MKV Codec

[Emmaxxx]

Hi

I guess the new MKV container will become more common place, so guess i must keep up with the times!

Anyway to my point....I've a couple of these alien files on my HDD now and unsure how to unpack them safely. On my search for a codec, I read that all previously installed codecs should be uninstalled before installing the new codec pack!.......eek! Not something I feel comfortable about!

Could someone please advise on what codec to install?

Thanxxx

 

[bionic]

Unpack as in demuxing or do you mean playback of the files?

What codecs are needed depends a bit on what codecs are used for encoding the streams in the mkv container, but you will for sure need a matroska splitter, id suggest a read here:
http://www.matroska.org/technical/guides/playback/windows/

For playback only though, instead of messing with codecs you can use fex. media player classic, it has an internal matroska splitter
Heres the latest:
http://www.zshare.net/download/36523427051503/
Ive been using it for years along with ffdshow, ac3 filter and the cyberlink dvd playback filter.
Lately ive been using an modded version called media player classic home cinema edition, it has some (fullscreen) rendering improvements, can remember playback position and adds some other tweaks and improvements.

Or if you want codecs i think these should provide an alternative to the horrid codec packs: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Lazy_Man_MKV.htm
Heres the splitter alone: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Haali_Matroska_Splitter.htm

If you want to extract the stream you can use mkvextractgui or virtualdubmod. Im sure there are others too. Demuxing can be a real pain though depending on the streams.

But in any respect you shouldnt have to uninstall anything, thats usually just a precautionary statement imo

 

[Emmaxxx]

Hi again!

I've manage to extract the streams using mkvextractgui but don't I don't recognise the file ext. ie Mpeg/iso/avc.h264 and the audio being .aac

My aim is to convert to avi and mp3 or ac3. I've tried opening in VDubMod but it complains about the subtitles in there!

Not too bothered about playing back the MKV file at this current time, just want to convert to avi so the movie file will play on my DivX/DVD standalone!

Do I need the codec to do the conversion bionic?

Thanx for helping me!x

 

[bionic]

Heluuu

Yeah been there, done that
I wont pretend i am an x.264 expert, far far far from it, my experience stretches to simple demux and converting to avi, and often resulted in the sources ending in the bin, so please take my advice with a grain of salt.
I dont use the format myself at all because of the lacking support in standalones.

If your going to need some codecs...depends really, some encoders come bundeled with the needed codecs or has it internalized while others, like megui depends on whats installed on your system. Best way imo is to load the file and see what gives.

You can usually get to the subs in the stream menu of virtualdubmod to either demux them and use them as standalone subs or to deactivate the stream.

For streams like that id suggest leave the mkv intact (no demux)and use automkv to convert to avi, or possibly use megui.
Both can look daunting at first but their real easy when you get to know them.
Megui are more dependent on installed codecs though so i think automkv has the advantage.

Possibly you can use winavi, convert x to dvd or another of the commersial encoders with support for h.264 and aac, unfortunately the implementation are often buggy and since there are som many x.264 variations and encoding profiles and the codecs are updated very often, in my experience they often fail or produce nasty artifacts etc.

heres some avc information
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=674815#post674819

heres some aac information
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68300#post424070

Heres automkv
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=113811

Heres megui
http://sourceforge.net/projects/megui
forum thread
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96032

Thats a lot of reading for a small encode..no
Hopefullt automkv will sort it for you so you can leave it at that

Let me know how it goes, in the mean time ill get a little updated on what exact codecs etc you will need.

 

[Emmaxxx]

:0 looks like you mean to keep me busy! Thanx

Been doing a little of my own research and was hoping for some simple answers....yeah right!! Anyway, toying with a prog called 'AlltoAVI' (freeware). Failing that, I'll have a look at your alternatives and failing that, I'll never look at a MKV file again....and do something more exciting lol!

Thank you for your help and much valued time!
I'll let you know how it works out!


MXXX

 

[bionic]

I just tested an mkv aac/h.264 in automkv and it both loaded and encoded fine, so no codec worries.

I was thinking.. automkv comes with a preset of custom matrixes, xvid profiles and default settings that may be a little challenging for the novice.
So if youd like ill pm you with a couple of xvid profiles and settings that should get you up and running and produce quite good quality output at a decent speed.
Just let me know, no worries, im happy to help

 

[Emmaxxx]

Morning bionic

I had a few goes last night to no avail

I persevered with Automkv, but each time it would crash! It always throws up an error about encoding the audio (5.1 aac)! Video encoding then continues for a while before it eventually crashes!

Will have another play later and will check for your post! Your settings would be greatly appreciated, Thanx

 

[bionic]

Yeah, i believe that can be solved by adjusting the source settings in the project options, more on that in my pm

 

[Emmaxxx]

Getting somewhere now....Thanx to your help!

Have a nice converted avi file now and good quality too! Took about 2hrs to encode on my AMD Athlon, Dual Core 2GHz 1GB memory.

However, still having probs with the 5.1 aac! So will now take a look at separate aac encoding!

Will let you know how this works out, there are a few options from the link you gave me


Can't thank you enough for your support!!!!

MXXX

 

[Emmaxxx]

No success with the audio conversion, either to ac3 or mp3. Retaining the 6 channels is not so important at this stage, think that's a bit too over my head! I've tried GXTranscoder/faac and VLC Player. GXTranscoder just didn't function (needed Net framework 2.0 for it to open) and VLC Player's conversion was garbled? Also looked at AACMachine but I think that converts to AAC and not aac to mp3 etc.

