Video conversion software

[Roonaldo_7]

Hi,

I recently wanted to convert a mkv file to avi and tried to download some video conversion tools from the repo but most of them did not work.

1) WinFF would fail with 'Unknown codec: libxvid' error. I realise that this has something to do with the presets of winFF not matching up with the ffmpeg version being used and was wondering if anyone had a working preset configuration?

2) Arista completely failed me too saying there are missing elements. The base, good, bad and ugly gstreamer plugins are installed and i have no idea what is missing. This also applies to Transmageddon.

3) Jmencode, iriverter, Divx converter would start the conversion but fail halfway.

4) Handbrake only offered me the choice of mkv and mp4 containers for some reason.

WinFF and Arista are probably the most simplest and robust in terms of formats supported thus I would really like this these programs working.

Thanks in advance.

[rubentje1991]

Did you try 'mencoder' (from the shell?)
=> there are GUI's available for it (maybe even one/some of the programs you mentioned)

I would think that mencoder is the best video converter.... (most supported formats, options, etc)
=> test mencoder itself, maybe it's going wrong there, and not in the applications you mentioned (IF they have as backend mencoder)

[Jonesy]

Format factory functions perfectly under wine. I have yet to find a format it won't handle or function that doesn't work, and it's free.

[fishfillet]

Look for MMC or MultimediaConverter.

Or WINFF.

Both are good GUI apps.

[rubentje1991]

Do a search for 'libxvid' (without quotes) in Synaptic....
and report what you see there 

[coffeetime]

If using Dolphin:
-go to the folder where your .mkv file is stored
-press F4
-copy/paste:

Code:

mencoder test.mkv -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:threads=8:vbitrate=3000 -oac copy -o test.avi ffmpeg -i test.avi -vcodec copy -vtag xvid -acodec copy final.avi

Change:
test.mkv to your .mkv file

The resulted AVI file will be test.avi, located in the same directory as the source.

[Roonaldo_7]

using mencoder, the conversion fails halfway:

Code:

Too many audio packets in the buffer: (4102 in 777506 bytes).
Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed?
For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the -ni option.

Do a search for 'libxvid' (without quotes) in Synaptic....
and report what you see there 

Synaptic shows libxvid4 is installed.

[rubentje1991]

Did you try some different video files (all of them could be .mkv files, but try different ones: maybe one of them doesn't work properly  )

[blarney]

I also couldn't get Arista to work... It failed, claiming missing elements so I installed the following:-

gstreamer0.10-vp8
lame
gstreamer0.10-lame
gstreamer0.10-xvid


...and it now works

EDIT: Just tried converting to PAL DVD and that failed until I installed gstreamer0.10-twolame and gstreamer0.10-mpeg2enc so I guess it all depends on what you are trying to convert to. I ran the gui from a terminal using the command "arista-gtk" and looked for the missing plugins...


Cheers,
Blarney

[btrussell]

I recently used DivXConverter with great success- - on PC.

.avi file played perfectly, looked as good as original, but did not look good on tv using dvd player after burning disc. I tried all the different quality settings. I have no complaints about how my dvd player plays .avi files.

The original .mkv file and the same file converted to .avi file both look beautiful on tv when using PC instead of dvd player. Even with lowest quality conversion settings.

Hopefully this info is useful to someone.

[wedgetail]

Posted by: btrussell

Your mencoder error from coffeetime's formula looked familar to me so I have done quick google. 
If you to the address below:
http://www.howforge.com/how-to-convert-mkv-to-avi-using-mencoder
you can read about how the problem is solved (something about two pass operation) good instructions and there is a script making it easier to handle the options.   

[alpha1]

You may even try video editing softwares like KDENLIVE, Pitivi or Openshot.
Do not edit the video.
Just import and export to your desired format.