Which container shall I go with? What are my options?

[elsmandino]

Hello,

I have a load of .ts files that I want to re-encode so that they are available on all my players.

Ulimately, I want to convert the video to H.264 but keep the original MP2 audio. I also want to keep subtitles.

I want the files to be playable on my HTPC (which runs Mediaportal), my Asus Transformer TF300 and my Ipod.

I know that Mediaportal will play pretty much anything. The Transformer can play most files with the right software and codecs.
Is the Ipod going to be the device that dictates the format - i.e. MP4.

If so, can Ipods handle MP4s with MP2 audio or do they only play MP4 with the standard convered audio?

My other option that I have had to discount is MKV (which I know will not work with IPods).

Am I right in thinking that if I convered everything to MP4 as above but then decided to check my Ipod for a player that played MKVs natively, I could easily convert all the files to MKVs without quality loss? (As it is just the container that I am changing)

[jman98]

I would NOT let anything Apple sells dictate the answer to your question. You can always buy a cheap media player for the iPod that understands MKV. OPlayer understand MKV format. I'm not sure if MP2 audio is valid in an MP4 container or not, but it would work with MKV. I do have to warn you that while players like the Transformer should be able to play almost anything, I've personally created an MKV file with Xvid video and MP3 audio that nothing I own could play, with the exception of a PC. That should just not happen as if it was in an AVI container they would all play it fine. I needed to mess with the audio and change the offset value and it was just easier to do that in MKV containers, hence why I created it in an MKV container. But all my hardware playback devices (again, except PCs) find MKV with Xvid video and MP3 audio to be too exotic to play. The best I was able to get was to get either the video working but not the audio or vice-versa, but my PC played the file with no issues. You might create a test MKV file and if your HTPC and Transformer are OK with it, I'd just buy OPlayer for my iPod. MP4 containers do have restrictions on what they can hold and MKV basically can hold anything.

[Selur]

I'm not sure if MP2 audio is valid in an MP4 container

it is

[poisondeathray]

If so, can Ipods handle MP4s with MP2 audio or do they only play MP4 with the standard convered audio?

MP2 incompatible with ipod

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1334

[hello_hello]

Keep in mind I've never owned an ipod so I'm not an expert, but different models have different specs regarding what they'll play. Which model do you have? I also keep away from MP4 as much as possible as MKVs are so much easier to work with. For me, MP4s are just something I'll remux as MKVs.... so yes, you can change the MP4 container to MKV without re-encoding anything, thanks to MKVToolNix/MKVMergeGUI (there's other methods but MKVMergeGUI is simple to use).

From what I can tell the latest ithingy supports AAC, MP3 and a couple of other formats I don't know much about. Someone else may be able to tell you if MP2 is supported but it's not in the list here. However the way I read the specs, when it comes to the audio in video files it only supports stereo AAC.

You may be able to remux your TS files as MKVs without converting them and play them using the Transformer. Well if you install MXPlayer I'd be very surprised if you couldn't. It'll play just about anything. It'll probably even play the TS files "as-is".

If you want to re-encode using a h264 encoder, it has levels and profiles. A player should specify the maximum level and profile it supports. High Profile, Level 4.1 is pretty universal these days (TV's with built in media players, Bluray Players etc). I encode everything using High Profile, Level 4.1 and even my Andriod smartphone happily plays them up to 1080p. In your case, even if you have the latest iplod, it appears it'll be the lowest common denominator, so if you want your encodes to be "universal", according to the page I linked to you'd need to use Main Profile, Level 3.1, 720p for the video (and stereo for the audio with a mixumum bitrate of 160kbps).

So it should be just a matter of picking your preferred x264 encoder, selecting the appropriate profile and level, keeping the resolution to a maximum of 720p and you can encode away..... you shouldn't need to know anything about profiles and levels. Selecting the correct one should allow your encodes to be playable by any device which supports that level or profile. If a player supports a particular level, it should also support all the levels below that.

Whether a third party program is available for an ipod which lets you play different formats.... I have no idea (edit: according to jman98's post above, there is). If so it'll probably rely on the same decoder so won't decode different types of video, but will probably be able to decode it in different containers and might support different types of audio (I'm just iguessing there).
In the case of MXPlayer for Android it'll still use a device's hardware decoder when it can. If not it'll use the CPU instead. It has no problem playing all sorts of video and audio inside MKV files (even my TV's built in media player and my Bluray player will happily play Xvid and MP3 audio in an MKV file, so my experiences there are quite different to jman98).

As for programs to use when encoding....... VidCoder and HandBrake seem to be quite popular as they're not hard to use and I'm pretty sure the latest versions let you select the desired profile/level. There's many encoder GUIs to choose from. I use MeGUI myself. It'll have a bit more of a learning curve than some programs though, but if you'll be encoding video regularly I think it's worth it.

[smrpix]

.. oops

[elsmandino]

Hi there,

Thanks you so much for the wealth of advice.

I have to say, you do make a very convincing argument for going with MKV over MP4.

As mentioned above, I think that I shall have a mess around with a few trial runs and see what works best for me in the circumstances - you have given me some great ideas to try and I have never heard of OPlayer and shall give that a trial run too.

Thanks again - very much appreciated.