mkv2vob: New App to Remux MKV x264/AC3 which play on PS3 [Archive]

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3r1c

13th November 2007, 18:56

I have created a program which will remux mkv with x264 video and AC3 audio to a vob file which is playable on the sony ps3.
No transcoding/recompression is done, the streams are simply split and mux into the vob.
Previously there was no way to get AC3 audio on the ps3, only AAC stereo.

Takes only a few mins to convert a file.

Download program
http://www.3r1c.eu/mkv2vob/mkv2vob.exe

Official Homepage
http://www.mkv2vob.com/

V2.4.5 18/Feb/2009
Added DTS can now be transcoded to AC3 in AVCHD mode (if you want to reduce filesize).
Fixed "unsupported" or "out of memory" error on ps3 with some split files.
Fixed old ac3 encoder which causes stuttering still used when downsampling/fixing ac3.
Fixed DVD-5 split sometimes a few bytes too large.

V2.4.4 16/Feb/2009
Added DTS can now be played from file without transcoding (Disc/Streaming). *
Added support for MKV with XviD/DivX video.
Fixed Drag and Drop not recognize ts and rar files.
Fixed AC3 skipping/stutter on some decoders.
Fixed Drag and Dropping a folder with "delete folder" checked may delete wrong folder.
Fixed "Error Transcoding Video" on MKV missing bitrate flag.
Fixed "Insufficient Disk Space" error when splitting to small fat32 drives.

* Do not change any settings in the ps3 that effects audio playback.
The PS3 must pass the DTS to your audio receiver untouched.
The options when you press triangle must be Audio: Left + Right and Volume: Normal.

V2.4.3 05/Feb/2009
Added support for SSA subtitles.
Added ability to browse network folders.
Added Drag and Drop support (both files and directories).
Added XviD transcodes are now XBOX 360 compatible with full 5.1 AC3 playback.
Added support for video with variable frame rate (it will be transcoded to CFR).
Added AVCHD 720p with height above 584 can now be converted without transcoding.
Added support for audio which is not 48Khz in AVCHD mode (eg. MP3).
Added "Use 448kbps AC3" will now downconvert 640kbps AC3.
Added detect if temp/dest folder is writable to avoid strange errors if its not.
Added detect and abort if temp folder is on a FAT32 formatted drive.
Added abort if "transcode: never" is selected and video would be unplayable.
Added display reason video is being transcoded. *
Added assume subtitles in mkv without a language flag is your preferred lanaguage.
Fixed runtime error in AVCHD mode if subtitles contain bad time codes.
Fixed error converting some DTS-ES tracks to AC3/PCM.
Fixed unable to choose a temp/dest directory in the root of an empty drive.
Fixed subtitles incorrectly displayed on DBCS windows (eg. traditional chinese).
Fixed error transcoding or very large output on non-english windows.
Fixed muxing failed on MAC when used in vmware.
Fixed audio lanaguage preference not working with vorbis/mp3.
Fixed parse error with some H.264 mkv's which were not encoded with x264.
Fixed PCM conversions which are larger then 4GB not working.
Fixed tsmuxer crash/partial output in AVCHD when subtitles contains long line.
Fixed no subtitles visible in AVCHD when first subtitle starts at 00:00:00
Fixed "Skip Already Converted" not detecting AVCHD conversions.
Fixed mencoder crash at end of some files.
Fixed detect if tsmuxer crashes for any reason during AVCHD muxing.

* Transcoding reason display:
REF = Too many reference frames (Not Level 4.1)
VFR = Variable Frame Rate
SUB = Subtitles
RES = Bad AVCHD resolution
CFG = You set transcode to Always

V2.4.2 22/Jan/2009
Added support for MPEG/L3 (MP3) audio.
Added "Use 448kbps AC3" option, for decoders that require it, 640kbps is the default.
Added "Use Old File Format" option (uses M2TS container like the old versions).
Restored "Output File Extension" option.
Fixed MKV file deleted + parse error if source is in a subfolder of the destination.
Fixed loader.exe deleted by some anti-virus scanners (false detection, there was no virus).
Fixed AVCHD mode transcoded all 720p files even if its not needed.
Fixed freeze/crash/error when output directory is a FAT32 file system.
Fixed check boxes in config tab looked strange on some windows themes.
Fixed progress bar not working in second stage of PCM transcoding.
Note: If you get green bar in AVCHD, press "Top Menu" on your remote.

V2.4.1 20/Jan/2009
Fixed Audio/Video transcoding fails on CPU's with more then 6 cores.
Fixed AVCHD mode results in Muxing Failed under some conditions.
Due to the PS3 downscales 720p which is not exactly 1280x720 in AVCHD mode to 480p, such videos are now transcoded and black bars added.
The green bar removal patch appears to work fine with odd resolution 1080p video so no transcoding needed.

V2.4.0 20/Jan/2009
Added AVCHD: Disc output mode (note: AVCHD is same as Blu-Ray so you can burn to BD-R too).
Added AVCHD: USB output mode (AVCHD on a usb drive).
Added AVCHD: USB output mode automatic splitting and playback for FAT32 without movie interruption.
Added AVCHD: DTS + Subtitles support without transcoding.
Added AVCHD: Automatically import chapter information from MKV.
Added AVCHD: Patch TSmuxeR AVCHD output to remove green bar without re-encoding.
Added AVCHD: Patch TSmuxeR AVCHD output to make subtitles play automatically.
Added AVCHD: Patch TSmuxeR AVCHD output to fix wrong m2ts file size indicator (causes freezing on splits).
Added x264 High Quality transcoding mode (almost lossless, file size is about 3x original),
Added option to convert incompatible audio to PCM instead of AC3 (requires HDMI audio decoder).
Added support for ASS subtitles.
Added Stop/Pause button.
Added detection of bad manual installation (cause of mkv parse error, please use the installer).
Added option to disable automatic update.
Added use standard Win32 API to run tools, should help with running in emulator on MAC/Linux.
Added support for DTS-ES audio.
Added support for VORBIS audio.
Added support for multi-core XviD encoding.
Improved x264 transcoding speed on multi-core processors.
Improved x264 transcoding speed by optimizing settings.
Fixed VirtualDubMod error when transcoding codec is set to XviD but no transcoding was required.
Fixed wrong audio codec muxed in XviD when the source mkv did not have an AC3 track.
Fixed progress bar not working in XviD muxing stage when no splitting required.
Fixed some letters missing in some subtitle languages.
Fixed Arabic subtitles not displayed correctly.
Fixed Unexpected Operation error on some files with AAC audio.
Fixed too big/small MPEG2 transcoded files.
Fixed file splitting was undersized by 2.34% (note: a little undersizing is normal).
Fixed "Installation ended prematurely" error with installer on some systems.
Fixed transcoded audio unplayable or with dropouts/clicks on some decoders.
Fixed various other minor bugs.
Removed file extension option, it is now set automatically (rename it manually if you want).
NOTE: PS3 Firmware 2.53 or higher is required, earlier version you will get no audio.

V2.3.2 2/Jan/2009
Fixed wrong subtitles when using SRT file.
Improved Automatic Level 4.1 detection

V2.3.1 23/Dec/2008
Fixed Overflow in DTS/AAC conversion.

V2.3.0 23/Dec/2008
Direct AAC to AC3 conversion (400% faster)
Direct DTS to AC3 conversion (300% faster)
H.264 level detection for files missing the x264 header. (eg. sample files)

V2.2.4 2/June/2008
Fixed bug where subtitle SRT filename that contained a comma would result in no subtitles in resulting conversion.
Disabled return code checking (this caused mencoder error for some people), instead its only treated as a warning of possible failure.
Improved "Repairing AC3" step, should keep all channels from the original ac3, this is a work-around to a tsmuxer bug, tsmuxer author please fix it!

V2.2.3 1/May/2008
Fixed some ac3 streams not accepted by tsmuxer (muxing failed error).
Added check if your windows regional settings interfere with math decimal functions and show a warning to change it (can cause disk space errors or out of sync if not fixed).
Added check on the return values of some tools, to better detect crashes that still result in a "success" status even though it failed.
Updated tsmuxer to 1.8.4(b)

V2.2.2 8/Apr/2008
Fixed sometimes xvid output not playable on ps3.
Fixed low quality x264 transcoding if source bitrate > 10mbps.
Other minor fixes.
Updated tsmuxer to 1.7.3(b)

V2.2.1 4/Apr/2008
Sorry in last version it was working fine then before uploading i updated tsmuxer to latest version which caused problems.
Fixed crash on .ts files (due to tsmuxer changed the format of the "stream info" line).
Downgraded tsmuxer to 1.6.3(b) due to bugs in latest version causing it to completely not work on some files.

V2.2.0 3/Apr/2008
Added multi-core transcoding support.
Added support for .TS as input file, will automatically join split .ts files in the format abc.0001.ts etc...
Added Hebrew subtitle support.
Added AAC 2 channel (stereo) support.
Fixed bug where rar set would not be deleted if you select the delete source option.
Fixed bug where some x264 transcoded files would be small filesize and very bad quality.
Updated tsmuxer to 1.7.2(b)

V2.1.2 26/Mar/2008
Added check if write access is allowed on temp and destination folder (would cause mkv parse error in previous versions).
Fixed "File not found" error.

V2.1.1 25/Mar/2008
Added option to increase subtitle size.
Added missing vorbis.dll and ogg.dll (for avi splitting).
Removed automatic xvid 2GB splitting as no longer needed with new ps3 firmware.
Updated tsmuxer to 1.6.3(b)
Splitting now uses tsmuxer's new split function for added speed.

V2.1.0 5/Mar/2008
Added XviD and x264 transcoding options.
Fixed wrong center/right channel order in AAC conversion.
Fixed some subtitle letters in latin character set incorrectly rendered (French, Spanish, etc...).
Fixed incorrect rendering of Chinese and Arabic characters.
Fixed out of sync on files mixed with NTSC video and PAL audio (untested, someone send me a sample if it doesnt work).
Work around tsmuxer bug with comma in file or directory name (causes Muxing Failed error).
Various other small code changes I forgot.

V2.0.5 26/Feb/2008
Updated tsmuxer to 1.3.6
Fixed Overscan Compensation not working.
Fixed SRT files not in UTF-8 special characters replaced with underscore.
Fixed Greek character encoding for subtitles.

V2.0.4 25/Feb/2008
Added Always Encode Subtitles option.
Added Load Subtitles from SRT option (put srt file in same folder as mkv with same name).
Added Overscan Compensation option (if subtitles look cut off on your tv).
Added more detailed descriptions for config options.
Added various other small improvements.
Fixed "Insufficient Disk Space" error where your decimal seperator of your OS is not a dot (some foreign windows versions).
Fixed "Type mismatch" run time error for some people.

V2.0.3 final 24/Feb/2008
Fixed broken AAC to DTS conversion.
Fixed error extracting mkv if audio is ac3 and subtitles on.
Final version, tested on xp working completely.

V2.0.2 beta 24/Feb/2008
Added subtitles support.
Removed need for h264info.
Updated tsmuxer.
Remux now 300-400% faster.
Updated disk space check to ignore 0 result, and provide a more detailed error.
Tweaked loader.exe so it does not set off nod32.

V2.0.1 beta 22/Feb/2008
Added boost AAC/DTS volume option.
Fixed overflow crash.
Fixed file splitting cut off after 2gb.

V2.0.0 beta 22/Feb/2008
Im making this a beta because its untested with windows xp (i only have vista)
Completely new GUI with tons of features so I probably forgot to list them all.
Allows set temp directory.
Set preferred audio language.
File splitting (FAT32, DVD-R etc...)
Select a rar file and it automatically unrar and convert the mkv.
Queue multiple files for batch processing.
Queue entire directory for batch processing.
Support files with AAC audio (converts to AC3).
Checks if enough free disk space before each step.
Faster mpeg2 transcoding.
Automatically checks for and downloads updates each time its started.
Fixed bug with mpeg2 stuttering in the beginning and then out of sync.
Fixed bug with files encoded with latest x264.exe might be unnecessarily transcoded.
KNOWN BUG: tsmuxer crashes after muxing mpeg2 video, i have worked around this for vista by autoclose the crash window, for xp you probably have to click end task manually.
KNOWN BUG: split files might have a few seconds of video corruption in the beginning, i dont know how to find the keyframes sorry, i worked around this by duplicating the first few seconds at the end of the previous file.
POSSIBLE BUG: The filesize used for splitting is done using file sizes from specifications on wikipedia, i have not tested if it actually fits on fat32,dvd-r etc..
WARNING: Be careful with the "delete file/folder" after convert option, it might not detect all possible failures/crashes of the conversion tools.

V1.5.3 03/Feb/2008
Improved MPEG2 Transcoding, should fix freeze at the start and out of sync.
Updated tsmuxer to latest version

V1.5.2 28/Jan/2008
Fixed bug with long filenames with DTS give "Error creating AC3 from WAV!"
DTS now recompresses to higher 640bit quality instead of 384bit.

V1.5.1 27/Jan/2008
Fixed muxing bug, 1.5 was completely non-functional sorry.

V1.5 27/Jan/2008
Added Fast forward/rewind support

V1.4.1 10/Jan/2008
Fixed V_MS/VFW/FOURCC error.
Added missing file pcrecpp.dll

V1.4 10/Jan/2008
Removed confusing yes/no prompt.
Added auto/always/never transcoding option.
Added some options to prevent audio out of sync when transcoding.

V1.3.1 20/Dec/2007
You will now be asked if you want to enable the mpeg2 transcoding option (click YES unless you split mkv into parts and you know it plays).
Fixed some bugs with mpeg2 transcoding where the audio is DTS.

V1.3 19/Dec/2007
Added detection of files that would be unplayable on ps3 (black screen) these files will now be transcoded to mpeg2.
Added 1080p support.

V1.2.1 25/Nov/2007
Fixed bug with foreign character sets which use , as a decimal seperator.

