HI,
I have a LOT of MKV's in my collection that I've made with Handbreak. I need to convert them to M4V's for compatibility reasons... Is there an easy way to do this on Windows? As much as possible I'd like to use passthrough for AC3 audio and passthrough for video, no transcoding. I'd also like to keep all the subtitles, if possible.
Could someone point me to the simplest way to do this, without transcoding the video?
Thanks!
Need to convert Handbreak MKV's to M4V's
Forum rules
An Activity Log is required for support requests. Please read How-to get an activity log? for details on how and why this should be provided.
An Activity Log is required for support requests. Please read How-to get an activity log? for details on how and why this should be provided.
-
ShanghaiKnight
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2012 2:40 pm
Re: Need to convert Handbreak MKV's to M4V's
Just use the Apple TV 2 preset, or if you have an Apple TV Generation 3, use the Apple TV 3 preset in handbrake's "Devices" presets, it will create .m4v files as well as let you pass through the AC3 audio track.
As far as transcoding, that has to be done, when going from one kind of container type like MKV, to M4V. As far a image quality, I think the image quality is outstanding, when compared to the original.
As for subtitles, these are only allowed to be burned in, when they are encoded in handbrake as part of an M4V video file, there is no support for subtitles as a separate track, (that can be turned on and off.)
Make sure you tick off the correct subtitle track in the Subtitle tab of handbrake and select burned in, or they will not be added to the finished M4V file.
M4V format is Apples extension designation for there brand of video file, (used with iTunes.) It is a modified version of MP4 but can contain more tracks of differing types, than a standard MP4 file can, (like multiple audio tracks of different types such as AAC, AC3 both at the same time) so that the same video file can be played back on iPhones, iPods, (using AAC) and Apple TV can use both, but normally uses AC3.
As far as transcoding, that has to be done, when going from one kind of container type like MKV, to M4V. As far a image quality, I think the image quality is outstanding, when compared to the original.
As for subtitles, these are only allowed to be burned in, when they are encoded in handbrake as part of an M4V video file, there is no support for subtitles as a separate track, (that can be turned on and off.)
Make sure you tick off the correct subtitle track in the Subtitle tab of handbrake and select burned in, or they will not be added to the finished M4V file.
M4V format is Apples extension designation for there brand of video file, (used with iTunes.) It is a modified version of MP4 but can contain more tracks of differing types, than a standard MP4 file can, (like multiple audio tracks of different types such as AAC, AC3 both at the same time) so that the same video file can be played back on iPhones, iPods, (using AAC) and Apple TV can use both, but normally uses AC3.
Last edited by kfreeb on Mon Nov 19, 2012 4:29 pm, edited 12 times in total.
Re: Need to convert Handbreak MKV's to M4V's
You could also try AVIDEMUX which will not transcode but I don't know about the compatibility for your target device.
Re: Need to convert Handbreak MKV's to M4V's
You can easily copy the video and audio streams from an MKV into an M4V container losslessly with one of many tools out there. Avidemux will work beautifully for remuxing the audio and video from an MKV to M4V container without transcoding: simply load up your MKV file, set the output container to MP4 (different name for the same container format as your target M4V), make sure the audio and video are left on the default 'copy' mode, then save out a new file.
Another tool that should work is YAMB, which is a GUI frontend for a command line tool MP4Box. It hasn't been updated in a few years and last time I reinstalled I found I needed to 1) updated the version of MP4Box that's packaged with YAMB because the old version that's in the installer has a few issues resulting in program crashes when processing certain H.264 video streams, and 2) MKVextract is another tool included in the YAMB installer that it needs in order to work with MKV files but I didn't have one or two of the DLLs it needs to do it's job so I had to go google up copies on my own. YAMB is the more involved tool to get working properly, but I believe it should be able to handle your subtitle tracks as well.
One thing about those subtitles tracks, I assume if you ripped these to MKV with Handbrake originally then the subs are vobsub format as copied straight off the original DVDs. Even if you're able to get YAMB working and copying those subtitle tracks you'll have to make sure whatever you want to play these on can actually use that type of subtitle track. If it can't then you'll have to either do without the subs or transcode while burning in the subs so that they're a permanent part of the video itself. If you have to resort to that then re-ripping your original DVDs might be the best way to go.
Another tool that should work is YAMB, which is a GUI frontend for a command line tool MP4Box. It hasn't been updated in a few years and last time I reinstalled I found I needed to 1) updated the version of MP4Box that's packaged with YAMB because the old version that's in the installer has a few issues resulting in program crashes when processing certain H.264 video streams, and 2) MKVextract is another tool included in the YAMB installer that it needs in order to work with MKV files but I didn't have one or two of the DLLs it needs to do it's job so I had to go google up copies on my own. YAMB is the more involved tool to get working properly, but I believe it should be able to handle your subtitle tracks as well.
One thing about those subtitles tracks, I assume if you ripped these to MKV with Handbrake originally then the subs are vobsub format as copied straight off the original DVDs. Even if you're able to get YAMB working and copying those subtitle tracks you'll have to make sure whatever you want to play these on can actually use that type of subtitle track. If it can't then you'll have to either do without the subs or transcode while burning in the subs so that they're a permanent part of the video itself. If you have to resort to that then re-ripping your original DVDs might be the best way to go.
-
ShanghaiKnight
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2012 2:40 pm
Re: Need to convert Handbreak MKV's to M4V's
Thanks for the advice! It seems that M4V can handle the subtitles, but certain devices may not be able to read them. Anything I need to look out for with AC3 or AAC Audio?
Thanks!
Thanks!
-
ShanghaiKnight
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2012 2:40 pm
Re: Need to convert Handbreak MKV's to M4V's
OK, I don't seem to get the subtitles to transfer over... Trying to figure out how to do this...
'
The M4V subtitles in Handbreak for my natively created M4V's seem to have soft subs... I read in other forums that soft subs are supported...
Tried to post in Avidemux forum, but registration is disabled?? Anyhoo.
Maybe I can do without subtitles for old encodes?
'
The M4V subtitles in Handbreak for my natively created M4V's seem to have soft subs... I read in other forums that soft subs are supported...
Tried to post in Avidemux forum, but registration is disabled?? Anyhoo.
Maybe I can do without subtitles for old encodes?
Re: Need to convert Handbreak MKV's to M4V's
Oh I'm sorry, I guess I wan't clear. Avidemux should work with the video and audio but NOT the subtitles, hence why I went on to mention YAMB as an alternative that I believe should work with your subs.