I'm scratching my head - I just want to do simple video conversion?!?!

[Matt_C]

I'm fairly new to Mac, and one thing I'm really struggling with is video conversion and transcoding...

Here's a couple of scenario's;

I have a HD mkv file, 720p with 6ch AC3/Dolby Digital or 6ch DTS audio. I want to recode it to XviD avi, keep the AR, res, audio etc. Just change codecs and containers. But I can't seem to find anything to do this?

#2 - I want to convert an xvid avi, like the above, with 6ch AC3/DTS audio to SD DVD - I want to keep the correct AR, obviously the res will reduce to either 480p (NTSC) or 576 (PAL), and I want the 6ch audio to be included. Chapters every 5 mins would be nice. This is something that was INCREDIBLY simple to do on Windows (ConvertXtoDVD) - but for the life of me I can't do it on Mac?

I've downloaded and tried the following;

VisualHub
FFMpegX
MacX Video Converter Pro
ReduxEncoder
Burn

I've also got Handbrake (useful if I need to encode a video specifically for iPhone or ATV), Mac The Ripper (not used it yet) MKVTools (also not used), Perian and VLC are installed (thank god, cos nearly everything I convert that creates and mpg file QT can't play it!)

Is there not simply something I can use that will a) do what I want, b) be SIMPLE to use (FFMpegX is horrible to use!), c) has enough settings I can change/alter if nes (ie, tell it to keep the audio / re-encode the audio, etc) and have a little control over, without it being difficult to use like FFMpegX

On Windows, I mainly used ConvertXtoDVD (super simple, and very effective - did all the things I needed it to) for file to DVD conversion, HDConvert2x to code from HD mkv to HD xvid/avi, and AutoGordianKnot to creat an AVI from bare DVD rip files. Anything else I just used Format Factory so the day to day recodes of small files...

I've had a look through here, it's all a bit over my head really, what with being new to Mac OS... I just need it simple and easy! I really didn't expect to have so many apps that can't do what I thought was a simple task!

[terryj]

in #1, you would be re-encoding it to XVID. I do not know what the codec used in the .mkv file is ,
but I suspect h.264? if so, then no, there is no getting around re-encoding everything down
to xvid, and those things are going to be subject to what ever is liked by the application
that is doing the re-encoding. You might be able to get away with keeping the audio
using MKV Tools, but the h.264 would re-encode to XVID, and then that is subject to
the apps defaults ( say 480p or 576)

in #2 can only be done in DVD Studio Pro. I know, because I do it all the time there.
With what you have, the best your going to get is 480p with 2channel audio.
(iDVD, Toast, VisualHub)
Dolby 6 channel is a big boy licensing thing, and on the mac, the only app
that handles 6 channel dolby is DVD Studio Pro.

[Matt_C]

Really? Because Handbrake handles 6ch Dolby Digital, and as I have just found out Burn handles it too (svn), as does Visual Hub. So pay $500 for a DVD converter?!? No thanks!

[terryj]

Really? Because Handbrake handles 6ch Dolby Digital,

Yup.
As for handbrake:

HandBrake offers several surround options depending on your uses.

Another method is to create 5.1 channel AAC audio tracks. For the Track Mix, select "6 channel discrete" from the drop-down menu, and your movie will contain discrete surround sound in the modern AAC format. This takes up less space than AC3: instead of 448kbps, you can do well with 384kbps (64 kbps per channel). Its real benefit is that it doesn't make QuickTime barf. Sadly, it is very difficult to hear all those discrete channels of sound. It cannot be sent over an optical cable to a home theater amp. If you try, whether on a Mac or an AppleTV, you will only hear "downmixed" surround sound, similar to Dolby Pro Logic. To hear the discrete surround sound in all its glory, you will need to attach an analog surround sound device to your Mac. One popular device is the Griffin FireWave. Then, you have to attach a cable to your amp/receiver for each of the six speaker channels. It cannot be done over optical/HDMI

So Handbrake can create a .mp4 file ( NOT XVID) with 5.1 AAC audio. However, the mac will not recognize it,
without a third party amp.

and as I have just found out Burn handles it too (svn), as does Visual Hub. So pay $500 for a DVD converter?!? No thanks!

And at VisualHub, yes it can handle input of 6 channel audio, I've done that many times converting DVD content to iPod
format. But it downmixes to 2 channel aac for iPod. In Xvid setting, it downmixes audio to 2 channel mp3 audio.

sorry.

[Matt_C]

Huh? Handbrake won't make me a DVD video-disc or an xvid file, so I wouldn't be using it. I only mentioned HB as you said that DVD Studio Pro was the only Mac app to have AC3 support, and I mentioned HB as that isn't true...

I also don't want an AAC audio track. Any files with mutlichannel AAC tracks I convert, in HB ironically, to AC3 audiotracks - because as you pointed out, you can't use the AAC anywhere. I can't connect an external audio peripheral to my ATV to convert to 6ch analogue audio, and I wouldn't want to do that on my MBP either, so since my amp has internal AC3/DD and DTS decoding, I want to use either AC3/DD or DTS.

As for Visual Hub - it does allow audio passthrough, so any video file I have with AC3/DD or DTS that I want to convert to DVD video, I can pass that audio track through. I presume that the same can be said when creating an xvid avi too. I don't convert to iPod, but there would be no point keeping an AC3/DD/DTS audio track when converting to iPod, since it has no digital output on it so what good would a multichannel audio track be on that?

