[MEncoder-users] The MP4 container (was: H.264 Errors on Hauppauge HD PVR .ts File)

[Andrew Berg]

On 1/9/2011 9:19 AM, Rolf Ernst wrote:
> Ok, it doesn't support multiple subtitles, the standard does not support 
> AC3, and neither chapters.
Subtitle support among is limited among players anyway.
You're 100% right about AC3.
Chapters might be a proprietary extension. I would have to look into it
since I've never made chapters in an MP4 container myself.
> Some proprietary container creators .. (Nero) 
> use what is called 'user space' but as I said, it's proprietary like 
> subtitles and chapters in Acis (OpenDML changed some things). All these 
> containers have space for 'stuff' but if you can't play it on any device 
> it's questionable.
Right. VobSub subtitles can be muxed into an MP4 container this way.
> Since matroska has these things as standards you 
> don't need a special program to support them - any hardware gadget 
> purporting the matroska standard should support them.
I know for a fact that the Timed Text subtitle format (MPEG-4 Part 17),
which /is/ part of the standard, is not supported by all players with
support for the container. I'm also pretty sure that not all features of
the Matroska container are supported by all players that have Matroska
support.

Another interesting aside is that MP4 supports menus (MPEG-4 Part 11)
and Matroska does not. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter since there is
almost no way to make such menus and very little support for it among
players.