Tuesday, 25 May 2010 03:05 | 
Written by Neil
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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.
- Open XMedia Recode
- Drag the video you want to convert into the drop area.
- Make sure your video is selected. (Click on it)
- 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.
- 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.
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.
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. :-)
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
I have long since desired this feature in XMedia Recode and I have suggested it, but the creator chooses to ignore this request.
There is a solution. YAMB (Yet another MP4box UI). Download this, install it. Then plop your MP4 and your AC3 audio into YAMB. Then mux them both together.
WMA, however, will not work since the MP4 container only supports AAC and AC3 audio.
Also, I'm assuming you're using Sony Vegas to create an MP4 file. You would have a much better result if you installed x264vfw and used that to create an MP4 file, the quality will be much greater than that of Sony Vegas' MP4 creation.
Get YAMB.
Get x264vfw (make sure you get 32bit if you are using 32bit Sony Vegas, and 64 if you are using 64bit Sony Vegas).
Hope that helps, good luck.
thank you for offering to look into my case but since I had smaller samples to work with I quickly found out that my stupidity was to blame. I used to keep on accepting the Avidemux default of "Arabic" in Subtitler instead of changing it to UTF-8. Now everything works fine.
Thanks for all your help.
Cheers,
Jack
I have a tutorial that shows you how to split MKV files. You can use this to split the video into smaller parts. After it splits the video a couple of times, abort (cancel) and you will get 1 or 2 small parts (samples) that you can use to test. www.logichaos.com/joomla/guides/text-guides/60-how-to-split-mkv-to-multiple-mkv-files.html
Also, at this point, you'd might as well download and install Mediainfo Use this program to figure out information about your video. It will tell you the codecs your video uses and requires.
Please open your video with mediainfo and switch to Text mode. Picture
Afterwards, go to www.pastebin.com and paste your results there. Link me to your pastebin. It should look something like this.
This will help me get an idea of what the problem is and how to help you.
-Neil
thank you so much for your help!!!
I managed to install and run AVS Proxy GUI and I stopped getting this "H.264 detected" message. But unfortunately not only I still didn't get subtitles but also I lost audio.
I still want to do more tests with different audio formats but they take a long time when I do them on the whole video. Can you please tell me how to properly cut MKV video to create a short sample so I can test various options faster. Which program is good at cutting MKVs? When I cut with Avidemux I am getting crash messages :(
By the way, I also installed K-Lite Mega.
Cheers
Jack
Here is where you load your subtitle file.
Just to clarify, you can only see the subtitles by previewing. The preview button is in the "Video Filter Manager" window.
Quote:
As far as that message goes, that is a typical message from AviDemux. This is because you tried to load a video into AviDemux that was either an MKV file with H.264 video, or something similar.
In my experience, AviDemux is very horrible at directly loading MKV files.
This is why you're better off using AVSProxy. You can find it by going to your Start Menu, AviDemux and then running AVS Proxy GUI.
Quote:
I highlighted the important things.
AVS Proxy Settings
Quote:
Best way to solve that is to go download the K-Lite codec pack. This will install a good H.264/Mpeg-4 AVC decoder.
Get K-Lite here
I recommend getting K-Lite Standard at the very least, but it is even better if you get the Full or even the Mega. They will install even more codecs. It's up to you.
Quote:
The bitrate calculator is useful for giving you an idea about how big your file will be before you convert it. If you need your video to be small enough to fit on a DVD, the bitrate calculator can give you a very good idea and help you decide what bitrate to use in order to use the most space in a DVD. Wasted space is simply wasted quality.
If you do not plan on converting your video so that it can be burned to a DVD or copied to a device with limited space, then you can just type in any bitrate you want.
Hope I could help. Let me know if you have any more problems.
-Neil
I'm back with more questions if you don't mind.
I still have problems with getting subtitles when I convert MKV file into MP4 using Avidemux 2.5. I don’t get subtitles at all.
I extracted subtitles from MKV using MKVextractGUI and I got them in SRT format. Then I used Subtitler in Filters in AVIdemux – specified fonts in \Windows\fonts\ folder, their size and position.
