h264 mkv?

Hagaren Viper · Post by **Hagaren Viper** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 1:04 am

I've been seeing this filetype around a lot nowadays. I've noticed it has great quality for a smaller filesize, and that it is starting to seemed the preferred way of encoding. So I was wondering what the best way to encode as h264 mkv is?

....Google was useless!

Zero1 · Post by **Zero1** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 6:12 am

You can check out this for an (old) rundown of x264 options:
http://aflux.deltaanime.net/Zero1/MP4/x264.html

However you don't have to use MKV. My guide actually suggests using MP4 due to the fact that it's more widespread and has hardware compatability. There's no need to use MKV unless you want subtitles or some unsupported audio format. Chances are you will be using MP3, or if not you can compress audio to AAC and store that in MP4. It's as good as, and in a lot of cases better than Vorbis. Look out for "Nero Digital Audio". It's a free command line encoder, but you should be able to find a GUI for it.

You can also use MeGUI as an all in one encoder/Virtualdub replacement, or ZarxGUI (recommended), which you can find in the AMV guides, or by checking these forums.

Qyot27 · Post by **Qyot27** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 10:56 am

Use MeGUI or whatever to encode the actual video, and then use MKVMerge (part of the mkvtoolnix package) to mux everything - the video, audio, any subtitles and/or attachments there might be - together. By all means it's easier if you encode straight into MP4 since then you won't have to deal with declaring the real framerate in MKVMerge later, and I tended to have problems encoding H.264 streams straight to MKV with MeGUI when I last tried (admittedly, this was quite a while ago, so it could easily be fixed now).

Hagaren Viper · Post by **Hagaren Viper** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 6:45 pm

Sweetness, this should help with my next AMV. Thanks!

lister007 · Post by **lister007** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 11:42 am

if your talking in terms of AMV you also have to consider your audience, a few people had the discussion a while ago for the best format, and although mkv is pretty widespread imo, alot of people new to the .ORG, and video formats in general, it would mean downloading a new codec. MP4 also is a favorite for portable media players at the moment so if you encode to 480p then you can hit a wider audience....

Qyot27 · Post by **Qyot27** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:26 pm

lister007 wrote:if your talking in terms of AMV you also have to consider your audience, a few people had the discussion a while ago for the best format, and although mkv is pretty widespread imo, alot of people new to the .ORG, and video formats in general, it would mean downloading a new codec. MP4 also is a favorite for portable media players at the moment so if you encode to 480p then you can hit a wider audience....

Using the recommended playback software (VLC Player or the CCCP), there is zero difference in capability to handle MKV as opposed to MP4 = they're equal there. If people don't adhere to that there's little that can really be done if they can't play it, it's an impass, and eventually there comes a point where complaints of 'I can't play it' are not anyone's fault but the keyboard jockey's - heck, some of them still say crap like that when the video is released in DivX or XviD AVI. If we were all doing Quicktime-compatible encodes then sure, MP4 would have a lead there because AFAIK Quicktime has no MKV component, but unless Apple has now fully rounded out the H.264 support, then Quicktime isn't a viable option (since I'd wager that the majority of H.264 releases around here are High Profile) - its decoder sucks anyway and you'd get complaints because of that instead.

Whatever way you spin it, they'd still need something to handle H.264, and the recommended software automatically includes support for both containers, so it's a moot point. The only differential between the two is hardware support.

In other words, if you're talking about people new to video formats in general, they'll more than likely still have to download something for both H.264 and MP4 anyway, and as I said earlier, the software that gets endorsed around here for such supports both MKV and MP4, so that point is a non-issue. We're way past the days of needing to install 3ivx or mpegable splitters for MP4 or the actual Matroska Playback Pack for MKV. If people are futzing around in their systems putting that stuff in and then complaining that they can't play the files, it's not our fault, just as it isn't our fault if they installed a nasty codec pack and effed things up. And that goes for both the ones releasing in MKV and the ones releasing in MP4.

Zero1 · Post by **Zero1** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:56 pm

Though we've all been around years now and know the score, there are still people who are new to computers, or who are only just discovering AMVs who may not have the slightest knowledge of MKV, MP4 or even XviD.

My reasoning behind MP4 is that a lot of commercial software supports it, so say for example Joe Average goes and buys a computer from PC World and it already has Nero Burning ROM installed, they should be able to play MP4 off the bat without downloading a thing.

It's not hard to install codecs and splitters, but my point still stands that the exact same video and audio stream contained in MP4 has wider compatability than it would have if stored in MKV. That is my reason for my preference of MP4. That and it's essentially the replacement for MPG, and we all know how widespread and easy to deal with that became.

dawgbowl · Post by **dawgbowl** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:39 pm

Instead of adding to more chaos on the board, I'd just like to know why my file (which I believe is this type) will not open in virtualdubmod, I have the avisynth file and have been setting it to DirectShowSource() but I feel like im missing something... I don't put the file extension in the ( ... ) do I? I remember doing this a while back... but can't recall how I did it. Another one of my MKVs opens perfectly into it... however. [1280x720 h264+AAC D-MX] That is part of the file name, so i'm really confused, any help would be appreciated.

Once I just get these files loaded, I promise I won't bother anyone else and i'll just go work on the AMV, i'm just stuck on this part.

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:53 pm

dawgbowl wrote:Instead of adding to more chaos on the board, I'd just like to know why my file (which I believe is this type) will not open in virtualdubmod, I have the avisynth file and have been setting it to DirectShowSource() but I feel like im missing something... I don't put the file extension in the ( ... ) do I? I remember doing this a while back... but can't recall how I did it. Another one of my MKVs opens perfectly into it... however. [1280x720 h264+AAC D-MX] That is part of the file name, so i'm really confused, any help would be appreciated.

Once I just get these files loaded, I promise I won't bother anyone else and i'll just go work on the AMV, i'm just stuck on this part.

post your script.

dawgbowl · Post by **dawgbowl** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:21 pm

KillAudio()
DirectShowSource("C:\Applications\Anime single videos\Zero No Tsukaima Season 2\RAWs\[TV-Japan] Zero no Tsukaima -Futatsuki no Kishi- 01 RAW [1280x720 h264+AAC D-MX].mkv")
(open with avisynth, set to directshowsource)

I know it's downloaded, but I'm not concerned since I wont be entering/probably just submitting it here for fun but more something to do in my free time.

I just get script error. I'm missing something huge, re-read but couldn't pinpoint.