AniPod?

October 23, 2009 12:29 PM

I have a substantial amount of anime that I'd like to watch, but a less-than-perfect system for doing it. Pretty much all of it is in .mkv files (h.264 video and AAC audio) with subtitles, and I'd like to transcode them to a format that's playable on either my iPhone or my PS3 with subtitles intact. I've tried both handbrake and VLC, and I either get 1) no subtitles in handbrake or 2) encoder errors in VLC. So, hive mind, what am I doing wrong here?
posted by Oktober to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Response by poster: I'm on a (different than usual) work machine right now, but off the top of my head "automatically detect" with "forced subtitles" unchecked. According to the Handbrake docs, the subs only work if you're ripping from DVD.
posted by Oktober at 12:32 PM on October 23, 2009

Try PS3 Media Server to stream them from your computer to the PS3. Transcoding happens on the fly. It works well for me with .mkv files, but I don't do anything with subtitles. Their forums suggest it should work with subtitles and gives some suggestions if it doesn't. OSX or Windows!
posted by rsclark at 12:48 PM on October 23, 2009

I use MediaCoder to transcode for my iPod, and it's been pixel-perfect. MFM me if you want info on settings, since the interface isn't quite optimal.
posted by Citrus at 1:41 PM on October 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

PS3 Media Server suprised me by magically doing subtitles for the one .mkv file I've tried that has them.
posted by juv3nal at 2:20 PM on October 23, 2009

3rding Ps3 media server. It will display subtitles embedded in the MKV as well as external SRT files (if they're renamed the same).
posted by wongcorgi at 2:25 PM on October 23, 2009

Here is a decent guide for transcoding and hard coding subtitles into your animes.
posted by knowles at 4:46 AM on October 24, 2009

Response by poster: Good news: The newest version of PlayOn handles most stuff (Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Macross Plus) perfectly

Bad news: My 802.11g network isn't up to the task of streaming high-bitrate HD files (Gundam 00, Char's Counterattack)
posted by Oktober at 9:12 AM on November 3, 2009