V1.2 16/Nov/2007
Fixed A/V sync problem if video framerate is not 23.976
Added DTS support (DTS is not playable by the ps3, but is converted to AC3 by the program)

spida_singh

13th November 2007, 18:59

Hi

Many thanks for this, will test and advise accordingly.:thanks:

:EDIT:

Please include dll files within package

Error message received if they are not present in tools route folder, I copied them over from xvid4psp program files folder, testing full 720p file.

3r1c

13th November 2007, 20:19

Thanks.
Rar updated to include dll files.

guada2

13th November 2007, 21:22

Hello 3r1c,

just a question:
Where can I find pthreadGC2.dll?

Thanks.

Adub

13th November 2007, 21:32

One word: Google

guada2

13th November 2007, 21:47

OK Merlin7777 :)

3r1c your program function.

but i have another question:
Have you tried to play a file.vob with format 160*112 on the sony ps3?

Do you know another player (except MPC) able to play your file?

Bye.

spida_singh

13th November 2007, 22:10

Hi

All ok once audio finishes, I then just get an error stating "Error extrackting from mkv!"

Any ideas why?

Regards

3r1c

13th November 2007, 22:12

It seems i had alot of the dll's in my system32 directory so i didnt know it was required to package them too.

I have now tested it on a seperate computer and included all the dlls including missing pthreadGC2.dll in the rar.

As for players i dont know.
This was done to allow playback on ps3 only.
I assume if your using a pc to playback you can just play the mkv without converting at all??

3r1c

13th November 2007, 22:19

Hi

All ok once audio finishes, I then just get an error stating "Error extrackting from mkv!"

Any ideas why?

Regards

Do you see the box counting up the % extracted in mkvextract?

"Error extracting from mkv" is when after running mkvextract the two output files (.h264 and .ac3) are missing, meaning the extact failed.

If you downloaded this earlier before my post 5 mins ago download and extract the rar again to make sure you have all the dlls.

spida_singh

13th November 2007, 23:42

Do you see the box counting up the % extracted in mkvextract?

"Error extracting from mkv" is when after running mkvextract the two output files (.h264 and .ac3) are missing, meaning the extact failed.

If you downloaded this earlier before my post 5 mins ago download and extract the rar again to make sure you have all the dlls.

Thanks, re testing now...

spida_singh

13th November 2007, 23:52

Still getting the same error at the same point, any suggestions why?

It gets to 99%, then shuts down?, temp files disappear

3r1c

14th November 2007, 01:01

are you sure the mkv has only one audio and one video stream, and that they are h264 and ac3?

copy/paste the text on the window before it gets to 99%

3r1c

14th November 2007, 05:55

Still getting the same error at the same point, any suggestions why?

It gets to 99%, then shuts down?, temp files disappear

Fixed "Error extracting from mkv" when the mkv is bigger then 2GB.

Found the problem when using it with one of my own files.
Previously i only tested it on 1.1gb files.

djskribbles

14th November 2007, 10:47

thank you! tried it out and it works. can't fastforward as you said but it works nonetheless. when i played it on my PC, the video was playing as if it were on fastforward, but i played it on my PS3 and it played fine.

i wish the PS3 just supported the mkv container.

edit: by "can't fastforward" i meant that you can, but it doesn't resume.

~bT~

14th November 2007, 10:56

a bit off topic: but does the 360 support these files as is or does it need remuxing too?

SeeMoreDigital

14th November 2007, 11:07

Interesting....

Could sombody upload a working test sample please?

Many thanks

jagaskywalker

14th November 2007, 16:49

Does it work with DTS audio tracks ?

Possible improvements:
Would it be possible to select the audio track in case there is more than one ?

Does it work with subtitles ?

3r1c

14th November 2007, 17:45

It didnt work on the xbox360.

The program should mux DTS, but if the ps3 plays it i dont know, i dont have any mkv with dts to test it.

It doesnt support subtitiles, i will see if i can include that soon and select audio track.

spida_singh

14th November 2007, 19:27

Everything runs through ok, but, when i try to play the output file on my pc, using media player classic, only the audio can be heard, no video, temp files again get deleted. The final file size is 4.42GB, any suggestions? :confused:

Regards

:::EDIT:::

Ignore above, everything worked perfect, streamed media through tversity fine, now get 5.1 ac3 and untouched h264

Thanks a lot for the program. Good work! One suggestion, when demuxing, can the program use the input folder as the temp directory for the raw h264 and ac3, it will speed up process if working on the same harddrive, as I have partitioned drives, the pc takes longer using my main drive to mux over the files onto a seperate drive.

Regards!

Image attached:thanks:

akirax

14th November 2007, 21:04

Not working.

I have a .mkv with video 23.976fps and audio 25fps when mkvextrct extract the a/v and then remux to .vob the video play desincronized.

DiZzle.

14th November 2007, 22:36

3r1c

14th November 2007, 23:10

Hi there,

I'm new on this forum, i've already read a lot of threads on this forum to find a gui to convert and playback video files on my ps3, and this one works great for me. Thx!

One suggestion, changing avc level by using hexedit is a lot faster, maybe something for your app?

I tried this method first, using seek and put to modify the bytes without creating a duplicate .h264 file, but the resulting file did not play back on the ps3.
Changing it with h264info was the only way that worked.

3r1c

14th November 2007, 23:16

Not working.

I have a .mkv with video 23.976fps and audio 25fps when mkvextrct extract the a/v and then remux to .vob the video play desincronized.

How can you have video/audio at different rates and expect it to play in sync?

All this program does is demux and mux.
It doesnt fix your audio so its the same length as video.
It doesnt care about or change the framerate or recompress or touch the video/audo in any way.
If your streams arent to spec in the first place, the output wont be either.
Your invalid file may work on your pc but the ps3 is very fussy about what it will play.

djskribbles

15th November 2007, 04:35

so do you know why you can't fastforward/rewind? is it at all possible to fix the issue? other than that, it worked flawlessly.

akirax

15th November 2007, 15:20

How can you have video/audio at different rates and expect it to play in sync?

All this program does is demux and mux.
It doesnt fix your audio so its the same length as video.
It doesnt care about or change the framerate or recompress or touch the video/audo in any way.
If your streams arent to spec in the first place, the output wont be either.
Your invalid file may work on your pc but the ps3 is very fussy about what it will play.

I´m from Spain.

I download a .mkv, when demux to h.264 the video is 23.976fps and the audio (spanish) .ac3 is 25fps. Then when mux into a .vob the a/v is desincronized. In the .mkv is sincronized, but when demux the .mkv lost the a/v Synchronization.

Sorry for my bad english.

3r1c

15th November 2007, 17:26

because vob does not support different a/v rates.
if you can give me a sample i will see if i can fix it

Grimmi Meloni

15th November 2007, 18:27

3r1c, would you mind sharing the ffmpeg commands your tool internally runs?

I have a script on my linux box, which does the same but reencodes the audio to AAC. I would like to adapt it.

What I basically do is:

- "mkvmerge -i" to get the info which track is what (audio/video)
- "mkvextract"
- change h264 level to 4.1
- decode ac3 with a52dec
- reencode audio with neroaac
- mp4box everything

From the tools that are included I think i just need the ffmpeg call you make.

Thanks!

akirax

15th November 2007, 18:47

because vob does not support different a/v rates.
if you can give me a sample i will see if i can fix it

Here is it:

http://rapidshare.com/files/65674336/S.P.3.x264.rar

Thank´s a lot 3r1c!

Regards.

gigo979

15th November 2007, 20:08

http://www.3r1c.eu/mkv2vob/mkv2vob.rar

link's dead ??

You can re-up??

Thanks
bye

3r1c

16th November 2007, 03:59

Here is it:

http://rapidshare.com/files/65674336/S.P.3.x264.rar

Thank´s a lot 3r1c!

Regards.

Fixed in v 1.2

SeeMoreDigital

16th November 2007, 09:23

Can anybody provide a "re-muxed" sample file yet?

akirax

16th November 2007, 09:34

Fixed in v 1.2

Thank you for your interest, but again the a/v is desincronized :confused:.

Regards.

3r1c

16th November 2007, 17:28

Thank you for your interest, but again the a/v is desincronized :confused:.

Regards.

It works for the sample file you gave me.

hyperspaced

16th November 2007, 17:59

Can you share with us the commands you use for demuxing & muxing? Especially for muxing back to VOB.

thanks.

akirax

16th November 2007, 20:07

It works for the sample file you gave me.

Umm...

When I play the sample in the PS3, the video is more quickly than the audio.

My PS3 is PAL.

Regards.

3r1c

16th November 2007, 20:41

Umm...

When I play the sample in the PS3, the video is more quickly than the audio.

My PS3 is PAL.

Regards.

Make sure you are playing from the beginning of the file and you have the 2.0 firmware.

I do not have a PAL ps3 to try this on, but they should play it the same, if not its a bug in the ps3 itself.

In the first version the sample you gave me played the video back slower (at 23.976 instead of 25 fps) this was corrected in the 1.2 fix, after the fix it played correctly for me.

I just double checked it again with your sample and it does indeed play back properly.

If your streaming through tversity make sure in Settings/Transcoder is set to "Never", save and restart.
Tversity sometimes tries to transcode the vob if set to "only when needed", this must not happen.

Here is the vob file that played for me, converted from your sample.
http://www.3r1c.eu/mkv2vob/25fps-sample.rar

3r1c

16th November 2007, 20:43

Can you share with us the commands you use for demuxing & muxing? Especially for muxing back to VOB.

thanks.

ffmpeg -r 23.976 -f h264 -i video.h264 -f ac3 -i audio.ac3 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f vob output.vob

buzzqw

16th November 2007, 20:46

the framerate is computed by analizing the media ... or not ?

BHH

glen8

16th November 2007, 20:49

Well done for being the first person to attempt this. I know of tons of people who would like to play .mkv on the ps3.

Unfortunately for me it doesn't work. Everything seems to go according to plan but the PS3 just tells me "no supported tracks" or something like that :(

3r1c

16th November 2007, 20:52

buzzqw: Framerate is got from mkvinfo.

glen8: No supported tracks sounds like you dont have the latest firmware 2.0. Renaming .vob to .mpg should make it show up, but i think only firmware 2.0 will be able to play it.

glen8

16th November 2007, 20:53

Thanks for the super quick reply. I didn't know sony had released a few firmware....I only checked the other week

Will go update now :D

:edit: Yep, I need a firmware update. Doing it now :-)

glen8

16th November 2007, 21:53

3r1c

16th November 2007, 22:37

3r1c, I don't suppose you know how to convert hd-dvd to blu-ray so it will play on the PS3 do you?

I got as far as stripping the video/audio from the .evo and remuxing it back through tsremux to .m2ts/blu-ray structure but the result was very choppy.

I'm sure there's an easy way to do it.

Thanks!

Nope, i could never get any blu-ray that wasnt mpeg2 to play back on the ps3, even ones i made from my camcorder.

You have to recompress it to x264, but i never done this.

Grimmi Meloni

16th November 2007, 22:47

I gave your ffmpeg commandline a shot on my linux box, but no success. :-(

Has anyone else succeeded in doing this manually? All I get is "incompatible data" on my PAL ps3. I tried renaming the vob to mpg but the only difference is, that the ps3 tries to play it once and then afterwards says it's incompatible data.

3rc1 - What are the exact steps your software take? Are they based on some other tutorial?

So again - basically all I have to do is:
- extract the h264 and ac3 streams
- change the level of the video to 4.1
- ffmpeg it into a vob

Or am I missing something in between?

3r1c

16th November 2007, 23:21

Grimmi Meloni

16th November 2007, 23:51

how are you changing the level to 4.1 without h264info which only runs on windows?

I had to implement my own editor. Basically it´s a java application which uses random access IO to get to the first few bytes and change the level. Anyway - I don´t think it´s connected to the level, since i use the same base streams for either vob or mp4. Only (but major :-) ) difference is that the streams work in an mp4 container, and in the vob it does not. OK, that and the ac3 vs. aac thing.

Anyway - I will give your tool a shot on my windows box, and see how it goes.

3r1c

17th November 2007, 00:28

Your level changer is definately the problem.

I tried this method first in my program, editing the bytes with random access, the ps3 wont play it.

Grimmi Meloni

17th November 2007, 10:27

Your level changer is definately the problem.

I tried this method first in my program, editing the bytes with random access, the ps3 wont play it.

Too bad, but I guessed so since h264info also takes quite some time to finish it´s job. Does anybody know what exactly h264info does change in the files - except for the level?

Another thing: I tried streaming the file of your app to my PS3 through fuppes. No luck there. I had to put it on a dvd-rw media, to make it work. So I guess there are two problems here. Well, one step at a time....

ExSport

17th November 2007, 11:23

akirax

17th November 2007, 12:34

Make sure you are playing from the beginning of the file and you have the 2.0 firmware.

I do not have a PAL ps3 to try this on, but they should play it the same, if not its a bug in the ps3 itself.

In the first version the sample you gave me played the video back slower (at 23.976 instead of 25 fps) this was corrected in the 1.2 fix, after the fix it played correctly for me.

I just double checked it again with your sample and it does indeed play back properly.

If your streaming through tversity make sure in Settings/Transcoder is set to "Never", save and restart.
Tversity sometimes tries to transcode the vob if set to "only when needed", this must not happen.

Here is the vob file that played for me, converted from your sample.
http://www.3r1c.eu/mkv2vob/25fps-sample.rar

Your sample works, but when I make is desincronized.

I play from the beginning of the file and I have the 2.0 firmware.

I download the mkv2vob.rar at this moment (not old version), extract, open mkv2vob.exe, select a .mkv (spiderman sample), I select the output name .vob, save, wait to finish.

I burn the sample to a DVD-RW and then play from there or copy to the HD of PS3 and is desincronized.

In my computer also is desincronized.

