MP4 seek problem

[DiscostewSM]

Many of you are probably aware of a thread I made about streaming video to the Wii U, transcoding from non-MP4 to MP4, but after finding about how I can set up IIS on my Windows machine and simply hold MP4 videos there so I can play them back, I figured I'll go with that option until a media server method is formed. Of course by doing this, I have to convert my files to MP4 first. Most of them are MKV, and I found multiple programs that can remux from MKV to MP4 without having to re-encode the entire file (just the audio). The rest can simply be done by full re-encoding.

Unfortunately, this remuxing causes a problem with the resulting file, and not just with the Wii U. The videos play fine, but the moment I try and seek to a different position, the videos either restart to the beginning (on the Wii U), or freeze completely (in Windows). I've also done complete re-encoding (which I will do on non-MKV videos), and while that doesn't seem to have any problems, it obviously takes a lot longer to process that remuxing, and I saw some quality reduction in the video.

Is there a way to fix this seeking problem, or am I S.O.L and will just have to take the long approach?

 

[Rydian]

Sounds like the index doesn't match, so yeah you'll need to convert.

The only tool I've seen that attempts to fix index data is VLC, and that's only with AVI files, and that's just a temp client fix, it won't apply it to the original file.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Bleh...

Well, I guess my computer ain't going to sleep anytime soon.......for the next week or so....

 

[Rydian]

Which tools did you try using to transcode? There might be one out there that fixes the index.

 

[DiscostewSM]

For remuxing/converting from MKV to MP4, I've used Rebox.NET, GOTSent, MKV2MP4, and Yamb. For specifically trying to change/fix the indexing after using one of the prior programs to convert to MP4, I've tried QTIndexSwapper 2, VideoRedo (trial), SolveigMM Video Splitter (trial), and even tried just FFMpeg to remux the converted MP4 to a new MP4.

The only one of the latter programs that seemed to work was VideoRedo, but the fix only worked when running Windows Media Player. The problem stayed with VLC, Media Player Classic, and it even froze my Wii U, forcing me to unplug it to turn it off.

 

[Magsor]

Why do you want to convert to MP4?
There's simple and fast ways to do stuff but you will pretty much always a little quality when converting.
I have dealt a lot with converting/editing but all-in-one programs always suck. I use exclusively a combination of MPEGstreamclip/VLC/SUPER/Virtualdub(autoGK) for everything (they are all free). You just have to pinpoint what you are trying to achieve.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Why do you want to convert to MP4?
There's simple and fast ways to do stuff but you will pretty much always a little quality when converting.
I have dealt a lot with converting/editing but all-in-one programs always suck. I use exclusively a combination of MPEGstreamclip/VLC/SUPER/Virtualdub(autoGK) for everything (they are all free). You just have to pinpoint what you are trying to achieve.

Simply put, compatible MP4 videos that can be played back on the Wii U's web browser for streaming. Full transcoding to MP4 works, but not partial (as in copy video and transcode audio to AAC), even though the video plays fine without attempting to seek to a different position (which affects not just the Wii U, but multiple players on my PC).

 

[Mantis41]

Try zenonMKV
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xenonmkv/files/xenonmkv/39/xenonmkv_20110301_39.zip/download

Unzip folder and run XenonMKV.exe


If you get a warning about AAC you may need nero AAC codecs.
http://www.nero.com/enu/downloads-nerodigital-nero-aac-codec.php

Just unzip and copy the contents of win32 to the XenonMKV\tools folder and re-run XenonMKV.exe


I prefer this to gotsent.

 

[Magsor]

I recommend just transcoding using SUPER. If you use the same codec, same bitrate and same resolution you will not lose quality because it use the same algorithm. If you do run into problem let us know; there's a way around everything.

Alternatively if you want to go fully lossless you can try fixing your MP4 with MPEGstreamclip. It could work but not sure. Just open the MP4 and save as it might work. I try to stay away from MKV. These days MP4/H264 are the way to go and AVI/XVID is most of my files library.

 

[DiscostewSM]

@Mantis41

I tried XenonMKV just now, but the MKVs I'm giving it keep firing an exception, saying "Conversion from string 'VFR' to type 'Double' is not valid", and it stops there.

@Magsor

As far as full transcode mode is concerned, I currently use a program called Format Factory, which has worked well for me for quite some time and allows for multi-thread encoding. I did try SUPER for doing a stream copy of the video and transcode for audio, but the resulting file was ~58KBytes. I'm attempting a full transcode now.
I did attempt to use MPEGstreamclip, but the saved file it produces doesn't even show up in the folder I saved it to unless I attempt to find it through the program itself (which is then shows as being 0 bytes).

 

[DiscostewSM]

Well, I found out the problem. It is within the video stream itself. The videos I tried to remux were not the originals, but were transcoded to reduce the overall file size by 1/3. I tried remuxing the originals, and they worked perfectly. I preferred the smaller versions that literally showed no change in quality from the originals, but I guess whatever works is what I should go with (until the Wii U gains the capability of playing MKVs, whenever that happens).