Will keep trying tho!

 

[bionic]

Nice job

Dont know why i didnt think of it before, but it turns out you can feed the aac 5.1 to megui and it will downsample and encode to mp3 stereo proper without any intermediate steps.
It also takes 6ch wavs.
Just set the appropriate options in the audio configuration dialog

 

[Emmaxxx]

LOL Read your post before you edited it!

Tried AACDecDrop which did the trick! Gave me a nice 6 channel PCM WAV!
Had crashing problems initially, but that was simply resolved by shortening the very long file name, then all worked well!!

Usually convert wav to AC3 with Sonic Soft Encode, used it for a few years now! Once complete will then mux with my avi using VDubMod.

Will look at megui for possible future transcoding.....you never know!

Will be reporting back tomorrow morning, hopefully they'll be no sync issues!

You're a star bionic!

MXXX

 

[Emmaxxx]

Not quite there yet

Noticed aacdedrop down sampled the .aac to 24khz (setting set at 16bit PCM).
Also tried Megui for encoding the audio but it doesn't seem to accept a separate audio input, it complained about the video path!

Maybe I'm missing something in the settings...???

 

[bionic]

Did you try the other aac decoder
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=1081

Megui updated to latest version? in settings in the auto update section hit the configure servers button and set it to development. Then do an update.

Make sure the program paths in settings are correct, I have tested with aac 5.1 and stereo and it loads fine here with no configuration changes from the default.

Ill whip up some screenshot of megui for ya



These are the only ones you need to configure.
Input
Codec
Config
Output
Enqueue

Choose the queue tab after pressing enqueue and hit start

Come to think of it: mediacoder is another alternative i guess
http://www.rarewares.org/mediacoder/

 

[bionic]

Heres a edited repost of my previous edit, Just for reference, perhaps someone else might find it useful some time

Dbpoweramp 12.3 as far as i can tell supports all shapes and sizes of aac and encodes into almost any format retaining 5.1 (if supported by the codec itself) or downsampling to stereo
This is hands down the most versatile audio tool ive come across to date.

Nero wave editor later versions(7.5.1.1 and up) supports aac and multichannel.
So if you have nero and are due for an update this could be a possible solution.

Soundforge 9 Supports both 6 ch wavs and mono wavs as input and outputs almost any audio format.
But doesnt open aac at all.

Aac to wav: aacdecdrop
http://www.rarewares.org/aac-decoders.php#aacdecdrop

Theres some interesting info here incl another aac to wav tool.
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic275675.html#1364372

6ch wav to 6 mono wavs: Tranzcode(gui)
http://dhost.info/needfulthings/tools/item.php?id=18

Besweet also opens 6 ch wavs and converts to 6 mono wavs (think id use belight gui though, i like it more)
Can also use the six mono files and encode to ac3 5.1(explained in the videohelp link)

Sonic scenarist ac3 encoder supports mono wavs as input.

 

[Emmaxxx]

Persevered with megui, with latest version and updated but still getting the
"Problem with video input filename the path is not of a legal form".
So not sure where I'm going wrong with that???? The thing is I'm not loading any video into the video input field!

Tried the demo version of Audio Studio. It produced a working wav file, but again at 24khz!....

Just opened the original .acc in GSpot and it reports it is indeed 24khz!
So I think I'm on to a loser anyway! Trying to upsample to 48khz with soft encode produced a speeded up micky mouse like output LOL!

Is this typical of upsampling?

Anyway, I wont be put off and will try other MKV files with what i have learned with your big help!

Mxxx

 

[bionic]

Sounds like your loading the aac file from a directory structure with too many directory levels or file/folder names with too many characters.
Have you tried renaming the aac file and putting it in a root dir (fex. c:\1.aac)
Have you done any tweaks to the filesystem like turning off the creation of 8+3 character filenames?
Im a bit out of my depth here so id suggest a search or post at doom9s, im sure someone must have experienced the same before

If the sound sounds ok why bother with 44 or 48? Does your standalone require it?
If it dont id just convert to mp3 and not mind the sampling. Of course an aac file may very well retain quality better at lower sample rates than fex mp3, but if it sounds ok....

And yes in my experience upsampling may include visits from the chipmunks
I took an audio book mp3 @22khz mono, loaded it in goldwave and resampled to 48 mono and 48 stereo, same with soundforge except i saved as both ac3 and wave.
All came out just fine.
I think it depends heavily on the software.

Thanks for your appreciation Emma, your resovle is inspiring

Edit: Up the aac somewhere give me the link and ill take a look at it.. if you like.

 

[Emmaxxx]

I'm still persevering, sometimes it's difficult finding the the time having three little chipmunks of my own

I'll try megui again, this time renaming the file. Already thought of the levels of directory, I've been keeping it simple (F:\.acc). I've also got dBpowerAMP Music Converter v12.0, so will also try that at some stage.

If I can convert to mp3, Ill then mux with the video and burn onto DVD-RW to test. There must be something simple I'm doing wrong, it's frustrating!

Will keep you informed!

Thanx again

PS. Failing that, I'll upload it to you but not sure how to do that blush

 

[Emmaxxx]

EUREKA!!! LOL

Used dbpowerAmp with the latest ACC plugin to convert to mp3 and upsampled to 48khz. Muxed with my converted AVI using VDubMod and perfection!!
What a struggle! But I got there!

A big thanx again bionic, I couldn't have done it without you!

I'll give you a much deserved rest now


MXXX

 

[bionic]

Nice job