I need special codec pack?

Regards.

dd03pehe

17th November 2007, 13:00

First I must thank you for a great app! I have been waiting for an app like this for a very long time now.

I have the exactly the same issue as akirax. On the files I made myself the video plays fast the first 10 seconds and then becomes choppy and the a/v is out of sync. On your files, however, it works perfect.

I have only tried on 2 files so far but I will investigate it some more during the day and see if I can find whats causing it.

I also got the 'no titles' problem where I cant see the .vob files on my USB memory. But I did just set it to display all and then it worked fine.

Im on a PAL PS3 with 2.0 firmware.

Regards,

dd03pehe

17th November 2007, 13:22

Strange.. If I click display on my PS3 during the playback it cant calculate the bitrate on my files. It says - kbps on both the audio and the video. On your file (the heroes sample) it can calculate without problems.

Regards,

glen8

17th November 2007, 13:32

ok, I converted two tv shows lastnight from .mkv to .vob

I burnt them onto a dvd and watched both on my PS3

I'm 99% happy. The only problem is that it sometimes goes slightly out of sync. It seems to be around the middle but usually goes back in sync again :confused:

SeeMoreDigital

17th November 2007, 13:42

Thanks very much for the sample 3r1c... :)

Cheers

dd03pehe

17th November 2007, 14:56

Yay. I got it to work now :-)
What I did was
1. Extract the .mkv to .h264 and .ac3 with MKVExtractGui
2. Change level to 4.1 with h264info_alpha0011.
IMPORTANT: If I used the alpha 12 version It didnt work!
3. Mux it together with your ffmpeg line: ffmpeg -r 23.976 -f h264 -i video.h264 -f ac3 -i audio.ac3 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f vob output.vob

Thats it. I only tried on a 50MB 720p.mkv though, will try on something bigger now.

ExSport

17th November 2007, 15:49

2. Change level to 4.1 with h264info_alpha0011.
IMPORTANT: If I used the alpha 12 version It didnt work!

And what about Alpha 13?

dd03pehe

17th November 2007, 16:05

And what about Alpha 13?

Sorry I meant the alpha 13. The one that came bundled with the mkv2vob.rar didnt work or me. With alpha 11 it works perfect.

dd03pehe

17th November 2007, 19:06

Works to stream from an UPnP media server aswell :) Watching my new created vobs from my server now and it works like a charm. I have never been as happy with my PS3 as I am today!

wizziwig

17th November 2007, 19:27

glen8

17th November 2007, 19:30

Just converting another .mkv now which is a 2hr 720p movie. It is coming up with the message 'buffer underflow, packet too large'. It looks like it's muxing it anyway so I'll let it carry on and test it when finished.

To the poster above, I haven't tested them on the PC but will do and report back

dd03pehe

17th November 2007, 19:58

_leech_

18th November 2007, 00:34

Any progress on getting 1080p content working?

3r1c

18th November 2007, 02:20

to 3r1c:
Thanks for your great prog, tried it today on PlanetEarth 1080p.
What I found is that original resolution of MKV has 1920x1080 but "converted" VOB(it begins from H264 extraction) file has 1920x1088.
Maybe bug in Media Info, maybe the problem why on Ps3 there is a blank screen.
Tried to fix it with H264info to set it back to 1920x1080 but without success:-(
What resolution(1080p source) was your extracted H264 file or final VOB?
Thanks ExSport

EDIT:
I forgot one bug:-)
When you use regional settings which use decimal sign "," instead of "." then application will terminate with an error.
But it is maybe problem of used utilities, didn't tried them alone...

The video stream is only extracted and copied, its not recompressed so its impossible the resolution has changed.

The problem must be with whatever tool you used to check it is giving you the wrong size.

Where are you reading the res from?

Please explain what you mean by regional settings?
Where is a , used instead of . ?

3r1c

18th November 2007, 02:24

I have not tried it on a PS3 but I'm surprised that it plays these files. I looked at the 720p sample on your site and it didn't play on any Windows player I tried (mplayer, vlc, powerdvd, etc.). I only get audio.

Has anyone been able to play these files on anything but a PS3?

the whole purpose of this program is to allow it to be played on the ps3. you can just watch an mkv on your pc without any conversion.

It probably wont play in any program, the fact it plays on the ps3 at all is pure luck becuase h264 in vob is non standard.

3r1c

18th November 2007, 02:27

Your sample works, but when I make is desincronized.

I play from the beginning of the file and I have the 2.0 firmware.

I download the mkv2vob.rar at this moment (not old version), extract, open mkv2vob.exe, select a .mkv (spiderman sample), I select the output name .vob, save, wait to finish.

I burn the sample to a DVD-RW and then play from there or copy to the HD of PS3 and is desincronized.

In my computer also is desincronized.

I need special codec pack?

Regards.

The only thing i can think of is one of the dll's in the tools folder is already installed on your pc system32 folder or registered by some other program and its using that one instead of the proper one.

Copy all the dll files from the tools folder to your c:\windows\system32 overwrite any existing.

Right click on the mkv2vob.exe and goto properties, make sure version is 1.2.0

3r1c

18th November 2007, 02:32

Any progress on getting 1080p content working?

ill do some testing. i think the problem with 1080p is that vob cant handle the high bitrate.

ExSport

18th November 2007, 12:10

The video stream is only extracted and copied, its not recompressed so its impossible the resolution has changed.

The problem must be with whatever tool you used to check it is giving you the wrong size.

Where are you reading the res from?

Please explain what you mean by regional settings?
Where is a , used instead of . ?
I know that video is not recompressed, MKV file has 1920x1080 resolution but when you extracted video track(H264) then it has 1920x1088 and also final VOB has 1920x1088.
You can try yourself with this sample.
SAMPLE MKV (http://rapidshare.com/files/70532033/Planet.Earth.01.From.Pole.to.Pole.2006.1080p.HDDVD.x264-AJP-sample.mkv.html)
Tried to change it to 1920x1072 with H264info but again blank screen.
For file info I use newest MediaInfo (http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net)
With regional settings I mean that when you change this settings in Control Panel to e.g. Czech, then for decimal separator is used "," instead of "." so when program e.g. divides, you will see divide by zero or similar error because eg. 4,23 is not interpreted as 4.23, understand me now?:)
But as I said, maybe it is bug in used utilities and not your prog:)
And thanks for your work!

ExSport

18th November 2007, 12:14

the whole purpose of this program is to allow it to be played on the ps3. you can just watch an mkv on your pc without any conversion.

It probably wont play in any program, the fact it plays on the ps3 at all is pure luck becuase h264 in vob is non standard.
No problem to play it on my PC.
For H264 videos I use CoreAVC decoder and Media Player Classic.

Has123

18th November 2007, 15:32

Has123

18th November 2007, 15:37

the whole purpose of this program is to allow it to be played on the ps3. you can just watch an mkv on your pc without any conversion.

It probably wont play in any program, the fact it plays on the ps3 at all is pure luck becuase h264 in vob is non standard.

Would it make more sense to mux into an mp4 container instead?

SeeMoreDigital

18th November 2007, 15:48

It probably wont play in any program, the fact it plays on the ps3 at all is pure luck becuase h264 in vob is non standard.Instead of placing the streams into the .VOB container, how about placing them into the .EVO container?

Has123

18th November 2007, 15:58

Instead of placing the streams into the .VOB container, how about placing them into the .EVO container?

Really the best container for ps3 will be a ts/m2ts. I do not think the ps3 can play evo files.

SeeMoreDigital

18th November 2007, 16:51

Really the best container for ps3 will be a ts/m2ts. I do not think the ps3 can play evo files.In that case I guess TSremux or VLC player could be used...

Has123

18th November 2007, 17:02

In that case I guess TSremux or VLC player could be used...

Sony is working on a fix for firmware 2.0 as many users have problems with it and also on support for DIVX so I think we should wait and not transcode/remux our libraries as the ps3's file support is a work in progress. eg I reencoded a h264 ts 1080i to mpg 1080p worked perfectly on fw 1.93 and not on fw 2.0 and now the original file works perfect on fw 2.0.
TSRemux does not work with h264 mkv, only with mpg mkv according to the author.

3r1c

18th November 2007, 18:09

mp4 would be better except that ps3 does not play AC3 in mp4 so you would have to convert your audio to stereo 2.0.

VOB method is only way the ps3 will play h264 and AC3 5.1.

Has123

18th November 2007, 18:21

Certainly ts/m2ts support h264 AC3 5.1 and high bitrate.

3r1c

18th November 2007, 19:53

Certainly ts/m2ts support h264 AC3 5.1 and high bitrate.

yes but the ps3 wont play them.

even if you take a h264/ac3 bluray which plays, take the m2ts file and try to play it directly and ps3 wont play it.

3r1c

18th November 2007, 19:56

I know that video is not recompressed, MKV file has 1920x1080 resolution but when you extracted video track(H264) then it has 1920x1088 and also final VOB has 1920x1088.
You can try yourself with this sample.
SAMPLE MKV (http://rapidshare.com/files/70532033/Planet.Earth.01.From.Pole.to.Pole.2006.1080p.HDDVD.x264-AJP-sample.mkv.html)
Tried to change it to 1920x1072 with H264info but again blank screen.
For file info I use newest MediaInfo (http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net)
With regional settings I mean that when you change this settings in Control Panel to e.g. Czech, then for decimal separator is used "," instead of "." so when program e.g. divides, you will see divide by zero or similar error because eg. 4,23 is not interpreted as 4.23, understand me now?:)
But as I said, maybe it is bug in used utilities and not your prog:)
And thanks for your work!

I checked it and its definately a bug in mediainfo.
Both h264info and ffmpeg correctly read the .h264 file as 1920x1080.

Maybe ps3 makes the same mistake and thats why it wont play it, but i dont know.

Has123

18th November 2007, 20:01

yes but the ps3 wont play them.

even if you take a h264/ac3 bluray which plays, take the m2ts file and try to play it directly and ps3 wont play it.

My ps3 plays ts and m2ts(through TSRemux) with fw 2.0 though my source is not bluray ( 1440x1088i h264 with 5.1 AC3 ts files from a moded dish receiver).

SeeMoreDigital

18th November 2007, 20:33

I checked it and its definately a bug in mediainfo.
Both h264info and ffmpeg correctly read the .h264 file as 1920x1080.

Maybe ps3 makes the same mistake and thats why it wont play it, but i dont know.Sounds as though the original AVC video stream was encoded using mod-16 resolutions (like many broadcast MPEG-2 video streams), complete with an 1080 sequence header.

Cheers

3r1c

18th November 2007, 21:33

Sounds as though the original AVC video stream was encoded using mod-16 resolutions (like many broadcast MPEG-2 video streams), complete with an 1080 sequence header.

Cheers

i dont think so, the source is hddvd which is definately 1080 and not 1088.

could it be the encoder is encoding at 1088 and then lies that its 1080?
what would cause that to happen?

akirax

20th November 2007, 19:37

The only thing i can think of is one of the dll's in the tools folder is already installed on your pc system32 folder or registered by some other program and its using that one instead of the proper one.

Copy all the dll files from the tools folder to your c:\windows\system32 overwrite any existing.

Right click on the mkv2vob.exe and goto properties, make sure version is 1.2.0

This is the problem:

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee130/akirax23/25fps.jpg

25000fps, Can you change to 25 like this picture?

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee130/akirax23/4.jpg

I try with 25 and is perfect.

Regards!

pepperisback

24th November 2007, 12:10

So after a week of waiting to write here something down and testing I have found a solution for me and also a question.
At first when I tested mkv2vob the video played very fast but the audio normal. So mkv2vob doesn`t work for me. I had to do it step by step with the programs which you have used.
I have two mkv videos here at home. The first one worked only when I typed 25 frames and 4.1 in h264info and the other one only worked when I leave frames blank and type only 4.1.
The Spiderman Samply from you only worked with 25 frames. So can you tell me how can I found out if i have to choose 25 frames or to leave the field blank?

Thank You!

akirax

24th November 2007, 14:19

djskribbles

25th November 2007, 00:10

anyway to split the vob file in half? i have a file thats the size of a DL disc but i don't want to use a DL disc just to transfer it to my PS3.

puppydg68

25th November 2007, 04:45

Has123

25th November 2007, 14:12

Hi there, I just tried both a 720p MKV and 1080 MKV with AC3 audio x264
and the mk2vob worked okay without error, however when I stream it to my PS3, I get a blackscreen.. The audio works fine.

the resulting vob plays fine on the computer with MPC

Any ideas?

ps. after Firmware 2.01 is it possible to play H264+ac3 in a .TS or m2ts container? Most of my DVB stuff is like this.

Sure, and you probably should try that first. Just run your files through TSRemux ts or m2ts option (for some reason I need to do this step for the audio part to play). Actually the ps3 now has the capability to play h264 ts 1080i (PAFF).

puppydg68

25th November 2007, 17:04

Sure, and you probably should try that first. Just run your files through TSRemux ts or m2ts option (for some reason I need to do this step for the audio part to play). Actually the ps3 now has the capability to play h264 ts 1080i (PAFF).

This is what is strange any DVB stuff I have H264+ac3 in a TS container will not play, either tversity wants to transcode it or it shows data corrupted. Even after transcoding to M2TS. But of course BD-Rips play fine. So I know PS3 is capable of it, why won't any of the H264 DVB stuff run out of the TS or M2TS container.

Any idea why all of my converted mkv's come out with a black screen using MKV2VOB when played on PS3, tried at least 3 different clips.. The included vob sample works, but none of the ones I convert myself.

Has123

25th November 2007, 17:15

did you try the remuxed ts file from an external HDD or disable Tversity transcoding?

3r1c

25th November 2007, 19:38

In my testing i have found that if the video is 23.976 fps you must leave the framerate box blank in h264info. typing in 23.976 in the box will make it play wrong.

