Having trouble with converting mkv to mp4 in 1080p

[NoobyDoo]

Hello, noob here. I've been converting h264 mkv rips in 720p into hd mp4s by using gotsent or xeneon mkv, so that i can play them on my 360. Lately, i've been finding some rips that i like that are only availalbe in 1080p.

Unfortunately when i try to convert these 1080p movies into mp4 my programs give me an error like this"This avc files is not playable on ps3 or 360. "Setting mpeg2 output to playable format." Which i guess means it uses a different container or something to make it into something the 360 can process. Unfortunately, this mp4 ends up looking very "blocky" and not even watchable when played on the 360. Now, it looks fine when i play it on PC so i know the problem is more of a codec problem then the video being bad problem.

What i need to know is, what program(S) should i use that can convert these 1080p rips easily like i do with 720p rips, or what programs should I use to downgrade the 1080p rip to a 720p rip?

EDIT: If there is a faster solution to convert mkv to wmv, i'm cool with that too. I've been using super but it's way too slow.

PS: Yes, i checked the stickies and used search

[Baldrick]

Use xvid4psp and reconvert to 720p h264.

[t0nee1]

Or with MeGui
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=135795

[FulciLives]

Why are you re-encoding the video?

If these are MKV files with H.264 video then chances are you need only re-encode the audio to AAC then mux into a MP4 file without the need to do any actual video encoding.

XviD4PSP is a godsend. I love that program since i discovered it.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[NoobyDoo]

Thanks for the help so far guys. I DL Xvid4PSP selected the MP4 360 option and click encoded. For whatever reason it is VERY slow. In fact i think it's too slow since gotsent and xeneon mkv convert my 720p mkv's and the 1080p mkv's (even though they come out messed up when played on the 360) easily within the hour. It took xvid4PSP 3 hours for less than 5 percent completion.

1. What settings should I use on Xvid4PSP to speed things up?

2.Any thoughts as to why the 1080p movies converted with Xenon and Gotsent come out blocky on the 360?

[tsantsa]

Fulci, according to the doom9 link which t0nee provided, some 1080p mkv files have "4 frames per reference" which is unplayable on the ps3 and bluray players. so Noobydoo would more than likely have to reencode anyway right?

I have yet to try the doom9 links method for time and efficiency, but it looks promising.

If I can get that to work, I might forget about building an 'mkv player HTPC'!

[FulciLives]

Thanks for the help so far guys. I DL Xvid4PSP selected the MP4 360 option and click encoded. For whatever reason it is VERY slow. In fact i think it's too slow since gotsent and xeneon mkv convert my 720p mkv's and the 1080p mkv's (even though they come out messed up when played on the 360) easily within the hour. It took xvid4PSP 3 hours for less than 5 percent completion.

1. What settings should I use on Xvid4PSP to speed things up?

2.Any thoughts as to why the 1080p movies converted with Xenon and Gotsent come out blocky on the 360?

Blocky? I'll tell you why ... no way you can re-encode within the hour and be doing it well. No way in hell. At least not with your specs.

As for speed? Well you might want to try MeGui instead of XviD4PSP and compare the speed. I have no idea if it is faster but MeGui does have a single profile that says PS3/XBOX 360 compatible. So it's worth a try I suppose.

You seriously need a faster processor though.

I've saved up some money and plan on the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 as the minimum CPU to buy these days for "excessive" video encoding like 720p and 1080p H.264 or VC-1 etc.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

Fulci, according to the doom9 link which t0nee provided, some 1080p mkv files have "4 frames per reference" which is unplayable on the ps3 and bluray players. so Noobydoo would more than likely have to reencode anyway right?

I have yet to try the doom9 links method for time and efficiency, but it looks promising.

If I can get that to work, I might forget about building an 'mkv player HTPC'!

I didn't actually look at that link until just now.

Sucks having to re-encode the video.