For Video I chose MPEG-4 AVC, under Configure I chose Sony PlayStation Potable, For Audio AC3 (Aften), under Configure I specified 384 and under Filter Stereo for Mixer.
Under Format I chose MP4.
When I get the “H.264 detected” message I tried both Yes and No – the result is the same.
(This message reads: “If the file is using B-frames as reference it can lead to a crash or stuttering. Avidemux can use another mode which is safe but YOU WILL LOSE FRAME ACCURACY. Do you want to use that mode?”)
Am I doing anything wrong?
In your previous reply (#24) you said I should “run AVSProxy from the AviDemux start menu folder” so I clicked “Connect to avsproxy” under the File menu and I got “Attempt to open avsproxy.avs failed” message.
As you said I installed Avisynth but I do not know how to make sure that I “have H.264/Mpeg-4 AVC codec installed”.
And I have no idea how to do this: “For the DirectShowSource tab, load your MKV. Click Create Proxy.” Can you please explain this in a bit more detail.
Also what do you use the bitrate calculator for? Do I need one?
Would be really grateful if you could help.
Jack
I just used photoshop to create the arrows and then I put things like glow and shadows on them.
I know my question is off-topic but if possible would like to know
how did you create these wonderful screenshots and the green arrows.
Thanks in advance!
Robert
Glad it worked.
The program has changed slightly since the tutorial was made. Hope you didn't have too much trouble.
Thnx dude
best thing ever... tried 7 different programs that didn't work for me but this does
you are my hero
i tried 7 different programs.. one only work on half, other only support 2 channel audio, third use about 12 hours for each video, and so on..
this go fast and easy..
thaaaaaank you
I don't know of any tutorials. You might try searching Google.
I learned how to do it by fumbling around. First, install Avisynth (Stable). Make sure you have an H.264/Mpeg-4 AVC codec installed. I use FFMpeg Tryouts (Included with K-lite codec pack standard). Run AVSProxy from the AviDemux start menu folder. For the DirectShowSource tab, load your MKV. Click Create Proxy. From there, it will automatically load the MKV into AviDemux.
Be careful not to click on the timeline. For me, this causes a huge delay. Try to drag the slider around instead.
For the subtitles, you'll find the subtitles in the video filters menu. You'll have to add the filter for the subtitle format. This is where it becomes work. If the subtitle is a supported one by AviDemux you can just add it right in, but if it's an improper format, you'll have to find a subtitle converter or do a google search for subtitles in the correct format. On top of this, you will need to extract the subtitles from your MKV if the subtitle is embedded. You can do this by using MKVToolnix with MKVCleaver or MKVExtractGUI.
From AviDemux subtitle video filter options you can choose the font and size and you can then preview it before conversion.
If you need a bitrate calculator for AviDemux, this is one that I use: www.3ivx.com/support/calculator/index.html
Hope that helps,
-Neil
Yes, I will use AviDemux but I am a beginner in this area and I found their help on Wiki difficult to follow.
Are you aware of any tutorials like yours that would hold my hand to tell me how to hardcode subs into MP4 (ie. how to use video filters to add subs) and use "AVSProxy (included with AviDemux) to pass the MKV to AviDemux"?
Jack
The safest bet would be to use AviDemux, it gives you better control over subtitle appearance. XMedia Recode has poor subtitle support. I recall a similar issue to hardcoding subtitles using XMedia. For the time being, I'd say use AviDemux. Just so you know, AviDemux has difficulty decoding H.264 MKV files, so you may consider installing AviSynth and using AVSProxy (included with AviDemux) to pass the MKV to AviDemux.
If you want to see better subtitle support, please send an e-mail to the XMedia Recode contact e-mail requesting better subtitle support. Using an earlier version of Xmedia recode probably won't change anything, but you can always install a portable version of Xmedia Recode and then convert a sample to see the result. You can trim the video using the XMedia Recode preview or you can split your MKV or MP4 into small parts using MKVToolnix or Yamb.
Good luck.