If the video is 25 fps you must type 25 in the framerate box.

mkv2vob does this automatically, but if your pc is set to use a comma (,) instead of a dot (.) as a decimal sparator, it wont work properly, because round(25,000) becomes 25000 instead of 25 as it would with round(25.000).

The ps3 firmware 2.01 has no new functions, it is a bug fix only.

krisq

25th November 2007, 19:54

I'm getting an error

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/9822/clipboard02gz6.jpg

It happens just after I define destination for output.

3r1c

25th November 2007, 19:56

Fixed bug with , as decimal seperator.

krisq

25th November 2007, 20:02

Fixed bug with , as decimal seperator.

Apparently that was it :D. Thanks!

3r1c

25th November 2007, 20:06

Apparently that was it :D. Thanks!

Excellent, actually this was something reported during the week, when i looked at your error message i did not know it was related.

I guess i killed two birds with one stone here :)

puppydg68

25th November 2007, 21:30

Excellent, actually this was something reported during the week, when i looked at your error message i did not know it was related.

I guess i killed two birds with one stone here :)

Do you have any idea why the PS3 has a black screen when I convert the MKV to VOB using your application? The heroes demo vob plays okay.

I've tried both 720 and 1080 MKV sources which are x264+ac3. Sound plays fine and in 5.1, just an all black screen.. The resulting vob plays on MPC. I've tried on 2 different machines, vista and xp.
I'll pm a test clip.

SeeMoreDigital

25th November 2007, 22:32

Do you have any idea why the PS3 has a black screen when I convert the MKV to VOB using your application?Maybe some tweaks are required to the "buffer underflow" rates....

akirax

25th November 2007, 23:19

Fixed bug with , as decimal seperator.

Thank´s a lot!!!:thanks::thanks::thanks:

Best regards!

3r1c

26th November 2007, 00:40

Do you have any idea why the PS3 has a black screen when I convert the MKV to VOB using your application? The heroes demo vob plays okay.

I've tried both 720 and 1080 MKV sources which are x264+ac3. Sound plays fine and in 5.1, just an all black screen.. The resulting vob plays on MPC. I've tried on 2 different machines, vista and xp.
I'll pm a test clip.

1080p wont work at all, i cant get it to work even doing it manually. i believe its because x264 encodes at 1088p and then spoofs it as 1080p, and ps3 wont accept this. (1080 is not a multiple of 16 which some codecs dont like).

720p works, i only ever had one file that showed the black screen.

if you can provide a sample of a 720p that wont play i will try to fix it.

puppydg68

26th November 2007, 01:57

Check your PM, 2nd link is 720p. I'll post another one for you as well.

3r1c

26th November 2007, 03:06

I cant find any problem with your sample.
It converts and plays properly on ps3.

Make sure your using latest ps3 firmware and also the new mkv2vob with the bug fix today.

Sickboy6th

26th November 2007, 09:20

I have been converting my libraries to MP4, AAC5.1 and im happy with that option except that its AAC5.1 and not AC3 5.1 and my audio decoder doesn't support AAC lol.

Im using the above method because fast-forward/backward seeking is always screwing up when im using a vob. If anyone is able to fix that I would be a happy camper as I can switch back to vob with AC3 :)

3r1c

26th November 2007, 09:25

unlikely it will be fixed, the fact it works at all is a surprise. do you really need to ff/rw a movie? in 2 years using xbox360 and ps3 to watching transcoded movies (which cant ff/rw) i never needed to anyway.

KnoKo

26th November 2007, 15:59

Hi 3r1c!
Thanks for this nice and easy app. Works great so far...

But bigger movies don't work for me, because my drive C is not big enough and so the temp-folder is too small.

Would it be possible to add a option to choose a different temp-folder on a different drive?

3r1c

28th November 2007, 07:19

well i found the problem with why 1080p and some 720p dont play.

its because they were encoded with the "--me umh" option to x264 which ps3 does not support.

Im not sure if this is a ps3 bug, or is umh mode not part of the official 264 specs?
There is no fix, stream must be re-encoded.

I will add detection to the next version.

Heroes.s02e10.720p.x264-dimension DOESNT PLAY on ps3
x264 - core 56 svn-680 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2005 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=7 deblock=1:-2:-1 analyse=0x3:0x133 me=umh subme=6 brdo=1 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=6 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=3 wpredb=1 bime=1 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40(pre) rc=2pass bitrate=3388 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30

House.s04e09.720p.x264-dimension PLAYS on ps3
x264 - core 56 svn-680 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2005 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=4 deblock=1:-2:-1 analyse=0x3:0x133 me=hex subme=6 brdo=1 mixed_ref=0 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=6 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=3 wpredb=1 bime=1 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40(pre) rc=2pass bitrate=3170 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30

buzzqw

28th November 2007, 08:28

the problem isn't uhm (afaik) but the high profile ( 8x8dct=1)

BHH

Grimmi Meloni

28th November 2007, 08:44

the problem isn't uhm (afaik) but the high profile ( 8x8dct=1)

Sure? I mean, they both have 8x8dct=1 set. Why should this make a difference, then?

pausefisk

28th November 2007, 10:07

Would it be possible to add .srt subtitles in this process?? Anyone know what the command line for ffmpeg would be if it can be added into?

foxyshadis

28th November 2007, 11:56

If umh causes a problem, then you'll need to restrict the mvrange - I don't know to what, sorry, you'll need to test. UMH can cause longer motion vectors for the same me range, because it jumps further than hex (and hex further than dia) with each step, and ESA can end up anywhere. x264 is within the standard (well, it was .25 off in one restriction until r679) but not all playback devices can handle the full range, this is a level restriction. (PS3 shouldn't whine since it's 4.1, but you never know.) See this notice (http://lists.mpegif.org/pipermail/mp4-tech/2005-April/005152.html) for starters.

krisq

28th November 2007, 12:03

AFAIR with v1.82 High Profile support was added to ps3.

zwirek75

28th November 2007, 13:56

3r1c

28th November 2007, 17:01

Well
I tried to use the application, but it seems I failed.
After I open a .mkv file it starts mediainfo, then does demuxing abd starts h264info utilty. But the utility is started eleven times and the main application is stopping with a message like "ERROR: Cannot find h264info window!"
Any clues ?
Tomasz

h264info doesnt have any command lines, so i used windows api to find its window handle and send keyboard keys to it.

It runs the h264info program and then gets a list of running processes, cycles through them till it finds one where the parent pid is itself.

Some antivirus dont like when one application tries to control another in this way and could be blocking it.

ultratoto14

28th November 2007, 17:51

SKAPiter

28th November 2007, 22:23

3r1c, thanks for the great tool!

Question: Is it possible to mux 2 or more audio tracks into the vob? If yes, can you provide such support in the new version? If for some reason you're not interested in supporting multiple audio tracks in your app, can you please give me the ffmpeg command line to do this manually?

Thanks in advance!

3r1c

28th November 2007, 22:56

The ps3 wont play vob's with multiple audio tracks.

KnoKo

28th November 2007, 23:37

Big movies don't work for me, because my drive C is not big enough and so the temp-folder is too small.

Would it be possible to add a option to choose a different temp-folder on a different drive?

Stathis

29th November 2007, 22:39

Thank for this great prog.
Would it be possible to add .srt subtitles in this process?????

fonkee1

30th November 2007, 04:18

How do I split the final VOB into less than 4GB pieces so I can run them off external hdd to PS3? thanks in advance

rsaini

30th November 2007, 16:46

How do I split the final VOB into less than 4GB pieces so I can run them off external hdd to PS3? thanks in advance

I split the mkv file into a h264 and ac3 file using mkvewizard, then join them together using mkvmerge...there's an option in there to split the file when it hits a certain file size, so I split at 3750 MB, then use mkv2vob to convert both mkv's and your set.

Jorgensen

30th November 2007, 16:50

I split the mkv file into a h264 and ac3 file using mkvewizard, then join them together using mkvmerge...there's an option in there to split the file when it hits a certain file size, so I split at 3750 MB, then use mkv2vob to convert both mkv's and your set.

I have the same problem as fonkee1. The solution you mention, how long time does that proces take?

It would be easier if mk2vob could split them at a certain size.

Bigmango

30th November 2007, 17:18

How do I split the final VOB into less than 4GB pieces so I can run them off external hdd to PS3? thanks in advance

Tssplitter is a very good tool to do this, you can also join them back later if you need:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/TSSplitter

fonkee1

30th November 2007, 22:19

Tssplitter is a very good tool to do this, you can also join them back later if you need:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/TSSplitter

Thanks. However, I tried it out and anything after the 1st split is corrupted data on the PS3. I'll try the MKV split.

Bigmango

30th November 2007, 23:41

Thanks. However, I tried it out and anything after the 1st split is corrupted data on the PS3.

Strange... all of the vobs (avc+ac3, muxed with ffmpeg) I've split with tssplitter play fine on the ps3.

fonkee1

1st December 2007, 02:06

Strange... all of the vobs (avc+ac3, muxed with ffmpeg) I've split with tssplitter play fine on the ps3.

I took the x264/AC3 and ran it through mkv2vob and TSS splitter last. Do I have to MUX with ffmpeg before TSSsplitter? If so, how do I that? thanks

btw,

splitting the mkv file, then doing mkv2vob outputted out of sync video/audio files on anything after the first file.

rsaini

1st December 2007, 02:18

I have the same problem as fonkee1. The solution you mention, how long time does that proces take?

I think roughly 10 minutes to split the files, and another 10 minutes to merge them

fonkee1

1st December 2007, 02:37

Strange... all of the vobs (avc+ac3, muxed with ffmpeg) I've split with tssplitter play fine on the ps3.

Do I have to rename *.vob movie to *.ts, split it with tss, then rename back to vob maybe? thanks

djskribbles

1st December 2007, 11:19

tried tssplitter and same result -- first file was recognized and played, but the second and third files were corrupt.

i'm trying rsaini method as i already have mkvextractgui and mkvtoolnix/mkvmerge right now. i don't see why this wouldn't work but it would be nice if tssplitter worked as it would save the step of demuxing the h264 and ac3 streams then muxing them back just to split them.

ultratoto14

1st December 2007, 11:31

It is not mandatory to extract h264 and ac3 and remux them for splitting. Launch mkvmerge and drag and drop the original mkv into it, select the elementary streams then mux with the splitting options.

djskribbles

1st December 2007, 12:00

thanks, that would've saved me some time. :o

architect73

2nd December 2007, 12:47

coupe96

2nd December 2007, 22:04

works perfectly on my ps3 with tversity but what about subtitles guys?how can we add or display subtitles to these vobs?or should we add subtitles directly to mkv and if so how?

TEB

2nd December 2007, 23:30

I just did a 720p conversion and it finished alright... tho i can only hear sound on all the players ive tried..

nfs_driver

3rd December 2007, 07:39

3r1c

3rd December 2007, 09:42

Hi , i am new to this forum !
Really great software , it worked on my ps3 !! Thanks !
The only question i have is that the vob file ( which is smaller than the mkv file..) it is much darker on the dark scenes..
For example in the mkv sample file of the Shrek the 3rd there is a scene at the bar..Great detail though it is dark..
But in the vob file it is almost black...( played on my pc with mpc and on my ps3 with the same results..)
Someone any ideas ????

Im sure this is because whatever filters you have for mkv's are enhancing the video, and the vob playback on the ps3 and on your pc is without any decoding enhancements.
ie you are viewing it exactly as encoded.

mkv2vob does not transcode or alter the video stream in any way, if it looks different its because of your decoder.

3r1c

3rd December 2007, 09:44

Hi 3r1c!
Thanks for this nice app you made. Works great with the small mkv , but with the big ones i have problems. I get the following error at H264info right at the end of the proces, and then at the Ffmpeg step it say Bufferunderflow.

It may be because of the lowdisk space on C?

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/6233/err1zw8.th.jpg (http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?image=err1zw8.jpg)

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9228/error2wh6.th.jpg (http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?image=error2wh6.jpg)

Would it be possible to add a option to choose a different temp-folder on a different drive?

It says completed before crash so it may still work properly.

Buffer underflow in ffmpeg seems to be meaningless, or its just a notice and not important.
Ive had videos convert with tons of buffer underflows and play back perfectly, yet i have had others with no errors that just wont play.

glen8

3rd December 2007, 10:54

Yeah, sat down to watch heroes ep10 over the weekend and got a blank screen :-(

I'm not having much luck at present, what with my HD-DVD > Blu-ray performance and issues with my sigma based player :-(

Decided to call it a day and just bought a 10m HDMI/HDMI cable. I have linked my PC directly to the TV now

KnoKo

3rd December 2007, 12:35

I'm sorry for asking again:

Would it be possible to add a option to choose a different temp-folder on a different drive?

krisq

3rd December 2007, 14:41

I'm sorry for asking again:

Would it be possible to add a option to choose a different temp-folder on a different drive?

I second that. I'm running out of space very often.

ExSport

3rd December 2007, 18:18

I second that. I'm running out of space very often.
Easiest way is to change TMP and TEMP variable(in Windows) to another disk path manually.

krisq

3rd December 2007, 18:32

Easiest way is to change TMP and TEMP variable(in Windows) to another disk path manually.

True. But it's not an elegant solution IMO and I need my 'Temp' folder to be where it is now.

nathannihilator

4th December 2007, 04:22

Great job. Works perfect for me so far.

I really need a way to break up the mkv into 45-50 minute chunks, I watch tons of movies this way. So far mkvmerge seems to work. I can't play the 2nd and 3rd pieces on my PC for some reason, but so far when made into a vob they work great - no a/v sync problems even. Anyone know why they won't play on the PC?

Anyway, if mkv2vob could have an option to split the mkv with mkvmerge and then process all the files, that would be slick! That would just be a bonus as I can do it manually pretty easily.

Thanks for great program, this may have just saved my PS3 from being sold and used for HTPC money.

