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Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released) — Page 303

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Thanks so much ANALOG for the link! I have had experience in remixing MKV and actually tried it with only the 1.0 and 5.1 included and for whatever reason the mp4 wouldn't play. When I used MP4Tools it said the file had 'overhead compression' ( whatever that means) then it supposedly did a run through to resolve that and then I hit convert. However after that process the file would not play. It's certainly appears to be a complex file but totally worth the trouble so thanks again for the link! JIM

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@J.MEANS

A really good program for MKV to MP4 conversion is 'YAMB'. (Yet Another Mp4Box GUI)  I've used it before with good results.  Go to the videohelp website and there's download links, information, and reviews there.

 

Edit: Just realized you have a Mac. I'm not sure YAMB or Xmedia Recode will work for you.

 

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chyron8472 said:

Laserschwert said:

Alice Jameson said:

I'm sure this has probably been asked before but which Star Wars dvd's would I need to own to download the 1.0 despecialized editions? I already have the 2004 dvds.

It doesn't matter, as owning any DVDs doesn't make it legal in any way.

What the heck are you talking about, Laserschwert?

Are you telling her that downloading any fanedits whatsoever is illegal, no matter what form of media one owns a copy of the original work on?

Not only is this not true (it's profiting from the fanedits that is illegal), but you might as well have told her to stick it and to go away.

There are 2 different approaches - legality and forum rules.

Legality - every country has its own laws. For example in my country I could DOWNLOAD it but not UPLOAD it (meaning no legal movie torrents for me). But in many countries even the downloading would be illegal.

That's why we have the forum rules - to have the same rules without caring about which country you come from.

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J.MEANS said:

Thanks so much ANALOG for the link! I have had experience in remixing MKV and actually tried it with only the 1.0 and 5.1 included and for whatever reason the mp4 wouldn't play. When I used MP4Tools it said the file had 'overhead compression' ( whatever that means) then it supposedly did a run through to resolve that and then I hit convert. However after that process the file would not play. It's certainly appears to be a complex file but totally worth the trouble so thanks again for the link! JIM

Header compression is unfortunately STILL a big problem for many "hardware players", even when it exists for some 10 years or so already. Get mkvtoolnix, there is also a mac version available (google it). Then do this : http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=151425

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Mkv was designed specifically to handle a wide range of codecs, so that conversion is minimised and retention of quality maximised.

The amount of time, effort and money spent on conversion to other more restrictive, proprietary containers and codecs which loses quality and features is mind boggling.

Why not simply obtain a cheap media player that handles mkv and the usual H.264, DD, DTS, sub formats and save a world of pain?

The same applies to storage:  HDD are now cheaper than optical media and more compact.

A WDTV Live + 2TB passport makes a great combination that is almost universally portable.

Really looking forward to seeing v2.1 Harmy SW via this method.

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The easiest way to convert mkv to mp4 is...to use this program, called mkvtomp4.

If you're looking for solid iOS compatibility though, I'm afraid I still haven't found a GUI that makes a file that can properly switch between different audio and subtitle tracks or include chapters. If you just want to use one audio track and no subs then everything'll work just fine with any old GUI...otherwise, if the GUI you use doesn't give the right parameters to mp4box, all the audios will play at once, and none of the subs will work. 

Mkvtomp4 makes it work for audio but doesn't handle subtitles properly (not open source). MeGUI, what I use, can do it with a patch (which I've submitted and which has been accepted) but I'm not sure if it's been rereleased yet with the patch included. I would recommend getting MeGUI and seeing if it works (be sure to select the iPod or iPhone profiles in the mp4 muxer), since it also has a built-in converter for chapters into the xml format that Apple uses (chapter extraction software usually uses the text-based 'ogg' format).

Other than that...I can tell you that Yamb is buggy and unpolished. I can't really recommend it to anyone, for any purpose. There's an alternative mp4box gui out there, aptly named 'MyMP4BoxGUI' that is more stable and has switches for Apple-compatible options. After contacting the author, he updated the program to work properly for audio switching when turning the 'Apple Friendly v2' option on, (see version history) but I'm not sure if the same was done for subtitles. But besides this, the program features a command-line editor, in which you can tweak the argument to iOS perfection. It's an annoying kludge, but at least it still generates most of the command-line for you. 

Oh, a good GUI for demuxing MKV - you'll have to demux the file if you're using any software other than mkvtomp4- is mkvcleaver. It's just an easier to use GUI than MKVExtractGUI2. 

One more thing though: the audio would need to be converted to aac format for full compatibility with iOS devices. The quality loss is acceptable to non-existent if you use high settings (96kbps/channel), and even a bit below that (even 64kbps/channel is adequate for some sources - we're talking about portable devices here, people - though probably not for this film). MkvToMp4 should do this automatically (though I have recommendations for the settings) but with anything else, you'll have to use another program/GUI. TAudioConverter works well for this, as does MeGUI.

Outside of this, there is absolutely *no* quality loss involved - no video is being reencoded. Overhead is not as good as MKV, but is much better than, say, AVCHD. (Does anyone remember the awful overhead of OGM?) But that has no impact on quality either. Of course, I'm not suggesting MP4 supplant MKV...just that the inferiority of the format is a bit overstated when people jump up and down about quality loss that only makes sense when talking about audio.

I can post a small tutorial/roundup elsewhere on this site if there is interest.

EDIT: The official release binary of MeGUI has still not been updated. I can put up a zip with my patches somewhere if people want...

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

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So... about that 2.1?

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

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Moth3r said:

So... about that 2.1?