As a test ... about a week or so ago ... I ripped a standard NTSC DVD Video and used MeGui to convert to H.264 with AAC audio and muxed into a MP4 container. The video was 720x480 16x9 WS and I left it that way with no cropping (the image filled the entire frame). The resulting file played great on the PS3 using the PS3/XBOX 360 profile. I think that profile is safe even if using 720p or 1080p resolutions.

I plan on doing a similar test with XviD4PSP soon but so far that program has proved indispensable for other uses even though I've yet to use it to encode video it works great for re-encoding audio and demuxing and creating an AviSynth script etc.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[NoobyDoo]

Quick question, as my tv is only 720p anyways, I really don't need for the video to be 1080p. What would I use to convert the mkv to a mkv with 720p. Maybe after I do this I use gotsent to convert it into mp4?

[FulciLives]

My suggestion is to load the MKV into tsMuxeR and see what profile the video is using. If it is profile 4.1 (or a lower number) then you do NOT have to re-encode the video. If it is a higher profile number (like 5.1 for instance) then you will need to re-encode and if you are going to do that you can re-encode to the same 1080p resolution or you can use a 720p resolution if you want and if you will be re-encoding I can tell you that 1080p to 1080p will take longer than 1080p to 720p.

So how about checking out the video profile with tsMuxeR and letting us know what it says.

When you use tsMuxeR it should look something like this:



In fact the best thing that you can do in order to help us help you is to load the MKV into tsMuxeR and then take a screen shot of it and post it in this thread.

You might also want to load it into GSpot and do the same (post a screen shot of it).

Here is a simple guide on how to take a screen shot and then put it into a post: CLICK HERE

Don't worry ... we can figure out the "best" way to go here

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[t0nee1]

GSpot will not open/read any mkv so far for me..Use MediaInfo instead...

@ FulciLives, I used two methods on a flick yesterday..Method 1: using MkvExtract> tsMuxer for 5.1 to 4.1 profile>XviD4PSP for aac audio (works great btw), Yamb for mp4 creation...result: plays great on PC, but corrupt data on PS3,I'l have to go back and check all my steps...
Method two: Used MKV2VOB and it worked great , go figure!..
I've had pretty good results with MKV2VOB and sometimes with TSmuxer to create Bluray disc on standard SL disc , and also to ceate an m2ts file ,which sometimes works, but mainly I'm streaming results with TVersity.....
But I'm gonna try some other samples with Megui and post back, wish me luck hi-def demons.....

T.

[FulciLives]

@ FulciLives, I used two methods on a flick yesterday..Method 1: using MkvExtract> tsMuxer for 5.1 to 4.1 profile>XviD4PSP for aac audio (works great btw), Yamb for mp4 creation...result: plays great on PC, but corrupt data on PS3,I'l have to go back and check all my steps...

I tried the same method with a file that I had and the exact same thing happened with me and yes my video was H.264 Profile 5.1 so my guess is that the 5.1 ---> 4.1 trick doesn't always work. At least I am thinking that that is the culprit.

Method two: Used MKV2VOB and it worked great , go figure!..
I've had pretty good results with MKV2VOB and sometimes with TSmuxer to create Bluray disc on standard SL disc , and also to ceate an m2ts file ,which sometimes works, but mainly I'm streaming results with TVersity.....
But I'm gonna try some other samples with Megui and post back, wish me luck hi-def demons.....

I downloaded the first two episodes of a TV show that was in an HD resolution (I think 720p) and had used the MKV2VOB method and it worked. I'm pretty sure the H.264 video was Profile 4.1 though.

Without actually re-encoding the video it does seem a crap shoot unless the person that did the encoding did it properly (i.e., Profile 4.1 and the "correct" amount of B frame references etc.)

I wish you luck !!!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[t0nee1]

Thanks FulciLives , I have to tell you though the last flick that worked with MKV2VOB was in fact a Profile 5.1 level ...Seems it's doing a pretty good job at utilizing tsmuxer to change it, cuz the PS3 is playing it.... That's actually been the best working method thus far (knock on wood)...... I much rather create a Bluray structured disc and and use the controller for FF,RW,seek etc.....

