MKV, is it better than divx or avi?

I'm afraid you're a bit...confused. As an introduction, please allow me to say few things.

Mkv (matroska) is not a format. It's an AV container. The reason that mkv is widely used

is because it can accept a variety of AudioVideo formats and subtitles to be included in it.

All High Definition movies (HD DVD & Blu-ray) are encoded in MPEG-4 AVC (h/H264) or WVC-1

(advanced profile vc-1) or MPEG-2 high level.

The HD movie rips found in the web (not the direct HD DVD or BD rips) are usually reencoded

into h264 720p/1080p (1280x720p or 1920x1080p or variations of these resolutions depending

on the movie's OriginalAspectRatio). By this, we mean that, in case of 1080p,

original resolution is preserved but the new video stream is encoded with a significantly

lower bitrate thus any movie's menus/extras have been removed in order to keep the final

file size fairly small (~8.5 - 11.5GB), considering that original movie's disc size is usually

between 20 - 45GB. In 720p reencodes, resolution is also altered (downscaled) due to

even smaller desired filesize (4 - 6.5GB).

There is no regular DVD/DivX player that can play HD sources.

Maximum resolution playable is 720x480i/p (NTSC video standard) or 720x576i/p

(PAL video standard). These resolutions are called SD (standard). So, to get this straight,

if you like to playback you HD downloaded movie in High Resolution you can do it by using

a PC which must be properly setup. In case you want to convert your HD movie to SD for

playback on a regular DVD player, then you could use a windows based pc application like for

example "ConvertXtoDVD" is (search in the Applications section of our forum for v.3.0.0.9).

There, you're able to directly drag&drop your mkv HD file, transcode it into regular

DVD format and burn it on disc. The outcome will be 100% playable by the majority of

standalone DVD players. However, not only this but any similar program will not work

unless you have your pc setup for mkv playback (h264/vc1/mpeg2/ac3/dd+/dts).

As a general rule, if you can playback a media file then you're most likely able to transcode

it too, given that you have the appropriate apps installed.

For further info on pc HD stuff/setup, please have a look at the following.

INTRO TO: PLAYBACK - DECRYPT - DEMULTIPLEX - ENCODE - MULTIPLEX HD DVD & BD MOVIES

Let me just list some "basic" apps you need

to have in order to start your journey into HD world.

1. DECRYPT & RIP

"AnyDVD HD" A MUST have if you want to rip HD DVD or Blu-Ray discs into your hard drive or

if you want to playback those discs in a setup that includes a non HDCP compatible monitor.

It's shareware and you can find it either here in the applications section or buy it

directly from Slysoft. Personally, I have a legit copy because I think that this company

should "survive". Without those "Sly" guys, nothing of what you see in the HD movies section

could be found listed there. Other apps like "BackupHDDVD" (freeware) can also do part of the

job for you.

2. PLAYBACK - CODECS

For playback you can use PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra. Is the easiest and safest way for newcomers to go

with. BUT, if you decide to go for a better, alternative player compared to PowerDVD,

like "Zoom Player WMV Pro", "VLC", "MPC HC", "KM" etc., you have to install few pieces of

software (codecs, filters, source splitters etc.) in order to be able to playback most of

the known audio & video formats. Those can be either freeware or shareware. A very decent

(and stable) freeware all-in-one solution is "K-Lite Codec Pack" but, as a rule, free means

inferior in most of cases. So, if I guess right that you want to playback BD & HD DVD with

their usual audio format, best solution to go for is:

"CoreAvc Pro" (shareware, h264 decoder), "Haali Media splitter" (required for mkv files

and not just for this), "WMVideo Decoder DMO" (comes with Windows Media Player 11.

You need it for vc1, wvc1 decoding. Alternatively,

if you install "Mainconcept Reference" (shareware) you may use its own VC1 decoder),

"Ac3Filter" (for handling AC3, DTS, MPEG audio etc.), "DirectVobSub" (freeware, aka VSFilter.

You need it for viewing external or embeded subtitles),

"ffdshow" (freeware, you need it for so many reasons that it would take me all night long to

write them down. Basically, in your case, ffdshow will allow you to import for editing almost

any kind of directshow based video file, as long as you try and learn new stuff about image

processing and video editing), AviSynth V2.57 (it's very important to be installed

in case you're using a DirectShow based soft player)

and finally "Sonic CinePlayer HD DVD decoder" (you need this for a bunch of AV reasons,

but mostly for real time decoding of all Dolby Digital audio types and HD demuxing).

