In need of video converter better than FFMPEG

Hi Folks

I am looking for a good Video Converter.
Basically what I have are MKV files but for some stupid reason, my Samsung TV could not play most of them. Samsung claims those MKV video files contains features not supported by Samsung. From my research, it appears that Samsung can only play MKV video files that contains only one Video stream and one Audio stream; if it contains subtitle or additional Audio stream, then its not supported.

Therefore, I want to convert those MKV files to MP4.

What I currently use is FFMPEG. unfortunately this app is extremely slow converting a 60 minute video (720P) in 180 minutes on an i7 machine.

Any more optimized converter?

thanks!

 

Does it support MP4 with multi contents or is it the same as MKV?

At any rate you should not recode any of those videos just demultiplex and multiplex it back into a new container. I have quite a few tutorials showing how to do this kind of stuff up on YouTube.

 

Hi

Samsung TV can play many video codecs. So far, it can play MP4 files containing a single Video and a single Audio. I believe the problem is with its inability to extract from a container having more than 2 streams, ie, a video + audio + subtitles will cause the Samsung TV to croak.

And yes, what you suggested is actually what I wanted: extract the codecs and repackage in a different container (MP4) would be faster!

Can you show me those youtubes? Many thanks!

 

Give FormatFactory a try and let us know how it goes?

 

I got to demux MKV files into the individual H264 and AC3 files. Now how to combine them into an MP4?

I tried the MKVmerge but Samsung TV dont want to play MKV files made this way. I dont know why. Samsung claims it can play but apparently I am not getting that to work. only AVI and MP4 formats work...

 

Try AVI DeMux. Copy Video, Copy Audio, Output container MP4. Just remember to add the .MP4 extension to the output filename.

 

Id use MKVExtract to get my raw files and then MP4Box to mux them back again.

Of course just having the contaner right wont fix it if the codec is not supported. Even if the codec is supported say H264 it does not mean it supports ALL the features that codec can be processed in (usually labeled as a level standard Level 5.1 Unrestricted etc)

 

AVI Demux kept crashing.

I tried MP4demux but video and audio are not in sync.

hmmm... still looking for app that will combine the video and audio files properly

MP4Box did the job perfectly.
Now I can enjoy/appreciate MKV files

 

It's a bit late, but there's a program called MKVMerge (and the attendent MKVMerge GUI) which would do the job of both in only a single program. All you have to do is open the .mkv, select what tracks you want to keep--or include new tracks if you so want--and then remultiplex (remux) it into .mp4, just by changing the name. Like, if you had Episode01.mkv, just rename it to Episode01.mp4, hit the mux mutton, and you're good to go.

 

WOW!

I thought this MKVMerge can only output to MKV files. I thought doing what you suggested would simply create an MKV format in MP4 filename. So I did what you suggested, uploaded the file to Samsung TV, and viola, it played!

I doubted it would work, but it did.

Thanks. It was far easier process indeed! No more extracting to a raw streams and collating into a container; just output to the final file and bingo.


Is there a feature with MKVMerge that will demux/mux individual MKV files into individual MP4 files? ie I have lots of episodes to convert and manually is pretty taxing.

 

You sure mkvmerge does .mp4? I think it only does mkv.

I use it on every video but I also always use the mkv format. it uses mkvtoolnix for the mkv side probaly uses mp4box for the mp4 side if it is muxing into a true mp4 container.

 

The original file contained 3 streams(?). I removed the last one stream and mux it back into an MKV file and SamsungTV wont play it. I renamed the same file as .MP4 a and SamsungTV played it.

Take Note: When I said "rename", I meant using MS FileManager and manually rename from there, not from MMG (MKVMerge Gui).

I am not sure if its an MKV or MP4 but SamsungTV played the same file when its in "filename.mp4" than "filename.mkv"

Here is the dirty part.
From what I understand, MP4 dont have separate stream for subtitles like MKV does; and I have to add the subtitle as a separate .srt file. This dont work with SamsungTV. It cant fetch the separate .srt file.

How do I combine the subtitles into the video stream and into an MP4?

 

Doesn't adobe premiere do video conversion?

 

I figured as much your just telling the hardware to play a file it supports (mp4) but its still a real mkv file.

MKVMerge as the name implies does not make mp4 files.

