Torrent Format

Gadgetman496

Maybe someone can educate me on this?

My TV does not play mkv files but happily plays mp4 files.

Recently I noticed a lot of files that would normally be available in mp4 or now appearing in mkv only. These particular files also contain the x264 in the title and seem to be much smaller in size to that of the normal mkv files my TV can't play.

What has caused the move from mp4 to mkv and do you think these smaller mkv files with x264 in the title are similar to mp4 files & might work on my TV?

shanec1928

Just convert with handbrake

Nollog

X264 is superior that's why whoever you get your encodes from switched. The only reason people stuck with mp4 so long was compatibly.

Mkv is a container. X264 is a video format/codec.
MP4 is a container. it usually contains mpeg4 video format/codec.

Probably if your tv is any way recent. Try one out. plenty of converters if not.

degsie

It's the 'scene' what determines the format.

Gadgetman496

Prior to my noticing the change to mkv by some of my sources, mkv files were huge in size (albeit much better quality when played on PC) and required massive disk space if one wanted to hold them compared to mp4's. They would definitely not play on my two year old Samsung TV so for both reasons I avoided them.

If Mkv is a container what is the video format for those older type large mkv's?

The newer type mkv's which have the x264 video format are so much smaller, even smaller than the mp4 equivalent files.

I will try some of those smaller mkv files on my TV over the weekend and see if they do play.

Caillte

Gadgetman,

I use a plex server on my computer to do all the transcoding on the fly and it streams to all my devices. Its an absolutely great piece of software. Subscription service but very reasonable.

Gadgetman496

Caillte wrote: »

Gadgetman,

I use a plex server on my computer to do all the transcoding on the fly and it streams to all my devices. Its an absolutely great piece of software. Subscription service but very reasonable.

I'm off to Google that, cheers.

ItHurtsWhenIP

Caillte wrote: »

Gadgetman,

I use a plex server on my computer to do all the transcoding on the fly and it streams to all my devices. Its an absolutely great piece of software. Subscription service but very reasonable.

No need to pay for subscription. I use the free version running on my NAS and it plays to my TV and mobile devices no problem.

TerrorFirmer

The other option is use a €30 Android box to play your movies. X265 is becoming common now and a full length movie at decent 720P quality is around 500mb.

golfcaptain

Gadgetman496 wrote: »

Maybe someone can educate me on this?

My TV does not play mkv files but happily plays mp4 files.

Recently I noticed a lot of files that would normally be available in mp4 or now appearing in mkv only. These particular files also contain the x264 in the title and seem to be much smaller in size to that of the normal mkv files my TV can't play.

What has caused the move from mp4 to mkv and do you think these smaller mkv files with x264 in the title are similar to mp4 files & might work on my TV?

There's 2 different things you're referencing here; media containers (MP4 and MKV) and media codecs (h.264 - x264 is an open source software library for implementing h.264 and therefore, strictly speaking, not a codec itself). A media container is a wrapper file that has different data streams inside it (video, audio, subtitles etc). A media codec is how the individual video and audio parts of the file are compressed and decompressed.

MPEG-4 and MP4 are not the same thing. MPEG-4 is a constantly evolving specification for the compression of audio/video files. It is made up of many different parts. MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) is simply a container for storing typically audio and video. An MP4 file may contain video encoded in h.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10) or a number of other compression formats.

MKV is a relatively new open source container file format from Matroska (see https://www.matroska.org/technical/guides/faq/index.html). MKV files with x264 in the title would mean they are MKV container files than 'contain' video encoded in h.264 using the x264 library. x264 offers significant compression improvements over many other methods so that would be one reason why the file sizes are smaller.

The reason for why you're now seeing MKV files as opposed to MP4 is because, earlier this year, the groups at the top of the chain releasing these files decided to switch to it. There is a whole structure, process and methodology as to how 'these files' become available that is defined by a group casually known 'The Scene'. They are basically the top of the chain and indirectly seed most of the files that end up with users such as yourself. They decided to switch to MKV so that is what you now see.

If your TV only supports MP4 then you cannot play MKV files in it. They will not work. However, since MKV and MP4 are both just containers, it is trivial to change (called remuxing) between the two without any loss of video quality using any number of programs (VLC being one).

degsie

Sometimes just changing the extension from .mkv to .mp4 will work. It depends on the wrapped codec.

Gadgetman496

Pretty much the same reasons they (Scene) forced the move from avi to mp4 way back?

golfcaptain

degsie wrote: »

Sometimes just changing the extension from .mkv to .mp4 will work. It depends on the wrapped codec.

LOL that shoudn't work.

Gadgetman496 wrote: »

Pretty much the same reasons they (Scene) forced the move from avi to mp4 way back?

