Storing H.264 + PCM

[Blue_MiSfit]

Hey folks,

I'm standardizing on a mezzanine/archive format at my job. Basically, we're going to be transcoding all our sources (200mbps ProRes/dnxhd, 80mbps MPEG-2, ginormous uncompressed etc) down to 50mbps CAVLC H.264 - using x264 of course!!

These sources have anywhere from 1 to 8 channels of audio, which is uncompressed 24 bit 48 KHz PCM 99% of the time. So, I'm looking for a good container to store this crud in.

MP4 is out, since it doesn't like PCM. MOV would technically work, but I despise it, and want something fully supported.

(M2)TS would work, but there's overhead.

MKV would work, but isn't compatible with the "profressional :roleyes:" encoding hardware and software we use in other workflows and on our linear broadcast side

So... I'm back to good old MPG (program stream). I've seen MPEG-2 muxed with 5.1ch PCM, and I know a PS can carry H.264. Question is, how the heck would I mux something like this? After I mux an example, I can test compatibility with all the bits that need to decode it.

It would be lovely to be able to mux multiple audio tracks - i.e. a 5.1ch track and a 2ch track. MPEG PS supports this without much hassle, right? I'm going to try ffmpeg, but I would appreciate any input folks have.

Thanks!

~MiSfit

[kidjan]

Hey folks,

I'm standardizing on a mezzanine/archive format at my job. Basically, we're going to be transcoding all our sources (200mbps ProRes/dnxhd, 80mbps MPEG-2, ginormous uncompressed etc) down to 50mbps CAVLC H.264 - using x264 of course!!

These sources have anywhere from 1 to 8 channels of audio, which is uncompressed 24 bit 48 KHz PCM 99% of the time. So, I'm looking for a good container to store this crud in.

MP4 is out, since it doesn't like PCM. MOV would technically work, but I despise it, and want something fully supported.

(M2)TS would work, but there's overhead.

MKV would work, but isn't compatible with the "profressional :roleyes:" encoding hardware and software we use in other workflows and on our linear broadcast side

So... I'm back to good old MPG (program stream). I've seen MPEG-2 muxed with 5.1ch PCM, and I know a PS can carry H.264. Question is, how the heck would I mux something like this? After I mux an example, I can test compatibility with all the bits that need to decode it.

It would be lovely to be able to mux multiple audio tracks - i.e. a 5.1ch track and a 2ch track. MPEG PS supports this without much hassle, right? I'm going to try ffmpeg, but I would appreciate any input folks have.

~MiSfit

This might be a dumb suggestion, but have you considered encoding your audio to some format MP4 eats, like AAC? There are plenty of free, open source encoders to chose from (FAAC comes to mind), and MP4 is has fairly ubiquitous support at this point in time.

(that, and H264/PCM is a weird combination--even if you do find a suitable container, it may be difficult for many people to locate a suitable player. depends on your target customer, I guess...)

[kieranrk]

It would be lovely to be able to mux multiple audio tracks - i.e. a 5.1ch track and a 2ch track. MPEG PS supports this without much hassle, right? I'm going to try ffmpeg, but I would appreciate any input folks have.


MPEG-PS muxing has a buffering model that theoretically must be correct to work with your hardware devices. This model is almost certainly not implemented correctly in ffmpeg.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Good point, kieranrk.

I'm not worried about a customer being able to play back these streams, as they're for internal usage only.

I am, however, somewhat concerned with hardware compatibility. I will continue my testing.

~MiSfit