MKV to AVI??

Antomus Prime

Hey guys,

I have an iomega screenplay media hard drive but it cant read .mkv files. Which id kinda annoying since I have a hdtv so what i'm wondering is can mkv's be converted to avi's without losing quality?? And if so whats the best program to use for it?

Cheers

yomamasflavour

They can be converted, plenty of programs that will do it (free and pay versions).

However in everyone that I've tried, the audio always goes out of sync.
Something to do with audio in mkv files being a tiny bit shorter than the video.

Which for me anyway, makes it unwatchable.

Antomus Prime

yomamasflavour wrote: »

They can be converted, plenty of programs that will do it (free and pay versions).

However in everyone that I've tried, the audio always goes out of sync.
Something to do with audio in mkv files being a tiny bit shorter than the video.

Which for me anyway, makes it unwatchable.

I see, sounds very strange. The audio being out of sync would make it unwatchable for me too. Might try a few of them with various programs and see what happens. Any progs in particular you'd reccomend? Pref free ones

Voodu Child

If it's out of sync it's because of a problem with the tools you are using.

There is definitely no reason why you can't make something that is perfectly in sync.

However a quality loss is inevitable.

Before you encode check the max supported res of your Iomega.

Antomus Prime

Voodu Child wrote: »

If it's out of sync it's because of a problem with the tools you are using.

There is definitely no reason why you can't make something that is perfectly in sync.

However a quality loss is inevitable.

Before you encode check the max supported res of your Iomega.

It supports 1080p but it cant read mkv files. Can you recommend any good programs for converting them?

Khannie

If it supports 1080p, then you should be able to just remux it to an avi file without losing any quality. I'll leave someone else to suggest a remuxer for you.

Voodu Child

Post a link to the exact specs of your unit. They have all kind of different ones and upgrades so you need to link to the exact model you have.

Usually when something doesnt support MKV it suggsts it is an older basic SD chipset with MPEG-2, MPEG-4 II (xvid) and that's about it. And they normally only go up to 720x576 decoding.

Antomus Prime

Voodu Child wrote: »

Post a link to the exact specs of your unit. They have all kind of different ones and upgrades so you need to link to the exact model you have.

Usually when something doesnt support MKV it suggsts it is an older basic SD chipset with MPEG-2, MPEG-4 II (xvid) and that's about it. And they normally only go up to 720x576 decoding.

This is the one I have http://iomega.com/about/prreleases/2008/042308_screenplay.html

And I just noticed that it's 720p/1080i with upscaling, whatever that means???

Cheers Guys

Voodu Child

Antomus Prime wrote: »

This is the one I have http://iomega.com/about/prreleases/2008/042308_screenplay.html

And I just noticed that it's 720p/1080i with upscaling, whatever that means???

Cheers Guys

Yeah so as I suspected it is not H.264 capable. Remuxing is out of the question.

And it can output 720p or 1080i but it is not clear if it can actually decode resolutions that high. Probably not.

So you will be going with a standard-def (max 720x576) Xvid in an AVI container with AC3 or MP3 sound.

I havent used this format in a long time so I don't know what the popular apps are, sorry. MeGUI will do it but it's not really for beginners.

Antomus Prime

Voodu Child wrote: »

Yeah so as I suspected it is not H.264 capable. Remuxing is out of the question.

And it can output 720p or 1080i but it is not clear if it can actually decode resolutions that high. Probably not.

So you will be going with a standard-def (max 720x576) Xvid in an AVI container with AC3 or MP3 sound.

I havent used this format in a long time so I don't know what the popular apps are, sorry. MeGUI will do it but it's not really for beginners.

Cheers for the info Voodu, Think I'll just buy a new one... the one I have is more a less full now anyway so i might try sell this one and then get the new 2TB Iomega DX, the built in web browser looks deadly.....

Cheers again

SeantheMan

which are the programs people use for this ?

BrokenArrows

SeantheMan wrote: »

which are the programs people use for this ?

I use AVANTI http://avanti.arrozcru.com/
Its free and encodes pretty much anything once you have the appropriate codec.

stephen97

Antomus Prime wrote: »

Hey guys,

I have an iomega screenplay media hard drive but it cant read .mkv files. Which id kinda annoying since I have a hdtv so what i'm wondering is can mkv's be converted to avi's without losing quality?? And if so whats the best program to use for it?

