Converting MKV(H.264/DTS/AC3) to MP4(H.264/5.1 AAC)

[hogri]

Hi,

PMS version: 1.25.1 (I just updated to 1.30.1 but was not able to test yet)

my problem is unfortunately rather unspecific. I am currently trying to figure out where the problem is and PS3's error messages are not really helping. I also tried the FAQ but I didn't find an easy solution.

What I am trying to do: I have several MKV files with HD content and H.264 video and usually AC3 or DTS audio. I want to play these files on the PS3 without live re-encoding. Sure, tsMuxer might help, but to my experience tsMuxer is often not working properly, causes lots of headache (esp. with DTS audio) and the resulting files have limited use outside of the PS3. MPEG4 on the other hand is rather elegant. A standardized container able to hold H.264 and 5.1 AAC. A file format that can be played natively on the PS3 and other devices.

So far so good. Here is what I achieved so far. I have a 10 GB MKV with H.264 and DTS. With ffmpeg 0.6.something I was able to convert it to an .m4v file which I could stream without any problems to the PS3 via PSM. Unfortunately, ffmpeg 0.6 is not mapping the DTS channels properly to AAC mapping (Center channel is on right channel and so on) so I switched to ffmpeg 0.8. With this version the mapping is correct, but the PS3 refuses to play the file. I get an "The data is corrupted" error upon selecting the file from PSM. This only occurs if I try to play the complete 10 GB .m4v. If I just remux some minutes of the video, it plays fine.

I heard there are some problems with large (>4GB) MP4 files on the PS3. This might seem like a plausible explanation why the complete file does not play. BUT before I was already able to play the whole 10 GB file (from ffmpeg 0.6 with wrong channel mapping). So either the 4GB limit is a hoax/misunderstanding (FAT on external drives connected to PS3 cannot hold >4GB files but that's no issue if streamed over network) or PMS does some magic to convince PS3 to play the file. Unfortunately I changed a lot of things including many PMS settings.

Has anyone ever played large MP4 files (>4 GB) successfully on the PS3? Are there relevant options I should try in PMS to play MP4 files? Any ideas what might be the problem in my case? I am rather looking for some ideas where to start than for a complete solution. The error messages from the PS3 are rather unhelpful.

[denogginizer]

It sounds like you want to convert the files yourself.
If that is the case, have you tried mkv2vob?
http://www.mkv2vob.com/
I use it to convert mkv files for the PS3 and it works quite well.

[Val Killmore]

I have an 11 GB MP4 with AAC audio, of Armageddon that plays fine on my PS3 using PMS.

As far as MKV2VOB.......it's fine if it can simply remux the video to MPG, maybe only needing to transcode the DTS, but when you have a 19 GB copy of Avatar, and you need to hard code the N'avi subs, at the best possible pic quality................I hope you have 24 hours or so when you don't need your computer. It's not the end all be all converter it claims. Plus it crashes lots on me, on every PC I have.

As far as tsMuxer. It works brilliantly with the version on PMS I use, and the updatede mPlayer/mEncoder. I'm frankly done with all these new versions. They seem to be more focused on features, rather than actual playback.

The latest SubJunk version fails EASILY with 70% of my movies that play perfect on the Magma version I use, from MKV to MP4 to DivXHD......etc. It is slow to populate folders/files. It 'hiccups' alot in native avi and mp4 playback.

I'm not going to suggest you use the same version as I do (probably get chastised for it)...................but:

if you don't need subs often, would like to use tsMuxer as often as possible, would like DTS to work great....................and if you have a Xbox360 this version allows for 5.1 audio streaming to it......... don't really give a shit whether iTunes library works or not................... well........

.......my sig says it all. Best version I ever used...........period. At least on my gear.