6 Responses to "[OB/UL/180U/HuF] Agents of S H I E L D S01E17 Turn Turn Turn 480p WEB-DL x264-RMTeam (146MB)"

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04/09/14
15:16:50

TomMix

MKV to MP4 is trivial and lossless.
Use e.g. Avidemux (which does a lot more than AVI).
Set video and audio to "copy" and container "MP4" and save, it takes a few seconds.

04/09/14
16:00:20

TheMovieMan

Excuse me, but MKV is superior quality! Forget MP4!

04/09/14
18:13:52

TomMix

Quality depends on the codec and bitrate, not the container.
It will look identical in eithwr MKV or MP4.

"Superior" is just whatever works for your software and hardware. MKV works for my TV, but others may not.

04/09/14
19:15:50

TheMovieMan

@ TomMix
I really, really sympathize with your diplomatic answer. That makes your ideology, regardless of any container available in the universe that fits ones needs to be "Superior". Whether it is MKV, MP4, RMBV, XVID, WMV, FLV, AVI, 3GP, ASF and/or whatever variations thereof. Sorry, but nothing could be further from the truth. And The Truth – you know who - surely have lots and lots to comment on this.

04/09/14
20:09:42

TheMovieMan

@ jose

Depending on your electronic equipment, you really have to trust your own eyes. Do you watch files on a PC or flatscreen? Do you use USB via flatscreen or USB via BD player to a flatscreen? It really all depends on your equipment. No one in here can tell you what is the best solution… other than to buy the original Blu-ray of a given title, of course. Even a BD release varies in quality depending in where in the world the BD is released. It ALL depends on what YOU think looks good, and what YOU are satisfied with. However, rule of thumb, the bigger the file the better the quality. It´s all up to you.

04/10/14
02:22:59

TomMix

A program like Mediainfo lite will give you detailed specs.

If the same codec and same resolution, then higher bitrate (larger file) should be better.

You occasionally see VOB files, these use MPEG2 codec, as in DVDs.
AVI files usually use Xvid codec, which is about twice as efficient as MPEG2. So an Xvid of 700 MB is about the same quality as 1400 MB of VOB.

MP4 and MKV usually use AVC/H264/x264 (though in theory you can put just about any codec inside them, even MPEG2). This is again about twice as efficient as Xvid.

(So a typical TV show as Xvid AVI 624x360 is 350 MB, and a 852x480 MKV AVC might be 200 MB, and be significantly higher video quality.)

The higher efficiency comes at the cost of complexity. You need a smarter, faster, player to decode these and play them smoothly. Though not a problem for recent PCs, cheap media players may not be able to cope, if they can decode the newer codecs at all.

If it's the same codec and resolution but half the size that is certainly going to be fuzzier. Bitrate isn't the only determiner of quality though. If the encoders do a more intensive analysis they can get higher quality at a lower rate. So you may note which encoders consistently give a better result.

The container though isn't important when choosing which to download, as I can easily change that. I usually put MP4, FLV and MKV through MKVmergegui to make a new MKV, which gives me a more reliably playable file. I can omit subtitles I don't want, and even use its split options to trim off crap at the beginning and end without reencoding.