Unfortunately, this is the only decoder available which can be used by third party players

to decode EAC3 streams. Worthless to say that, if you manage to setup and customize all of the

above correctly (this needs continuous observation and big time effort),

the increase in picture quality will be at least 50-60% compared to the one you get when

using PowerDVD alone.

So far so good. Well, thing is you can't just rip the disc into hard drive and then upload it,

because the size of it would be huge, something between 20 - 50 GB. So, you have to convert

at least the main movie to another video format, most likely x264, h264 etc. This is the new,

Mpeg4 Advanced Video Codec which you probably see in most of movies listed in the HD section

of TP. It has dominated the video world because you can achieve excellent,

noise free picture quality with low bitrates and therefore, a comparatively smaller file size

than this of mpeg2 or vc1 encoded video.

3. DEMUXING - AUDIO TRANSCODING

Now, begins the tough part. Demuxing, Encoding and finally Muxing to a new AV file type like

"mkv" is. MKV is not a video format. It's a container that can host many types of

audio and video formats like X,x,H,h264, AVC1, avc1, VSSH, vc1, wvc1, mpeg2 etc.

Required apps: "Avisynth" and "Graphedit" must be "present" in your setup prior to any action.

Remember also to paste "Dump.ax" to your windows/system32 directory and have it registered,

otherwise "eac3to" won't work for you. "Dump.ax" is either included in Graphedit or you can

download it alone if you do some googling. "Nero 7 Ultra" should also be installed for

"eac3to" to work. Be careful! Don't install Nero 8 cause its directshow decoders

are locked and cannot be used by third party applications, at least not until today.

"DGIndex" (freeware), "EvoDemux" (freeware) for demuxing .m2ts (BD) or .evo (HD DVD)

files to "raw" video (either m2v and vc1 most likely), "eac3to" (freeware) for converting

DD+, DD TRUE HD, DTS HD to the well established and easy to handle AC3 or DTS.

These two multichannel formats can use SPDIF output to be safely directed in the

digital input (Toslink or Coaxial) of your AV receiver and be reproduced without problems.

Of course you can use a bunch of other also good apps to do the demuxing part.

I just mentioned these, because they are free and in most of cases, can do the job right.

4. ENCODING and/or MUXING

You can use apps like "MeGUI" (freeware) "StaxRip"(freeware) "AutoMKV" (freeware),

MediaCoder (freeware) "Mainconcept Reference" (shareware), "ProCoder 3" (shareware),

"Sorenson Squeeze" (shareware) and a lot of others, in order to h264 encode and mux your video

into mkv (or other type) container. AutoMKV, Staxrip, MeGUI, MediaCoder do that.

If you decide to use encoders like for example Mainconcept Reference is,

then what you'll finally going to get is a raw h264 file, which you should multiplex (mux)

along with the previously extracted (or converted) audio file to a new mkv file. So,

we finally come to...

5. MUXING

You have to install "mkvtoolnix" (freeware) and use an app called "mkvmerge GUI"

in order to mux the h264 stream + audio file into mkv. The .exe file of this app (mmg.exe)

can be found at the installation directory of mkvtoolnix. In case of raw h264 file,

mkvmerge cannot decide automatically the frame rate of the movie, so you have to enter

it manually.

6. DEMUXING-REMUXING MKV

Sometimes, mkv movies include two or more audio streams and/or few subtitles languages.

In case you need to through unnecessary audio and subtitles away, you can do it within

just minutes. No re-encoding is needed. There are two alternatives. 1) Download and use

"MKVextractGUI" (freeware) to demux the original mkv into raw AV streams (files).

Just open this program, select the movie of your preference, pick only the streams you need

and select to "extract". Then use "mkvmerge GUI", add your favorite extracted streams,

select to create chapters if you like, insert any external audio or subtitle favorite stream

(prefer srt format subtitles), define output directory, press on the "Start muxing" button

and wait for few minutes. Though I recommend the above method for some special reasons,

there's also the alternative (much faster) to use 2) "mkvmerge GUI" directly.

Run this app, select desired streams (un-tick the ones you don't want to be included

in the new mkv file which will be created) and press the "Start muxing" button.

