The H.264/AVC/MPEG4 discussion thread

[Zero1]

Guys, you've had your fun. Drop it already else this thread could get locked. There's no sense in turning a good thread into a load of crappy flames. If you want to at least argue the merits of other formats, at least do so in an informative way. People won't change just because you say they fail, if they see the reason why it is better, then they may make that decision for themselves.

I've already discussed this sort of thing with Power2All in a tactful manner on his own forum; if he does still not listen to reason, then there is no point going on about it. Flaming him does not make a situation better, it just aggravates him more and then he is less likely to change or listen to suggestions.

I dislike ASP/H.264 in AVI as much as, if not more than the next person, but for whatever reason, despite the pros and cons, Power2All still wants to use AVI. There is no need to get personal either, I'd have thought that people our age (early to mid 20s on average?) would have been sensible enough to think of better ways.

Talk about something interesting instead, like the kind of features you think would be good for x264 (if you can find any that are not implemented already that is ) or what you expect H.265 to be like.

[[darkfire]]

Well I personally use mp4 for my xvid encoding and h.264. I don't dislike mkv. I just don't need the features right now that it gives. If i was doing softsubs or using ogg for audio I would use mkv.

Mp4 on the other hand to me is like Avi's big brother. It has bit more features and it properly handles the codes made for it. ASP/AVC/MP3/AAC. I use it cause it supports vfr which i use in my encode. Thats one thing that avi doesn't support. Also the use of AAC.
Which conatiner is better mp4 and mkv are better than avi. But what you want to use is up to what your going to do with your encode.

(Just keep it spec=no h.264 in avi)

[Power2All]

Well,
perhaps this is a good place to ask also.
Currently Im making DVD's ready for playback at AbunaiCon (dutch Anime convention where I am staff of).
I've came across some problems while trying to get MKV/OGM to DVD playback format.
I've tried various applications like AVI2DVD, AVI2ISO, DVD Maestro...
None did actually kinda like the MKV's I had (error on AVI2DVD made me angry again ).
Could anyone give me a hint how to convert in a "easy way' the MKV's/OGM's to DVD format ??

[edit]
Thanks, that would help me a lot.
Kinda in a time-problem at the moment.

[Sylf]

No, this is not a good place to ask.
Ask in in this thread. In fact, if you read the first post in that thread, most likely you don't need to ask your question.

[Harukalover]

Originally Posted by Zero1

Talk about something interesting instead, like the kind of features you think would be good for x264 (if you can find any that are not implemented already that is )

Would asking about current features be okay?

Two questions right now for any who feel like answering. I haven't been able to find much documentation on either so if there is some available, feel free to hit me over the head with the "Search google" line. :P

Anyway first one is about the --vbv-bufsize , --vbv-maxrate , and the --vbv-init. I haven't been able to really figure out much of what it does and have always left the parameter empty. Anyone willing to explain there purpose or point to some documentation on them?

Also the newest deadzone feature. Couldn't find much info on it either outside of Zero1's earlier post on it... though that more or less confused the hell out of me. xD

[TheFluff]

Originally Posted by Harukalover

Anyway first one is about the --vbv-bufsize , --vbv-maxrate , and the --vbv-init. I haven't been able to really figure out much of what it does and have always left the parameter empty. Anyone willing to explain there purpose or point to some documentation on them?

VBV is an obscure acronym for "Video Buffering Verifier". It's related to streaming and reading from speed-limited media like DVD's. The various options restrains the bitrate in various ways (useful for streaming where having a wildly varying bitrate can be very evil) and can be used to achieve CBR if you want that.

Source: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.ph...596#post699596

[cyoti]

Does anyone know how to extract a MPEG4 stream from an mkv file?

[ffdshow]

Originally Posted by cyoti

Does anyone know how to extract a MPEG4 stream from an mkv file?

I don' think this is the right place to ask that question. Anyway, you can extract mkv contents using:
http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/

[Kurth]

Originally Posted by [darkfire]

Well I personally use mp4 for my xvid encoding and h.264. I don't dislike mkv. I just don't need the features right now that it gives. If i was doing softsubs or using ogg for audio I would use mkv.

You can mux OGG audio on MP4 container
http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/831/yambue1.jpg

Im using Yamb 2.0 with the latest MP4Box.
The Vorbis audio muxed on MP4 play without any problems.

Originally Posted by cyoti

Does anyone know how to extract a MPEG4 stream from an mkv file?

To extract tracks from an MKV file you need MKVToolnix + MKVExtractGUI
http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkv...downloads.html
http://corecodec.org/projects/mkvextractgui/

You can extract anything from MKV files using the MKVExtractGUI, install MKVToolnix and put the files of the software MKVExtractGUI on the MKVToolnix folder and execute the file MKVextractGUI.exe.
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/3826/extractvf1.jpg

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by Kurth

You can mux OGG audio on MP4 container
http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/831/yambue1.jpg

Im using Yamb 2.0 with the latest MP4Box.
The Vorbis audio muxed on MP4 play without any problems.

Yes. But it's not technically in the mp4 spec, so you might run into compatibility problems in the future. Even the mp4box documentation itself admits that vorbis muxing is experimental and not officially supported.

