h.264 and ps3 on dvd or cd?

[epa1patine]

Great guide ...I have a question tho that has been basicly kicking my ass for weeks since I got my ps3. Your guide is for basicly encoding your own 264 videos for play on the ps3.

My question is this...What about H.264 files that you may get off the internet or from a friend that were encoded for just playback on the PC in mind? I have heard there is a way to change the header info on these files so they will play on the ps3. I have tried everyhing changing the MKV to MP4 and saw a video on changing the header with quicktime pro so the ps3 will play it. Seems the version of QT i have doesnt like the MKV files like the user in the video I saw suggested it would. How can i simply make existing MKV or MP4 files play on the ps3 without reencoding them?

Thanks in advance for any help

[admin]

It's not a question of headers, since the encoding technique for the other H.264 files (like QuickTime HD files, or the many H.264 files you can download online) are different. For example, having the B-pyramid option enabled for H.264 files encoding will cause playback problems on the PS3 at best, and at worse, the PS3 will simply state the file is not playable. It's all do with with how the video is encoded, how the frames in the videos interact with each other and the structure of the GOPs - it's not something you can change in the header.

However, there are some files that might have a compatible H.264 video track, but might have an incompatible audio track (eg. AAC HE, instead of LC). And it might also use a container format that the PS3 does not like as well as MP4 (eg. MKV). In this case, you can either manually demux the file and extract the PS3 compatible H.264 file, re-encode the audio, and remux back into a MP4, all without the lengthy video re-encoding process. You might try PS3 Video 9, which is said to offer this kind of "conversion", but results are not guaranteed.

[admin]

Also, there is a tool called h264info which allows you to change the AVC level of the file (say from an incompatible level 5.1 to a compatible level 4.1, for the PS3). It will work for 720p files, but whether it makes 1080p files playable again depends on how the file was encoded. You can download h264info here:

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=138139&package_id=225029&release_id=493468