The VideoLAN Forums

Until recently I had been able to use Quicktime 7 to perform a passthrough encode of MKV to MP4. Meaning there is no need to re-encode audio/video.

This means you can convert an hour long MKV file via pass through encode to MP4 in about 30 seconds to a minute instead of having to use something like Handbrake to do the same thing and having it take 30-35 minutes.

Quicktime 7 handles it if you have Perian installed. It seems like mtn lion is not supporting the last build of Perian so I am looking to see if anyone has a different method for doing this.

I have used VLC for a long time but have never explored its capabilities for encoding/transcoding/passthrough. I'm interested in using VLC to do a passthrough video encode from MKV > MP4. Can this be done.

Not sure about VLC, but I know IFFmpeg can.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/35846/iffmpeg

VLC can, just remux, do not transcode.

Not sure about VLC, but I know IFFmpeg can.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/35846/iffmpeg

Thanks a lot man. That does the trick.

I thought it would do the trick, but at this point it's not doing the trick because it's not free! Seeing as I only need it just for this one thing I can't justify the expense.

Any other suggestions?

It's only $10.

I can't seem to find the remux option in VLC... there's only a Transcode/Save to file option. Maybe there's no GUI for it and it's command line only.

VCL can not do this.
The issue is known and was closed as "worksforme"
https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/10009

If you select passthrough for video AND for audio is silently removes all audio tracks from your streams.
So you can not use this to repair a broken container or chance e.g. from an MP4 to an MKV container.