Convert .MKV video files to .m2ts for PlayStation 3 using tsMuxeR
Besides gaming, the Sony PlayStation 3 is an excellent device for high definition video playback. Besides Blu-ray disc playback support, the PS3 can also play high definition video files, which can be downloaded from the Internet. The most common HD video file format is currently the Matroska (.MKV) file format, which the PS3 does not currently support. The .MKV files however in many cases contain AVC encoded video with AC3 audio, which are PS3 supported formats. In order to play the files a simple process of converting the .MKV files to .m2ts files must be performed, but with the free tsMuxeR software this is very simple to achieve and takes only a few minutes.
Preconditions
- tsMuxeR software. Download from here and extract to appropriate folder
- Matroska .MKV video files with AVC (h.264) video and AC3 audio streams
Make sure you have some free space on your hard drive as a file with roughly the same size than the original file will be created in this process.
Using tsMuxeR
The conversion process using tsMuxeR is a very simple one. It consists of adjusting a few settings, which you can see highlighted in the screenshot on the right.
The video or audio content is not actually converted at all. All tsMuxeR does is that it extracts (demuxes) the video and audio from the Matroska .MKV file and wraps them (muxes) to a .m2ts transport stream format. The video or audio remain untouched, so the quality is not impacted and the process is very fast.
Perform the following steps:
- Open a .MKV file with AVC/AC3 content using the Add button
- Observe the track info for AVC profile information. If it shows a value higher than 4.1, then use the Change level function to adjust it down to 4.1
- Choose M2TS muxing as Output
- Click browse button and choose the name and location for your file
- Click Start muxing to begin
After a few minutes you should have files named filename.m2ts and filename.meta. Now all you need to do is to burn these on a DVD-R(W), and slip the disc to your PS3. The PlayStation recognizes the file on the disc allowing high definition video playback!
January 25th, 2010 at 6:33 am
i have a weird problem, everything is fine, i can convert mkv to m2ts but after it is done, i cant seem to find my file, i look all over, then when i try to add file again, i see it on there but it has a lock on it, i try to do a unhide files and folder still cant find it, i try to unsecure it, doesnt work, but the file is there, but i can only see it when i put add file, help anyone, or did anyone get wah i just said haha
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:23 am
I’m having a little different issue. I have several MP4 videos that have embedded 5.1 (or 6 channel) audio streams. However, opening these files in tsMuxeR … it only shows 2 channels. I have verified the 5.1 on these videos by playing them using KMPlayer, VLC, and Media Player Classic. All show the videos have 5.1. Anyone know why tsMuxeR only sees 2 channels for MP4 files? To add … MKVs show up fine with 5.1. Only MP4s aren’t being read correctly.
Thanks,
Zen
December 29th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I converted MKV file to M2TS , but couldn’t get PS3 to find the file whilst streaming through WMP via media share.
Did a bit of googling to find the solution and found this.
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/
Nice program…. worked straight away no problems.
transcodes MKV files on the fly, has tsmuxer built into the program.
Pete
December 24th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I recently tried this and am happy to say it works great. However, I have run across a problem that I can’t seem to get around. When I add an HD mkv file everything appears as it should. It has a “High@5.1″ profile which I set to be changed to 4.1 and everything, but when I play it on my PS3 it just shows a black screen. But if I hit select button I can see that it is indeed processing the video because of the Mbps indication in the corner, just not showing it. Any idea why this may be or what I can do?
December 17th, 2009 at 4:25 am
Hi dear,
I have some problem with audio sync…The conversion is wonderful and quick. But the audio is out of sync, anticipating the video. Do you now any way to automatically calc the value of tsMuxeR timeshift option?
Thank
Zioalex
December 9th, 2009 at 2:46 am
Quote:
“qzq
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:35 am
Thanks for your guide.
I tried this several times and the m2ts files play perfectly fine on my ps3, but the aspect ratio changes. The width of the video becomes smaller so everything is squished sideways. I tried this with h.264 video in resolution 740×480. Is there something I’m missing?
This is sort of unrelated, but why does the profile of the video have to be changed to High@4.1? It still plays when I leave it at High@5.1.”
i’m having almost exactly the same issue when trying to convert an SD anime file ripped from a r2j dvd where the resolution is 720×480 (anamorphic 720×540). my file ends up being to wide however. i also believe that the problem lies in the fact that it is anamorphic, and that tsmuxer has problems identifying this and simply leaves the resolution at 720×480 resulting in a file with bad AR.
this same file also contains a .sup subtitle file which tsmuxer can identify and which is still present after conversion, but which is NOT available for some reason, when playing it in either VLC, MPC or on the PS3.
the most annoying part of all this is that there IS a button to “change AR” but it is greyed out/unavailable.
any help would be hot! thanks!
October 19th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I just ran across this same set of circumstances.
I have a starting MKV which came from a blu-ray with DTS audio.
If I use tsmuxer, the resulting m2ts plays FINE on the computer, but has no audio on the PS3(via tversity)
If I use MKV2VOB the file plays perfectly on the PS3(via tversity) and preserves DTS (as reflected by receiver) but I get NO audio on the computer (using MPC) and the file won’t even play in MPCHC or VLC.
VERY weird, luckily I almost exclusively watch these on my PS3 so I just need to format for that as the final destination.
October 6th, 2009 at 11:41 am
This is message is for anyone having problems getting audio.
If you are planning to stream the movie from an external hard drive to your PS3, then the audio codec must be in AC3 format. If your movie file is mkv with DTS then tsMuxeR does NOT convert the audio for you.
TWO OPTIONS: Either use PopCorn MKV AudioConverter. Which means you have to convert the audio first then use tsMuxeR to convert video. This means 2 steps are involved. The other option I used which I found easier was to use ‘mvk2vob’ software, which will convert both video and audio automatically. **Note: if you have a MAC then mkv2vob only works on Windows, therefore CrossOver Mac or VMware Fusion will allow you to run Windows and thus to use mkv2vob.