The 'perfect' HD file container

[paulspurrier]

I'm looking at putting a film onto HD.

I need:

a feature film to be able to fit onto a dual layer DVD-ROM

I need it to be in full 1920p HD resolution.

It needs to be able to play on a computer with the minimum of codec installation through an easily available software player.

It needs to support AC3. Most people with home cinema setups have an AV amplifier that supports DTS and AC3. They should be able to connect their computer to their AV amp and use the AV amp to decode the 5.1 sound.

It must support subtitles.


At first I thought that WMV would be the best option, but that doesn't support AC3 sound. I'm not sure about subtitle support.

Then I looked at H264. But then the question becomes, what container to use. AVI is possible but seems to be clunky, and it's debatable whether it's reliable with H264.
Matroska would do it, but I must admit until a week ago I'd never heard of it, and I'm not sure many people will know what to do with it.

So, I think I'm headed towards DIVX as this seems to support everything I need.

My worry is that the DIVX codec seems rather old now, and I wonder whether the picture quality will be worth the effort.

Any thoughts?

[check]

the DIVX container is a bit mythical - it's pretty much just AVI and as you realised you are stuck with the divx codec which doesn't hold a candle to h264 in most quality cases.
I'd suggest MKV and you simply hand out the required files to play the videos with anything you distribute. An easy pack I recommend is the CCCP, but for barebones you need haali's media splitter to parse the MKV file and whatever decoders required for the audio/video/subtitle decoding.

(For more info on the cccp check out the website, http://www.cccp-project.net)

[paulspurrier]

If I use AVIMUX, I can Mux a 264 Matroska with an AC3 file and an SSA-produced subtitle. So that would work fine.

But...

I have the MainConcept H.264 encoder, and it will only produce an .MPG or MPV. I understand that the MPV is a straightforward transport stream, and if I change its file extension it becomes an AVC file or .264 file. Is that right?

The question is: How do I get it into an MKV wrapper?

Thanks.

[Lokean]

The question is: How do I get it into an MKV wrapper?
With MkvMergeGui!

[Skelsgard]

With Coreavcdecoder.ax (350 Kb, the v0.0.0.2 was free and renders fast and perfect), MatroskaSplitter.ax (Gabest´s) and AC3filter (750 Kb), the file will render smoothly.
U can use ffshow instead of AC3Filter and Coreavcdecoder (but it´s 3Mb big and "in my experience" not as fast as CoreAVCDec).

[check]

If I use AVIMUX, I can Mux a 264 Matroska with an AC3 file and an SSA-produced subtitle. So that would work fine.
If you wish t continue down this path you should be aware that you are fitting three things into AVI that don't belong :-P. To get those out you would need to use a custom splitter anyway, so I see little advantage in using an older format with compatibility problems over a newer format, which I won't go over as you sound like you're aware of them.

As to getting raw .264 into mkv, you first must mux into .mp4 with mp4box (use a frontend like YAMB if you need a GUI), then you can mux the resulting stream into mkv with mkvmerge gui.

With Coreavcdecoder.ax (350 Kb, the v0.0.0.2 was free and renders fast and perfect)
There are no free versions of CoreAVC ;-)
CoreAVC is significantly faster than ffdshow if you require raw speed.
Gabest's MKV splitter is an option, but it lacks much of the advanced functionality that Haali's does and there is little to recommend it.

[paulspurrier]

Sorry, you misunderstand.

I wasn't thinking of using AVI file format.
But as far as I know, AVI-MUX GUI will MUX MKVs just as well as AVIs.


But I could be wrong.

Paul

[check]

Ahh yes, the MKVs it outputs are fine (the guy who maintains it is part of the matroska team).

[Skelsgard]

There are no free versions of CoreAVC
Are u sure? I remember downloading that version from a link in this forum. I think was due to being in a very alpha-testing state (is a January build).

Gabest's MKV splitter is an option, but it lacks much of the advanced functionality that Haali's does and there is little to recommend it.
I´ve read about that. Despite, I´ve had issues with Haali´s that never had with Gabest. Might be a thing of that time (months ago, don´t know in what dev state is now) but I´ve never had any problems whatsoever with Gabest´s. SO I´m sticking with what has worked literally flawlessly for me.
I also never understood the tray options of Haali Splitter (as in I never found any use for them at all), but that´s just me :D.

But as far as I know, AVI-MUX GUI will MUX MKVs just as well as AVIs.
Yes, it does :).