Jorgensen

4th December 2007, 18:56

None of the above methods have worked for me, while trying to split the vob files. Not even the first file from TSSplitter (which works for someone), this is also very much out of sync. So I would very much appreciate that mkv2vob spilt the vob file when they reach a certain size.

Someone states that the vob files are smaller than the mkv files. Does anybody else have similar experience because when I do the conversion the vob files are bigger than the mkv files.

Anyway thanks for a great tool!

busta.rhymes

4th December 2007, 21:37

When I convert the Vob files are bigger than the MKV files to.
This is pretty annoying because the 8gb files dont fitt on a Dual Layer Disc anymore. Please fix this issue. And yes there should be an option to splitt files but this should only be an option an not a must.

busta.rhymes

4th December 2007, 21:43

And .... I dont have a picture when I play the vob files on pc. I have Klite codec pack installed. Do i need anything else?
On Playstation they play.

Who else has issues when fast forwarding on ps3? Then the file starts to stutter and then it runs like twice the speed. Why dosnt that work?

busta.rhymes

4th December 2007, 21:46

This is the errors I get:

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/2708/helpjg6.jpg

3r1c

4th December 2007, 22:16

the vob will only play on the ps3, thats the whole point of the program.
if you want to view on your pc just play the mkv file.

the "buffer underflow" is not an error, it happens sometimes.
if the screen is black its because the x264 was encoded with options the ps3 does not support, there is no way to fix this.

nfs_driver

4th December 2007, 22:57

I had some problems but i manage to solve them. First of all , i was geting an error because of the low sapce on C
Solution: - i change the Temp and TMP location from MyComputer, propreties, Advanced,Environment
From User variables For xxxx u edit the location of Temp and TMP folders. Then restart the comp.
I coud not split the vob files so i search a program to split teh original mkv. I found a nice and easy program to do that mkvtoolnix-unicode-2.1.0
GL everyone and sorry for my bad english

PS: about the buffer underflow u was right is not an error, the vob file is working perfectly

busta.rhymes

5th December 2007, 00:05

Ok than most of my questions are anwered.

Vobs to Big?
But why are the Vobs bigger than the mkv. My vob is now 8,6gb and wont fitt on a dl layer disk.
Anyone got a solution? And no I dont want to splitt.

No Fast Forwarding?
How come the playstation fucks up when Fast Forwarding? Then the Speed of the Video ist totally screwed.

Please Help.

3r1c

5th December 2007, 01:25

You have 3 choices.
1. Split
2. Stream from pc
3. Burn to BD-R

No idea why its bigger or fast forward doesnt work.

Could be there is just credits at the end or maybe something you can cut out to make it smaller.

busta.rhymes

5th December 2007, 03:14

- Isnt there no way you can get the vob to be smaller? I mean Shouldnt it be exactly as big as the source mkv?

- What prog should I use to Stream from PC?

MeDDers

5th December 2007, 03:17

LOL!!!

There's some funny posts in this thread, you must be a saint 3r1c :D

Some people are never happy. :cool:

I just wanted to say Thank You!

busta.rhymes

5th December 2007, 03:28

I am indeed very happy just frustraded that the file that used to fitt on a dvd now doesnt anymore.
But still happy about 3r1c´s sollution.

3r1c

5th December 2007, 03:38

I use tversity (set transcoding to never), possibly it could work with windows media player library if you rename .vob to .mpg

dj wurst

5th December 2007, 18:30

@3er1c
thanks for the great gui

does anyone have a solution to solve the "fat32-problem"?
i don't want to split my movies. so i tried to transfer the file via ps3 portal, but it doesn't work. small mp3-files => no problem; big vob-files => the ps3 doesn't know where to save them :-(

TW4Tv

5th December 2007, 18:50

Question for 3er1c:
I have used your program and it works 100% for all the mkv`s I have on my system, great tool. I do have 1 question though, as I like to keep the files on my HD to a minumum, what are the ESENTIAL files I need in the /tools folder ?
I notice that bsweet, transcode and a lot of dlls inside the folder that I dont need (I will NEVER be trancoding audio etc.)

Basicly all i need is MKVExtractGui, h264info, ffmpeg and the dlls that these programs use.

Thanks

B4tm4n

5th December 2007, 19:54

@3er1c
thanks for great gui

does anyone have a solution to solve the "fat32-problem"?
i don't want to split my movies. so i tried to transfer the file via ps3 portal, but it doesn't work. small mp3-files => no problem; big vob-files => the ps3 doesn't know where to save them :-(

Stream the files, or try naming the vob to mpg and see if the PS3 saves them to the right place.

dj wurst

5th December 2007, 22:30

i already tried a renamed vob -> mpg file. it doesn't work

.mpg 423mb (mpeg2) copying with ps3 portal worked
.vob 2262mb (h264) copying with ps3 portal "Insert storage media at the save destination"; copy from external hdd worked
.vob 8366mb (h264) copying with ps3 portal "Insert storage media at the save destination"; external hdd fat32 :-(

streaming doesn't work. because i want to play the movies on the ps3 "standalone"

3r1c

5th December 2007, 22:57

There is another way that might be useful.
I have done this successfully but not created any gui for it.
To create a working blu-ray content on a dvd (also works on BD-R).
Fastforwarding and 1080p also works with this method :)

1. Split the h264/ac3 from the mkv.

2. Using h264info set the level to 4.1

3. Using latest Elecard XMuxer mux the h264 output from h264info and the ac3 into a ts (must select the h264 first, then the ac3).

4. Using TSremux load the ts file you just created.
You will get an error when you import the ts, ignore it.
Trim the first 1 second with the trim options in tsremux (trim begining 0:0:1).
Select output format Blu-ray

5. Using nero burn the resulting certificate and bdmv folder to a DVD-R or BD-R, make sure to set No Multisession, and UDF 2.50

Resulting disc is detected as AVCHD or Blu-ray by the ps3 :)

EDIT: on second thought this might not be useful, since most scene releases and encodes will not be blu-ray compliant.

dj wurst

5th December 2007, 23:05

thank you for the fast answer.

i already tried the mini blu-ray, but as dvd-rw is only 4,7gb i had to change the dvd several times while watching the movie. :-(

i know, that this error "insert storage..." is normal, if the ps3 can't recordnize the format of the file, but copying the vob-file from an external hdd works. the only reason why i want to copy it via lan is the f*** file size limit of fat32

3r1c

5th December 2007, 23:09

you wont be able to do this, the ps3 internal hd is also fat32.
so copying over network wont work if the file is bigger then 4gb, but you can play it over network using tversity.

The only way to play a file bigger then 4gb on the ps3 is to burn it to a disc (bluray/dvd) or stream it.

dj wurst

5th December 2007, 23:12

are you sure? i think the filesystem on the ps3 is not fat32. it is a "special" sony-filesystem called Synergistic Processing Unit File System

3r1c

5th December 2007, 23:21

you may be right im not sure.
you might have better luck googling that error message because its not really anything to do with my prog and i dont know the answer or even what ps3 portal is.

dj wurst

5th December 2007, 23:27

ok. you're right. it's the wrong thread. i just thought someone here maybe already had the same problem and solved it. anyway thanks for your answers.

btw i already tried google and found no solution :-(

B4tm4n

5th December 2007, 23:50

Have you tried Vilvic Media Center (http://www.vilvic.com/index.html) You can transfer large files to your PS3 with that . I used to use that to transfer files as large as 20 GB before I started streaming. And talking about streaming, I use twonky and with that if you press triangle on the file from your PS3 you can chose copy and it copy it to the internal HD.

busta.rhymes

6th December 2007, 00:43

If a file has 2 Audio Lanes - Englisch -German
How do I tell him to use german?
And how do I tell him not to use subtitles?
The reson why Im asking is because I only have one empty DVD DL Disc left and I dont want to screw up this time.

busta.rhymes

6th December 2007, 00:52

@B4tm4n
Please tell me more about the tools to copy large files to PS3.
How to use them and so on.

ssHiep

6th December 2007, 01:42

i have succesfully transfered movies from my computer through tversity to my ps3 without any porblems. the ps3 does not use a fat32 set up for the hd. btw 3r1c, killer program, love it

3r1c

6th December 2007, 02:13

subtitles and multiple audio streams is not supported at this time, the program will use the first audio stream number.

busta.rhymes

6th December 2007, 02:19

Well everything works fine for me now exept for Fastforwarding that will screw up the speed off playback.

busta.rhymes

6th December 2007, 02:21

I am using TwonkyMedia just at the moment and i can copy Big files from pc to ps3 to without any problems. Yahoo now the problem with the files over 8,5gb is no problem anymore. I am so happy.

WestsTigersFan

6th December 2007, 10:42

do u lose any quality running it through tversity as opposed to running it off a burnt dvd or flash card etc?

B4tm4n

6th December 2007, 14:57

I am using TwonkyMedia just at the moment and i can copy Big files from pc to ps3 to without any problems. Yahoo now the problem with the files over 8,5gb is no problem anymore. I am so happy.

Glad you got it working.:D

BigTony

7th December 2007, 12:39

Many thanks for this great little application, works on about 90% of the 720p samples I had lying around. One problem I keep finding is an error after tranzcode, it creates .wav's from the DTS/AC3 etc, but I get 'Error creating AC3 from WAV!'.
Any clues as to why this is happening (tranzcode outputs the .wav's no problem).

I'm going to try the 1080p format onto a BR disc, as I'd love to crack the 1080p barrier before the holidays.

zwirek75

9th December 2007, 12:05

Just writing for someone to confirm this ..
I've spent some time playing with encoding 1080p h264 files for PS3.
What I have discovered is that the files were playable for level 4.1 only if I have chosen to use at most one reference frame (a setting of x264 application). If I choose more than one ref frame the x264 complains something about DPB size (e.g. x264 [warning]: DPB size (13824000) > level limit (12582912)) for chosen profile but starts encoding a stream which is not playable on ps3.
I think this is the problem of changing from avc 5.1 to avc 4.1 just by hex editing - it does not change the internals of the stream, so the stream becomes incorrect.
For 720p the problem is less important since references to blocks are reachable within 4.1 profile DPB range.
...
Tomek

3r1c

10th December 2007, 01:23

its certain combinations of options, i have not been able to figure out which ones exactly.

more refs will be playable if you lower some other options.

jrizzy

10th December 2007, 07:16

first off lemme say that this is a fantastic program and so far has worked flawlessly on my 720p videos.

i am wireless using my ps3 so streaming a lil bit of a stretch....i can at least see that the video does playback so i know it works. problem for me is for example: superbad 720p ripped as .vob is larger than the actual mkv file so it wont fit onto a standard dvd anymore and i cant put it on my fat32 external hd b/c its over 4gb...so i have 3 questions:

1.) what do u recommend as far as a vob splitter goes?

2.) is there a way to shrink the .vob file down just a touch to get it onto a standard DVD

2.) will the ps3 accept other hard drive formats? like ext2 or ext3?

thanks for all ur hard work!

3r1c

10th December 2007, 08:03

If your network isnt fast enough for live streaming just use the copy function to save it to the ps3 hard drive, then watch it from there.

zwirek75

10th December 2007, 08:35

its certain combinations of options, i have not been able to figure out which ones exactly.

more refs will be playable if you lower some other options.

Sure. But if you have a stream HL and 5.1 and "degrade" it to HL 4.1 it will not be playable by PS3.
Is there (known) any way to detect such situations before starting the conversion process to detect streams which are not "convertible" by mkv2vob ?

Tomek

Jonny F

10th December 2007, 20:59

Hi,

Ive used your program to convert a couple of mkvs successfully, so thanks for that!

I understand the issue with not being able to fast forward (do you think this will ever be fixed, or is it a Sony problem)

My question is, even just stopping the playback, going back to the xmb, then resuming playback causes the fast video / sync issue here.

Is this normal? Because it makes watching a movie really hard work, if I accidentally exit the film I'm stuffed!

Cheers,

Jon.

3r1c

11th December 2007, 02:09

you must watch video from start to finish no interruptions or it will not work properly, and yes this is a sony problem there is nothing I can do.

pepperisback

11th December 2007, 13:03

I have some mkv movies in 1080P. Which Program did I have to use to convert it to 720P ???
Thanks!

georgem67

15th December 2007, 11:01

Pause works great but is it really the PS3 stopping the ff/rewind or something in the making of the vob?? ...if you give the ps3 a vob created by other programs, they ff/rewind and resume perfectly, so the problem must be in the actual conversion from mkv2vob..

3r1c

16th December 2007, 02:31

thats because vobs created by other programs are dvd mpeg2 not h264.

the reason is because h264 in vob is non-standard, its amazing it plays at all. but currently its the only way to get h264 and ac3 to work on ps3 so theres no other choice then to just live without ff/rw.

georgem67

16th December 2007, 19:32

It's a brilliant program anyway...I generally only need to pause to run for a beer...so a big thank you for all your work!!!

fonkee1

19th December 2007, 01:38

After updating to Sony PS3 firmware 2.10 to unlock DIVX, it seems it may have horked the VOB format playback. It seems more likely in files over 4GB that I was able to copy to the internal PS3 hard drive have trouble playing back. It will playback the preview fine, but I have to force it like 3-4 times before the movie will playback. Before 2.10, they all fired up fine. Anyone else have issues and or ideas as to why this is happening? Thanks

3r1c

19th December 2007, 05:51

I dont have any 4gb+ files to test, however sony does say in the notes that files bigger then 4gb wont work with the new update. Im not sure if this means just on the internal hdd or other sources.

