Does makemkv use H264 to encode BD video by default?

[seamus]

I'm trying to confirm some "notions" that I've come by - without being able to recall exactly where I got them. I'd appreciate any comments or feedback:

Notion #1: The video on DVDs is typically encoded with the MP2 codec.

Notion #2: The video on BDs is typically encoded with H264-BluRay - a variant on H264.

Notion #3: MakeMKV does not re-encode BD or DVD video that it rips to the .mkv file; i.e. "generation loss" using MakeMKV is zero because it does not re-encode the encoding found on the DVD source.

If I run 'ffprobe' on an mkv file created from DVD using MakeMKV, I see something like this:

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% ffprobe7 -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=codec_name -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 'Nosferatu (1922) - [dvd-makemkv].mkv'

mpeg2video
%

If I run 'ffprobe' on an mkv file created from BD using MakeMKV, I see something like this:

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% ffprobe7 -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=codec_name -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 'Lost_Horizon (1937) - [bd-makemkv].mkv'

h264
%

If my Notions are correct, can someone explain why 'ffprobe' indicates that the BD codec used by MakeMKV is H264 instead of H264-BluRay? This may (or may not) be a subtle difference; I've not been able to find anything that explains it definitively.

[flojo]

... encoded with H264-BluRay - a variant on H264.

Incorrect, there's only different profiles/presets. ffprobe might be displaying a slightly more acute description if you've supplied a .m2ts or something like that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Video_Coding

[seamus]

... encoded with H264-BluRay - a variant on H264.

Incorrect, there's only different profiles/presets. ffprobe might be displaying a slightly more acute description if you've supplied a .m2ts or something like that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Video_Coding

I'm sorry, but your answer makes absolutely no sense to me. But I do thank you for the Wikipedia link; that clarifies that there are numerous different profiles that target various applications, and the one I referred to as "H.264-BluRay" is apparently "officially named": High Profile (HiP, 100) .

IOW: "H.264-BluRay" = "H.264, High Profile (HiP, 100)"

That still leaves me with an unanswered question, but perhaps the answer can be had with a bit more research into 'ffprobe' options. Adding the 'profile' option to the previous command used seems to provide the answer I was looking for:

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% ffprobe7 -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=codec_name,profile -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 'Lost_Horizon (1937) - [bd-makemkv].mkv' 
                                                                        ^^^^^^^
codec_name=h264
profile=High

And that seems to be the answer! MakeMKV does in fact use the "High" profile, defined in the Wikipedia article as follows:

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High Profile (HiP, 100)
    The primary profile for broadcast and disc storage applications, particularly for 
    high-definition television applications (for example, this is the profile adopted 
    by the Blu-ray Disc storage format and the DVB HDTV broadcast service).

Yahoo!

[dcoke22]

And that seems to be the answer! MakeMKV does in fact use the "High" profile, defined in the Wikipedia article as follows:

Code: Select all

High Profile (HiP, 100)
    The primary profile for broadcast and disc storage applications, particularly for 
    high-definition television applications (for example, this is the profile adopted 
    by the Blu-ray Disc storage format and the DVB HDTV broadcast service).

MakeMKV does not do any encoding of the video. It just copies the encoded video from the optical disc into a .mkv file.