That's all it takes! Waiting time is varying approx. from 3 - 10 minutes.

7. REMUXING INTO MKV WITHOUT RE-ENCODING

With this method you can just shift video containers without re-encoding anything.

For example, if you have a TS file which contain Mpeg4 AVC video and AC3 audio streams,

it's possible to convert it into mkv in just minutes, without the need of re-encoding none

of the streams. MKV file size will be a bit smaller than the original ts. To do this,

go to your "Halli Media Splitter" installation directory

(most likely C:\Program Files\Haali\MatroskaSplitter) and run "gdsmux.exe".

"DS Mux" window pops up. Right click anywhere inside it, select "add source"

and browse to open the file of your preference. DS Mux will show the streams included in your

original av container. Uncheck the streams you don't want,

select output name (at the bottom of window) and hit on start button. Wait few minutes

for the muxing progress to finish (you can monitor it in the status bar) and you're done.

Alternatively, you can also use this application for an automated and complete

demux-encode-mkv mux process of any stream included in your original av file.

"DS Mux" takes advantage of certain DS, DMO or VFW filters found in your setup and use them to

do the encoding job. Just select any stream and right click on it.

Go to "encode" and select the desired encoder. Right click again on the stream,

select properties. From there you can customize the properties of the selected encoder.

Hit start and wait for the process to finish (it can take many many hours,

depending on the settings of the encoder).

What you finally are going to get is a "ready to use" mkv file.

For all the above, you can find download links either at our TP community,

in the applications section (at least, all the expensive sharewares can be found here)

and at some very specialized audio video fora (aka "forums") such is "doom9.org"

and "videohelp". User guides and more detailed tutorials can also be found there.

Finally, please bear in mind to always follow few "golden" rules,

if you want your setup to be safe and sound for a long time:

1. Install only the codecs you need.

2. Try not to have a lot of them installed for use with just one type of video format.

3. Don't touch anything that works as expected.

Do not update/upgrade codecs just because

there is a newer version out, unless you encounter playback or other relevant problems.

Every time you install/uninstall video software components, your whole setup is "suffering".

So, don't risk to break it down or destabilize it just because of "blind experimentation".

Read and learn before you apply any changes.

4. Reboot your system each and every time you install a codec, video filter or software player.

5. Pay extra attention when installing programs, games or drivers that might, directly or not,

"interfere" with "Windows Media Format 11 runtime". If you're suspicious of something like this,

you can either make a system restore point before any new installation or,

as a final solution, to uninstall and reinstall WMP11.

6. Never install in your pc unknown to you, cracked applications of any kind which might

originally require a USB dongle due to be activated and operate. There's clear danger

for your system's original sentinel dongle driver to be replaced by the one of the cracked .exe

or the dongle emulator patch exe. In a case like this, besides other applications

that won't work never again in your existing setup, no cd or dvd writing will be possible

when using Nero or WMP and furthermore, "Windows Media Format 11 runtime" cannot be recovered

even after reinstalling WMP. So, be my guest and...enjoy windows clean install.

7. Try to go deep into "ffdshow" and learn how to customize it.

You can even resize picture resolution (in REAL time) up to a level that you could be talking

not just about HD (1920 x 1080px) but about kind of "3D" HD (2496 x 1404px)! I know maybe

that's hard to imagine, unless you already know it can be done or if you've seen it in action,

just like I do. One thing is for sure: ffdshow is the core application in your quest for a far

better HD picture quality, as long as you have time to spend and a truly "beefy" system. 

Hope I didn't confuse any of you.

Good luck. We all expect soon your first 1080p - 720p shares in this forum.

SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF PAGE 2 TO SEE A MORE DETAILED INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS,

FEW UPDATED DOWNLOAD LINKS & SOME HINTS

PS: 1) As far as I know, re-encoding of video files included in a BD+ encrypted disc

is not possible yet. At least, not with commonly used pc applications.

2) In order for steps 2-6 to work you have to have

"Haali Media Splitter" (matroska splitter) installed.

3) For some more specific info and a short beginner's tutorial please have a look at this

and just ignore the audio conversion part. Stick with eac3to.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1011010

BD+ protection is history!! Thanks to Slysoft!