I'm running same flick with Megui, but it's so slooooooow..... think I'm gonna be building a new machine soon....will keep you posted...

T.

[tsantsa]

GSpot will not open/read any mkv so far for me..Use MediaInfo instead...

@ FulciLives, I used two methods on a flick yesterday..Method 1: using MkvExtract> tsMuxer for 5.1 to 4.1 profile>XviD4PSP for aac audio (works great btw), Yamb for mp4 creation...result: plays great on PC, but corrupt data on PS3,I'l have to go back and check all my steps...
Method two: Used MKV2VOB and it worked great , go figure!..
I've had pretty good results with MKV2VOB and sometimes with TSmuxer to create Bluray disc on standard SL disc , and also to ceate an m2ts file ,which sometimes works, but mainly I'm streaming results with TVersity.....
But I'm gonna try some other samples with Megui and post back, wish me luck hi-def demons.....

T.

Same thing happens with me...I think the key is in how many frames per reference. I think I read that 4 is the number that ps3 will play. Most of what I find is 8...

[NoobyDoo]

Here my SS of the videos details:

For those of you that want to play 720p on your PS3 just use gotsent. It can convert a 42 minute tv show into mp4 in about 20 minutes while maintaining top notch quality.

[FulciLives]

Here my SS of the videos details:

For those of you that want to play 720p on your PS3 just use gotsent. It can convert a 42 minute tv show into mp4 in about 20 minutes while maintaining top notch quality.

Big problem. The video is Profile 5.1 with 8 Ref. Frames.

My understanding is to be compatible with the PS3 (believe this also applies to the XboX 360) you need Profile 4.1 (or lower) and a MAX of 4 Ref. Frames and 3 B-Frames.

Most likely will need to re-encode the video.

- John "FulciLivess" Coleman

[t0nee1]

Ok all here's the method I used with Megiu, keep in mind that original is 1280*532 Profile 5.1 level and 4 Ref frames,and when using MKV2VOB it worked flawlessly while streaming with TVersity....

1. MKVExtract > TSmuxer to create .m2ts file, changed to .mpg extension else MPC refused to open.....
2.Create simple .avs script ,
DirectShowSource("C:\sample.mpg")
addborders(0,94,0,94)

3. Import .avs script into Megui and used the SA-Bluray profile and RAWAVC format...Result new h.264 @4.1 level file
4. Convert original 1536kbps DTS audio to 640 kbps AC3 with EAC3toGui....
5. Open tsmuxer and import new h.264 and new audio>create new .m2ts, change extension to .mpg ,and the result worked great while streaming....
Now I know, I know lot's of steps,so as long as MKV2VOB works I'll stick to it,much quicker....but it does'nt always work as you all know .
I did mux an mp4 with Yamb ,using my new Megui h.264 and an m4a audio (created using XviD4PSP),but the result was same as before, works great on PC,and corrupted data on PS3....I'm thinking that the PS3 is having issues with mp4 files,even with the new update....
Hope this helps someone else...

T.

[NoobyDoo]

So what should i use to downgrade the 1080p mkv to a 720p mkv?

[t0nee1]

Did you read this guide?
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=135795

[FulciLives]

Ok all here's the method I used with Megiu, keep in mind that original is 1280*532 Profile 5.1 level and 4 Ref frames,and when using MKV2VOB it worked flawlessly while streaming with TVersity....

