[mythtv-users] Should I prefer mp4 or mkv in Handbrake output?

[f-myth-users at media.mit.edu]

Is there any particular reason to prefer one container or another (MP4
vs MKV) in using Handbrake to transcode PVR-x50 SD MPEG2 data to MP4?
Issues/bugs/performance re seeking?  Commflag issues?  Audio sync?  I
recall messages a while back blaming seek problems on MKV, but don't
know if they were misreported or resolved.  Some wiki examples seem to
indicate using MKV, but I don't know if that was an arbitrary choice.
I would typically just use MP4 given no other info since more things
may understand it, but I'm willing to be convinced either way.

Assume I'll be running mythcommflag/mythutil in 0.27 to rebuild the
seektable and/or re-commflag, using North American cable material.
I'm running Handbrake 0.9.9 under Ubuntu 12.04 to do the transcodes,
with a close-to-Normal preset.  (Using --loose-anamorphic and probably
adjusting speed.)  I'm not deinterlacing; I'll leave that to the
rendering chain to maximize vertical detail for the future.*

I've checked Trac and -dev and nothing's jumped out at me, but my
memory and Google tells me of various suspicions of issues in various
Myth versions, so if anyone knows of any current issues, please let
me know.  (I'm not yet running 0.27 but expect to eventually, and
don't want to be badly surprised if I do the transcodes in advance.
Until I'm running 0.27, I'll be using mplayer to actually play the
transcoded output (hence no mythfrontend and no commskip), but expect
to use Myth's internal player when I'm up-to-date.)

Thanks.


* (Eventual display for the moment on an interlaced CRT, which
  unfortunately probably means deinterlace->VGA->scan converter->
  S-Video->CRT, since I doubt very much I can convert MP4 back to
  something a PVR-350 can use its native decoder with, unless it'll
  take most any MPEG2 and not just MPEG2's generated by x50's.
  Eventually the CRT will go away, but not soon.  So I'll be
  deinterlacing before reinterlacing, but oh well...)