MKV Container Removal

[dellsam34]

I have few MKV files ripped from Blu-Ray using MakeMKV, I'm trying to strip them from the MKV container to basic h.264, I'm trying to work on them in a program that doesn't take MKV files. What's the easiest script in ffmpeg that can do it without altering the file integrity?

Here is the Mediainfo:

General
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 2
File size                                : 1.68 GiB
Duration                                 : 6 min 58 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 34.4 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 23.976 FPS
Writing application                      : MakeMKV 1.18.2 win(x64-release)
Writing library                          : libmakemkv 1.18.2 (1.3.10/1.5.2) win(x64-release)

Video
ID                                       : 1
ID in the original source medium         : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 4 frames
Format settings, Slice count             : 4 slices per frame
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 6 min 58 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 30.9 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 39.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.621
Time code of first frame                 : 00:59:59:00
Stream size                              : 1.50 GiB (90%)
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : DTS XLL
Format/Info                              : Digital Theater Systems
Commercial name                          : DTS-HD Master Audio
Codec ID                                 : A_DTS
Duration                                 : 6 min 58 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 1 989 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Stream size                              : 99.2 MiB (6%)
Title                                    : Stereo
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : DTS
Format/Info                              : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID                                 : A_DTS
Duration                                 : 6 min 58 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 509 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 75.3 MiB (4%)
Title                                    : Stereo
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Text
ID                                       : 4
ID in the original source medium         : 4608 (0x1200)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 6 min 48 s
Bit rate                                 : 15.5 kb/s
Frame rate                               : 0.269 FPS
Count of elements                        : 110
Stream size                              : 771 KiB (0%)
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

[videoAI]

Try :
clever-FFmpeg-GUI [Extract streams -> Raw Stream]

or .. for many files .. a PowerShell/FFmpeg script that will extract the h.264 video streams from files:

Get-ChildItem *.mkv | ForEach-Object {
ffmpeg -i "$($_.FullName)" -c:v copy -an "$($_.BaseName)_converted.mp4"
}

- Script will process all MKV files in the current directory
- Each file gets a `_converted` suffix to avoid overwriting originals
- The conversion is essentially a container change [not a re-encode]. The output is an `.mp4` container.
- Make sure FFmpeg.exe is in your system path

[davexnet]

This program can extract elementary streams
https://www.videohelp.com/software/MKVcleaver

[dellsam34]

I would prefer a script, But I will give those a try, if encoding less than or equal to real time that means it's doing something wrong.

[dellsam34]

MKVcleaver is reporting this message: Mkvextrac.ex and/or Mkvmerge.exe was not found.

[davexnet]

You have to point the program to your mkvtoolnix location

[dellsam34]

Clever-ffmpeg is no no for me, it either extracts the streams individually or encode as a whole package which is not lossless and takes time.

[dellsam34]

You have to point the program to your mkvtoolnix location

I see, I have to download this toolkit then.

[dellsam34]

Getting error while trying to install mkvtoolnix.

Edit: Run as admin I was able to install it.

[davexnet]

Getting error while trying to install mkvtoolnix.

Edit: Run as admin I was able to install it.

That's good but it shouldn't be necessary, however, I used the portable version (as you can probably tell from my path name)

[dellsam34]

MKVCleaver is no no too, It just extracts all streams to separate files, that's not what I want. I want a single file like the original m2ts on the disc.

[Sharc]

Something like this?

ffmpeg.exe -i "your_.mkv" -map 0 -c copy -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb -f out.ts "new_.ts"

[davexnet]

You said at the top post
"I'm trying to strip them from the MKV container to basic h.264"

that's what this program does. It gives you the elementary stream, *.h264

MKV is used because if accepts almost all variations of audio and video formats/codecs.

You could try remuxing to mp4 in Avidemux, but I'm not sure whether the DTS audio is supported.
Open the source in Avidemux, leave audio and video set to "copy" on the left, and set the output format
(lower left) to mp4 muxer

Or for remuxing to a *.ts or *.m2ts, you can try TSMuxer GUI

[dellsam34]

Something wrong with that script.

[dellsam34]

You said at the top post
"I'm trying to strip them from the MKV container to basic h.264"

Yes but I want one file with audio, not muted video and a separate audio file.

[dellsam34]

When I try to open the file in TSmuxeR GUI it says TSmuxeR not found, The same error when I drag and drop the file into the program input field.

[Sharc]

Something wrong with that script.

Sorry, try

ffmpeg -i "your.mkv" -map 0 -c copy "out.ts"

[dellsam34]

I think I may have tried that already and it didn't work, found in a google search, let me double check.

Edit:
It looks like it worked with a yellow message, But all the streams are there in one file:

[mpegts @ 000001c1b1e44b40] Stream 3, codec hdmv_pgs_subtitle, is muxed as a private data stream and may not be recognized upon reading.

Thank you.

[Sharc]

I think I may have tried that already and it didn't work, found in a google search, let me double check.

Edit:
It looks like it worked with a yellow message, But all the streams are there in one file:

[mpegts @ 000001c1b1e44b40] Stream 3, codec hdmv_pgs_subtitle, is muxed as a private data stream and may not be recognized upon reading.

Thank you.

Good. For more details see here:
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Map

[davexnet]

When I try to open the file in TSmuxeR GUI it says TSmuxeR not found, The same error when I drag and drop the file into the program input field.

Download the the missing exe from here:
https://github.com/justdan96/tsMuxer/releases/download/2.7.0/tsMuxer-2.7.0-win64.zip

extract the file and put it in the same folder as the GUI component

[cholla]

First I suggest you strip out you subtitles from your.mkv.
They are not going to work anyway because ffmpeg can not convert hdmv_pgs_subtitles.
At least not to a output.ts file.

ffmpeg -i "input.mkv" -c:v copy -c:a copy -sn -avoid_negative_ts make_zero "out.mkv"

Then the new "out.mkv" without subtitles will be the "input.mkv" in the code below.

ffmpeg -i "input.mkv" -c:v copy -c:a copy "out.ts"