1. MKVExtract > TSmuxer to create .m2ts file, changed to .mpg extension else MPC refused to open.....
2.Create simple .avs script ,
DirectShowSource("C:\sample.mpg")
addborders(0,94,0,94)

3. Import .avs script into Megui and used the SA-Bluray profile and RAWAVC format...Result new h.264 @4.1 level file
4. Convert original 1536kbps DTS audio to 640 kbps AC3 with EAC3toGui....
5. Open tsmuxer and import new h.264 and new audio>create new .m2ts, change extension to .mpg ,and the result worked great while streaming....
Now I know, I know lot's of steps,so as long as MKV2VOB works I'll stick to it,much quicker....but it does'nt always work as you all know .
I did mux an mp4 with Yamb ,using my new Megui h.264 and an m4a audio (created using XviD4PSP),but the result was same as before, works great on PC,and corrupted data on PS3....I'm thinking that the PS3 is having issues with mp4 files,even with the new update....
Hope this helps someone else...

T.

In regards to the last part about the MP4 muxed file not working ... it will work as an MP4 but you have to use the PS3 profile that is present in MeGui. I did a standard NTSC DVD Video backup using MeGui and the PS3 profile which resulted in a MP4 (I converted the AC-3 to AAC) and it plays flawlessly on my PS3. Granted this is a 720x480 video but I think the key is that I used the PS3 profile.

You didn't use the PS3 profile which could be why the MP4 didn't work. Sure it worked in other ways but those were not MP4 files.

Personally I would have done the same thing you did ... re-encode the video ... but I would have used the PS3 profile and made a MP4 with AAC.

No need for that first mux with TSmuxeR.

In other words all you had to do was demux the MKV. Serve the H.264 video to DGAVCDec so that you could create an AviSynth script to then import it into MeGui directly. In fact you can serve the H.264 via DirectShowSource if you want. No reason to mux with TSmuxeR first.

Encode video in MeGui with PS3 profile ... do same with audio (using LC AAC) and mux into a MP4 file. Done.

I am not trying to put your process down ... just trying to help "streamline" it and therefore hopefully make it faster/easier/better.

I'm starting to see a pattern here.

If it is an MKV then check to see if it is Profile 4.1 or less. If so then TSmuxeR should work. If over Profile 4.1 then try MKV2VOB as it doesn't take long and may work. If it doesn't work then re-encode using a PS3 video profile with LC AAC audio and mux into a MP4 file.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[t0nee1]

Hey FulciLives, yeah that's where I messed up the mp4 conversion no doubt,I used the SA-Bluray as per the guide... I'll try the PS3 profile since I've also created an mp4 720x480 video from ntsc standard video...However having said that, I read somewhere that the PS3 was indeed having mp4 issues, I could be wrong,maybe it was the Xbox......I'll give it a shot once again...Cool.

T.

[t0nee1]

FWIW, I ran the same job using the much quicker GotSent, with same results, PC ok, PS3 no go with corrupted data...here's the mediaInfo SS...

[FulciLives]

Well I have never tried GotSent so I really don't want to comment as to what might have gone wrong.

Anyway you can post a small sample of your source? I know RAPIDSHARE.COM offers free file hosting (I use it myself for stuff like this) but it does limit the file size to 100MB or less but you can RAR into chunks of say 99MB and then post as many files as you want but please don't post a 5.20GB sample LOL

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[NoobyDoo]

Gotsent doesn't do any re-encoding, all it does is convert whatever into mp4. Thats why it's so fast I guess. Anyways here's the link to my sample file:

http://rapidshare.com/files/122073241/x264_bluray-sample.mkv.html

Currently, all i'd like to do is:

1. Alter the 1080p video in a way that it conforms Xbox360 h264 standards

2. Or how to convert 1080p down to 720p

At this point once I get the mkv to conform to the 360 h264 standards I can use gotsent to make it into a mp4. So in short at this point converting the mkv to mp4 is a nonfactor. Please focus your discussion on the mkv. Also, please focus on conversion methods for the 360 and not the Ps3 (mostly in regards to VOB). Converting to something that will work on the PS3, won't necessarily work for the 360.

Thanks for your help so far!

