MKV vs MP4 (M4v)

[Charlie98]

Originally Posted by Zxian

My guess is that he's using Handbrake to "rip" the videos, and it's doing several things at once making the whole process more confusing in the end. That's why I suggested he simply rip the raw video to MKV format.

Yes, I am... AnyDVD to break it, Handbrake to.... what? Encode it? And, yes, I'm in Win7.

I don't want to spend just a whole bunch of effort on BD's... I only have about 10 of them. I wasn't all that wow'ed with BD playback on the stand-alone LG player we have, and the disks themselves are quite fragile. We ruined our original copy of Star Trek already.... (I think the darned player scuffed it up,) so we aren't even buying BD any longer.

The other downside is the file size based on what I've seen (and Zxian confirms... 35GB for one movie!?!?) I don't have that kind of storage.

I have or had MPC-HC already, but never really used it for anything... never needed to.

[AkumaX]

Originally Posted by Charlie98

Yes, I am... AnyDVD to break it, Handbrake to.... what? Encode it? And, yes, I'm in Win7.

I don't want to spend just a whole bunch of effort on BD's... I only have about 10 of them. I wasn't all that wow'ed with BD playback on the stand-alone LG player we have, and the disks themselves are quite fragile. We ruined our original copy of Star Trek already.... (I think the darned player scuffed it up,) so we aren't even buying BD any longer.

The other downside is the file size based on what I've seen (and Zxian confirms... 35GB for one movie!?!?) I don't have that kind of storage.

I have or had MPC-HC already, but never really used it for anything... never needed to.

Already ripped? Good.. good..

Personally, I use MeGUI to do everything. However, there is a bit of a learning curve.

Recently, I've had very good luck with XMedia Recode, however. This might suite you better.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/XMedia-Recode

[Charlie98]

Originally Posted by AkumaX

Already ripped? Good.. good..

Personally, I use MeGUI to do everything. However, there is a bit of a learning curve.

Recently, I've had very good luck with XMedia Recode, however. This might suite you better.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/XMedia-Recode

Hmmm... maybe I am missing something, re: ripping to BD. What I've done so far, with success, is use AnyDVD to break the disk, and then use Handbrake to encode (if that's the correct word) the disk to MKV. I can play the MKV file with VLC but not WMC/MB.

I would like to be able to play my BR file with WMC/MB... what you are saying (I think) is I can use XMedia or MeGUI (or Handbrake?) to remux it into a MP4 format (container) so I can play it with WMC and the file size won't be astronomical?

[Zxian]

You're partially right. AnyDVD has been breaking the copy protection. Handbrake has been encoding the video using an h.264 codec. Handbrake has then muxed the video (h.264) and audio (dts/aac/whatever) streams into an mkv file.

If you want to use MKV files in WMC, all you need to do is apply the registry entries that are found in the following link. This will make MKV files discoverable in WMC.

http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/02/mkvs-...windows-7.html

Don't bother with installing FFDShow or Gabest - just use the LAV Filters I mentioned eariler. They're simpler to setup.

I personally wouldn't bother with mp4 files for anything other than iDevices. The format is far more restrictive regarding what you can put into it. MKV files can contain anything. As long as you have the right filters installed to decode whatever streams come out of that file, it'll just work.


Ripping from a DVD is, conceptually, no different than BluRay. The source video and audio are usually re-encoded, and then muxed into a container. The only real difference is the number of pixels in each video frame.

[AkumaX]

Originally Posted by Charlie98

Hmmm... maybe I am missing something, re: ripping to BD. What I've done so far, with success, is use AnyDVD to break the disk, and then use Handbrake to encode (if that's the correct word) the disk to MKV. I can play the MKV file with VLC but not WMC/MB.

I would like to be able to play my BR file with WMC/MB... what you are saying (I think) is I can use XMedia or MeGUI (or Handbrake?) to remux it into a MP4 format (container) so I can play it with WMC and the file size won't be astronomical?

Yah, you're right. To put it simply:

AnyDVD to break the disc, and copy to hard drive - I refer to this as "ripping".
Now you have a giant 30GB-45GB BluRay structure on your hard drive. You want to compress it to a smaller file size, just the main movie portion, and possibly remove any extras (such as extra audio)
So you could use HandBrake, XMedia, or MeGUI to do that.
Also, HandBrake, XMedia, and MeGUI will stick that final video/audio file, and mux the video/audio into an .mkv or .mp4 container.

I downloaded HandBrake, and couldn't figure out how to "change containers". I did see however, that you can choose either .mp4 or .mkv as a final container.

I check XMedia. I could open my .mkv, and chose, say, some Apple preset. I was able to choose "Video Copy" instead of "Convert", so that it'll just take the underlying video stream and copy it directly into the final container (.mp4). However, I couldn't figure out how to "Audio Copy", it would want to re-encode the audio as well.

I was able to use MeGUI to: extract the raw video and raw audio from the .mkv, and then remux them back into an .mp4 (straight source copies, no encoding/converting involved), no increase in file sizes, etc...

------

Originally Posted by Zxian

You're partially right. AnyDVD has been breaking the copy protection. Handbrake has been encoding the video using an h.264 codec. Handbrake has then muxed the video (h.264) and audio (dts/aac/whatever) streams into an mkv file.

If you want to use MKV files in WMC, all you need to do is apply the registry entries that are found in the following link. This will make MKV files discoverable in WMC.

http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/02/mkvs-...windows-7.html

Don't bother with installing FFDShow or Gabest - just use the LAV Filters I mentioned eariler. They're simpler to setup.

I personally wouldn't bother with mp4 files for anything other than iDevices. The format is far more restrictive regarding what you can put into it. MKV files can contain anything. As long as you have the right filters installed to decode whatever streams come out of that file, it'll just work.


Ripping from a DVD is, conceptually, no different than BluRay. The source video and audio are usually re-encoded, and then muxed into a container. The only real difference is the number of pixels in each video frame.

It's funny that you think mp4 files are 'restrictive'. They are there to (somewhat) preserve compatibility between all types of media players. I think the fact that .mkv's can contain anything is why it's so problematic between players. Until .mkv's take off, .mp4's going to be here for a while.

[lifestorie11]

Originally Posted by AkumaX

Anyone know if there's a big difference between Handbrake for Win and OSX?

They are very similar just a little different looking. But both do the same thing obviously.