Don't know the exact reasons why they changed but, yeah, it's the same story in effect.

Gadgetman496

degsie wrote: »

Sometimes just changing the extension from .mkv to .mp4 will work. It depends on the wrapped codec.

I don't think that would be a stable solution to be honest. I know, way, way back I tried that on a file and it played fine on my PC but not at all on my TV. At the time, I put it down to the fact I had both VLC & the K-Lite codec pack installed so I put it down to VLC being able to play almost anything.

I have a vast collection of stuff that all works fine on my TV but the most recent seasons are all appearing in this mkv format, I can still manage to find most of it from the likes of FUM but it's getting harder I have to admit.

My experience of converting is that it is way too time consuming and is very resource hungry too, it's a road I neither have the will or the time to pursue.

How are the newer smart TV's when it comes to mkv's? Do they play them?

golfcaptain

What model TV do you have? There may be an update to add MKV support. It depends on the TV of course but I would expect all newer TV's to support it. Just looking at Currys the top 2 smart TVs on their site do.

A media server, such as Plex, or another streaming device is definitely worthwhile looking into. Essentially won't have to worry what format is supported again.

Gadgetman496

golfcaptain wrote: »

What model TV do you have? There may be an update to add MKV support. It depends on the TV of course but I would expect all newer TV's to support it. Just looking at Currys the top 2 smart TVs on their site do.

A media server, such as Plex, or another streaming device is definitely worthwhile looking into. Essentially won't have to worry what format is supported again.

My TV is a Samsung 5 Series Smart TV & I store my media on standard hard drives which I have shared within my internal network. I stream via my network as opposed to plugging in a hard drive directly to the TV. The TV just sees them automatically and away you go.

golfcaptain

You'd need to check the specific model code as not all Series 5 support the same formats.

lawred2

Caillte wrote: »

Gadgetman,

I use a plex server on my computer to do all the transcoding on the fly and it streams to all my devices. Its an absolutely great piece of software. Subscription service but very reasonable.

Doesn't have to be a subscription service.

Transcoding isn't a premium service for Plex. Mobile sync is though

Gadgetman496

golfcaptain wrote: »

You'd need to check the specific model code as not all Series 5 support the same formats.

It's a UE32F5500AKXXU and I'm not finding anything much on my searches for supported video formats other than some saying it will play some mkv files but not others. I'm guessing that's got to do with the media codecs wrapped in the mkv container you mentioned?

I am going to try some of these smaller mkv files with the x246 in the file name when I get a chance & will report back.

golfcaptain

Gadgetman496 wrote: »

It's a UE32F5500AKXXU and I'm not finding anything much on my searches for supported video formats other than some saying it will play some mkv files but not others. I'm guessing that's got to do with the media codecs wrapped in the mkv container you mentioned?

I am going to try some of these smaller mkv files with the x246 in the file name when I get a chance & will report back.

According to the manual on their website - (pages 175 & 176) it does support it. There is an update file for the TV on the website too, you may try installing this. Unfortunately I can't see any release notes for it so I don't know what it addresses, it might even be the factory default software.

It's also possible the files you have are encoded with unsupported codecs (see manual for video AND audio) or there are other reasons that could be causing it also. For instance, the mkv files may be damaged in some way. Can you definitely play them on another device?

Gadgetman496

golfcaptain wrote: »

According to the manual on their website - (pages 175 & 176) it does support it. There is an update file for the TV on the website too, you may try installing this. Unfortunately I can't see any release notes for it so I don't know what it addresses, it might even be the factory default software.

It's also possible the files you have are encoded with unsupported codecs (see manual for video AND audio) or there are other reasons that could be causing it also. For instance, the mkv files may be damaged in some way. Can you definitely play them on another device?

Well, the only other device I've ever played my files on was my PC and it plays them all perfectly fine. I know that the older (that's what I call them anyway) mkv with huge file sizes would not play on the TV but I've never tried these newer small file sized mkv's. I'm not at base now but I will try them as soon as I get a chance.

Gadgetman496

OK, I took a random sample of 10 of those smaller mkv files with x264 in the description, the ones that seem to be the standard now and they all played fine on my TV.

The older huge size mkv's do not play, you know the ones that have like a 1.9GB or larger file size per episode. Not bothered by them though as I never take them anyway.

So the latest mkv format appears to work just fine. I should have tried them sooner but I just made the incorrect assumption that if one type of mkv file won't play, none of them will.

I also checked for updates on the TV and that options is now greyed out and just says "This option is not available". I guess the model has come to the end of its update support?

This whole thread has been worthwhile for me though, it has enlightened my understanding of the container\codecs mechanics a bit better.

Thanks to everyone who contributed in any way. All your thoughts and advice is much appreciated.