[FulciLives]

Gotsent doesn't do any re-encoding, all it does is convert whatever into mp4. Thats why it's so fast I guess. Anyways here's the link to my sample file:

http://rapidshare.com/files/122073241/x264_bluray-sample.mkv.html

Currently, all i'd like to do is:

1. Alter the 1080p video in a way that it conforms Xbox360 h264 standards

2. Or how to convert 1080p down to 720p

At this point once I get the mkv to conform to the 360 h264 standards I can use gotsent to make it into a mp4. So in short at this point converting the mkv to mp4 is a nonfactor. Please focus your discussion on the mkv. Also, please focus on conversion methods for the 360 and not the Ps3 (mostly in regards to VOB). Converting to something that will work on the PS3, won't necessarily work for the 360.

Thanks for your help so far!

My computer is a bit slow and cannot properly play back 1080p video. Why am I bringing this up? Well I downloaded your sample clip and converted it to a 720p MP4 file that should be XboX 360 compatible but the audio sync is off just a tad yet I don't think that is my fault or the fault of my process. I just think the audio is off on your sample ... perhaps the way you "cut" the original to make the sample? I'm not 100% because I can barely get the sample to play back "as is" before my computer gets behind making it hard for me to know if it is out-of-sync or not.

Can someone with a fast enough computer download the sample and either confirm or deny my thoughts on the audio sync being off?

Thank you!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
I'll share my method if it turns out that the sample is out-of-sync because that will indicate that my method is proper but if it turns out that the sample is in sync then I need to re-evaluate my method.

[FulciLives]

Well here is how I converted the sample provided by user NoobyDoo. This is the sample file named x264_bluray-sample.mkv

First off here is a screen shot of the MKV using MediaInfo:



Here we see that we have 5.1 AC-3 audio and a 1080p H.264 video BUT the video is "all wrong" for the XboX 360 because it is above Profile 4.1 (it is Profile 5.1) and the number of referenced B frames is higher than it should be.

So right off the bat we realize that we need to convert the video. We want to re-encode it to XboX 360 specs and make it 720p instead of 1080p so that means going MP4. Going MP4 means we need to convert the audio to AAC format.

So we fire up XviD4PSP 5.0 (newest version at this time) and set the FORMAT to MP4 XBOX 360 then load the MKV. One problem though and I've seen this before but it does seem to be hit or miss. The problem is that XviD4PSP only recognizes the audio as 2 channels when it fact it is 6 channels. This can be checked on by going to AUDIO at the top and under that select "Editing options" and you will see the following:



So how do we fix this? It actually is very simple!

Click on CANCEL to get out of the "Editing options" screen. Then go to AUDIO at the top and under that select "Demux" and save the file to a new file. In my case I simply left the file name the same but of course it now ends in AC3 instead of MKV. So my demuxed audio file is called x264_bluray-sample.ac3

Onced demuxed go back to AUDIO at the top and under that select "Editing opions" yet again. You are now going to load that demuxed audio file and set it up so that it looks like this:



In this case I decided to adjust the audio to 98% (you never really want to go 100% or you may "overload" your speakers). When you change the VOLUME SETTINGS be sure to click that "A" icon.

Once I have that set up I click on APPLY and then OK.

Now the default MP4 XBOX 360 audio is AAC-LC ABR 128 but that really isn't "good" for 6 channels of audio. Please note that I am still learning what are "good" settings but I understand that while you do want AAC-LC you also need more bitrate. I decided to change it to 448kbps because that is what we use for 6 channel AC-3 audio when doing a DVD Video. Granted this is probably "overkill" as AAC is a more efficient form of compression than AC-3 but I would rather have the bitrate be "high" than "low".

To do this you want to click on the "E" next to where it says AAC-LC ABR 128 and a new screen comes up and I configured it like this:



Once this is done click on OK.

The next step is to change the resolution from 1080p to 720p and to do that we want to select VIDEO at the top and under that select "Resolution/Aspect..." which gives us our next image:



We are going to change it now so that it looks like this:



Please note that all you have to do is adjust the width from 1920 to 1280 and the height is adjusted automatically for you.

