Visualhub settings - mkv to apple tv?

[.mark.]

Hi, can anyone tell me what settings I should be using to convert an MKV file to use with apple tv. I want to keep the quality as close to the original as possible as the files will be HD (720p or 1080p).

Also, should I be clicking the H.264 encoding setting?

 

[NightStorm]

All I do is set it to convert for AppleTV at the Go Nuts quality setting (I believe H264 will automatically turn on, but you should check). I also go into the Advanced settings and set the audio bitrate to 160kbps.

The result is a pretty good AppleTV-compatible MP4 file.

 

[Mindflux]

All I do is set it to convert for AppleTV at the Go Nuts quality setting (I believe H264 will automatically turn on, but you should check). I also go into the Advanced settings and set the audio bitrate to 160kbps.

The result is a pretty good AppleTV-compatible MP4 file.

how long does your encode (or transcoding) take with gonuts?

 

[NightStorm]

Typically around 4 hours, and I'm usually using other processes while it works.

 

[Mindflux]

Typically around 4 hours, and I'm usually using other processes while it works.

beh! see that sort of time to encode a movie just baffles me. it's twice as long (or more) than most films.

 

[NightStorm]

beh! see that sort of time to encode a movie just baffles me. it's twice as long (or more) than most films.

I think its certainly justifiable as you are taking a high bitrate, high resolution H264 high profile video stream and re-encoding it to match the lower specifications (i.e. main profile) of the AppleTV. It isn't a simple transcoding process.

 

[peeaanuut]

I was able to get a 720p ripped movie with 5.1 audio. I know I need to down convert the audio but VH was giving me an error message about not being able to convert to audio portion of the mkv file. Anyone have any clue about that?

 

[billabong]

AppleTV setting

Go Nuts

H.264

2-pass

 

[.mark.]

thanks for all your advice guys. I'm getting an error tho! The error reads

"An error prevented <fileName.mkv>'s conversion from starting. See below for the explanation: Resampling with input channels greater than 2 unsupported.Abort at ffmpeg.c:1574"

Anyone know a work around?! I'm sure there must be!

 

[Rob1980]

thanks for all your advice guys. I'm getting an error tho! The error reads

"An error prevented <fileName.mkv>'s conversion from starting. See below for the explanation: Resampling with input channels greater than 2 unsupported.Abort at ffmpeg.c:1574"

Anyone know a work around?! I'm sure there must be!

Have you tried changing the settings and force quicktime settings

 

[SingBlueSilver]

i seem to be having the same problem...i did the 2 pass and the force quicktime and it didn't work

 

[fkntotalkaos]

i seem to be having the same problem...i did the 2 pass and the force quicktime and it didn't work

Quote same problem here

 

[bball]

I also get this problem

 

[bball]

Anyone have a solution?

 

[ntrigue]

Please be aware that the file size must be less than 4GB to play nice with AppleTV.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

Why is mine taking 17+ hours to transcode?

PMG5 Dual 1.8.

 

[finglonger]

thanks for all your advice guys. I'm getting an error tho! The error reads

"An error prevented <fileName.mkv>'s conversion from starting. See below for the explanation: Resampling with input channels greater than 2 unsupported.Abort at ffmpeg.c:1574"

Anyone know a work around?! I'm sure there must be!

I had a similar problem converting an MKV file with a 5.1 multi-channel soundtrack into something more useful, and by largely trial and error I've FINALLY found a fix. It uses Ffmpegx, so download that and the codecs first before you try this. It might also help if you download Perian for Quicktime. And if I don't mention it, LEAVE THE SETTINGS ALONE!

Anyway, in Ffmpegx: under VIDEO select XVid [.AVI] (mencoder) and set bitrate to 5500 and framerate to unspecified (you may need to mess around with this, but unspecified keeps it as is in the original). in AUDIO, leave EVERYTHING as is. In FILTERS, tick deinterlace, denoise, dering and deblock. In OPTIONS, tick High quality, Two pass and Trellis, and change from fast bilinear to bilinear. Then encode.

This should hopefully give you an AVI file with identical quality visuals and a stereo soundtrack that will play nice in pretty much anything - even Quicktime. if you need to, you can then re-convert this using VisualHub or similar.

Hope this helps!

 

[.mark.]

I had a similar problem converting an MKV file with a 5.1 multi-channel soundtrack into something more useful, and by largely trial and error I've FINALLY found a fix. It uses Ffmpegx, so download that and the codecs first before you try this. It might also help if you download Perian for Quicktime. And if I don't mention it, LEAVE THE SETTINGS ALONE!

Anyway, in Ffmpegx: under VIDEO select XVid [.AVI] (mencoder) and set bitrate to 5500 and framerate to unspecified (you may need to mess around with this, but unspecified keeps it as is in the original). in AUDIO, leave EVERYTHING as is. In FILTERS, tick deinterlace, denoise, dering and deblock. In OPTIONS, tick High quality, Two pass and Trellis, and change from fast bilinear to bilinear. Then encode.

This should hopefully give you an AVI file with identical quality visuals and a stereo soundtrack that will play nice in pretty much anything - even Quicktime. if you need to, you can then re-convert this using VisualHub or similar.

Hope this helps!

cheers buddy - will give this a try later when i've got some time

 

[stomer]

I was able to get a 720p ripped movie with 5.1 audio. I know I need to down convert the audio but VH was giving me an error message about not being able to convert to audio portion of the mkv file. Anyone have any clue about that?