Cheers

ok you need divx converter to convert files to divx
link: http://www.divx.com/ then use this key to activate : 9BGG4XX76C7YEFXX62RG

Antomus Prime

stephen97 wrote: »

ok you need divx converter to convert files to divx
link: http://www.divx.com/ then use this key to activate : 9BGG4XX76C7YEFXX62RG

Cheers Stephen, I've been using xilisoft the last few weeks but the size of the Avi's is unreal when theyre converted, 1.4gb for a 22 min episode of a tv show. I'll give the divx one a go and see how it works out

CricketDude

Antomus Prime wrote: »

Hey guys,

I have an iomega screenplay media hard drive but it cant read .mkv files. Which id kinda annoying since I have a hdtv so what i'm wondering is can mkv's be converted to avi's without losing quality?? And if so whats the best program to use for it?

Cheers

Before you convert try just renaming the file from .Mkv to .avi and see if it plays it.

Voodu Child

Antomus Prime wrote: »

Cheers Stephen, I've been using xilisoft the last few weeks but the size of the Avi's is unreal when theyre converted, 1.4gb for a 22 min episode of a tv show. I'll give the divx one a go and see how it works out

Size is a function of bitrate and runtime. Give it more bitrate and it will be bigger (and look better). And vice versa.

http://www.3ivx.com/support/calculator/index.html

Any decent conversion software lets you choose the bitrate. If you are encoding by bitrate then you should do a 2-pass encode to get the most from your chosen bitrate.

For Xvid you're generally going to use 1000-2000kbps for SD video, depending on the source material and what quality you are looking for.

DivX and Xvid are interchangeable in terms of compatibility, but DivX encoding software is worse than Xvid so you would need more bitrate to get the same quality. I would avoid anything DivX personally.

Antomus Prime

Voodu Child wrote: »

Size is a function of bitrate and runtime. Give it more bitrate and it will be bigger (and look better). And vice versa.

http://www.3ivx.com/support/calculator/index.html

Any decent conversion software lets you choose the bitrate. If you are encoding by bitrate then you should do a 2-pass encode to get the most from your chosen bitrate.

For Xvid you're generally going to use 1000-2000kbps for SD video, depending on the source material and what quality you are looking for.

DivX and Xvid are interchangeable in terms of compatibility, but DivX encoding software is worse than Xvid so you would need more bitrate to get the same quality. I would avoid anything DivX personally.

Cheers for the advice, have you ever used xilisoft? Seems to be pretty good so far.

Voodu Child

Antomus Prime wrote: »

Cheers for the advice, have you ever used xilisoft? Seems to be pretty good so far.

No, afraid not. I use MeGUI.

Handbrake is good for beginners but they stopped supported AVI and Xvid a long time ago.

Antomus Prime

Think I'll just stick with xilisoft and only bother converting the movies to HD that are worth while...

Cheers for all the advice guys

subway

would be quicker and easier to just re-download in a smaller avi format i imagine?
or get a more up to date player...

Antomus Prime

subway wrote: »

would be quicker and easier to just re-download in a smaller avi format i imagine?
or get a more up to date player...

Downloading avi's is what I do now, but theyre not HD, which is what I want but my media player doesnt read mkv's...... so I need to download the mkv's and convert them to avi... as was mentioned earlier. And If only i could afford a new media player, but the one i want is too expensive for now

5uspect

I use XenonMKV to demux into mp4 for the xbox360 which makes a half decent home theater system with an external USB or NAS. Might be worth considering over the iOmega solution.

subway

Antomus Prime wrote: »

Downloading avi's is what I do now, but theyre not HD, which is what I want but my media player doesnt read mkv's...... so I need to download the mkv's and convert them to avi... as was mentioned earlier. And If only i could afford a new media player, but the one i want is too expensive for now

That doesn't make sense.
You are converting a hd file to sd resolution using a low bitrate codec so you will end up with the same result i imagine?

Antomus Prime

subway wrote: »

That doesn't make sense.
You are converting a hd file to sd resolution using a low bitrate codec so you will end up with the same result i imagine?

I dont know, hence asking people in my opening post can it be done without losing quality.....

subway

Aha, well you are limited by the file format supported by the screenplay.
You are limited again by the resolution restrictions.

