MKVs with VC1 codec

[ravigupta]

Hi

I am very new to the disk ripping scene and I am limiting myself to following constraints -
1. Only Blu-Ray disks
2. One copy of the unmodified, original MKV file using MakeMKV
3. One copy in the M4V format using H.264 as the codec.

From all the disks I have ripped so far, I have seen 2 codecs being used primarily - H.264 and VC-1.
I am currently using MP4Tools to convert to H.264. This gives me a near loss-less quality in M4V container. The process of converting an H.264 MKV file to an M4V file takes about 30-40 mins if you decide to use the Pass-Through option which I do.

For movies encoded with VC-1, using Passthrough is not really an option so I use H.264 2-pass conversion which took about 24 hours to encode Jurassic Park to M4V format on my 2012 Core i5 MacBook Air.

TLDR; I would like to know if there is a more efficient way of converting MKV files encoded with VC-1 to M4V files encoded with H.264 than what I am currently using.

I would also like to mention that I have very cautiously stayed away from HandBrake so far because I would like to stay as close to the original quality as possible, even for the M4V files.

[Romansh]

Speeding up conversion from VC-1 to H.264 is a matter of adjusting the encoding settings. You can select faster settings (at the expense of lower compression efficiency).

A good way to speed things up is to encode using CRF: it provided identical compression efficiency as 2-pass but only requires one pass, as it targets a perceived quality level as opposed to a bit rate (of course then you lose control of the output size, which will vary from movie to movie).

For your H.264 sources, passing the video through is the best solution if you don't have compatibility issues or size constraints, but for VC-1, you'll have to re-encode anyway, so there's nothing that makes <insert your tool of choice here> inherently better or worse than equivalent tools, quality-wise. It then comes down to the quality of any filters (e.g. crop or scale, if applicable) and most importantly, the quality of the H.264 encoder. Given the same encoder and same/equivalent filters, it's then a matter of what you find most usable and/or easiest to configure.

[ravigupta]

Thanks @Romansh. Looks like I will be sticking to MP4Tools for now.

[TexasGrillChef]

Hi

I am very new to the disk ripping scene and I am limiting myself to following constraints -
1. Only Blu-Ray disks
2. One copy of the unmodified, original MKV file using MakeMKV
3. One copy in the M4V format using H.264 as the codec.

From all the disks I have ripped so far, I have seen 2 codecs being used primarily - H.264 and VC-1.
I am currently using MP4Tools to convert to H.264. This gives me a near loss-less quality in M4V container. The process of converting an H.264 MKV file to an M4V file takes about 30-40 mins if you decide to use the Pass-Through option which I do.

For movies encoded with VC-1, using Passthrough is not really an option so I use H.264 2-pass conversion which took about 24 hours to encode Jurassic Park to M4V format on my 2012 Core i5 MacBook Air.

TLDR; I would like to know if there is a more efficient way of converting MKV files encoded with VC-1 to M4V files encoded with H.264 than what I am currently using.

I would also like to mention that I have very cautiously stayed away from HandBrake so far because I would like to stay as close to the original quality as possible, even for the M4V files.

I have used ripbot264. It allows pass through of both DTS/AC3 audio tracks even in "HD" mode. It does convert VC-1 to H.264 and has settings to maintain what would otherwise be 100% original quality.

As I am sure others have pointed out that H.264 and VC-1 are both different compression schemes. So you could have the same quality but different file sizes for each. RipBot264 allows better control of these than does Handbrake.

Now.... the process is a long and tedious one. I have a intel 5960x (8 core) system, X99 chipset, with a new 512gb Socket 3 M.2 drive (1050MByte read/960Mbyte write) and 64gb ram, of which 32gb is being used for a RAM disk. I use an NVidea Quadra card with 4gb ram. Ripbot264 will make use of all 8 cores, and will take advantage of the Quadras 640 Cuda cores to decode the VC-1 Track. I can also set it to use the Quadra cards Cuda Cores to encode H.264, but I don't.

Even with all that power... and speed it still takes it well over 8 hours to convert a typical 2 hour VC-1 movie to H.264 and maintain full quality.

If you don't have to convert VC-1, Don't. Xbox 360 and Xbox One will both play VC-1 encoded video files from a Supported DLNA server.

TGC

[ndjamena]

He specifically said he has a Mac, and as far as I'm aware Ripbot is Windows only. That distinction is getting blurrier year by year but it would still take some effort to get Ripbot functional on his computer.

[nickr]

Why bother reencoding vc1 to h264?

[ravigupta]

Why bother reencoding vc1 to h264?

Compatibility with iTunes. I have since switched to using WDTV to avoid any kind of encoding. Just rip and play.