Large MKV (h264) File to PS3 MP4

This is pretty much an addendum to my previous tutorial on the subject.

Unfortunately, the PS3 doesn’t support 64-bits for large files. So, transcoding to something else was what I used to do for files larger than 4G. Which is rather slow on my older computer. Finally getting somewhat irritated with this, I did some poking and found out about mkvmerge. This is the my solution.

NOTE: I’m assuming that the reader is familiar with the previous tutorial.

We start with a file.mkv. But, it’s too big so we need to split it into manageable pieces:

mkvmerge -o file_split.mkv --split 4G file.mkv

NOTE: The above 4G is just an example. One can use any number less than 4 as well. I use it because it will produce the least amount of files. Though, if possible, I’d choose the size that would split the mkv in half. I’ll also note that one can split the file based on time as well. So, if one wants to ensure that the video isn’t cut at a pivotal moment, this can be accomplished. See mkvmerge’s documentation on how to do this.

This will produce several files, file_split-001.mkv, file_split-002.mkv, etc. With each file, follow the directions on the previous tutorial. And that’s it!

I should add in a disclaimer, though. I have yet to test this on a truly large file. It does work on a file that is about 4G though. So, theoretically it will work. But, I’m not discounting the possibility that something strange will happen over the 4G mark. I’ll edit this post when I do test it on a large file though. Confirmation would be nice from others as well.