Convert library to MP4 : Questions

Mike Hoxbig said:
MS doesn't seem to have a problem supporting Quicktime formats :P
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Only took them about 20 years...

BTW, you guys are confusing containers with codecs. AVI, MP4, M4V, MKV - those are all containers. Apple certainly supports AVI. You just need some codecs some time - for that there's Perian.
 
Dolby said:
Just two questions :

1) How long does the conversion program take to change to MP4 per movies? If I have a library of 1,200 movies in currently all sorts of codecs, containers, qualities, resolutions etc - what would the time be to convert them all?

2) Does converting change quality in anyway? For example, would I lose going from MKV to a MP4?

4) Sizewise - are they the same size? So, a 700MB AVI will be a 700MB MK4? A 1.4GB MKV will be a 1.4GB MP4?

5) The best program to convert an entire library in one click? Handbrake?

6) What made Apple choose this format over everything?
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I'm going to steal bwana's fire here (or at least ride on it) :p

1. Depends on your processing power.... and the settings you are encoding at.... and the software you use.
2. It depends on your settings. Both mp4 and mkv is simply a container and often both just use x264, so theoretically, no.
3. What's #3?
4. No. AVI is bloated compared to mp4/mkv (x264). You can expect a 30-50% drop in size for the same quality.
5. Handbrake works best. I wouldn't really do everything in one shot - since you have different quality settings to input.
6. It's in short, the best bang for buck.
 
koffiejunkie said:
Only took them about 20 years...

BTW, you guys are confusing containers with codecs. AVI, MP4, M4V, MKV - those are all containers. Apple certainly supports AVI. You just need some codecs some time - for that there's Perian.
Click to expand...

Perian and Flip4Mac sorts out most of the codec issues on Macs, but the Apple TV only plays what iTunes accepts. The QuickTime player will play all the common formats with the correct codecs loaded but iTunes doesn't.

iFlicks is quite good with changing the container of most avi's to m4v's in a few seconds so that it plays in iTunes. It also embeds metadata into the video thats iTunes compatible as well.
 
Reading all this regarding containers and Codecs ... is iTunes limited by one or both?

For example, an H.264 AVI ... will it load and ATV play it?
or an H.264 MKV?
 
Dolby said:
Reading all this regarding containers and Codecs ... is iTunes limited by one or both?

For example, an H.264 AVI ... will it load and ATV play it?
or an H.264 MKV?
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MP4 or M4V container with H.264 codec. That's what iTunes play.

For the love of all fruits, please don't get an ATV. :p :D
 
LOL ... you don't have true iBlood, SiriS ;)

I was just interested if I could get it cheap.

At $99.00 it's a bargain, but at R1,600.00 or whatever it is here, I'd look at something else
 
You can always use Handbrake, load a couple of networked PC's with Linux and cluster the mother.

That will cut your conversion time like you have no idea.
 
Dolby said:
LOL ... you don't have true iBlood, SiriS ;)

I was just interested if I could get it cheap.

At $99.00 it's a bargain, but at R1,600.00 or whatever it is here, I'd look at something else
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Just to clarify my previous post, the containers supported are -

MP4
M4V
MOV

Codecs supported are -

H.264
Mpeg 4 (Divx)

http://www.macwize.com/desktop/files/atv_managing_videos.html

I still maintain that the right approach is to NOT convert your large library, but rather install XBMC on the ATV and use something like Air Video when you want to stream to an iphone/ipad.
 
Easier to buy a HDMI to dock connector cable, install AVPlayerHD on iPad and watch either on the iPad or connected to TV through HDMI to dock connector and launch AVPlayerHD tv output feature...



1da3d5ea.jpg
 
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sand_man said:
Easier to buy a HDMI to dock connector cable, install AVPlayerHD on iPad and watch either on the iPad or connected to TV through HDMI to dock connector and launch AVPlayerHD tv output feature...
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Easier than what?

Makes no sense to watch anything on your ipad if you have a flatscreen. The allure of XBMC includes the interface. It is gorgeous, and does a decent movie library justice - posters, fan art, plot summary scraping, hide watched options etc. etc. etc. A media room solution.