Ha yeah, sorry about that. Let's see what Harmy says...

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

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School's pretty tough now but it should get better soon and I should soon be able to start finishing v2.1 :-)

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AntcuFaalb said:

Harmy and box are right, chyron8472.

My point was more about the tone of Laserschwert's post effectively told her to get lost, when she was only asking what media she should probably own the official movie on.

The tone of his post sounded, to me, less like "just pick one (and btw, welcome to the forums)" and more like "don't bother with fanedits if you remotely care."

TV’s Frink said:

chyron just put a big Ric pic in your sig and be done with it.

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chyron8472 said:

AntcuFaalb said:

Harmy and box are right, chyron8472.

My point was more about how Laserschwert effectively told her to get lost, when she was only asking what media she should purchase the official movie on.

Oh, OK. I'm sorry for jumping on the pile, then. :-(

A picture is worth a thousand words. Post 102 is worth more.

I’m late to the party, but I think this is the best song. Enjoy!

—Teams Jetrell Fo 1, Jetrell Fo 2, and Jetrell Fo 3

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Okay. So I've currently exhausted all my available Myspleen invites. That was quick!

I'll post when (if?) they regenerate. Thanks!

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Thanks bilditup1 for the info, it was very nice of you to try and help me! I did finally manage to succesfully change the container to MP4 using MP4tools. The issue wasn't so much the 'overhead compression' as it was the combination of audio files that were on the original 16g MKV of SWv2.0

Basically all I had to do is select the Video stream and the compatible 5.1 track, and hit convert! The final MKV remuxed to a size of 14g without any change in quality! The conversion process created a 2 channel AAC track as well to make the MP4 playable within iTunes! Happy camper here, and STILL blown away by this incredible gift Harmy has bestowed upon us!

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Poked around in the forums but since there's so many pages stuff is kind of buried.

What is going to be different between Star Wars 2.0 and 2.1 and does Star Wars 2.1 have priority of Empire Strikes Back 2.0 right now?

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The changes between 2.0 and 2.1 are very minor--slight imperfections removed and color accuracy improved.  Nothing huge, but enough little things have a way of adding up into something amazing ;)  Also the Blu-ray format will have lossless audio and other goodies.

We can probably measure the countdown until the Star Wars 2.1 release date in weeks.  Empire 2.0 isn't even started yet, and I'd hate to hazard a guess.  Well, actually I love guessing but I'm usually very, very wrong.  Empire 2.0 on Feb 19th 2014 at 07:42:53.05 UTC.  You heard it here first, people.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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chyron8472 said:

AntcuFaalb said:

Harmy and box are right, chyron8472.

My point was more about the tone of Laserschwert's post effectively told her to get lost, when she was only asking what media she should probably own the official movie on.

The tone of his post sounded, to me, less like "just pick one (and btw, welcome to the forums)" and more like "don't bother with fanedits if you remotely care."

Nah, there was actually no tone to my post at all. And it was just a quick reminder, that it all comes down to your own ethics if you want to download copyright-protected material from the web, as it will always be illegal, no matter what. Her question was short, my answer was short. I think if you download stuff from the web, you should know this stuff first. But maybe I should've taken more time with the answer, to not come off as a "fuck off" ;)

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Hi.

I'm also a Mac user and I use Ivi, available on the Mac App Store for a few bucks (about €4 if I remember correctly). It has a very good Quality/Size ratio. Only downside is you can't convert DVD ripped as a VIDEO_TS folder. So now I'm using MakeMKV to rip them, but that's another story. I can tell it works, I have the despecialized trilogy in my iTunes library.

For playing Mkvs on an Apple TV without RE-encoding, you can try Video stream if you own an iOS device (don't forget to install the Mac client).

Both solutions work great. Hope it helps.

"Let's face it, the Ewoks sucked, dude" -Hurley, Lost 5x13-Some like it Hoth.

Please bear with me if I tend to get too excited about anything or say too much, I have issues.

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I noticed there are no MKV files up for Despecialized versions of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Are the AVCHD DVD9 the highest quality versions of ESB and RotJ available?

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And how come the MKV of Star Wars 2.0 is nearly twice as large as the AVCHDs of all the 1.0 releases?

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AVCHD was chosen as the highest-quality format for the 1.0 versions.  It was chosen because it could fit on a DVD9 and then be played back on many Blu-ray players.

With 2.0, the DVD9 size limitation was abandoned, allowing for less compression.  Currently the highest-quality format in the 2.x series is MKV, but there will also be a Blu-ray ISO in the future.  AFAIK they will have the same video quality, although the Blu-ray may have better audio options.

It sounds like you've found the best versions of all of the films, as they stand right now.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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CatBus said:

AVCHD was chosen as the highest-quality format for the 1.0 versions.  It was chosen because it could fit on a DVD9 and then be played back on many Blu-ray players.

With 2.0, the DVD9 size limitation was abandoned, allowing for less compression.  Currently the highest-quality format in the 2.x series is MKV, but there will also be a Blu-ray ISO in the future.  AFAIK they will have the same video quality, although the Blu-ray may have better audio options.

It sounds like you've found the best versions of all of the films, as they stand right now.

I don't post here too much, but I do check regularly for any info as I patiently wait for Harmy's masterpiece, but I have to say, CatBus, you are awesome for always being nice to people and taking the time for well thought out responses.  Cheers to you!

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Ha, that's nice to hear, but I know I'm perfectly capable of losing my temper and then I become a real arrogant git by most accounts.  But thanks nonetheless ;)

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)