I need to recode all! H.265 to H.264- lossless conversion

MKV playback, recompression, remuxing, codec packs, players, howtos, etc.
Post Reply
nicolaidenmark
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2018 10:18 am

I need to recode all! H.265 to H.264- lossless conversion

Post by nicolaidenmark »

Hi,

I have a Sony XE90 TV and it seems it does not support H.265 nor DTS HD output. In other words, I need to re-rip my entire collection AND have it in 264 for the streaming of the files from my nas to my TV to work.

How and what program do I use to convert from from 265 to 264 without loosing quality?

Handbrake will degrade quality, right?
Woodstock
Posts: 9892
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 11:21 pm

Re: I need to recode all! H.265 to H.264- lossless conversio

Post by Woodstock »

Any lossy encode will lose some quality; quality was lost in the conversion to h.265. The question is, how much you are willing to tolerate, for the file size you want/need. It's a decision that only you can make, and experimentation with different RF settings in handbrake (encode a short section multiple times and compare) is the way to find out.

If your NAS is running PLEX and has an Intel processor that has QSV hardware, you can probably leave the video in h.265 on the server, and PLEX will recode it to h.264 during playback to the TV. My Synology can support 1 conversion stream easily.
MakeMKV Frequently Asked Questions
How to aid in finding the answer to your problem: Activating Debug Logging
T'hain Esh Kelch
Posts: 86
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:59 am

Re: I need to recode all! H.265 to H.264- lossless conversio

Post by T'hain Esh Kelch »

If you are anal about quality, which I assume, then there's really only three options:
1. Bug Sony about adding h265 support. But if the hardware is lacking a decoder, then that's very unlikely to happen.
2. Get another TV.
3. Re-rip everything.

As Woodstock says, encoding from an already lossy format, is not good. You'll end up with quality which is worse than having encoded directly to h264 in the first place.
nicolaidenmark
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2018 10:18 am

Re: I need to recode all! H.265 to H.264- lossless conversio

Post by nicolaidenmark »

T'hain Esh Kelch wrote:If you are anal about quality, which I assume, then there's really only three options:
1. Bug Sony about adding h265 support. But if the hardware is lacking a decoder, then that's very unlikely to happen.
2. Get another TV.
3. Re-rip everything.

As Woodstock says, encoding from an already lossy format, is not good. You'll end up with quality which is worse than having encoded directly to h264 in the first place.

It seems Plex has no problems handling h265? Now I'm for Synology to find out why my ds918+ connection on internal lan is so bad.
nicolaidenmark
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2018 10:18 am

Re: I need to recode all! H.265 to H.264- lossless conversio

Post by nicolaidenmark »

OK:

Can someone tell me why MAKEMKV .mkvs and Plex aren't compatible as is? A member on the Plex forum said Plex had to convert my sound as it is DTS HD MA and Plex can only handle 2 channel audio ACC?

So far so good, however, what is with the picture from MakeMkv that makes it incompatible with Plex? None of the files have gone through neither Handbrake or the Plex "optimization" post MKV.
T'hain Esh Kelch
Posts: 86
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:59 am

Re: I need to recode all! H.265 to H.264- lossless conversio

Post by T'hain Esh Kelch »

nicolaidenmark wrote:It seems Plex has no problems handling h265? Now I'm for Synology to find out why my ds918+ connection on internal lan is so bad.
Plex is having some issues with h265, but it is mostly supported, and will only get better.
nicolaidenmark wrote:OK:

Can someone tell me why MAKEMKV .mkvs and Plex aren't compatible as is?
They are.
A member on the Plex forum said Plex had to convert my sound as it is DTS HD MA and Plex can only handle 2 channel audio ACC?
Plex handles multi channel AAC just fine. You need to convert your audio if your Plex client player doesn't support whatever formats you are trying to play. That being said, multichannel AAC is not something you'll want to use in the future since it is very much unsupported in general. But since practically no media comes with AAC, unless you download stuff illegally, then that shouldn't be a problem.
So far so good, however, what is with the picture from MakeMkv that makes it incompatible with Plex? None of the files have gone through neither Handbrake or the Plex "optimization" post MKV.
Nothing, they should work just fine, so there's likely a problem on your end.

So far you keep adding information in each post, instead of giving the full picture right from the start. And that being said, MakeMKV MKVs are fully supported by Plex, as it is a simple container. If you have playback issues in Plex, then that's a Plex issue or, way more likely, a problem with your hardware setup.
nicolaidenmark
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2018 10:18 am

Re: I need to recode all! H.265 to H.264- lossless conversio

Post by nicolaidenmark »

Hi all,

I found the problem: Power lines connected to a power strip. Now plugged into the wall outlets, the problem has gone.

I have read that a regular blu-ray is like 100 mbs when playing? Is this correct. When I play my MakeMKVs untouched (I didn't convert to 264 or 265) It seems they stream at around 35 mbs?

What happens to the additional mbs? (To be fair, I have ripped only the main movie, Danish and english subs and at most two of the original soundtracks).

I have also found, that I can direct play the MKVs from MakeMKV from my samsung s7 using VLC and then Chromecast (in-built 4k vers.) the film to my Sony KD65XE9005 4K TV. Only problem is I can't get the (PGS) subtitles to display through the CC on the TV. If I remember correctly, they work just fine on the phone's VLC vers. (i.e. they are pressent in the MKV file).

So, I guess my phone vers. of VLC is compatible with more audio streams (DD Soround 6.1 and DTS then the Plex app / web is, because Plex seems to need to convert at least the audio of my files as well as the video to H26x?

To the best of my knowledge, I HAVE selected "Play Original" in all of my plex apps.
Post Reply