[video=youtube;0wMKFpXXf8g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wMKFpXXf8g&feature=related[/video]
 
SiriS said:
Makes no sense to watch anything on your ipad if you have a flatscreen. The allure of XBMC includes the interface. It is gorgeous, and does a decent movie library justice - posters, fan art, plot summary scraping, hide watched options etc. etc. etc. A media room solution.
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Not entirely familiar with XBMC or what it is/does. Need to dig deeper.

Is it simply a piece of software installed on one's pc/iDevice?
 
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sand_man said:
Not entirely familiar with XBMC or what it is/does. Need to dig deeper.

Is it simply a piece of software installed on one's pc/iDevice?
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Not sure if serious...

http://xbmc.org/about/

Only relevant if you have an Apple TV. If not, then your HDMI connector makes sense - but I wouldn't call that an elegant practical media room solution. :p Can't really compare using an ipad vs a dedicated media player.
 
Elimentals said:
HandbrakeCLI + bash scripting, not really for the faint at heart. I am sure if you Google you could get some how-to's
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What you're talking about is simply running HandbrakeCLI on many machines, each working a different file. That's not the same thing as distributed encoding of a single file.

I used to do the many machines thing with mencoder, so I'm comfortable with that, but it's far easier to just shove everything in the queue on one machine and leave it running. It would be good if Handbrake could farm out work to separate machines on its own.
 
koffiejunkie said:
What you're talking about is simply running HandbrakeCLI on many machines, each working a different file. That's not the same thing as distributed encoding of a single file.

I used to do the many machines thing with mencoder, so I'm comfortable with that, but it's far easier to just shove everything in the queue on one machine and leave it running. It would be good if Handbrake could farm out work to separate machines on its own.
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That's why I used handbrake to build a queue and simply run the CLI command to distribute. In a way it is clustering as each machine does its own file and when done come get the new one from the list.

But I get what you are looking for, an easy way to just do it all in the GUI interface, in that line I can not help.

Can share more info or better explanation when I am back on a PC.
 
SiriS said:
Not sure if serious...

Only relevant if you have an Apple TV. If not, then your HDMI connector makes sense - but I wouldn't call that an elegant practical media room solution. :p Can't really compare using an ipad vs a dedicated media player.
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I was :o

I've heard of XBMC but never delved into it. :o

I've got a Mede8er. Haven't had to worry about file types and file converting tricks or dvd's and regional codes for years now. Absolute pleasure.
 
sand_man said:
I was :o

I've heard of XBMC but never delved into it. :o

I've got a Mede8er. Haven't had to worry about file types and file converting tricks or dvd's and regional codes for years now. Absolute pleasure.
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XBMC > Mede8er esp once you start using the plugins.

XBMC can also be installed onto an iPhone/iPad (Jailbroken) but the latest version support Air-Play so you dont need to.

Some of the new Eden Highlites for Apple devices:
  • Added Airplay support for Videos/Pictures (all platforms)
  • Added Airplay support for Music (all platforms aside from Windows)

iOS Specific:
  • Ported XBMC to iOS 4.x (adding "XBMC for iOS" to XBMC's existing list of supported operating-systems)
  • Added support for Apple A4 (ARM) iDevices, inc. Apple TV 2G, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G, the iPad (effectively all jailbroken iOS products)
  • Added hardware accelerated video decoding support for H.264 decode on iOS via Apple's VideoToolBox API
  • Added support for OpenGL ES hardware accelerated rendering of XBMC's graphical user interface on iOS
  • Added retina support
  • Added initial iOS Touch / Gesture / Inertial Scrolling support for XBMC interface on iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G, and the iPad
  • Added a APT repository for Apple TV, and Cydia with packages for iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G, and iPad

Mac OS X Specific:
  • Added dynamic runtime detection of CPU features (MMX, SSE, 3DNow, etc.) implementation for Mac OS X
  • Improve Apple VDADecoder Video Acceleration support (requires Snow Leopard and NVIDIA 9400 or later)
  • Improve XBMC's build system to make compiling XBMC much easier
Click to expand...
 
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