Nondestructively move h.264 from MKV to m4a (mp4) while compressing Audio?

[pwes]

I determined my family would be well off with MKV for the near future, so ripped most DVD's to MKV, keeping the mostly present AC3 track. Next thing my wife bought an iPad and now I'm thinking about the possibility of avoiding encoding/reencoding these many movies.

As mp4 can contain h.264, I was thinking if there was a Mac tool to move/mux the video nondestructively, while compressing the AC3?

Or am I better off just starting over in Handbrake with the lot?

[transporterfan]

Don't use Mac but this looks about the best (it's free, but has a nag screen apparently):

https://www.videohelp.com/tools/MoKgVm2DVD

Specifically the tool, http://www.emmgunn.com/mp4tools/mp4toolshome.html

[jagabo]

MKV2MP4 does exactly what you want but it's only available for Windows.

[yoda313]

I can't offer advice on mac programs because I'm windows not mac.

However your savings will not be very much unless you remux (edit - sorry I obviously mean reencode)to aac at a low bitrate. That will degrade the audio and you still won't have substantial savings in space.

Ac3 is already pretty efficient and compact.

Plus you should be able to play the remuxed video and audio in a mp4 file on the ipad. At least for the last several years ac3 was added to the mp4 specs. I can do ac3 in mp4 on my xbox 360 and android tablet.

---------------------------------

Also have you considered streaming to your ipad? I'm assuming you want to compress to save space on your ipads internal memory. If you are going to be doing wifi streaming at home why not stream from your computer?

I would look into apple versions of streaming apps like tversity and ps3mediaserver. I don't know what those are but they must exist. I'm sure you could do something with itunes but only if you remux to mp4 or m4a/m4v.

Good luck.

[zizou-de]

Just use "remux" ... it´s a free mac tool from a german student. The video part will be preserved (no transcoding). Selecting mp4 as container and changing audio to acc makes your movies fully compatible to apple devices. Even batch processing is implemented.

http://www.nef.wh.uni-dortmund.de/~mt/remux/

[Baldrick]

avidemux might also work. If you find a working mac osx version. The latest avidemux 64bits build works on my macbook, https://www.videohelp.com/download/avidemux_2.6.4_64bits_ml.dmg

Under video choose copy, under audio choose your audio codec. Choose mp4 as container. Save.

[rumplestiltskin]

MP4Tools works perfectly for me. However, understand that the specifics of the H264 codec used may or may not be compatible with whatever your target device may be. (This applies no matter which app you use.)

[jagabo]

However, understand that the specifics of the H264 codec used may or may not be compatible with whatever your target device may be. (This applies no matter which app you use.)

Yes. Most devices only support a subset of h.264 features.

[peckinpah]

I have been dealing with this issue for a couple of years. I have finally stopped searching and use iFlicks exclusively. Not only does it NAIL every conversion I throw at it, but it also grabs metadata for movies and shows and can (optionally) add to iTunes. I wasn't thrilled about paying the $19.99, but there is a free trial which is fully functional. Other software that has worked most of the time for me is the earlier release of MKVTools (emmgun.com) and sometimes the newer MP4Tools (same source). Subler in theory should be great, but I found it to make a lot of bad files. MKV4Xbox is actually another that I used a lot, though it is mostly geared around making your H264s work on an XBox (though those will also work in iTunes and AppleTV, so it's worth checking). So those are the free/share options, but if you're willing to spend a few bucks, you can stop worrying and learn to love your movies again with iFlicks.

[pwes]

Guess the issue with MKV applies to streaming as well? Or maybe not? - haven't time to read the thread in technical detail yet. Will do soon - and thanks for all the advice! Most of the files were meant to be on another machine, while some would be wanted on the iPad.