Gaming MKV Videos

[raiderscrusade]

Hey guys,

So recently I have been expanding my TV Show archive and from what I've seen, some videos are available in different formats.

One of the formats that has caught my eye is the MKV format. Noticably smaller in file size, the MKV format contains the same quality as any other format, making it the ideal file to download in order to save space.

What I want to know, though, is whether it is possible to convert these MKV videos to a different format after they have been downloaded? This is because my DVD player, which has a USB on the front, doesn't seem to want to play any MKV videos.

If anyone knows of any MKV video converters, or has had any experience with this before, I would appreciate your pointers.

Thanks.

 

[1c3 5n0w]

Do you have a Wii? If you have a Wii, MPlayer would play MKV files flawlessly

 

[raiderscrusade]

Do you have a Wii? If you have a Wii, MPlayer would play MKV files flawlessly

Yeah, I got a Wii and a PS3, but neither are connected to the main TV that is used.

 

[1c3 5n0w]

Do you have a Wii? If you have a Wii, MPlayer would play MKV files flawlessly

Yeah, I got a Wii and a PS3, but neither are connected to the main TV that is used.

Install The Homebrew Channel, and download the MPlayer wad or dol, Mplayer has the ability to load Media Files from your USB

 

[FAST6191]

MKV format is not strictly speaking the correct use of the term.

You have the MKV container which you then put videos and audio in- MKV can house many things including xvid/divx aka MPEG4 ASP and H264 aka MPEG4 AVC. H264 takes considerably more processing power to decode than ASP but quality wise it can achieve great results with lower bitratres (many modern devices will actually include specialist chips to decode H264). Now I can show you examples of many things with varying quality and sizes but chances from what you said are you have standard res H264 using the MKV container.

The wii however is not really able to decode H264 (it might be able to but not in real time/a useful way) and chances are your DVD player is only ASP capable (if it has divx or something stamped on there somewhere on there then almost certainly), the PS3 does not do MKV from the menu but you can remux MKV into MP4 (use it as a search term) which can be played (PS3 DRM ish stuff aside) and indeed many people do exactly this to play downloaded videos. Strictly speaking H264 does not go into the AVI container although some people have crowbarred it in there in the past but do not expect it to play on anything other than a PC or something built from mplayer (stuff like XBMC and hacked consoles)

The main reason for the use of MKV is support for subtitles (arguably it was the anime crowd that pushed it hard at first) as MP4 subtitles are a nightmare (see the horror that is MP4 timed text where MKV can support all the popular formats and then some) and that kind of stuck. Converting from MKV is entirely possible but not recommended (MKV is considered an end stage format) but you can demux things from MKV (as the guides you might have just looked up should be doing) to be muxed into something else very easily (it should only be your hard drive limiting the speed of the operation- no conversion at all).

 

[Pong20302000]

DVD

majority of bluray palyers with usb now play MKV
(maybe time to upgrade)

this is the company i use and there app

http://www.xilisoft.com/video-converter.html

they do alot of good applications

 

[raiderscrusade]

Thanks for clearing it up, FAST6191.

I've managed to Demux the MKV files using MKVExtract, so I was wondering is there any programs out there able to re-mux (?) these files into a different format?

Given I've demuxed, I guess thats half of the question already answered. Now all thats needed is a mux solution.

Thanks.

 

[exangel]

I recommend the free software Handbrake.
I used this to convert many MKV blu-ray & DVD rips to use on my PSP (mp4)

One thing that makes MKV most nice for HQ video is self-containment of subtitle, index, and alternate audio tracks.

I do own the converter/ripping suite that Pong mentioned, it's more user friendly and has more preconfigured output formats -- but Handbrake is free and well documented.

 

[FAST6191]

You have now done the "hard" part but if you want it in MP4 format then mp4box is the standard MP4 muxing tool although that is command line heavy so there are many GUI programs the most basic of which is YAMB
http://yamb.unite-video.com/ (you will also probably need a copy of mp4box so downloads from http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MP4Box *)
Also
http://www.afterdawn...mp4_for_ps3.cfm
http://www.videohelp.../mkv-avi-to-mp4
http://www.videohelp.../tools/MkvToMp4

*because there exists such a thing as software patents a lot of video programs (most notably mp4box and xvid) get left as source code leaving you to go hunting the compiled versions or doing it yourself.

 

[pwsincd]

when it comes to video editing , all these fancy gui apps still really dont hold a candle to vdub and its variations , try : http://www.videohelp.com/tools/VirtualdubMOD

 

[Originality]

majority of bluray palyers with usb now play MKV

A lot of USB-enabled TVs are accepting MKV files too.

arguably it was the anime crowd that pushed it hard at first

It may be the anime crowd (of which I'm a member) that pushed MKV into popular domain, both due to ease of subtitling and adding multiple audio tracks (since some of us can't stand American dubs of anime), but it's the BluRay crowd that secured its legacy. MKV is a perfect wrapper for all those extras BluRays like to include.
EDIT: grammar...

 

[rehevkor]

I have recently switched to MKV from AVI/XVID, thanks in part to the discovery of Handbreak, must better quality for file size great if you archive stuff. As Pong suggested it is probably a good time to upgrade.

 

[raiderscrusade]

FAST6191, thanks for all your help. I guess MP4Box was what I was looking for, and it is pretty easy to use if you have a GUI

Thanks everyone else for your help, too. This has now been resolved and I am happily converting MKV to MP4

 

[raiderscrusade]

I've one more question.

If I ever wanted to convert MKV files to the AVI format, would I be able to use the files already demuxed?

If that is the case, how would I go about remuxing the files to AVI format?

Thanks.

 

[FAST6191]

Yes but with several provisos as AVI is not that brilliant a container and if you try to do much more than wedge motion jpeg, MPEG4 ASP (divx/xvid) and MPEG4 SP in there you can run into problems. Granted I have seen all manner of things in there but do not be surprised if it does not play outside of a properly set up PC (or something based on mplayer).

If I have to make AVI files I will usually use the AVI muxer in megui but you probably do not want to set up such a program just for this so avidemux should do you well http://avidemux.berlios.de/ It is a fairly featured video editor as well but retains stuff like this.
I am not really sure there is much in the way of an AVI muxer that approaches what MKVtoolnix/mkvmerge can do.

 

[Mantis41]

I recommend gotsent
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/GOTSent

It will convert to MP4 very quickly. (lossless)
If you tick the xvid option you will get a pretty nicely encoded AVI