Its the same way I could take a picture file .jpg and rename it to .wav if I just double click on the file a music player would try to open it and fail, but if I manually open the file in a image viewer despite the fact it looks like and is called a .wav file it would open and process the same as the original .jpg

Gotta love misinformation :/

As for your problem, MP4 does support multiple streams, though if your player does not support them you maybe better off hardcoding them into the video. Chances are it does support external subtitles in a separate stream but only certain kinds, if .srt does not work try to convert it to another common sub type especially vob sub.

 

That's not a good analogy. .mkv and .mp4 Are both containers, not radically different files like image versus audio. A better analogy would be renaming the .jpg to, say, .png.

Anyhow, I know that Youtube doesn't .mkv format files for upload, but supports .mp4. I just remuxed it using the .mp4 extension, and Youtube accepted my gameply video (of Gratuitous Space Battles, of all things) just fine.

I don't know if it's MKVMerge doing the actual muxing to mp4, or if MKVMerge is calling upon another program to do it, but I know it works.

I think you can create a batch file for a job like that.

 

YouTube loves MKV all my uploads are in that format.

My analogy was good, and done like that on purpose

Yes MKVMerge can split/combine files but only to MKV format not MP4.

Forge - Understand now? Its still a MKV file you just gave it a wrong extension... And before you make a claim like YouTube does not accept MKV files you should try it, as I have been using them for over 2 years on YouTube and it's pretty upsetting to see you post wrong information so haphazardly.

 

Then why did my solution solve Jsteng's problem?

And sorry about the Youtube. I could've sworn when attempting to upload to Youtube that Youtube didn't "see" my MKV files as acceptable files.

Jsteng's machine was unable to play MKV files. However, upon remuxing using MKVMerge and the .mp4 extension, it works.


Here's my train of thought.
-Jsteng's TV plays MP4 files, but not MKV files
-Solution 1: Demux to raw streams, then remux using MP4Box. The audio/video play, but they are out of sync.
----However, since they play at all it means that the MP4 file itself is real and playable.
-Solution 2: Remux using MKVMerge into the MP4 container. The TV plays it, and as far as I can tell from his response there's no sync issues.
----Just like in Solution 1, if the TV plays it, it most likely means it's a real MP4 file.

So, final picture to me is that MKVMerge can indeed--whether on its own or by calling upon another outside program--create an MP4 file.



EDIT: Well, I'll admit I'm wrong. I opened up a MKV file in Notepad++ and got this as the first line (partially):

Code:

Eߣ£B†B÷BòBóB‚ˆmatroskaB‡

I then opened up a "normal" MP4 and got

Code:

ftypmp42NULNULNULmp42isom

Then I took at look at an MP4 created with MMGUI and got

Code:

Eߣ£B†B÷BòBóB‚ˆmatroskaB‡

So, strictly speaking, Vicious, you're correct. MMGUI only creates a pretend MP4, not a true MP4. But on the other hand, if this pretend MP4 plays just fine on the TV without the syncing problems that Jsteng ran into using MP4Box, he could just stick with that.

Alternatively, YAMB is a GUI frontend for MP4Box which should give you delay options so it can hopefully fix the sync issues while giving you a real MP4.

 

I come to deliver the final blow in this debate.

MKVToolnix does not install any MP4 muxer nor does it call upon any, but I tested anyways.

I started with a .MP4 file

I muxed it like normal with all the defaults.

Here is a detailed media info scan on the file.



The things to note are the file name (has a .mkv extension)
The Container (Matroska)
And the Writing Application (MKV Merge)

Now I did this again but this time I did what you said and renamed it to .mp4 within the program before hitting mux.

Sure enough just as I expected I got a file that is called .MP4

But whats that scan look like??



Lets look at the same 3 pieces of information again.
File name... it ends in .MP4 (Wow just like my analogy, this means nothing we TOLD it to name it this)

Container: Matroska! aka MKV
Writing Application.... MKV Merge
Not MP4Box or any other MP4 Multiplexer.

So going back to my analogy again and the reason I made it is so you could understand that sometimes programs have the ability to read a file type but they are specifically not programed to read it.

So if you just "lie" to the program and give it a fake extension it will work and that is what you did.

 

Gotcha. I learned something new today.

Still find it odd that JSteng's TV cannot read an MKV, but can read the same file if you slap an MP4 extension onto it.

 

Well remember it really only needs to read the files. Its not the same as changing a .JPG to a .GIF where you are changing the very file itself.

Changing a .MP4 to a .MKV is only changing the container and they both hold the exact same files.

It would be best to look at it like putting a bunch of .JPG in a .RAR or .ZIP file while the container changed its still only .JPG inside no matter what.

So the point here is that his TV can read the codecs used inside the container.