converting mkv

the corpo

seeing as most hd rips are mkv files, whats the best converter to get them to play on the xbox?

F-Stop

Advice on that here

Shamo

The best way i've found is using the tools MKVExtractGUI, MKVmergegui, h264info and GotSent.

You extract the audio and video parts of the HD rip using MKVExtract then open the .h264 file in h264info and enter 4.1 as the level (don't ask me what it does, but it's what the xbox 360 supports). Click Start and should complete ok.

Open MKVMerge and select both the new .h264 file and the .aac audio file. Highlight the .h264 file and then go into "Format Specific Options", enter the FPS as 23.976. Give it a new filename in the output and click Start Muxing.



Open the mkv file in GotSent, select safe sync and split > 4gb (max filesize supported is 4GB and generally the file will be over this.).

You should then have one or two .mp4 files that the 360 will play native, either through sharing out from your PC or sticking them on a usb drive.

Generally stick to 720p as 1080p can cause problems when the bitrate goes over the supported limit.

With the PS3, it supports the default level of 5.1 so people just use GotSent straight away and it does it all but we have to change the level of the video hence the hassle at the start.

Should all be done in around 15minutes.

You could just re-encode the entire film but it could take a few hours and you'd want to research if the software has been tried and tested with the 360.

the corpo

brilliant stuff, thanks!!!

the corpo

hmm, can't get this to work
seems fine, but when i try to play on the xbox the file won't start.

is there anythign i need to do to the audio? it extracts as ac3. does it need to be acc?

Shamo

Ah no I meant to say .ac3 so that's fine.

Does it give you a blank screen trying to play or says file not supported? Does it play ok on your computer?

Are you playing the file shared out under WMP?

the corpo

plays back fine on computer


it goes to start the file, then just gives a blank screen. i call up the info panel and it's just paused at the initiation stage. no error message though.

playing from an external hard drive connected by USB, that plays regular divx perfectly (and HD trailers)

confused, i am!

Shamo

Is it beta 10 of Gotsent you got? The one for download here.

Noticed it's a newer version than I was using. Try purely using Gotsent and see if it works that way, maybe h264info is not needed anymore.

Have you got another rip to try as well?

the corpo

hmm, that page says there are plenty of bugs with 10, will try that beta 9

KPG

Hi guys,
Lots of great advice above but does anybody know how to do this for Apple TV.
I have been trying for a couple of weeks now. I hav used MKVExtract and covverted the h264 file using h264.info to 4.1. All went fine but when I tried to remux them using mp4box and yamb the resulting MP4 file wouldn't play even though it looks fine.

I also used GOTSENT but no joy:mad:

Any suggestions:(

KPG

sorry ment to say I'm using Windows XP not a MAC!!