Questions about MP4 Xbox360 conversion

[trooper11]

Im trying to convert a bunch of mkv files to the proper mp4 format so that they will playback on my 360. So far, all the mkvs I have contain h.264/AVC video and ac3 audio. Now Ive been using MeGUI for some of my mkvs with great success, but most of mine contain subtitle files that I need to be hard coded into the video.

This is where Im stuck, Im trying to find out if there is a method of doing the entire conversion (perhaps using MeGUI or a combination of other apps) that also hard codes the subs correctly to the video in a batch mode. I have alot of these files, so it would be nice to be able to set it all up and just let it run without having to take extra steps like extracting the subs from each mkv seperately. Is there a good method for that or will I need to use a few programs to accomplish the task?

And regarding the subs, some of them consist of the sub file (mostly .ass) and then font files. How do I tie these fonts to the sub file when hard coding them to the video in order for it to stay true to the original? Thanks for the help.

[poisondeathray]

Since you're already familiar with MeGUI and avisynth scripts, all you need to do is add vsfilter

http://avisynth.org.ru/docs/english/externalfilters/vsfilter.htm

If they are v4 .ssa and .ass subs, formatting should be the same

As you probably already know, Xbox compatibility is limited to 2channel AAC (so you have to downsample your AC3), If you've downloaded Sharktooth's profiles, he has an Xbox profile for the video portion

Another option is ripbot264, which would be easier to use without scripts. It automates everything, and comes with VSFilter, and a AVC Level 4.1 Profile for consoles. Both have batch modes, and you shouldn't need any other applications.

Good luck

[trooper11]

Thanks for the help.

Regarding the option to use vsfilter in the script, I havent done that before, what do I need to add to the script for the subs to be incorperated?

Also, using the Megui method I still have to do the sub file extraction manually for each video. Thats not a big deal, but it would be nice if there was some built in functionality that would extract the sub file as well. Is there such a thing in combination with MeGui or Ripbot?

[poisondeathray]

That link gives you all the directions you need to use the script:

http://avisynth.org.ru/docs/english/externalfilters/vsfilter.htm

Yes unfortunately you still have to manually extract, and indicate the specific subtitle that you want. Some have 12 languages, you have to pick the right one :0. I don't know of any other application that can correctly parse and select the correct subtitle within a .mkv to use as a hardcoded sub. Maybe someone here will be kind enough here to write you a batch script macro?

[trooper11]

No problem, like I said, its not a huge deal, but yeah it would be a nice feature for someone to add to an application like this.

[trooper11]

not sure if anyone can help with this, but Im having an issue with my encoding using MeGui with the additional script line for applying the subs.

The issues doesnt seem related to that, but the process keeps failing at the muxing step and the error in the log is this:

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

Starting job job4 at 3:54:25 PM

Starting preprocessing of job...

Preprocessing finished!

Job not started. Reason: starting encoder failed with error 'The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail'

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

[poisondeathray]

Has the video and audio encode worked properly, and the only issue is muxing into a .mp4 container? Check the intermediate files before muxing, the .264 video stream and whatever audio to make sure they are ok.

What happens if you manually mux the audio & video using the .mp4 muxer? What happens if you use another program like YAMB?

What version of MeGUI? (0.3.0.1004) Have you set updates to use the "development" server? (options, settings, extra config tab, configure servers, development instead of "stable")

Did you queue using "autoencode"? or manually set the queue?