Just for your info, this HDMI capture story, which was the only alternative solution

for sharing the BD+ protected movies came to an end! Last week, Slysoft (AnyDVD HD)

has finally managed to COMPLETELY break and TOTALLY REMOVE the BD+ protection from Bluray discs.

Only few 1.0 BD profile movies are yet to be broken but it's

definitely a matter of time to deal with them too.

http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=14787

About BD+ encrypted, then you just have to forget anything else but ripping it to the HDD with

AnyDVD HD and playback it only with PDVD, after moving the contents of the original container

folder to a new one with the same name. Please note that you have to have installed v3104 or

3319a of PDVD in order to playback HD content from HDD.

Ripping normal BD is described in the above tutorial.

In case you encounter specific problems, please post a message in the Helpdesk section of TP forum,

giving a full description of the followed procedure.

Simple solution for correct playback of VC-1

Advanced Profile (wvc1) + WMA in WMV container (and various others).

A. WMAudio.

For playback WMA you need to have WMP 11 installed, regardless the player you use for actual

playback in your setup. Unless you know how to configure ffdshow audio codecs for wma playback

(not recommended), WMP11 (WMF11 runtime) is required for its "wmadmod.dll" (WMAudio Decoder DMO),

which is dedicated to wma playback on your system.

You have to use a configurable player to playback not just this type of AV files but any

other type of HD content too (ZP WMV Pro or MPC HC are just fine). In case you want

multichannel SPDIF playback of your compatible wma audio stream, you have to add in your

playing graph (chain of decoders and DirectShow filters) the "AC3Filter" (freeware).

Download it from the link below and install it.

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ac3filter/ac3filter_1_46.exe

Configuring "AC3Filter v1.46" for

SPDIF AC3, DTS and WMA multichannel playback.

1. Go to Start - All Programs and locate AC3Filter. From the drop down menu select

"AC3Filter Config". An on screen message pops up. Say yes. The Properties window appears.

2. In the "Main" tab "Output format" field's two boxes, select "AS IS (no change)"

in the upper box and "PCM Float" in the one below it. Check the "Use SPDIF" tick box.

Hit "Apply" and go to the

3. "Mixer" tab. Select again "AS IS (no change)" in the upper box and "PCM Float"

in the one below it respectively. Check "Auto matrix" and "Expand stereo" if you like.

Click on Apply again and go to the

4. "SPDIF" tab. Do the same as above for the "Output format" boxes and the "Use SPDIF" one.

Under "SPDIF passthrough" (headers have letters in blue) tick only "AC3" and "DTS" small boxes.

Under "SPDIF/DTS mode" select "Auto".

Under "SPDIF/DTS conversion" select "Do not convert" (unless you AV receiver does not support

DTS stream decoding). Go to "SPDIF options" header and check everything but "Output SPDIF

as PCM" (you can check this too in

case you like to destroy your tweeter speakers' voice coils) and "32 KHz". At the dropdown list

of the "AC3 encoder bitrate (kbps)" I suggest you select "640", unless your

AC3 AV receiver is older than 5 years or so.

In the "DirectShow options" tick only "Check output format support".

Hit the "Apply" button and go to

5. "System" tab. Under the "Use AC3Filter for" header I would say you can check all boxes.

In "Filter merit" select "Prefer AC3Filter". Under "Default audio renderer" select

"Use Direct Sound by default".

Don't be tempted to alter the "Audio/Video sync" scrolling bar if you don't have audio video

synchronization problems. In the "DirectShow options" select "Check output format support".

Hit "Apply" and then "OK".

You're done. Now you can SPDIF playback AC3, DTS and WMA multichannel providing that you have

the rest of your AV setup configured correctly.

B. WMVideo.

There is no freeware pack including standalone VC1 (wvc1) decoder.

This decoder is required for playback certain Star Wars 1080p files for example.

FFDshow's libavcodec or wmv9 decoders can't handle playback flawlessly (stutter & AV async occurs).

K-lite codec pack assigns vc1 playback to ffdshow decoders (when enabled) and as described above,

playback problems occur. So, you have also to have WMP11 installed, due to take advantage of its

"WMVDECOD.dll" (WMVideo Decoder DMO) and playback the file without problems. Alternatively,

you may use "MainConcept VC-1 Decoder" (perfect solution) if you have "MainConcept Reference"

installed in your system. If you decide to use this decoder and S/PDIF for audio output,

you should also install AC3Filter v.1.46 for proper audio routing to your Default DirectSound Device.