You can have hi resolution xvid but they would still be low bitrate so not going to look like hi def. But, Even then, the screenplay won't play them as it only supports the sd resolution.

Antomus Prime

5uspect wrote: »

I use XenonMKV to demux into mp4 for the xbox360 which makes a half decent home theater system with an external USB or NAS. Might be worth considering over the iOmega solution.

I think i'll look int that, I have an xbox and was planning on getting a NAS next year for the pc,

Cheers

Voodu Child

Antomus Prime wrote: »

I think i'll look int that, I have an xbox and was planning on getting a NAS next year for the pc,

Cheers

Yes if you have a 360 or PS3 then they should support most H264 streams up to 1080p.

So you just need to remux to MP4 which is quick and does not result in a quality loss.

You may have to convert the audio but this is relatively quick compared to video conversion.

You might need to do some splitting as well depending on file size restrictions.

Antomus Prime

subway wrote: »

Aha, well you are limited by the file format supported by the screenplay.
You are limited again by the resolution restrictions.

You can have hi resolution xvid but they would still be low bitrate so not going to look like hi def. But, Even then, the screenplay won't play them as it only supports the sd resolution.

THe screenplay supports up to 720p, it just doesnt recognise mkv... kinda pointless from a design perspective, so if I can get a high res movie in a suitable format I'll be laughing, it's just the sixe of the converted files would mean that I'd have space for feck all on it. Think next year I'll just save for the newer model or try the xbox/nas set up voodu child is talking about.

Voodu Child wrote: »

Yes if you have a 360 or PS3 then they should support most H264 streams up to 1080p.

So you just need to remux to MP4 which is quick and does not result in a quality loss.

You may have to convert the audio but this is relatively quick compared to video conversion.

You might need to do some splitting as well depending on file size restrictions.

Defo something I'm gonna look into, Thanks again man

5uspect

Voodu Child wrote: »

Yes if you have a 360 or PS3 then they should support most H264 streams up to 1080p.

So you just need to remux to MP4 which is quick and does not result in a quality loss.

You may have to convert the audio but this is relatively quick compared to video conversion.

You might need to do some splitting as well depending on file size restrictions.

XenonMKV also handles the audio so it's a nice one stop solution. One issue I had with it was that I had to change the output file extension from mp4 to m4v so the 360 could see them. I'm not sure if this is an issue with the 360 or just the version of Twonky running on my Freecom NAS.

The xbox can also use Media Center to access supported shared files on any Windows machine on your network.

If you're in the market for a good NAS have a look at the excellent QNAP ones. My Freecom tends to be a bit buggy and not all that stable.

subway

Dont get the ratios mixed up, the screenplay supports up to 576p I believe (sd/DVD res)
The 720 is horizontal res.
For example, 720p is 1280x720

It can output 720p but not play it back

Antomus Prime

subway wrote: »

Dont get the ratios mixed up, the screenplay supports up to 576p I believe (sd/DVD res)
The 720 is horizontal res.
For example, 720p is 1280x720

It can output 720p but not play it back

So it was just clever marketing wording then....... Fookers!!!! lol

subway

Yeah, its very misleading. Its just a sneaky way of saying it connects over a hdmi cable.
I had a philips dvd player before that had the same "feature"

subway

If you have a wired network connection for your xbox and your pc you can just set up a file share om the pc so the xbox can read the files while its on.
It might be a quick and easy way to get hd movies on your tv without having to decide which extra hardware to buy.

I use an xbox as an extender and its not great so you may find your not really happy to use it as a media player anyway so a nas could be a waste of money

stephen97

CricketDude wrote: »

Before you convert try just renaming the file from .Mkv to .avi and see if it plays it.

its the actual encoded file and changing around a few letters might work on an etch a sketch but wont do anything except for maybe corrupting his file

Rabidlamb

Was in the same boat OP with that Screenplay.
Simple effective converter here:
http://filehippo.com/download_any_video_converter/

I since bought a FTA satellite box that plays media files off a USB stick.
The box cost about 50 quid including the dish & the inbuilt media player can play anything, it's mad considering the high price of the Iomega Screenplay.
Mine has just become an external HD to do backups.

Bought a new Samsung 40" LCD last year & it has 2 USB ports for playing media.
What an age we live in ?.
(There is an issue with FAT32 formatted sticks & a 2GB max file size but that's probably for another thread).