So I want to encode some video in MKV...

[Cortexian]

It's from my PVR, I plan to get it to my PC using a Hauppage 1212 and the component outputs on the PVR to avoid any HDMI DRM shit. I don't need higher quality than 720p anyway.

Anyhow, not sure what the video files are going to be after capturing from the PVR, but lets assume I want to edit out some commercials and encode it just like the majority of HDTV content available online. What's the best way to do this, using the standard MKV format? I'm looking for things like bitrate info and such.

This is more of a future reference as well, since I need to buy a Hauppage 1212 still and they aint cheap.

[Rook]

I couldn't tell you myself but you should probably go ask in some anime fansub group irc they encode h.264 into a MKV container all the time.

[Patssj6]

MKV is not a format, i's a contanier. Like Rook said, h.264 into MKV container.

[dark navi]

When I record with our HD PVR, I always use .M2TS. It is raw and extremely large, but it's worth the quality and it can be edited in Sony Vegas. :iamafag:

[Cortexian]

Yes, the files are going to be M2TS to start with but like you said... It's a RAW type file and extremely huge, I'm going to want to keep these and I'm find with the h.264 encoding quality used a lot by all the big TV show rippers out there.

I realize that MKV is a container, not to worried about that but I just want all the things I'm going to be encoding in h.264 to line up nice with all the things I've downloaded.

[Jelly]

just to clarify, you'll be editing the mt2s, exporting to lossless and then encoding to h264? thats the best (and pretty much only) way to do it, anyway.

For encoding, i'd reccomend meGUI (read the start of the guide below before installing): http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96032
there's a good guide on using megui here: http://sovietpride.su/meguitut/megui.html
when it gets to the container part, choose mkv instead of mp4 obv. There's no real difference.

To save yourself some trouble, export a lossless sample clip of each show you'll be encoding (preferably a clip with a lot of movement) and test different bitrates on that. As the guide says, 1000 is a good starting point and you can lower it if the file is too big.

[Cortexian]

I was hoping to edit the M2TS files in Adobe Premiere and then export directly to H.264, save a step if I can. Then just use something to drop it into an MKV container.

[Jelly]

The only issue with that that i could see is whether adobe premiere would export videos as x264 in an avi container or export the video files and audio files separately. To mux an mkv (in my experience at least) you'll need them split up, then they will be joined in the mkv.

If premiere supports the split streams then mkvtoolnix (http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/downloads.html), a set of command-line tools, can join the two streams into an mkv file. I've never used it directly (only through megui), but according to the documentation (http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/doc/mkvmerge.html) it should be as easy as

$ mkvmerge -o MyMovie-with-sound.mkv -A MyMovie.avi MyMovie.oggagain, a short sample video would be best to test this.

edit: i just looked at megui and it has an mkv muxing tool too, probably easier to use than the command line.

[NullZero]

Yep, the GUI is very easy. Just add the video file, then the audio file, edit the output file destination and desired name, and press the good to go button.

[Cortexian]

I may edit the video in Premiere and cut the audio out of the M2TS file directly then. Most MKV containers aren't using encoded audio right? It's straight from the source for the best possible quality? Premiere can export the audio and video separately but I'm not sure how good the audio quality is that Premiere spits out. I'll have a look at Adobe Media Encoder settings.

[Jelly]

i'm fairly sure they dont use unencoded audio in mkvs. for lossless quality you can use flac, but i think most common formats are AAC and mp3

[Patrickssj6]

Yep they use ACC. A sound system at home makes a lot more difference than the slight change in encoding.

[PenGuin1362]

Adobe Media Encoder is rather fantastic. Check that out

[Cortexian]

Adobe Media Encoder is rather fantastic. Check that out
Yea that's what Premiere exports to, and then AME does all the actual encoding.