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

[Peter Bennett (cats22)]

On 09/19/2014 10:27 PM, f-myth-users at media.mit.edu wrote:
> 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...)
> _______________________________________________
>
My own limited experience showed it to be preferable to use mkv. The
mkvtoolnix tools work better than the mp4 tools. Handbrake is able to
include subtitles in the mkv file, not sure if it can do that with mp4
files. I also found that Handbrake encoding to mp4 resulted in files
that were unplayable on a DVD player, while encoding to mkv and then
using a patched avconv to copy convert the mkv to mp4 gave a file that
was playable on the DVD player. mkv was not directly playable on the DVD
player.
Using mythcommflag on the mkv file works and actually deletes the seek
table. It is necessary to do this, if the seek table is present, seeking
does not work. After this, seeking works fine on the mkv files.
Peter