My thread starter was simply about being able to SIMPLY and EASILY convert video from one format, usually either x264 MKV, or XviD/DivX AVI, or sometimes MP4, and often with 6ch AC3/DD or DTS to a standard definition DVD Video-Disc, playable in all standalone DVD players, in good quality and with the original 6ch audio track. It was also about being able to SIMPLY and EASILY convert a file, for example, a 1280x720 res x264 MKV file, with 6ch AC3/DD to a 1280x720 res XviD AVI, with the same 6ch AC3/DD (or DTS) audio track for playback on a PS3 (for example)

So far on my quest for trying this I've found I can convert mkv to DVD in Visual Hub AND keep the 6ch audio track, but it's a bit of a pain to use, and not very quick. I'm told iDVD can do it better, but at first look it wants to take over 3hrs to do a single video! I've since found that an SVN version of Burn can also convert mkv to DVD and has AC3 support, and it seems to work well and fairly quick - but no auto chapter encoding which is annoying. And no DTS support. And it seems it can't transcode from 6ch AAC to AC3 either, so it's probably just passthrough. Burn also has convert to DivX too, but it doesn't seem to work...

MKVTools seems to do a nice job of converting to XviD AVI, along with 6ch AC3/DD - I ran a test on it with a 1080p MKV and it handled it fine by the looks of it.

So it looks like I'm managing, but it's NOWHERE NEAR as easy as it was to do all this on Windows, which I find to be shocking! Surely this is the sort of thing Mac owners want to do, or is it just me?!?! It'd be really nice, if in the nature of the "Mac Spirit" I hear all about, there was just a nice, easy to use program, but with enough level of control over options and settings, that could do it all in one place...

[terryj]

Huh? Handbrake won't make me a DVD video-disc or an xvid file, so I wouldn't be using it. I only mentioned HB as you said that DVD Studio Pro was the only Mac app to have AC3 support, and I mentioned HB as that isn't true...

And I conceeded that point: that it does handle input of 6 chan audio, but as clipped from the manual, output as you have found
only works as Mp4, not xvid.

As for Visual Hub - it does allow audio passthrough, so any video file I have with AC3/DD or DTS that I want to convert to DVD video, I can pass that audio track through. I presume that the same can be said when creating an xvid avi too. I don't convert to iPod, but there would be no point keeping an AC3/DD/DTS audio track when converting to iPod, since it has no digital output on it so what good would a multichannel audio track be on that?

again I was pointing out what is I've seen of VH...where it specifically I've seen it that it would handle 6channel.
I always let the default settings handle the conversion to DVD in VH ( when I rarely do it, as I more than often use DVDSP for
DVD authoring, because of the flexiblity). And your right about ipod settings...



[snipped to get to heart of the matter]

My thread starter was simply about being able to SIMPLY and EASILY convert video from one format, usually either x264 MKV, or XviD/DivX AVI, or sometimes MP4, and often with 6ch AC3/DD or DTS to a standard definition DVD Video-Disc, playable in all standalone DVD players, in good quality and with the original 6ch audio track. It was also about being able to SIMPLY and EASILY convert a file, for example, a 1280x720 res x264 MKV file, with 6ch AC3/DD to a 1280x720 res XviD AVI, with the same 6ch AC3/DD (or DTS) audio track for playback on a PS3 (for example)
So it looks like I'm managing, but it's NOWHERE NEAR as easy as it was to do all this on Windows, which I find to be shocking! Surely this is the sort of thing Mac owners want to do, or is it just me?!?! It'd be really nice, if in the nature of the "Mac Spirit" I hear all about, there was just a nice, easy to use program, but with enough level of control over options and settings, that could do it all in one place...

Mostly it is just you I'm afraid.
Seriously though, "all in a nice easy to use program" that does:

* handles ( or if necessary creates) 6ch audio
* DTS support
* create specifically placed chapters in the DVD
* create with "enough level of control over options and settings"

is something that just doesn't exist on mac.
To do some of these things sure. To do all of these things no, with a few clicks, no.without fooling around with settings,
or asking questions, no.

There is the "convert file types from one to another " apps, like VH, MKV Tools, and Handbrake, but each with their limitations.

then there is the "Author DVD" apps with their limitations. You are finding out what those limitations are,
and many of us work each app to their strengths, and go from there.

I'm not trying to do what you are doing, so I can only give you as close to an example as to
what I would be doing:

So I have an MKV file that I want to make into a DVD to give to my cousin Ernie. It is in h.264, with 6 channel audio.
I would open the mkv in MKV Tools, and extract the components.

I would then bounce the h.264 video through MpegStreamclip, and transcode it to a DV Stream file.
( to smooth out the file to cut down on encoding time, as DVDStudio would work twice as hard to transcode it)

I would then open DVDSP, input the DV Stream file ( video), input the 6channel audio, and then author my dvd
( creating chapter points where I want them, a fancy schmancy menu) and then burn it to DVD.

( the strength of DVD SP: Being able to allow me the control and flexibility on authoring the dvd the way I want it)

Now, I don't have a PS3, but lets say I've got one of those WD TV Live Boxes ( which I do) and I wanted
an XVID of the same h.264 I just made my cousin Ernie a DVD of . I would use MKVTools,
create my xvid with passthrough audio ( to retain my 6 chann audio) and let it encode overnight.
result: I got my xvid, with audio, now ready to copy to my WD TV Live box.

( the strength of MKVTools: being able to get my mkv file from one format to another, and preserving my 6 channel audio)

I hope these steps help. You are on the right track to creating a workflow that will help with making things work
for you to get what you need done. That is in itself truly the "mac Spirit" of getting things done on a mac.

[adamberkey]

Well, you could always use your Windows software with Crossover, or Virtual Box/Parallels/Fusion.
There are some Win apps that are just great, that cost money or simply aren't available on OS X.