3r1c

19th December 2007, 05:55

if anyone has files which do not play please post the headers here so i can try to detect non playable files in next version.

so far it seems its due to the reference frames.
upto 5 refs plays, 7 or more doesnt play.
i havent seen any files with 6 refs yet so i dont know.

if anyone knows how to calculate the minimum AVC level from these numbers please PM me

my findings so far
WORKING
-----------
cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x133 me=umh subme=6 brdo=1 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=0 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 slices=1 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 wpredb=1 bime=1 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 rc=2pass bitrate=4984 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30
cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:1 analyse=0x3:0x133 me=umh subme=6 brdo=1 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=0 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 slices=1 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 wpredb=1 bime=1 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 rc=2pass bitrate=4668 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30
cabac=1 ref=1 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x1:0x111 me=hex subme=5 brdo=0 mixed_ref=0 me_range=12 chroma_me=1 trellis=0 8x8dct=0 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=3 nr=0 decimate=0 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=3 wpredb=0 bime=1 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40(pre) rc=2pass bitrate=3393 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30
cabac=1 ref=4 deblock=1:-2:-1 analyse=0x3:0x133 me=hex subme=6 brdo=1 mixed_ref=0 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=6 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=3 wpredb=1 bime=1 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40(pre) rc=2pass bitrate=3170 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30
cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:1:1 analyse=0x1:0 me=hex subme=5 brdo=0 mixed_ref=1 me_range=6 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=0 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=6 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=3 wpredb=1 bime=0 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40(pre) rc=2pass bitrate=2560 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30
cabac=1 ref=1 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x1:0x111 me=hex subme=5 brdo=0 mixed_ref=0 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=0 8x8dct=0 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=6 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=2 wpredb=0 bime=0 keyint=290 keyint_min=23 scenecut=40(pre) rc=2pass bitrate=3398 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30
cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x133 me=hex subme=6 brdo=0 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=6 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 wpredb=1 bime=1 keyint=240 keyint_min=24 scenecut=40(pre) rc=2pass bitrate=2603 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30
cabac=1 ref=5 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x133 me=umh subme=7 brdo=0 mixed_ref=0 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=6 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 wpredb=1 bime=1 keyint=240 keyint_min=24 scenecut=40(pre) rc=2pass bitrate=2578 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30
cabac=1 ref=1 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x1:0x111 me=hex subme=5 brdo=0 mixed_ref=0 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=0 8x8dct=0 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=3 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=2 wpredb=0 bime=0 keyint=290 keyint_min=23 scenecut=40(pre) rc=2pass bitrate=3370 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30

NOT WORKING
-----------
cabac=1 ref=8 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x133 me=hex subme=6 brdo=1 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 slices=2 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 wpredb=1 bime=1 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 rc=2pass bitrate=4948 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30
cabac=1 ref=16 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x133 me=hex subme=6 brdo=1 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 slices=2 nr=300 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 wpredb=1 bime=1 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 rc=2pass bitrate=5175 ratetol=1.5 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30
cabac=1 ref=10 deblock=1:-3:-2 analyse=0x3:0x133 me=umh subme=7 brdo=1 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=0 8x8dct=1 cqm=2 deadzone=22,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=2 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=3 wpredb=1 bime=1 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40(pre) rc=2pass bitrate=5123 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30
cabac=1 ref=7 deblock=1:-2:-1 analyse=0x3:0x133 me=umh subme=6 brdo=1 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=6 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=3 wpredb=1 bime=1 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40(pre) rc=2pass bitrate=3388 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30

zwirek75

19th December 2007, 08:13

if anyone has files which do not play please post the headers here so i can try to detect non playable files in next version.

Well.. I had a look at x264 source files - please have a look at procedure x264_validate_levels in the source file encoder/set.c

For level 41 it goes like this:
{ 41, 245760, 8192, 12582912, 50000, 62500, 512, 16, 24, 1, 1, 0 },
which means:
41 - level 4.1

245760 - max macroblock processing rate (macroblocks/sec)
8192 - max frame size (macroblocks)
12582912 - max decoded picture buffer (bytes)
50000 - max bitrate (kbit/sec)
62500 - max vbv buffer (kbit)
512 - max vertical mv component range (pixels)
etc.

The question is what is macroblock (IMO elementary element of the frame of one of predefined classes of size 16x16 pixels) etc :)
Note that number of reference frames for given level depends on max decoded picture buffer (based on quick calculations - 9 for 720p, 4 for 1080p - which is not excactly the same as empirical values ... 1080p works for at most 2 ref frames)
I dont know how to extract the information about resolution (either in pixels or in macroblocks) and number of reference frames used for stream encoding.
If such parameters exist maybe it would be possible to trick PS3 to play AVC 5.1 as well :) - since the possibility is there due to Blu-ray playback.

For level 51 it goes like this - (so just much higher numbers)
{ 51, 983040, 36864, 70778880, 240000, 240000, 512, 16, 24, 1, 1, 1 },

Hope it helps

Tomasz

3r1c

19th December 2007, 09:23

yeah those numbers come from the same specs that are on wikipedia which i already read, the problem is i dont know how to convert the data in the x264 header into number of macroblocks,buffer etc...

zwirek75

19th December 2007, 09:36

yeah those numbers come from the same specs that are on wikipedia which i already read, the problem is i dont know how to convert the data in the x264 header into number of macroblocks,buffer etc...

From x264:
number of macroblocks per frame mbs = h->sps->i_mb_width * h->sps->i_mb_height;

i_mb_width = ( param->width+ 15 ) / 16;
i_mb_height= ( param->height+ 15 ) / 16;

buffer size bytes = mbs * 384 * num_ref_frames
Regards
Tomasz

fonkee1

19th December 2007, 10:37

WOOT!! I figured it out. In order to get VOBs greater than 4GB to play on the PS3 with the new 2.10 fw update, you just select the movie in XMB, press Triangle and select PLAY FROM THE BEGINNING. Just hitting the X button or SELECT button will not work. Now enjoy those VOBs and DIVX files!:D

3r1c

19th December 2007, 19:00

From x264:
number of macroblocks per frame mbs = h->sps->i_mb_width * h->sps->i_mb_height;

i_mb_width = ( param->width+ 15 ) / 16;
i_mb_height= ( param->height+ 15 ) / 16;

buffer size bytes = mbs * 384 * num_ref_frames
Regards
Tomasz

excellent thanks.
it wasnt quite a simple as the above code but looking through the source code i figured it out.

i know now exactly why the files in my last post wont play, next version will have detection of unplayable files :)

3r1c

19th December 2007, 23:07

New version released.

V1.3 19/Dec/2007
Added detection of files that would be unplayable on ps3 (black screen) these files will now be transcoded to mpeg2.
Added 1080p support.

derron

19th December 2007, 23:59

Excellent work 3r1c!

Just tested it with a sample that didn't work previously.

Now it's converted to mpeg2 and plays just fine on the ps3.

The output file size is twice as large as the mkv but I suppose it's normal, h.264 must be a better codec!

I didn't update the Ps3's firmware yet, I'll wait a few days until I'm sure .vob are still playing with 2.10.

Thanks a lot again!

macman241

20th December 2007, 11:55

3r1c

20th December 2007, 17:30

i think this is because when you split it you removed the x264 header.

new version searches for the x264 header and processes it, if the values are too high or header not found it assumes the file will not be playable.

i didnt think of split files, i guess you can still use 1.2.
I have absolutely no way to check playability if the header is removed.

macman241

20th December 2007, 20:28

I'd expect MKVMerge to keep/create valid headers when splitting. Is there I can check whether there is a valid header for both parts? I can send you the info back if it would be helpful.

3r1c

21st December 2007, 00:56

if you hex edit the h264 file you will see the header which looks like this in the first 1024 bytes.

cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x133 me=umh subme=6 brdo=1 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=0 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 chroma_qp_offset=0 slices=1 nr=0 decimate=1 mbaff=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=1 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 wpredb=1 bime=1 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 rc=2pass bitrate=4984 ratetol=1.0 rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' qcomp=0.60 qpmin=10 qpmax=51 qpstep=4 cplxblur=20.0 qblur=0.5 ip_ratio=1.40 pb_ratio=1.30

when you split, only the first file has this header, its not copied to the others by mkvmerge.

i will release next version shortly, it will ask you if you want mpeg2 or not, will upload as soon as i fix another issue with DTS.

SKAPiter

21st December 2007, 01:03

Are there any troubles playing back vobs with the new firmware 2.10? I just starting to enjoy my PS3, thanks to 3r1c's mkv2vob with firmware 2.01. Would hate to loose this feature with new firmware.

BTW, I was too, using mkvmerge to split files for FAT32 USB disk, so new version which will treat splitted files correctly will be highly appreciated.

Another request, if I may. :-) I have mkvs with multiple audio tracks (languages) Is it possible to include a feature where I can select which audio track to mux into vob? That would make my day (year)! :-)

3r1c

21st December 2007, 02:47

2.10 firmware does play it just as good but with some small changes.

There is a change in firmware 2.10 which effects resuming/pausing/fastforward (it never worked before) but now instead of being out of sync it just freezes.

All you have to do is instead of selecting the movie as usual, highlight it, press triangle, select Play from the beginning.

zwirek75

21st December 2007, 08:49

if you hex edit the h264 file you will see the header which looks like this in the first 1024 bytes.

And what if the stream was not encoded with x264 ?
What if it has been already processed by h264info in term of changing the internals ?
;)
I am currently working on a replacement for h264info based on full h264 stream parsing ... hope I'd have time to make an usable version.

Tomasz

3r1c

21st December 2007, 09:20

And what if the stream was not encoded with x264 ?
What if it has been already processed by h264info in term of changing the internals ?
;)
I am currently working on a replacement for h264info based on full h264 stream parsing ... hope I'd have time to make an usable version.

Tomasz

well h264info will keep this header.

if you could make a program to figure out these values by process the stream that would be excellent, but something like that is beyond me at the moment. im sure it certainly would be useful to figure out what settings hd-dvd/blu-ray are encoded with too.

zwirek75

21st December 2007, 23:26

New version released.

V1.3 19/Dec/2007
Added detection of files that would be unplayable on ps3 (black screen) these files will now be transcoded to mpeg2.
Added 1080p support.
I havent tested your version but I did some research and 1080p files work on ps3 if:
- number of reference is 4 AND number of bframes is 0
OR
- number or reference frames is lower or equal to 3

Maybe this would help
Regards
Tomasz

3r1c

22nd December 2007, 00:48

I havent tested your version but I did some research and 1080p files work on ps3 if:
- number of reference is 4 AND number of bframes is 0
OR
- number or reference frames is lower or equal to 3

Maybe this would help
Regards
Tomasz

thanks i already figured that our out, its related to the number of refrence and bframes. too many reference frames puts it over the 4.1 level limit and the ps3 only plays upto level 4.1 even with level spoofing.

XolocoTuxmaster

22nd December 2007, 17:00

This program detects the h264 level and "supposedly" change it,

http://ambamo.free.fr/temp/mp4/H264_Level.exe

The creator hasn't work a lot on it so changing fails a lot, but I think detection is ok

I hope it helps

survivant001

22nd December 2007, 21:57

One request. if the stream is not valide instead of transcoding it to mpeg2, I would prefer reencode it with x264 in 4.1 profile. I have a command line for PS3 (with the build 669i pulldown).

survivant001

22nd December 2007, 23:30

I get a black screen even if I say YES to mpeg2 transcoding

if I understand what your program do is this :

#1 - extract the mkv
#2 - h264info top patch to 4.1
#3 - ffmpeg : somethign like that :
ffmpeg -r 23.976 -f h264 -i input.h264 -f ac3 -i input.ac3 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f vob output.vob

right ?

georgem67

23rd December 2007, 00:58

past version converted DTS 1500 bitrate to AC3 332 bitrate..so I used Tranzcode, then softencode to make AC3 640 bitrate. Does the latest version produce a larger DTS bitrate? Thanks again.

3r1c

23rd December 2007, 04:58

One request. if the stream is not valide instead of transcoding it to mpeg2, I would prefer reencode it with x264 in 4.1 profile. I have a command line for PS3 (with the build 669i pulldown).

this will take a very long time on most pcs. i made it use mpeg2 because its fast and filesize doenst really matter when streaming.

i will check out the problem with that mkv

Quatre

23rd December 2007, 10:58

I've downloaded the latest 1.03 release and found the following:

1. I split 4G+ MKV files using MKVMergeGUI to 2.5G chunks

2. I then run mkv2vob separately so that I end up with VOBs smaller than 4G to put on a FAT32 USB drive to play on the PS3

Latest mkv2vob would always transcode the second MKV part of the file to MPEG-2, but not the first one

So, an Enemy of the State 720p.001.mkv and 002.mkv

mkv2vob would only remux 001.mkv very quickly, but would always transcode 002.mkv

Any ideas?

Update 1: Have just ran mkv2vob 1.02 on the same files and performs as expected without transcoding. I presume something has changed in 1.03 when it tries to determine whether the file is playable on the PS3 and for some reason decides it's not and transcodes.

I am also trying to convert mkv into vob for play on ps3 through a fat32 hdd. Is it really better to split the .mkv rathe then the .vob? I had trouble finding a prog that could split a .vob. I used HDBDSplitGUI and it did split the .vob into 2 parts smaller then 4gb but the second part would not play on ps3 (or on the pc i dont think either). So i'm trying mkvmergegui to split the mkv first and then run mkv2vob on both parts.

I think mkv2vob 1.3 fixes the previous problem with a split .mkv as long as you hit no to transcoding to mpeg2 or whatever.

having to split the mkv and then run mkv2vob on both is a bit of work but it still is much quicker then encoding an mkv into wmv.

survivant001

23rd December 2007, 13:50

There is a way to convert a 29.97fps to 23.976 fps without the sound been too slow ? I try to convert a movie to 23.976, the video is OK, but the sound is like a robot speaking :(

3r1c

23rd December 2007, 21:48

survivant001, i have tested the file you mentioned and there is no problem playing it.

it is playable so no matter if you click yes/no it is remuxed to vob h264/ac3 and plays perfectly on the ps3.
If you have firmware 2.10 highlight the file, click trianagle, click start from beginning.

survivant001

24th December 2007, 00:16

@3r1c

thanks I'll try.. that wierd..even in Windows I had a black screen.