Now click on APPLY and then OK. I should point out that if you want to leave it at 1080p then simply skip this resolution/aspect "part" of my guide.

At this point we are ready to encode but there is something I should first bring up ...

The default MP4 XBOX 360 FORMAT setting defaults the ENCODING MODE to "CONSTANT QUALITY" with a QUANTIZER of "21" which seems to be "good" settings and for the sample it is "fine" but you have no control this way over the final file size. This could be problematic for one major reason ... from what I've read (I could be wrong here) but again from what I have read the XboX 360 does not like a single MP4 file to be more than 4GB in file size (the PS3 does not care what file size you have). If true you may want to use a different encoding mode. Even if the 4GB thing is false you might still want to use a mode that allows YOU to select the bitrate and thus the final size of the file.

Let us take a look:

CLICK on the "E" icon next to "VIDEO ENOCODING" and you see this:



Now you can change from "CONSTANT QUALITY" to other modes that allow you to select the bitrate and thus control the final size.

In the case of this sample I left it at the default of "CONSTANT QUALITY" and "QUANTIZER = 21" and I went ahead and encoded it:

XviD4PSP Log File


I do NOT have an XboX 360 but I do have a PS3 and the video/audio requirements are very similar so I expected this file to play back A-OK on my PS3. It did! So it should play back A-OK on your XboX 360.

I uploaded the final result to RAPIDSHARE.COM ---> CLICK HERE

I suggest to NoobyDoo that you download this and make sure it does play back A-OK on your XboX 360 ... I then suggest that you attempt my method on the sample to make sure you can follow the guide and get the same output. Once you do that you are good to go with the entire file or any other file(s) that you have.

My fingers are crossed that this works for you and your XboX 360.

Again I want to stress that the output has sound that is NOT in-sync but again I'm positive that it matches the source sample you provided which I am pretty sure is out-of-sync. Again I don't think my method is throwing the audio out-of-sync since the sample is out-of-sync that is why my re-encoded file is out-of-sync.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
There are a total of 8 images in this post.

[NoobyDoo]

FulcilLives, the mp4 you made doesn't play on my 360

[t0nee1]

Well I tried your method using XviD4PSP on a sample clip...
Tried both Xbox360 and PS3 profiles....
The PS3 played it perfectly,while the Xbox was not supported...
Here's the SS of log using the Xbox profile ,which btw played with the PS3 (yes the xbox profiled .mp4 worked with the PS3),but not with the Xbox console...



Next I'll try the xbox profile with Megui and get back with results...

[FulciLives]

The only thing I can figure is that the XboX 360 maybe didn't like the audio aspect of the file? Perhaps the bitrate was overly high? Perhaps it doesn't like 5.1 AAC audio?

I would assume that the the MP4 XBOX 360 setting in XviD4PSP works and it does default to AAC-LC ABR 128 so all I can figure is do it again but don't adjust the bitrate OR maybe the XboX 360 doesn't like 5.1 AAC ... perhaps it has to be 2 channel AAC which means you would have to adjust it to downmix to 2 channels (which is possible on the "editing audio options" screen).

I don't know but it could be the bitrate and/or the 5.1 channel aspect of the AAC audio file.

So try redoing the audio as 5.1 AAC-LC 128 and again as 2.0 AAC-LC 128 and see if that makes it playable. One or the other has to work unless the MP4 XBOX 360 setting is "broken" on the current version of XviD4PSP which I suppose is possible.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
I used MeGui once to back-up a DVD Video to MP4 for my Sony PS3 and there is a default profile in MeGui that says XboX 360 / PS3 as well as profiles that are made JUST for the XboX 360. I used the single XboX 360 / PS3 profile and it played back A-OK in my PS3 but again I have no XboX 360 to test.

[t0nee1]

Yeah FulciLives I just tried a sample similar to OP's video and it worked with
AAC-LC 128 ABR audio...I'll have to try complete flick...coool.... 8)
So to OP try XviD4PSP on your video..Good luck!.........