Pirates Frustrated After TV Groups Swap MP4 For MKV

bos said:
it's just a pita
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Yes, it's a pain in the ass to have to do something on your end as you pirate content because someone else on the other end supplying it just didn't give a rat's ass about whether or not it would be a pain in the ass for you to do something on your end. Funny how that works. ;)

As far as technology making piracy easier to suit you, well, shit happens.
 
I look forward to the day when there is enough bandwidth for release groups to just dump raw untouched transport streams (.ts) directly from the satellite feed. The Japanese and Korean music and tv show scene already does is and it is freaking glorious.

From one such release:
Video: MPEG2 Video 1920x1080 29.97fps
Audio: AAC 48000Hz stereo 256kbps

My PC plays a 20+GB video like that at 60fps using MPC-HC with LAV filters
 
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Well, all the releases tonight were mkv's. doesn't bother me at all.
 
Lorien said:
I look forward to the day when there is enough bandwidth...
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for this to happen is how you should have finished it:



Would love to find that video in a better format since it looks so crappy and cruddy (ironic considering the content of the concept of the commercial), but someday, probably past most of our lifetimes, access to anything anytime anywhere, it'll happen.
 
evilsofa said:
Count yourself lucky that they aren't insisting on the product being available on 3.5" floppy disks, because that's where the "because it's more compatible" argument eventually takes you.
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More compatible means it plays on more devices without tinkering. When did you last saw a computer that had a 3.5" drive? On desktop 10 years ago, on notebooks 15 years at least.
 
ShamisOMally said:
Pirates love mp4 because its a "Standard"

Except Mp4 has rather strict restrictions in order to be played on legacy devices such as PS3/4's etc such as amount of b-frames, ref frames, key frames, GOP values etc, most of which actually hamper a high quality encode

MKV however allows whatever codecs you want to throw into it, which may not sound like a big deal, but a 200Kbps~ OPUS file sounds better than a 300Kbps AAC file by a longshot, has far better acoustics and is far smaller in size
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MP4 is a container format not a compression format. B-frames etc etc has to do with your compression format.
Also i believe the b-frames restriction has to do with bluray playback, not the actual ps3/ps4 ( correct me if im wrong). Xbox 360 take anys numbers of B-frames blah blah blah of H.264 coded video in an .MP4 container
Your ability to hear difference between 300kbits aac and the original source i would really like to see you do in an ABX test cause it sound like same bullshit ppl say about mp3 to apepar more "leet" but yet alwas seems to back out on proving it. do you take the challange of ABX'ing ?

On the case i don see any big benefits of using .MKV container format over a ,MP4 container format. but MP4 is more supported on devices beeing an ISO standard. my Samsung phone plays .MP4. my xbox takes .MP4. my wife phone takes .MP4.
 
The crying kid in a pirate hat picture on the linked article was priceless. :ROFLMAO:
 
I don't necessarily mind MP4 content long as it's done right.



What drives me nuts is xvid/avi junk
 
I watch content on either my HTPC or laptop in the bedroom, so the file format means very little to me.
 
i use exclusively mkv, i've almost finished transfering all my dvd's and bluray's to my media server. i have transferred 190 movies so far(got another ~30 movies to go). all but 2 or 2 are mkv.

i use anydvdhd (they are BACK btw) and handbrake or another program that copies, for blurays i don't Bother to convert anything, i just copy as "lossless" for audio & video file will be 25-30gig but since i have 6 terabytes of storage (and 4.5TB free atm).

on one of my tablets it WILL stream hd-dts audio np, on another of my tablets it will not (first tablet touts the hd dts capability- my 2nd tablet is a galaxy tab2 nook that i have rooted, i have yet to overwrite with a custom android version- on that one, i just click audio and change the audio from dts to a different audio. works great.
i tend to use mx video to play instead of using plex since... mxvideo streams better over wireless vs plex (i can get a full hd stream at full resolution and bitrate streaming via mxvideo, it studders over plex- plugging in the hdmi cable to my tv plex running flawlessly though i have to use keyboard and mouse to navigate- gotta get the remote).
 
Personally, I use .mkv containers for everything because they are flexible and easy to manipulate. Being an open/free standard is a bonus. I typically encode my videos with multiple raw audio tracks, angles and/or subtitles. With that said, .mp4 containers are much more "player friendly" but a mixed bag of nuts. Some players can't handle raw audio streams, others choke on angles and/or subtitles. Most videos should be encoded using h.264/h.265 (for compatibility reasons), so their container is a moot point. You can always change the container with little effort without re-encoding the video/audio if needed.
 