Just leave it. Don't resample it. To do this, open VisualHub, click Advanced, and in the field 'Extra FFMpeg flags:', enter '-acodec copy'.
This tells VisualHub to skip re-encoding the audio, and instead just perform a 'passthrough'.

Also, apropos quality settings. I don't think that there's much point in re-encoding video at a higher bitrate than the original, so I wonder if 'Go Nuts' is mostly wasting disk space. If your re-encode's file size is larger than the original, then you're probably wasting disk space.
I tend to have the H.264 box ticked, Optimize for: AppleTV and Quality set to High. I find that this gives me quality that is indistinguishable from the original and doesn't waste too much disk space either. Failing that, I'll find the bitrate of the original file (CMD+4) and set that bitrate in the 'Advanced...' tab.

 

[Stomps]

Just leave it. Don't resample it. To do this, open VisualHub, click Advanced, and in the field 'Extra FFMpeg flags:', enter '-acodec copy'.
This tells VisualHub to skip re-encoding the audio, and instead just perform a 'passthrough'.

Also, apropos quality settings. I don't think that there's much point in re-encoding video at a higher bitrate than the original, so I wonder if 'Go Nuts' is mostly wasting disk space. If your re-encode's file size is larger than the original, then you're probably wasting disk space.
I tend to have the H.264 box ticked, Optimize for: AppleTV and Quality set to High. I find that this gives me quality that is indistinguishable from the original and doesn't waste too much disk space either. Failing that, I'll find the bitrate of the original file (CMD+4) and set that bitrate in the 'Advanced...' tab.

I have found another, yet still painful solution.

First in VisualHub, passthrough the audio as stated above, re-encoding the video. For example iTunes, optimized for All, Go Nuts with H.264 box checked.

Then with the finished file, open in Quicktime and passthrough the video, re-encoding the audio from 5.1 to stereo. For example Export to MPEG-4, options: File format - mp4, Video Format - passthrough. Audio - AAC-LC.

This is ripping my .mkv 5.1 files to stereo .mp4.

2-step process but doesn't really require any more time as the audio and video are done separately instead of together.

I have found this file compatible with my ATV, iPhone and with my Xbox 360 over Connect360. Maybe overkill but compatible is compatible.

 

[SpaceJello]

Then with the finished file, open in Quicktime and passthrough the video, re-encoding the audio from 5.1 to stereo. For example Export to MPEG-4, options: File format - mp4, Video Format - passthrough. Audio - AAC-LC.

This is ripping my .mkv 5.1 files to stereo .mp4.

Is there a workaround to keep the 5.1 within the mp4 along with stereo but have the file be compatible for Apple TV, iphone etc?

Or can that only happen with m4v?

 

[Nimiety]

With 2.3, this could be a very helpful thread, particularly if the last poster's question gets answered...

 

[dynaflash]

At least as of 2.2 the atv will only recognize the ac3 trac if it is named .m4v (and for that matter chapters).

 

[spacepower7]

First

There's two basic routes to go:

1- Just put it in Visualhub (or HandBrake SnapShot 0.9.3?) and use AppleTV preset. Convert for several hours, and be done with it. Personally, in Visualhub I would use AppleTV with setting of high, go nuts will increase file sized with little noticeable effect.

2- Become obsessive compulsive and start learning alot more about the process and details of the various video formats. Wikipedia, Handbrake forum and wiki, etc (read Dynaflash's video posts bc he is one of the developers of Handbrake)

Step 1: Install MediaInfo Mac (free) to learn more about the video you want to convert. It COULD be possible that the actually video and audio streams in your MKV files are actually AppleTV compatible. Which means learning more about the different formats/streams. Sometimes you don't have to convert (streams) but change containers (MKV,MP4,M4V,AVI) This is called remuxing, where you can extract the audio and video out of the MKV container and then recombine them back into a MP4 container. This may only take 1-10 minutes depending on the length(time) of the video.

If you read this far......

1- You're bored, confused and could care less about video formats, then go route 1 and be done with it and don't waste your time, you will still have good results. Run your conversions overnight or when your not using your Mac.

2- If this stuff is interesting to you, Read, Read, Read, and experiment.

 

[brobins]

There's two basic routes to go:

1- Just put it in Visualhub (or HandBrake SnapShot 0.9.3?) and use AppleTV preset. Convert for several hours, and be done with it. Personally, in Visualhub I would use AppleTV with setting of high, go nuts will increase file sized with little noticeable effect.

2- Become obsessive compulsive and start learning alot more about the process and details of the various video formats. Wikipedia, Handbrake forum and wiki, etc (read Dynaflash's video posts bc he is one of the developers of Handbrake)

Step 1: Install MediaInfo Mac (free) to learn more about the video you want to convert. It COULD be possible that the actually video and audio streams in your MKV files are actually AppleTV compatible. Which means learning more about the different formats/streams. Sometimes you don't have to convert (streams) but change containers (MKV,MP4,M4V,AVI) This is called remuxing, where you can extract the audio and video out of the MKV container and then recombine them back into a MP4 container. This may only take 1-10 minutes depending on the length(time) of the video.

If you read this far......

1- You're bored, confused and could care less about video formats, then go route 1 and be done with it and don't waste your time, you will still have good results. Run your conversions overnight or when your not using your Mac.

2- If this stuff is interesting to you, Read, Read, Read, and experiment.

Great advice!

What is the best method of remuxing a mkv into a m4v on OS X?

Many Thanks,