- Convert MKV to MP4 (With AC3 5.1 Surround) for the PS3

Table of Contents
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Required Files
Installation
Adding your Video to Xmedia Recode
Format Tab
Audio Track 1 Tab
Is your video PS3 Compatible?
Conclusion
Frequently Asked Questions

This guide has been updated to use XMedia Recode. XMedia Recode greatly reduces the time it takes to convert MKV to MP4 and even allows you to convert those pesky non PS3 compliant MKV files to compatible MP4 files. If you would like to see the original guide which I have labeled (obsolete), go here.

This guide shows you how to convert an MKV video to an MP4 file with AC3 5.1 Surround audio so that it can be played on either your PS3 or the PC.The plan is to take an MKV file that you downloaded off the internet and convert it to an MP4 file with very little quality loss or no quality loss.

1. Required Files

Xmedia Recode - for converting the video to a PS3 compatible MP4 file.

Get XMedia Recode Here

2. Installation

Install XMedia Recode

3. Adding your video to XMedia Recode

Open XMedia Recode
Drag the video you want to convert into the drop area.
Make sure your video is selected. (Click on it)

4. Format Tab

In the lower half, you should have the Format tab selected. Next to Profile, choose Custom.
Change Format to MP4.
Beneath Video Codec, change Codec to MPEG-4 AVC/H.264.
Beneath Audio Track 1, change Codec to AC3 and do the same for Audio Track 2.

Note: We will be skipping the video tab and then come back to it later. We need to do some other things first before we can start changing things in the Video Tab.

5. Audio Track 1 Tab

Go up to the Audio Track 1 tab and click it.
If Audio Track shows AC3 or AAC, then check Audio Copy.
However, if it doesn't, set Bitrate to 640
Beneath the Audio Column, check to see how many channels your video is. If it says 1 Channel, choose Mono. If it says 2 Channels, choose Stereo. If it says 6 Channels, choose 5.1.
If your video has a second audio track, simply repeat these steps in the Audio Track 2 tab.

6. Is your video PS3 Compatible?

This is where you come to a crossroads and must make a choice. But first, we need to figure out if your video is PS3 compatible.. In other words, does video need to be re-encoded? To find out:

Right click your video and choose MediaInfo.
You need to decide if you plan on burning your movie to a DVD. If you do, you need to know if it will fit on the DVD with its current file size.

Next to File size,

If the filesize is 8,147MB or smaller, then it will fit on a dual layer DVD.
If the filesize is 4,482MB or smaller, then it will fit on a regular single layer DVD.

If your video is larger than the kind of DVD you plan to burn it to, then you will need to re-encode your movie. If you don't plan on burning it to a DVD, there is still one other thing we need to check before we can rule out whether you need to re-encode your movie.
Next to Level,

If it says 4.2 or lower and you do not plan to resize your video so that it fits on a DVD, then your video does not require reconversion.

If it says 5.1, then you will, without a doubt need to re-encode your movie. 5.1 is a spec that is too high for the PS3 to play and will result in a black video when you attempt to play it on your PS3.

The video is L4.2 or lower and I do not need to make the video smaller.

The video is L5.1 and/or I do need to make the video smaller.

You chose "The video is L5.1 and/or I do need to make the video smaller."

This means that we need to completely re-encode the video to make it compatible with the PS3 and we have several steps remaining.

Filters/Preview Tab

You can close MediaInfo now.
Go up to the Filters/Preview tab.
Below Keep Aspect Ratio, you will see a button.

This button shows the actual resolution of your video. If the button shows 1920x1080 or smaller, click the button. Afterwards, skip the remaining steps and go straight to Step 8 - Video Tab.
If for some reason, the button shows a resolution larger than 1920x1080, you will need to resize your video smaller.

Next to Aspect Ratio, choose Keep Original.
Check Keep Aspect Ratio
Next to Width, press the down arrow until the resolution of your video is 1920x1080 or less.

When you are changing the width, the height should automatically change too. This changes in order to preserve the aspect ratio of your video. This is a good thing. If your height is not changing (or vice versa), then you need to repeat the last 2 steps.

Using the Bitrate Calculator

Go up to the Options menu and choose Bitrate Calculator.
The bitrate calculator should fill in most of the information. It should fill in your resolution and the audio track settings.
Next to Rate Control Mode, choose Average Bitrate.

Note: Average Bitrate performs a 1 pass conversion mode. A single pass conversion is less accurate than a 2-pass and may result in your video being larger or smaller than expected. If you want your video to perfectly hit your target filesize, you will need to choose 2-pass average bitrate. Be warned, 2-pass takes considerably longer because it must first run an analysis pass and then convert your video.
Below, you should see a dropdown menu that contains various filesize presets. Simply choose the preset of your choice. In my case, I will be choosing DVD 8.5GB (UDF).
Directly to the right, you should see a text box with % of the media capacity. I like to set this to 95. This leaves a bit of room at the end of the DVD. I recommend against setting this to 100% unless you are doing a 2-pass conversion, and even then, I would suggest setting it to something like 98%.

Note: You might have to use the arrow buttons to get the bitrate calculator to refresh the changes.
You're done! Press OK.

Adding a Job

This is the easiest step in the entire tutorial.

At the top, click Add Job.
Click Encode.

If you did everything correctly, it should create a PS3 Compatible MP4 file, which you can stream to your PS3 or burn to a DVD and play on your PS3.

7. Conclusion

After you have finished creating the MP4 file, there are several ways that you can play it on the PS3.

Burn it to a DVD or Dual Layer DVD
Copy it to an external hard drive (File cannot be larger than 4GB due to FAT32 Filesystem Restriction)
Copy it to a USB thumb drive (File cannot be larger than 4GB due to FAT32 Filesystem Restriction)
Stream it to your PS3 using a media streamer such as PS3 Media Server or TVersity (No filesize restriction)
Copy it to your PS3's harddrive and play it directly from the PS3 (No filesize restriction)

If you have any questions or problems or comments of praise, please leave a comment below. :-)

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can the PS3 play MP4 files larger than 4GB?

A. Yes. However, it depends what you are trying to play the MP4 file from. The PS3 can play files larger than 4GB directly from its internal harddrive, however it cannot play files larger than 4GB from an External Harddrive formatted with the FAT32 filesystem, or a USB thumb drive (for the same reason). You can play the MP4 file from a Dual Layer DVD or you can Stream it to your PS3 using a media streamer such as the PS3 Media Server or TVersity.

Last Updated (Thursday, 28 October 2010 23:55)

Comments

#42 T 2012-05-08 20:48

Thanks a ton for this. I followed this essentially step-by-step to get these videos compatible for iTunes and any iDevice. My normal route of converting the files was taking close to four hours per video since the quality is so high. Now, following this, it's only taking about six minutes per video. Much appreciated.

Convert MKV to MP4 (With AC3 5.1 Surround) for the PS3

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