and Visual Hub. If you could help me out with both video and audio settings, I'd be grateful.
 
Download Handbrake. Convert it to a .m4v or use the iPhone preset.

Than import it into iTunes as a movie. You may or may not need to click on Advanced > Create iPod or iPhone version (inside of iTunes).
 
I have used Handbrake with success as well. I like it since it has presets for some devices so you don't have to mess with different settings and such.
 
Alternatively, if the MKV file is encoded using h264, then you might have luck using MKVTools to remux the audio/video from MKV to MP4. This would take a few minutes, as opposed to an hour or so (assuming a 90 minute movie and an older Mac).

ft
 
This. DON'T USE HANDBRAKE. It'll take forever. MKVTools will likely do what you're looking for, although if the MKV has DTS or AAC sound in it and you're looking to convert to AC3, you might want to use ffmpeg.

Great guide for getting that set up here:

http://www.martinlos.com/?p=41

Alternatively, if the MKV file is encoded using h264, then you might have luck using MKVTools to remux the audio/video from MKV to MP4. This would take a few minutes, as opposed to an hour or so (assuming a 90 minute movie and an older Mac).

ft
 
This. DON'T USE HANDBRAKE. It'll take forever. MKVTools will likely do what you're looking for, although if the MKV has DTS or AAC sound in it and you're looking to convert to AC3, you might want to use ffmpeg.

Great guide for getting that set up here:

http://www.martinlos.com/?p=41

You have it a little backwards. The iPhone supports AAC, but not AC3.
 
Thanks everyone. I used VisualHub to convert to MP4 using the AppleTV preset. It seemed to work okay. The quality wasn't great, but I don't know if that was due to the conversion or the original file.
 
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