I'll try it again

Done.. it works now..

survivant001

24th December 2007, 01:57

@3r1c

is it possible to have a command line interface ?

mkv2vob -i input.mkv -o output.vob (or .m2t)

the human intervention is really limited.. so it can be done par command line, and it will be easier to use in a script..

SKAPiter

24th December 2007, 02:43

3r1c, have you tried muxing into AVI container, now that 2.10 supports avi divx files? who knows, maybe it will work now?

Numer0bis

24th December 2007, 18:44

thank you so much. This tool is a real life saver. Now with 2.1 firmware and this tool the playstation can almost play anything *thumbs up*

georgem67

24th December 2007, 19:05

Does the new version always use 100% CPU on 1080p files...& do you have to encode to mpeg2 with 1080p?
Thanks

Quatre

26th December 2007, 09:01

saw another program called mkv2avc
http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=87199.

does the same thing as this program, but it seems it was never updated and it might be older now and can't do 1080p.

seems you can rename the .vob to .m2ts (avchd) or .mpg correct?

but that wont allow the file to be ffwd or rwnd though right?

so that is pretty much the only limitation right now with mkv2vob and .vob .m2ts .mpg files remuxed from mkv using this prog.

Also, I am still wondering what the best way to split a file into parts 4gb or smaller for use with a fat32 ext hdd on ps3. Seems the couple other ppl here that were using a fat32 , just split the mkv file first using mkvMergegui and then make a .vob of both.

is that still the best way? isn't there anyway to split the .vob, .m2ts or .mpg? once already remuxed from mkv.

the program is great, great updates , especially the latest update which allows you to say no to transcoding if you have split the mkv. This is relatively fast even if you have to split and seems to be right now the best way to watch mkv on a console (ps3 or 360) as encoding mkv to wmv takes a very long time.

once again all that needs to be done is fix the ffwd, rwnd problem though that is probably on sony's end and then of course find a way around the fat32 hdd 4gb limit (also sonys fault). shame hfs+ doesn't work as it does on 360.

pepperisback

26th December 2007, 13:24

Hello,
at first Thank you very much for the new update of this program. But I have a problem. I have a mkv file which is 8GB big. I splitted the file with MKVmerge to 2 x 4GB Files.
After that I used MKV2vob. The mkv file needs to be transcoded to mpeg2. But when mkv2vob finished the file which was before 4GB big is now 6,68gb big. Is that OK so?

3r1c

26th December 2007, 16:07

The way this program was intended to be used was to convert to a file on your computer hdd (windows NTFS) and then streamed to the ps3 via local network, this way filesize does not matter, an 8gb file will play fine.

AcuraKidd

26th December 2007, 18:19

~bT~

26th December 2007, 18:25

^ pls look @ your thread again. i have edited my reply.

alamski

27th December 2007, 00:13

I too would be ever greatful if you can add an option to select what audio bitrate you want (when the mkv file has dts sound and has to convert it to ac3) i.e. 640kbs etc. Other than that the program is ace and keep up the good work, your making a lot of us happy here :D.
:thanks::thanks:
Alam

3r1c

27th December 2007, 00:23

if your audio is AAC you can just convert to mp4 which would probably be better since you can ff/rw.

AcuraKidd

27th December 2007, 00:30

if your audio is AAC you can just convert to mp4 which would probably be better since you can ff/rw.

how would I go about doing that?

does that mean I gotta re-encode the whole thing or do you just mean that I could put it in a MP4 container and it'll play fine on the PS3?

Also, what program would you recommend to switch the container?

3r1c

27th December 2007, 03:13

mkvsplit and mp4box
no transcoding, just change container

Quatre

27th December 2007, 07:58

I would be forever grateful to you 3r1c if you could add AAC support to your program.

I have a few MKV files that are in 720p, here are their specs:

Resolution: 1280 x 720
Framerate: 23.976
Video Codec: x264 r667 3918kbps
Audio Codec: AAC 5.1 VBR 320 kbps
Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1

Whenever I try to use your program to convert this MKV file I get an error saying "Unsupported Audio Codec: A_AAC"

All the MKV files I have tried are giving me this error. I actually thought that by updating my PS3 with the 2.10 firmware it would now be alot easier to play MKV or AVI or other files, but I guess I was wrong... :(

Oh, and for everyone that would like to split their files into smaller pieces, I have the perfect solution for you, its called "The File Splitter", download it here: http://www.dekabyte.com/filesplitter/TheFileSplitter131.exe

What this program does is let you take ANY file and split it by any size you want, and then at the end it make a small "merge" file, so when you split your files and transfer them to your external hard drive, just put the small "merge" file in the same directory and run the "merge" file. It will put all the files back into one piece without messing up anything.

mkv2vob was working for me until now every x264 .mkv file I try of a certain tv show even different releases I get:

"Unsupported Video Codec: V_MS/VFW/FOURCC"

I am going to try rebooting my pc but I'm afraid this may be some type of x264 .mkv file that mkv2vob doesn't work on in which case we are screwed.

also regarding the "File splitter" program you mention and link, thats nice that it can put the file back together but the whole point of splitting a file up i so it will fit on a fat32 ext. hdd which has the 4gb file limit and fat32 is the only file system ps3 will read right now. and your sure this program can split .vob/.m2ts/.mpg files? because it seems everyone is splitting the .mkv first and then using mkv2vob on each new .mkv you make (depending on how many parts you split it into) usually 2 is enough to keep each under 4gb.

unless you copy the files to the ps3 hdd and then use the merge file to join them on there, that would be pretty nifty but I kind of have other stuff on the ps3 internal and its fine playing off ext. hdd but for one or 2 videos at a time if it really works on the ps3 internal hdd that might be nice to join your split files back into one.

I know you can use red kawa file server or something to transfer files from pc to the ps3 internal hdd but i can't be bothered with that and the red kawa prog i tried wasnt that great (ps3 video 9 which i think has the file server) and I dont like streaming especially having to leave the pc on.

I guess I will report back on the specs of these x264 .mkv's that mkv2vob doesn't seem to work on if they still dont after rebooting and even reinstalling mkv2vob.

Quatre

27th December 2007, 08:05

if your audio is AAC you can just convert to mp4 which would probably be better since you can ff/rw.

360 plays mp4 as well but only with 2ch. audio so ps3 would be the way to go with mp4.

how do we see if our .mkv has AAC audio and which of those 2 progs is better for remuxing/changing the .mkv container to .mp4

the ability to ff/rw is definately a plus of doing mkv 2 mp4 over mkv2vob. I thought maybe renaming the .vob to .m2ts (avchd) it would then allow ff/rw as .m2ts (avchd) is fully supported by ps3 (for avchd camcorders etc.)

so if the .nfo of your video file say "Audio: English DTS 5.1 - 1536 KB/s"
or anything that says "DTS" means its AAC and can be converted to .mp4? can't any .mkv be converted to .mp4 then? why not do all to .mp4 then if it is able to ff/rw? Does it take longer or something is that why its not as preferable to convert .mkv to .mp4? so its only worth it if the .mkv has DTS/AAC sound and you want to retain that? or will converting mkv to .mp4 only work on mkv with dts/aac sound?

I'm assuming mkv to mp4 will work on any but it just takes longer then mkv2vob so its only worth doing if the mkv has dts/aac sound and you want to retain that. having ff/rw is pretty huge so I may be leaning towards mp4. any negative to doing mkv to mp4 over mkv2vob?

will that file splitter prog someone mentioned work on the finished mp4 file including the merge file that will allow you to remerge the split files back into one once copied to the ps3 internal hdd from a fat32 ext. hdd?

Quatre

27th December 2007, 08:27

mkvsplit and mp4box
no transcoding, just change container

can't find mkvsplit anywhere. just a bunch of progs that convert mkv to xvid/divx .avi

how long would that take? if its anywhere near encoding an mkv into .wmv then forget it but otherwise it could be a viable solution as both 360 and ps3 play divx but 360 plays more xvid and I prefer it for video playback for several reasons including not having a 4gb file limit when using an hfs+ formated ext. hdd with it.

oh duh i see i guess mkvsplit is part of mkvtoolnix that mkvmergeGUI has i guess?

as for mp4box

" This program causes the audio to be out of sync when you merge mp4 files together. Tried it several times with the same issue.

"The problem is the result of cutting MP4 is not correct. Play the cutted MP4 in Quicktime and it continues playing even after last frame."

that doesn't sound too good considering I will need to split the mp4 file for use with fat32 hdd and possibly like to remerge them once copied to the ps3 internal hdd.

Quatre

27th December 2007, 09:10

this sucks, i rebooted and even reinstalled mkv2vob 1.3 and none of these x264 .mkv files are working with mkv2vob. same error msg as posted above "Unsupported Video Codec: V_MS/VFW/FOURCC"

going to try to convert them into mp4 but not sure what prog to use. i'm assuming mkvsplit is the mkvtoolnix thing but id ont have it in mkvmergeGuI so i guess i'll try the yamb gui version of mp4box

nope mp4box doesn't even see the .mkv files for some reason and i dont see it as a supported file type for mp4box so I dont think that prog is going to work to convert .mkv to mp4

tried renaming the .mkv to .mpg and mp4box just gets an error saying AVC Video Stream within AVI detected

seems mp4box works on .vob files so maybe after using mkv2vob you could use mp4 box to make an mp4 out of it that will then have ff/rw? but thats dependent on mkv2vob working on your mkv file.

seems i have found some x264 mkv files that mkv2vob nor mp4box work on.

Quatre

27th December 2007, 09:26

trying a prog called RipBot264. no confidence its going to work though and will prob take a long time and looks like only ch. audio. i thought ps3 could do mp4 with 5.1 sound now?
ripbot264 takes forever, i thin is a full re encode not unlike encoding mkv to wmv which takes ages.

GotSent seems to do the same thing as mkv2vob if you choose the mux to vob option. it remuxes the mkv to .vob and retains the 5.1 audio. You also have the choice to make an mp4 with the benefit of being able to play on 360 or ps3 and and have use of ff/rw. only catch is i believe the mp4 will always be only 2ch. stereo audio.

not sure which is worse but for now i'm leaning towards .vob on ps3 with full sound but loss of ff/rw. ie. i'm choosing audio over ff/rw controls and ability to play on 360 but for some content like tv eps where maybe 5.1 audio is less important i may go with mp4.

either way GotSent does both and seems to be working even to mux to .vob on these files that mkv2vob wasn't working for. no offense to the author of this great program and i sent him the info of one of the mkv files that wouldn't work with mkv2vob so i'm sure he'll fix it soon with new version especially since GotSent is able to.

Quatre

27th December 2007, 10:21

jsut going to use GotSent which does the same thing as mkv2vob as far as remuxing a mkv into vob for ps3 with full 5.1 sound but no ff/rw.

it also has the option to conver to mp4 which works on both 360 and and ps3 and has ff/rw but apparently on 2ch audio on both.

Quatre

27th December 2007, 10:56

btw the ones that wouldn't work with mkv2vob but will in GotSent (muxing to vob option and about to try the mp4 option) are:

Video...........: x264
Video Bitrate...: 2 Pass VBR
Audio...........: AC3 5.1 @ 48000 Hz
Audio Bitrate...: 384 kbps
Resolution......: 1280x720
Aspect Ratio....: 16:9
Frame Rate......: 23.97

i sent 3rlc the detailed info but there is the basics, maybe its the 2 pass vbr video that causes mkv2vob not to work?

Glorioso

27th December 2007, 12:52

Can i use this to add subtitles to the file, hardcoded?

Quatre

27th December 2007, 13:42

I would be forever grateful to you 3r1c if you could add AAC support to your program.

I have a few MKV files that are in 720p, here are their specs:

Resolution: 1280 x 720
Framerate: 23.976
Video Codec: x264 r667 3918kbps
Audio Codec: AAC 5.1 VBR 320 kbps
Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1

Whenever I try to use your program to convert this MKV file I get an error saying "Unsupported Audio Codec: A_AAC"

All the MKV files I have tried are giving me this error. I actually thought that by updating my PS3 with the 2.10 firmware it would now be alot easier to play MKV or AVI or other files, but I guess I was wrong... :(

Oh, and for everyone that would like to split their files into smaller pieces, I have the perfect solution for you, its called "The File Splitter", download it here: http://www.dekabyte.com/filesplitter/TheFileSplitter131.exe

What this program does is let you take ANY file and split it by any size you want, and then at the end it make a small "merge" file, so when you split your files and transfer them to your external hard drive, just put the small "merge" file in the same directory and run the "merge" file. It will put all the files back into one piece without messing up anything.

looks like i got a similiar error when trying to use mkv2vob on certain mkv files. i guess it has something to do with the audio being AAC based on 3rlc's response, but I dont understand why he suggests just converting to mkv to mp4 then in the case of aac audio.

I thought the whole reason ppl were doing mkv 2 vob instead of mp4 was for 5.1 sound and that mp4 will be 2ch. audio on ps3 and 360 both. if the mkv has aac audio will it no somehow do 5.1 sund when converted to mp4 plus have the benefit of ff/rw that the vob doesnt' plus play on both 360 and ps3 where as .vob/.m2ts is only on ps3?

as i've mentioned it seems GotSent still works on these mkv files that didnt work with mkv2vob plus GotSent will convert it to mp4 or mux to vob and yes it still worked muxing to vob these files that mkv2vob didn't in trying to do the same thing.

i'm jus still curious why 3rlc suggested converting to mp4 for those mkv files that dont work with mkv2vob as if he knew that any with aac audio wont and made it that way on purpose maybe as if any mkv with aac audio will maybe have 5.1 audio in mp4 format with the added benefit of ff/rw that vob doesnt?

till i get answers, didnt feel like wasting time trying both to test and just used GotSent to mux those mkv files to vob that didnt work in mkv2vob.

as far as you file splitter prog, it seems great. i've been using mkvmergeGuI as suggested by some on this thread, but this file splitter prog is much simpler and with the added bonus of the remerge file.