OregonLAN said:
Personally, I use .mkv containers for everything because they are flexible and easy to manipulate. Being an open/free standard is a bonus. I typically encode my videos with multiple raw audio tracks, angles and/or subtitles. With that said, .mp4 containers are much more "player friendly" but a mixed bag of nuts. Some players can't handle raw audio streams, others choke on angles and/or subtitles. Most videos should be encoded using h.264/h.265 (for compatibility reasons), so their container is a moot point. You can always change the container with little effort without re-encoding the video/audio if needed.
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Changing container is annoying and would be unnecessary if they stuck with MP4, because anywhere MKV plays, so does MP4, but the reverse is not true.

I record OTA air TV and encode it all to mp4, because I know it will play everywhere, Android, PC, PS3, PS4, iDevice, etc...

Since TV shows are usually just One Video track, one audio track and maybe subtitles, all that MKV accomplishes is less compatibility.

Going MKV for public consumption is a stupid move.
 
I can't remember the last time I didn't see an MKV container. Honestly, I've stopped pirating awhile ago. It's become too much work when lazier options are available. Seriously, I rather just pay $20 for a season on Amazon Video than spend the time looking for rips or setting up the auto finder. I also reduced the amount I consume anyway. Hulu/Netflix/Amazon/HBO Go provides most of what I want.
 
There is a frustrating subset of pirates that swear by MP4. I prefer turning my own media for personal use into MKV and use streaming solutions at home to view content, but I can see the appeal for broader strict standards of MP4.
 
Zepher said:
I do since it is good enough and doesn't take much space. 720p rips are about 4+ times the size.
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Same here. I encode all my OTA recordings at 540p (MP4), and if I miss an episode, I download SD because it has less download cap wasted, and less storage space and good enough.
 
I standardized on mkv five years ago because the 1080p streaming app on my smarty TV doesn't accept MP4. Most of my media is my rips of discs, but for the occasional download I've gotten there's always been an mkv available.

I do have one question that would save me annoyances: is there any way to change the default extension in Handbrake to mkv? This insistence on one over the other with no obvious option menu tick box is just fucking stupid.
 
defaultluser said:
I do have one question that would save me annoyances: is there any way to change the default extension in Handbrake to mkv? This insistence on one over the other with no obvious option menu tick box is just fucking stupid.
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Not sure how you miss it. 3 main settings on the main page: Source, Destination, Output Settings. Output settings has "Container" with MP4/MKV options.
 
Doesn't Chromecast require .mp4/can't play .mkv?

That would be a good reason why people are doing .mp4 releases.
 
I'm good with it since I prefer to add subtitles to everything. With 2 kids, there are a number of times each week where I could be watching a basic TV show like Arrow and need the subtitles. Not because they are speaking in a foreign language, but because with the action or music, or just background house noise, I find myself having to rewind and replay parts to catch the dialog. After replaying it once and still not being able to make it out.. screw it, I just turn on subtitles and replay so I can catch the dialog and then turn subtitles off again. Burned in forced subs don't do anything for that.

My kids Android devices have no problems playing my DVD/Bluray .mkv rips (took a USB drive full on our Disney trip). For Apple devices.. considering I only have 16GB on my work phone and iPad.. I can't really put any media on it anyways so I just use Plex. Same for my Roku's at home, but even using Plex they just "direct stream" all my media without any transcoding required.
 
farscapesg1 said:
I'm good with it since I prefer to add subtitles to everything.
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MP4 supports subtitles. I encode subtitles into my MP4 files that I create from OTA TV.

Here is media info from subtitles I created in recent MP4 TV show encode:

Text
ID : 3
Format : Timed Text
Muxing mode : sbtl
Codec ID : tx3g
Duration : 39mn 24s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 116 bps
Stream size : 33.3 KiB (0%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2016-03-28 04:50:20
Tagged date : UTC 2016-03-28 04:50:20
 
Snowdog said:
Changing container is annoying and would be unnecessary if they stuck with MP4, because anywhere MKV plays, so does MP4, but the reverse is not true.

I record OTA air TV and encode it all to mp4, because I know it will play everywhere, Android, PC, PS3, PS4, iDevice, etc...

Since TV shows are usually just One Video track, one audio track and maybe subtitles, all that MKV accomplishes is less compatibility.

Going MKV for public consumption is a stupid move.
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Snowdog said:
Changing container is annoying and would be unnecessary if they stuck with MP4, because anywhere MKV plays, so does MP4, but the reverse is not true.

I record OTA air TV and encode it all to mp4, because I know it will play everywhere, Android, PC, PS3, PS4, iDevice, etc...

Since TV shows are usually just One Video track, one audio track and maybe subtitles, all that MKV accomplishes is less compatibility.

Going MKV for public consumption is a stupid move.
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Annoying? Haha, It takes all of 45 seconds to convert to a .mp4 container using a single command. You could probably write a batch file to convert your entire collection without a single keystroke. :p

Seriously though, I guess it all depends on your content and method of playback. For television programs, I could definitely see using .mp4 because there's typically no benefit otherwise. For movies, I would rather preserve the original audio format and use .mkv. All of my PCs and video players naively support .mkv containers, so...
 