[Power2All]

And ok.
Now tell me, how do I convert the .h264 file that comes out a MKV to a AVI file.
Dont gimme that "stop talking about AVI"-crap again since I need this for private use.
So lets say, I want that H.264 file be playable again in AVI but since, as I read, there is no FPS control in that RAW file, it will play not in a normal framerate, am I right or wrong here ?
Gimme some tips pls

[edit]
I used MKVExtractor

[Sylf]

assuming it's CFR stream, you can use mencoder to put h264 raw video in avi. Maybe avidemux can do it too.

[Zero1]

Anyone who puts Vorbis into MP4 should be shot.
Serious, I don't even know why it's an option.

Use MKV if H.264 + Vorbis is your requirement, or use H.264 + AAC if you want to use MP4. Don't go creating faggot files "just because you can". Enough people already bitch about the thought of AC3 in MP4.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by Power2All

And ok.
Now tell me, how do I convert the .h264 file that comes out a MKV to a AVI file.
Dont gimme that "stop talking about AVI"-crap again since I need this for private use.
So lets say, I want that H.264 file be playable again in AVI but since, as I read, there is no FPS control in that RAW file, it will play not in a normal framerate, am I right or wrong here ?
Gimme some tips pls

[edit]
I used MKVExtractor

Assuming thats a raw h.264 video stream, the best (and really, only) way to do this is using the avc2avi program http://mirror05.x264.nl/Sharktooth/x...vc2avi_r594.7z

Muxing h.264 into avi with anything ELSE would be MORE broken.

Please note, this should come with all the caveats, "don't do this" "you are a newb if you release h.264 in avi" "you hate america if you put h.264 into avi" etc etc...

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by Power2All

And ok.
Now tell me, how do I convert the .h264 file that comes out a MKV to a AVI file.
Dont gimme that "stop talking about AVI"-crap again since I need this for private use.
So lets say, I want that H.264 file be playable again in AVI but since, as I read, there is no FPS control in that RAW file, it will play not in a normal framerate, am I right or wrong here ?
Gimme some tips pls

[edit]
I used MKVExtractor

Oh... I now read your ENTIRE post, and it seems like you have issues with variable frame rate mkvs....

Because Avi truly doesn't support VFR at all, the only way to have the file playback right would be: reencode it using avisynth and a DirectShowSource with a convert fps... (non-optimal solution).

OR... assuming that the VFR mkv was entirely consisting of 24 and 30 fps sections, you could make a 120 fps avi with nv-op frames. How do you do this? Let me explain:

1st step, extract the timecode file (v1 or v2) and the raw video stream.
2nd step, use previously mentioned avc2avi to create an avi file at a fake CFR (this will NOT sync with the audio)
3rd step, use tc2cfr from http://bengal.missouri.edu/~kes25c/avi_tc_package.zip
with the generated avi from step 2 and the timecode file you extracted to create a 120 fps avi.

P.S. I'm totally not sure that the tc2cfr program will work on h.264 in avi... you'll have to try it. You can always email tritical if it doesn't work and he might update it for you (he's cool like that).

[Kurth]

Zero1

[TheFluff]

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

Oh... I now read your ENTIRE post, and it seems like you have issues with variable frame rate mkvs....

To me it just seemed like he referred to the fact that a raw h264 bitstream doesn't have any header that tells you the framerate, which means you have to tell whatever you mux it with about the real framerate. Not sure that's what he really meant, though, he's not exactly eloquent (and never was, really >_>).

Also: WHY O WHY RECOMMEND 120FPS H.264 IN AVI, or even tell people such an abomination exists!? At this rate, we'll be running out of kittens for God to kill soon, and then he'll have to start on something else...

[Starks]

Originally Posted by TheFluff

To me it just seemed like he referred to the fact that a raw h264 bitstream doesn't have any header that tells you the framerate, which means you have to tell whatever you mux it with about the real framerate. Not sure that's what he really meant, though, he's not exactly eloquent (and never was, really >_>).

Also: WHY O WHY RECOMMEND 120FPS H.264 IN AVI, or even tell people such an abomination exists!? At this rate, we'll be running out of kittens for God to kill soon, and then he'll have to start on something else...

Calm down Fluff, people have done far worse things that entice our vengeful God to kill innocent kittens.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by TheFluff

Also: WHY O WHY RECOMMEND 120FPS H.264 IN AVI, or even tell people such an abomination exists!? At this rate, we'll be running out of kittens for God to kill soon, and then he'll have to start on something else...

Why? Because, it's the ONLY possible solution without reencoding givent the parameters he set.

He said he wanted an avi file made from a (probably vfr) mkv file, without reencoding.

Other than 120 fps avi with h.264, there's no other way.

After all, I'm the type of person who'd tell someone how to make an atomic bomb, if they seemed curious enough. What they do with it is up to them .

P.S. The secret is in the implosion lens...

[Zero1]

Originally Posted by Kurth

Zero1

Huh? Did I say something wrong? Counter productive? Nonsense? Unjust?

What is your problem, rather than just posting an icon?


Forget your God and kittens. Everytime someone puts H.264 in AVI (or something else whack), I will longpost about it.