I'm not sure why ppl were splitting the mkv first. Can't we use this file splitter prog to split the finished .vob file? add the remerge file, put the 2 split .vob files and remerge file on a fat32, copy all 3 to the ps3 internal and then run the remerge exe file to remerge the 2 vob files into one?

i guess the ps3 can't run an exe file like that to do that? so this would be useless for ps3 ppl. if you try to remerge the files on the fat32 hdd, the hdd wont accept it or ps3 wont read the file larger then 4gb.

could be handy for other things but i dont see how the remerging file will be of use with ps3 in less somehow it does work once all 3 are transfered to the ps3 internal but you didnt specify that and i doubt it.

AcuraKidd

27th December 2007, 15:07

Quatre

27th December 2007, 15:34

i think file splitter prog doesn't work for actually wanting 2 sep files that work whether you split the .mkv first or the .vob file.

it adds .1 and .2 at the end of the file when i split the vob file i made from an mkv only the part2 file plays and it plays from the beginning of the movie so its not right.

so i think that prog just is only if you intend on remerging the split files and no way to do that on ps3, so using mkvmergegui to split the mkv first then make 2 .vob from them is prob still the best way?

Quatre

27th December 2007, 15:43

As far as the file splitter program is concerned, its a very simple concept.

Do whatever you gotta do with your file on the computer, once fully finished, split the file, copy over the spilt files to an external fat32 hard drive, and once all the files are on that hard drive, remerge them, and then connect the hdd to the ps3 and just copy the file over through the xmb, or just play it straight from the hdd.

And I'm gonna give the GotSent program a try later today and let you know how it goes

by "do whatever you gotta do with your file on the computer" do you mean mux the .mkv to .vob using mkv2vob or GotSent, in this case.

copy the 2 split files and the remerg .exe file onto the fat32 hdd. fine. remerge them using the exe file? not fine as it will then make one file larger then 4gb that the fat32 hdd will not accept. I imagine it gets an error during the remerge and even if not no device like the ps3 that reads from the fat32 hdd will magically see this remerged file larger then 4gb. i'm almost ready to try it just to see but i'm 99.9% positive it will not work.

you must not be realizing the fat32 4gb file limit. whats the point of splitting the file into <4gb parts if your are just going to remerge it into one larger then 4gb then. this is prob for using fat32 or similiar to transfer something over to something that isnt fat32 and then remerging to have one file. if you could copy all 3 file to the ps3 internal and then run the exe to merge them into one that would be great but the ps3 wont run the exe file.

3r1c

27th December 2007, 16:54

mkv2vob was working for me until now every x264 .mkv file I try of a certain tv show even different releases I get:

"Unsupported Video Codec: V_MS/VFW/FOURCC"

V_MS/VFW/FOURCC - Microsoft (TM) Video Codec Manager (VCM)

This is not a h264 video file.

Quatre

27th December 2007, 17:03

V_MS/VFW/FOURCC - Microsoft (TM) Video Codec Manager (VCM)

This is not a h264 video file.

what kind of x264 .mkv file is it then? it wont play on 360 or ps3 just as is though i'm sure. can you just change the extension to .mpg on this type? GotSent seemed to work on it and muxed it to .vob.

also if an .mkv has dts sound do you recommend converting it into an mp4 instead of mux to vob?

GotSent converts the mkv to .mp4 unless you specify for it to mux to vob instead and it has an option to automatcially split the file into parts <4GB so you can skip the step of using mkvmergegui or other prog to split the mkv first before using mkv2vob.

I'd just like to know when it is better to convert to mp4 rather then mux to vob. does converting to mp4 take the same amount of time as mux to vob? will the mp4 always be 2ch stereo audio? if so then why did you suggest converting mkv to mp4 when the mkv has aac/dts audio? (they are the same thing right?) if its still 2ch then most of the time i'd prob rther give up the ff/rw and 360 compatability for the full 5.1 audio .vob for ps3.

Just used GotSent on a x264 .mkv file with specs:
Video Format.........: x264
Video Bitrate........: Variable ~ 10554 (DVD9)
Resolution...........: 1920x800
FPS..................: 23.976
Audio................: DTS 1.5Mbps

figured i'd try not check mux to vob in GotSent and it just made 3 .mkv files (box checked for splitting into files <4gb)

at the end it said something no AC3 filter present. the audio is dts and it detected that when i loaded it in GS. so now what can i do with these 3 .mkv files? what did GS even do to them. are they mp4? tried renaming one of the files to a .mp4 but it didint' show up or play on ps3 so i have no idea what GS did to it then besides split it into 3 mkv files which wont be a total waste if GS (with mux to vob box checked) works on them or mkv2vob. but I thought if the mkv had dts sound it was better to conver it to mp4? what program could do this then, obviously not GS.

when i try check mark to mux to vob in GS on the orig mkv file i got some other error/warning about the audio but it allowed to go ahead with muxing the .mkv into .vob files <4gb.

again i tried renaming the new .mkv files to .mp4 but it doesn't show up or play in ps3 soi dont know what GS did to the mkv file with mux to vob box unchecked besides split it into 3 new mkv files. Will have to see what kind of .vob files it makes now from the orig mkv even though it got the audio error/warning when first starting that.

SeeMoreDigital

27th December 2007, 17:48

Hi 3r1c,

Is there any particular reason why you have not mentioned the name of your application (ie: mkv2vob) in your thread title?

Cheers

Quatre

27th December 2007, 19:22

now with that dts audio mkv i split into 3 mkv and tried to make a vob using mkv2vob, it said error creating ac3 from wav at the end, so it wasted all that time attempting to make the vob only to fail and now i have to start over and ultimtely may have to reget the 720p version i deleted when i got this 1080p version with dts.

3r1c

28th December 2007, 00:21

i dont think you can split dts.

ive said it before and ill say again, mkv2vob was not designed to be used with split files, so you are risking it not working by splitting.

Quatre

28th December 2007, 00:52

but it will work making one .vob from the orig .mkv? then just find a way to transfer it onto the ps3 internall hdd i guess and just cant use fat32 ext. hdd.

what sucks is after you split the dts .mkv into 2-3 files, mkv2vob acts like it will work fine, it gets to the end and says can't make ac3 from wav, or something to that effect.

or basically there should be a warning with the program that it doesn't work with dts audio so that if were depending on using this prog we avoid getting x264 mkv with dts audio and try to find a version with ac3 instead.

wait a min i have an x264 .mkv movie with dts audio that I did fine by using mkvmergegui to split the mkv into 2 and then using mkv2vob or GotSent to mux them both to .vob. both parts play fine and work on the 360 so why is this one giving me trouble? is it just because its 1080p where as the one with dts audio that worked was 720p?

that would suck cus the whole point of going through all this trouble is so as not to have to wait just for a 720p wmv to come out cus they always make them 720p to fit on a dvd9 except for some shorter stuff like animations that still fit on dvd9 even in 1080p. The dutch on the other hand not only do more 1080p wmv's but more wmvhd rels in general it seems and release stuff first... but with hard coded nl subs which basically ruin the movie for you if you dont know dutch.

but all this trouble for mkv on ps3 and having to use fat32 hdd and split files, no dts audio, no ff/rw. starting to seem less worth it. might be time to just get a dedicated hw media player that plays everything no hassle.

3r1c

28th December 2007, 01:02

the problem is not with mkv2vob, there is no way to split dts, so whatever program your using to split is creating corrupted output files.

it does work with dts, but if the dts is corrupted it can fail after going through a few steps which take a long time.

ideally the best mkv file to have is 720p with ac3.
99% of 1080p arent valid level 4.1 encodes, which will need to be transcoded.

Quatre

28th December 2007, 01:22

ah and so the 1080p x264 mkv are even worse if you need to split for fat32 then because you are selecting No to transcoding and since 99% of those arent valid level 4.1 encodes and need the transcoding then they aren't going to work for splitting and not transcoding.

so like you said, ideally look for a 720p version with ac3 for use with this prog and especially if you need to split.

well that is kind of a damper then cus I was really looking for 1080p considering like I said most of the wmv are 720p catering to dvd9 even though many play from ext hdd or stream and would prefer it be 1080p.

oh well like I said between these limitations and the no ff/rw its seeming less worth it and might have to give up on the consoles and just get a dedicated player.

great work on this prog though and i still like it better then GotSent for the most part (though GS worked on a file that mkv2vob didn't).

Its prob best for tv eps that dont need to be split for us fat32 ext hdd users. or i guess for a 720p ac3 x264 mkv if you dont feel like waiting for the wmv version and dont mind splitting and not having ff/rw.

well tried the 1080p dts movie again and all seemed to work. split into 3 mkv files first and made a .vob of the first one and plays with audio on the ps3 but no video. what gives? i thought they just didnt play right on the pc either wrong speed or just audio like that. I think i've seen others say they had just audio and no video but again i thought that was just on the pc. ?_? renamed to .m2ts and it plays fine on pc with audio and video, test again on ps3 and still no video. i really give up this time.

why would the dts audio mess up the video. Like i said i seem to have a 720p mkv with dts audio that turned out fine into 2 playable .vob's. what caused this one to not work. i give up. and to think i had 2 working 720p ac3 split files of the same movie but deleted it to try the 1080p dts version.

would it work if I just used mkv2vob on the main .mkv before splitting and chose Yes to transcoding and then split that new transcoded .vob? I guess splitting the .vob doesnt' work or ppl would be doing that rather then splitting the mkv first and then making vob of each new mkv file.
prob not worth the time for me to try it just for a shot in the dark. plus not sure what prog to use to split the .vob as that file splitter prog seems only for remerging the split files, not actually using them as split files since it adds a .1 .2 .3 etc at the end of the file and just removing that to have the .vob extension i dont think works. and I have a feeling that using a prog to split the transcoded 1080p dts .vob from an x264 mkv will make split files but probably only one will work as I think i've seen happen.

3r1c

28th December 2007, 02:17

Quatre

28th December 2007, 02:23

Do not click NO to transcoding unless you know what your doing.

Yes enables automatic detect, ie. it only transcodes if it needs to.

When splitting you should always select YES on the first split file, watch if it transcodes or not, then on the other parts press NO if no trancoding was done on the first part.

so the 1080p dts file might have worked if i hit yes to transcoding? doen't that mess it up if you dealing with split files though?

always hit yes on the first, watch if it transcodes or not and then on the others hit no if it didnt?

the instructions that come up and as i understood isthat if you are working with split files to always hit No just as it says. If it auto detects why would hitting yes on the second or third file mess anything up if it did need to transcode the first, wouldn't it need the transcode the 2nd file? why would you need to hit yes for the first, watch to see if it did need to transcode or not and then hit yes or no on the second file depending what it did on the first? does it not auto detect on the second file? so you need to watch what it does to the first and then hit yes or no accordingly for the 2nd (and 3rd if you have that many split files) I thought hitting yes on split files made it not work period and hence why any that need to be transcoded aren't going to work for splitting.

3r1c

28th December 2007, 02:34

Quatre

28th December 2007, 05:54

The reason is the auto detect only works for the first file in a split mkv, because the split tools do not properly copy the headers onto the other files, so you need to watch the first file and tell mkv2vob what to do with the other files.

The fact that the video didnt work on the ps3 means it needs transcoding, so for this movie you will need to click YES to all parts.

Transcoding increases filesize of the vob by about 50% so you should make your mkv parts about 2.5gb.

ok thankyou for the clarification. so always click yes to transcoding and then where do I look to see if it does it or not so I know what to do for the next file(s)? in the dos screen. look to see if it says transcoding? i think i've seen it say that even when I didn't select yes to auto detect if transcoding is neccesary. So i just need to get straight on what to look for on that first file to see if it needs the transcoding or not. Hm, so that 1080p dts movie probably would have worked if I just hit yes to transcoding for all 3 files.

thanks for the headsup that it makes the file 50% larger so you dont want to make the original split mkv file size more then 2.5GB.

I guess I just was excited about the prospect of quick remuxing of the coveted x264 mkv playback on a console in this case the ps3. But nothing is perfect and now i'm realizing how much I use ff/rw.

Some ppl say just watch a movie straight through and pause is all you need. I used to be the same way but with a baby there are so many times where I miss something and need to rewind, or stop and resume later, skip by chapter and ffwd. All of which the 360 lets you do. So i guess i was really up on mkv2vob, then down on it when i ran into a few problems and now i think i'm just somehwere in the middle. I see it now as an alternative to taking 10 hrs to encode an mkv to wmv only for some time later an official ripped wmv of the same content. In fact on occasion i have taken the time to encode an mkv to wmv only for the "better" official rip from source release to come out by the time i'm done so it was wasted time. personally i dont see any quality degradation in encoing mkv to wmv but ppl call it a transcode and some say transcodes suck and degrade quality which makes me wonder if this is the case when the mkv needs transcoding also?

anyway for now, like I said, i see it as an alternative to encoding to wmv and then when and if the wmv comes out i can just get that for the ff/rw controls. but this way if i dont want to wait at least i have a way to watch it and a method that doesnt waste as muc time as encoding. Which also means i'm fine with sticking with more 720p mkv2vob's so when the wmv comes out and is usually 720p, i wont feel bad getting that and getting rid of my split 720p vobs. plus if i really want the 1080p and can get it to work then this would be one viable way.

tempted to try that same 1080p dts movie again and this time selecting yes to transcoding but I already deleted it and regot the 720p which i know works so its fine cus like i said, prob be a wmv of it soon as there already is a dutch subbed wmv of a lot of these so will soon be an english non subbed version to follow like often is the case.

3r1c

28th December 2007, 06:11

is there a reason you cannot stream from network?
all you need is your pc and ps3 connected to the same router, it works fine over wireless too.