AC3Filter performs a very accurate real time encoding or the WMA multichannel stream to

AC3 (same number of channels as these of the original wma stream)

when it's configured as described above.

A very easy way to playback "strange" to you files and to check if you have the necessary decoders

installed is to use "graphedit" (freeware). Run it, drag & drop the video file you have

and the program will automatically build a usable playing graph, which you should chose to

"save as graph (.grh)" before closing down graphedit. Then, if you want to playback your video file,

you simply have to right click on this grh file and select to open with MPC HC or

Zoom Player WMV Professional or any other compatible player. If "graphedit" fails to build a playing

graph for a video file, this means you don't have the appropriate decoders installed in your pc.

Make 100% sure you'll setup your pc for HD playback

before trying to convert mkv to DVD with ConvertXtoDVD.

Good luck.

That's all!!

Mozda ce vam ipak ovo biti najlakse!

Kada se skine tutorijal sve je na srpskom i radi ko zmaj..

a pritom i malo sto ne znaci da sugeriram!!!

Konvertovanje AVI, DVD u MKV + tutorijal na srpsko - hrvatskom jeziku:

http://rapidshare.com/files/159975707/AVI__DVD_in_MKV___tutorijal__konvert_join_split__by_RapidSerbia.rar

Sta mi je potrebno da bih gledao filmove od 300 MB?

Ukoliko ne zelite da menjate video player koji vec koristite preporucujem Vam da

instalirate NOVI K-Lite Codec Pack u kome se nalazi sve sto je potrebno, pa cak i

Media Player Classic ukoliko vec nemate neki dobar player.

http://www.free-codecs.com/K_lite_codec_pack_download.htm

MKV Codec Pack

http://rapidshare.com/files/108074881/MKV_Codec_Pack.zip

MKVmerge GUI... It's part of the MKVtoolnix package v.2.2.0

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_tools/mkvtoolnix.cfm

Mkv 2 Vob(DVD) v.2.2.4 2

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=131782

http://www.fileclub.net/31555759/Microsoft_NET_Framework_(All_Versions)(1 , 2 , 3 , 3.5)

CoreAVC Professional Edition v1.8.5.0

Info-Homepage:

http://www.coreavc.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

CoreAVC H.264 Video Codec - Version 1.8.0.0 (20080831)

- Add: About tab

- Add: Help tab (describing filter options)

- Add: Picture levels adjustment tab

- Add: System Tray icon

- Add: Support for AVC Lossless 4:2:0

- Add: Support for new standard aspect ratios

- Fix: Rearranged options tab

- Fix: Renamed Blend deinterlace to Single Field

- Fix: Fix Bob deinterlacing with Matroska files

- Fix: Fixed Aggressive Deinterlace function

- Fix: Better recovery point handling

- Fix: Improved filter stability

OC: Windows 98/2000/XP

http://rapidshare.com/files/155014194/CORAVC.PRO.1.8.5.rar

CoreAVC.Professional.Edition.v1.8.5.0-EDGE

HDDVD-Bluray-DivX-.mkv movies package

http://rapidshare.com/files/148840018/Software.To.Play.720p.1080p-Sting2324-TP.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/148839904/CoreAVC.Professional.Edition.v1.6.0.0-EDGE.rar

J68EX-GO9JZ-CORE-73FZ7-6APJ3

Playback:

- Media Player Classic

http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

- Haali media splitter

http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/

- CoreAVC

http://www.coreavc.com/

- AC3filter

http://ac3filter.net/

- VSFilter

http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

Ukoliko Vam je pak lakse da skinete player koji u sebi vec sadrzi sve

potrebne kodeke mozete skinuti neki od sledecih.

KMPPlayer:

http://rapidshare.com/files/100200367/KM_Player_v_2.9.3.1428.rar

VLC Media Player:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

PS: Ako je potrebna neka pomoc,

Tu sam jer sam vec konvertovao dosta filmova u .mkv

i mogu slobodno reci da:

Su fajlovi manji..

Kvalitet je bolji samo ako se sve dobro podesi..

Naravno iz dva-tri puta ce sve biti ok.!!!

Ažurirao N.B.G. - 23.Prosinac/Dec.2008 u 00:03