MP4s produced by Nero Recode 4 -- Toxic to FFMPEG?

[GrayStrickland]

I have a number of MP4s produced by Nero Recode 4 (part of the Nero 9 suite). They play fine on my pc and Popcorn Hour media streamer. The problem is that I've tried a number of tools to convert these MP4s produced by Nero into MP4s or MPVs that will play on an iPod. Handbrake 0.9.3 will convert them, but the files won't play. IpodME 2.2 simply crashes when trying to convert one. I'm pretty sure that both use the ffmpeg toolset to do their work, and that prompts these questions:

Are the mp4s produced by Nero Recode toxic to ffmpeg?

What tool(s) will reliably convert an MP4 made by Nero Recode to an iPod-friendly mp4/mpv?

[Baldrick]

Try also avidemux and xvid4psp. Or maybe you can try remux to a new mp4 using mp4box / yamb.

[GrayStrickland]

sigh... I'm an idiot

The solution is just to use Nero Recode to transcode from a Nero-produced MP4 (native dvd res for tv with multiple audio tracks and subtitles) to an iPod-friendly MP4. For some reason, I'd always misunderstood that Nero Recode couldn't use an MP4 as a source; only DVD VOBs. Recode (at least ver. 4) can use MP4 files as source material. The weird thing is that even on a new quad-core pc, when you try to select an MP4 as source, the program acts unresponsive for a long time. It seems like nothing is happening, hence my erroneous assumption that it wouldn't read from a MP4.

sigh... all the time I wasted trying Handbrake, AVIdemux, Xvid4PSP, Ripbot and other tools. I still don't know why no other tool (seemingly) can use a Nero-produced MP4 as a source to make an iPod playable file, but now I don't really care. I'll continue to use AnyDVD and Nero Recode to make full-res files for my TV+Popcorn Hour and Nero Recode to make iPod friendly files for the kids' ipods.