OregonLAN said:
Annoying? Haha, It takes all of 45 seconds to convert to a .mp4 container using a single command. You could probably write a batch file to convert your entire collection without a single keystroke. :p

Seriously though, I guess it all depends on your content and method of playback. For television programs, I could definitely see using .mp4 because there's typically no benefit otherwise. For movies, I would rather preserve the original audio format and use .mkv. All of my PCs and video players naively support .mkv containers, so...
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If I spend 1 unnecessary second on something, that is an annoyance.

This is only a change for the smallest, most compatible SD TV files (720p files with AC3 sound were already MKV), so all this change does it make the small highly compatible files, less compatible.

This change is only negative (reduced compatibility) with ZERO positives. It's a stupid change, for change sake.
 
So bought a roku, installed plex, at least half my files the audio and video is out sync, not to mention the plex channel interface is a disaster. That's shit I haven't dealt with in a decade, apparently this is a common issue with anything streaming from plex to roku, consoles, chromecast, and plex blames it on the hardware, and the hardware blames it on the software. So much for that, uninstall plex again and roku getting returned.
 
Snowdog said:
If I spend 1 unnecessary second on something, that is an annoyance.
This is only a change for the smallest, most compatible SD TV files (720p files with AC3 sound were already MKV), so all this change does it make the small highly compatible files, less compatible.
This change is only negative (reduced compatibility) with ZERO positives. It's a stupid change, for change sake.
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You could always do your own caps and convert them to MP4 yourself, but I suspect that'll take more than 45 seconds ;)
 
bos said:
So bought a roku, installed plex, at least half my files the audio and video is out sync, not to mention the plex channel interface is a disaster. That's shit I haven't dealt with in a decade, apparently this is a common issue with anything streaming from plex to roku, consoles, chromecast, and plex blames it on the hardware, and the hardware blames it on the software. So much for that, uninstall plex again and roku getting returned.
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So, out of curiosity what were you using before that you are going back to? Serious question because I came from SageTV and have found the Plex interface pretty decent. Sure, there are a few things I would like to change (like it takes too many clicks to get a complete season list to show for one show), but after organizing my shows into appropriate libraries (movies, TV, Kids movies, Kids TV, etc.) it's worked very well for the family. Better than my WMC attempt after SageTV got purchased by Google.

A key for me though was no true HTPC connected to the TVs. We used SageTV extenders, so when we made the move to WMC we were limited to the XBOX 360 interface. When that didn't work, we tried the Roku and the family accepted it almost as well as SageTV. A full PC is just not an option, and nothing that needs a keyboard/mouse would fly for us either.

Our viewing habits revolve around a TV, not tablets, phones, laptops, etc. I might watch something for a few minutes on a tablet during lunch at work (where Plex comes in very handy for me), but if I'm at home it is on the 65" TV with the family.
 
Lorien said:
I look forward to the day when there is enough bandwidth for release groups to just dump raw untouched transport streams (.ts) directly from the satellite feed. The Japanese and Korean music and tv show scene already does is and it is freaking glorious.

From one such release:
Video: MPEG2 Video 1920x1080 29.97fps
Audio: AAC 48000Hz stereo 256kbps

My PC plays a 20+GB video like that at 60fps using MPC-HC with LAV filters
Click to expand...

Ya, I download a lot of Japanese shows and such. Get those .ts files all the time. That or BD ISOs.

Anyways, I really don't care what my content comes in. I can play it all and if I can't, I convert it to something that I can.
 
All these people thinking they're on a high horse with MKV saying "get a Plex server." I have a Plex server (in sig). MP4 allows direct stream to more types of players, whereas MKV requires transcode. When you have 4-5 people watching stuff it runs into a brick wall.
 
Snowdog said:
So?

That doesn't change a bad decision to switch formats pointlessly, into a good one.

MP4 was a better container for this particular use case.
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The scene doesn't feel that way and they're the only ones that count.
 
nilepez said:
The scene doesn't feel that way and they're the only ones that count.
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The scene is a bunch of juvenile wankers, that probably think it fun to force people to repackage their content.

There is no real rationale for the change.
 
Snowdog said:
The scene is a bunch of juvenile wankers, that probably think it fun to force people to repackage their content.
There is no real rationale for the change.
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Probably, but it's their caps. Again, anyone that doesn't like it is free to do their own capping. I'm actually surprised there people that watch SD files. With that said, it sounds like for those that are doing that much streaming to incompatible devices, they could set up a cron job to automatically convert MKV to MP4. It'd take 45 seconds per file, but require no manual intervention by the person that required MP4.
Honestly, it's an awful lot of bitching about stuff that's free (and of questionable legality).
 
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