MKV to M2TS muxing with ASS to IDX subs transcoding

[David75]

Might seem highly technical at first when reading it, but in fact the idea is fairly simple.

What's the purpose?
Well, having a PS3 now, I'd like to watch my mkv files with it on the nice screen attached.

You all know PS3 isn't compatible with mkv files, and should it someday be compatible, I do not see it decoding ASS subtitles. The only way would be a homebrew firmware, but that will probably happen when the PS3 has become obsolete, since I guess hackers need access to PS3 internal industrial secrets Sony isn't willing to give away easily.

BUT, maybe there's another way of having high visual quality subs.

From what I understand, the PS3 is now compatible with IDX subs, that are in fact bitmaps/images.
The PS3 is compatible with transport stream files incorporating subs. Video stream in TS files can have high quality video profiles (up to AVC 4.1).

So in theory, one could just extract the ASS subtitles, transcode them to IDX and mux them in a TS file without even transcode the video or sound...
Which is great because transcoding is awfully slow and degrades quality... not doing it saves time and quality.

So next step is finding a nice way of transcoding the subs to nice bitmaps that will save the visual aspect of the original ASS subs, then mux that.

Does someone know of software doing so? I guess some of you already tried to play with that? if so, thanks for sharing.
I will continue to search for ways of doing it and should I find something, I'll post my results here.

Have a nice day.

[Sandldan]

Hiya!

Not an answer to your question but it's an easy way of playing MKV files on your PS3, assuming you have it connected to the same network as your computer.

PS3 Media server (http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/)
After installing the program you should be able to find your pc's media server on your PS3 and browse through all the shared files, it handles MKV and pretty much every format your PC plays. Works very good, even for 1080p files

[David75]

Thanks Sandlan.
I already tested PS3MS.
There's lag with my comp, but I'm under 7x64 RC (not the RTM) so maybe there's some incompatibility. Also, I did so many program install and uninstall that it might be a tad cripled :D

The idea is that if I could find a way of neatly and efficiently transcoding mkv files, I would do so.
My idea is that I would not need to re-encode the video or sound, just the subs, and then mux. That process should be less than 5 minutes per file, with no quality loss at all. So it would have been a good choice for storage and compatibility issues.

It's just that idx subs might not be compatible with all over the screen placement (like fansubs need/love... for karaoke and notes or triple display (romanized, translation, and japanese)

It's one of those threads you start one day, and might or might not finish months after.
Like the judder one I had in the past.

Anyway, Thanks!