.TS to MKV - What makes this conversion so difficult?

Tiernan · Member Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Location: United States

I have a small test file (captured from UHD and a Moto 6412) resulting in a 50MB .TS file. VideoRedo reports:

File Size: 59176196 ( 0.06 GB )
Program Duration: 00:01:44.14
File Type: TS Stream
Encoding: MPEG 2
Video stream Id: 1984 (x7C0)
Encoding Dimensions: 1920 x 1080
Display Size: 1920 x 1080
Aspect Ratio: 16/9
Frame Rate: 29.97 FPS
Bit Rate: 80.000 Mbps
VBV_Buffer: 1194 KB
Profile: Main/High
Progressive: Prog or Int
Chroma: 4:2:0
Audio Format: 5.1
Audio Stream Id: AC3: 1985 (x7c1)
Audio Bit Rate: 384 Kbps
Audio Sampling Rate: 48000 Hz

and I've been trying to find a simple process to convert this to a working MKV file (1080 or 720 would be fine) for archiving purposes, but have had nearly no luck with that process (having used FFMpeg to downconvert to 720 X 480 for some time, I'm finally in a position to be able to play these captures back in HD and would like to maintain that quality). I've tried both SUPER and AutoMKV, attempting to keep the original audio stream (just a basic ac3 format, afterall) and convert the video to MKV/MP4 and mux appropriately. SUPER (v2008.build.25) would either generate an error, indicating some problem with the audio, or nothing. AutoMKV creates a lot of batch files, AVI Synth files, but no actual usable result (also indicating that it can't conver the audio)

Is there some aspect of this conversion that I'm missing - some complication in going from what should be basically a standard MPEG2 stream to MKV? Suggestions or direction would be much appreciated. Thanks for your help.

Baldrick · Administrator Joined: 09 Aug 2000 Location: Sweden

Tried Staxrip? Or megui, but it's probably not the simpliest process...

.

edit: Use this if you want to shrink and convert to h264. If you don't want to shrink the file it's no point to make a mkv...

Midzuki · RETIRED Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Location: Outside of VH.com

First demux the TS file, then use MKVmergeGUI
(from MKVtoolnix) or AVI-mux GUI. No need for
converting the MPEG-2 video into H264 if you
really want to maintain the original Hi-Def quality.

Tiernan · Member Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Location: United States

Thanks for the replies, guys. While I do want to maintain as much of the original HD quality as possible, space concerns dictate that, for now at least, if I can maintain MOST of the same quality, and use less space, that I'll need to go that route.

Truthfully, given how ubiquitous the mpeg4-based format is becoming (and the quality that can be maintained while getting amazing bitrates, filesizes and picture quality), nevermind the fact that this appears to be THE HD standard (whether it be via Blue-ray or non-media based delivery), it's just something that I've decided I need to learn more about and get comfortable with (just like VCDs/MPEG1, and MPEG2/DVD before it).

For the moment, HD delivery (at least on Comcast boxes) is going to be via .TS streams, so it'll be helpfull (nay important) to be able to deal with both formats easily. So, it's a shame that there arent more tools out there (so far) to make this easier.

So, to summarize, I do want to maintain as much of the quality as possible, but MP4 appears to be the way to go, storage-wise. I guess I need to try STAXRIP or MEGUI (the only other 2 that seem to do this kind of conversion that I've not tried yet)

poisondeathray · Member Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Location: Canada

Choose what bitrate/filesize you want. Your original is 80Mbps or 80,000kbps (huge).

The easy way would be to use ripbot264, but the max bitrate is about 8000kbps for video. You can keep 6-channel audio. I bet this is sufficent quality, try it out. You can use mp4 or mkv containers

If you want customized options, use avisynth scripts with MeGUI => this approach may be daunting for beginners

Good Luck

Tiernan · Member Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Location: United States

Thanks for the specifics poisondeathray. Although VideoRedo is reporting 80Mbps, I think actual is more like 12-15 to a max of 25 (typical for UHD), so I guess that does beg the question as to what is an appropriate bitrate for an averge x264/MKV HD file (1080 or 720p). I've tried to play back another MKV I have which might be typical for a 720p, and it seems to run from 2500 to 6500, so I'm guessing that a 1080 would need to be a bit higher (though with VBR, it might be hard to tell)

Is there a good program out there to indicate/report actual bitrate on a x264/MPG4/MKV files?

Trying out the suggested programs now...

poisondeathray · Member Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Location: Canada

Try mediainfo to parse for better information

There is no "appropriate bitrate." What looks good to me might not look good for you and vice versa. Just encode a few small sample clips at different bitrates and select one that is suitable for your tastes, or compact enough for your requirements

Tiernan · Member Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Location: United States

Thanks again for suggestions. I installed STAXRIP (in addition to the billion add-ons that it required) and... 3+ hours later, an almost, but not totally useless 1GB MKV file from a 2.36GB .TS 22min TS test file. Quality was at 51%, video bitrate at 7025, and indicating a Compressibility of .23. (the original audio was just carried over "add existing audio". So, it appears that this process needs more work.

I've done some research in the mean time, and it appears that FFMPEG itself should be able to handle converting to MKV/MP4. Now I just need to find a good batch file to steamline the process...

krenoja · Member Joined: 30 Nov 2007 Location: United States

I have used Mediacoder for transcoding mpeg2 files to H264 and it works great for me.

Soopafresh · Dismember Joined: 01 Jan 2004 Location: United States

Try the AutoMKV utility as well. It was designed to create h264 MKV files at very high quality. You can also batch queue the jobs.

If all you want to do is put the TS file into a MKV container, then try the GDSmux utility which is found in the Haali Media Splitter folder. Works without re-encoding.

Tiernan · Member Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Location: United States

Thanks for the further suggestions. I was able to do an additional encode using FFMPEG, but it appears that bringing the audio over is another challenge (VLC would not play back with audio)

I'll give Mediacoder a try (it's FFMPEG-based, right?), as I do want to recode while maintaining as much of the original quality as possible (I'm looking for approx. 1GB files/~45 min. TV shows)

I'd tried AutoMKV before, and the initial results at that time were empty - couldn't get it to convert at all. I'll have another look at it.

The question that really needs to be asked is - since this is all going to one MP4 some form or another, how do you decide what codec to use (assuming that it's probably going in a ".MKV" container) - AVC, VC-1, H264, MP4...?

poisondeathray · Member Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Location: Canada