M4v - Mp4

daveza

daveza

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Puzzled....

If you ( hypothetically ) download an Mp4 file, you can just change the format to M4v and it will be accpeted by iTunes and play via AppleTV.

But when you put the Mp4 through Handbrake it takes hours to convert to M4v - why ?
 
It depends on what recoding your doing on the file, if I use handbrake to do any recoding of different codecs it takes a few minutes at most.
 
daveza said:
Puzzled....

If you ( hypothetically ) download an Mp4 file, you can just change the format to M4v and it will be accpeted by iTunes and play via AppleTV.

But when you put the Mp4 through Handbrake it takes hours to convert to M4v - why ?
Click to expand...

what profile are you using to convert the file on Handbreak?

I often convert huge files from Mv4 to Mp4 and its quite quick unless you maybe converting from Hidef down or vice versa?
 
I'm using the AppleTV2 preset to convert any format to M4v.

I get why converting from Mkv to M4v taking long, but why Mp4 to M4v ?
 
No, I'm coverting from Mp4 to M4v - just can't figure out why it takes hours when it takes a second just to rename the file.
 
Because using handbrake isn't just changing the extension of the file, it's recoding the entire file again.
 
daveza said:
No, I'm coverting from Mp4 to M4v - just can't figure out why it takes hours when it takes a second just to rename the file.
Click to expand...

yep no logical reason why it would take long - i converts a few files the other way M4v to Mp4 and its pretty quick.
i want to test this, on my side see how log it takes, about what size file you converting and is it what resolution, see if i got something similar and see how long it takes
 
isie said:
yep no logical reason why it would take long - i converts a few files the other way M4v to Mp4 and its pretty quick.
i want to test this, on my side see how log it takes, about what size file you converting and is it what resolution, see if i got something similar and see how long it takes
Click to expand...

Try any 720p TV episode of around 1Gb
 
Renaming the file doesn't convert it, you can rename the video to .xlsx, but that doesn't make it an excel file
There are obviously some differences in the file types, so Handbrake re-formats it & actually converts it, but if you can fool your player by just renaming it then go ahead, it might not work with all MP4 files though
 
My kids have a media player which doesn't play M4v files - I just rename them to Mp4 and they have never had any issues playing them.

So essentially they must be identical formats.
 
daveza said:
My kids have a media player which doesn't play M4v files - I just rename them to Mp4 and they have never had any issues playing them.

So essentially they must be identical formats.
Click to expand...

MP4 is a container that can be used for H.264 or MPEG-4 video. M4v is designed to be used only for H.264 and can have DRM. Translated, MP4 tends to be open, M4V is made to be closed.
 
daveza said:
Puzzled....

If you ( hypothetically ) download an Mp4 file, you can just change the format to M4v and it will be accpeted by iTunes and play via AppleTV.

But when you put the Mp4 through Handbrake it takes hours to convert to M4v - why ?
Click to expand...

A M4v is an Apple wrapper for MP4's which the addition of optional DRM copy protection. You can change the extension of a .mp4 extension to a .m4v extension with no problems at all, as a .m4v is essentially just a .mp4 video file.

The reason Handbrake takes ages to do the encoding is because you are essentially re-encoding the video again. It's the same as taking a video file and re-compressing it.

There is no reason why you would need to use Handbrake at all.
 
You could try air video server, it can also convert any format to apple format... with the bonus of it being a really good media server for iOS devices.
 
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