.mkv to .avi conversion question

[The Elf]

Hi!

I bought recently a DVD player which can play avi files, so I would like to convert my .mkv files to .avi to burn them. The files have soft-subs, probably forcing me to take the TV overscan in account (or else my subtitles would be off screen). In the past, when I did "conventionnal" DVD's, I used FitCD for the overscan; I don't know if I can still use it this time.

Anyways, my question is the following: what would be the best way to convert those .mkv files to .avi files while taking the overscan in account (to be able to read the subtitles), so I can enjoy those videos on my NTSC TV?

I couldn't find any clear answer in the forum, but please just point the location if I missed it. If any information is missing, just ask me!

Thanks in advance!

[celtic_druid]

Overscan shouldn't be an issue with softsubs. Only with hardsubs would there be an issue.

What kind of streams are in the mkv? Video is VfW? RV? MPEG1/2? VFR? Audio is aac? mp3? AC3? vorbis?

[The Elf]

The audio is AAC.

For the video stream, I only know that it is Xvid... I don't know if it answers well to your question (you named few types totally unknown to me). MKV Extract displays: video (V_MS/VFW/FOURCC,XVID). If it is not enough, please tell me how to get more details about the video stream.

Thanks.

[celtic_druid]

VfW means that you can simply demux the video to an avi. The audio you would most likely need to re-encode to mp3, although AVIMuxGUI can mux aac in avi's.

The only real issue is if the video is VFR (Variable FrameRate). In such a case your avi would be out of sync as the avi container can't handle VFR.

[The Elf]

The video stream has a constant bitrate.

[Abond]

Very useful read: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=324c9b74b5266a9638cd0e8b095b4459&threadid=62723
and maybe this:
http://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?s=324c9b74b5266a9638cd0e8b095b4459&forumid=73
I cannot be more specific as you don't wrote the player model.

[The Elf]

The player is a Philips DVP642

Thanks for the links, I'll start reading these...

[The Elf]

Hmm... I' think I'll ask another question that will probably replace the other oine I asked. I think I had the first step right...

Using MKV Extract, I extracted the video (.avi file, XVid), the audio (.AAC file) and the subtitles (.ass file). Now, I would like to combine them in a .avi file watchable on my DVP 642 player. I WILL watch it with the subtiltes, so they can be turned into hardsubs if necessary (or if it is easier...but now I would probably have to worry about the overscan). What would be the best way to do it?

Thanks for the answers up to now.

[celtic_druid]

Don't think that the player supports ass subs, so you would need to convert to say srt using subrip, subtitle workshop or equiv.

The aac you would need to convert to mp3 and mux with the video. If it is he-aac then you need to be carefull as not all decoders will detect it properly without the header.

[The Elf]

I'll see what I can do with the programs you suggested... I'll use BeSweet to get the audio in mp3 format and I'll try to mux using VirtualDub Mod. I'll tell you about the results soon.

Thanks again Celtic_Druid!

[The Elf]

The audio/video part worked well, but I have a feeling (having read many posts about the DVP 642 player) that I shouldn't use softsubs... The subtitles appear totally white (without any kind of border around the letters). If the picture get clear enough or has white parts in it, the subs are unreadable!

So, I think that I should use hardsubs instead, but now I'll have to consider the overscan... what would be the best way to do that?

What I was thinking about was to mux the subtitles with the audio and video using VirtualDubMod. Then, I would use FitCD to get a .avs file dealing with the overscan and, finally, I'd open the .avs file using VirtualDubMode to save as .avi.

Anything faster or better? Thanks!

[celtic_druid]

You could try muxing the subs via divx labs fuse. Maybe they are easier to read that way?

If you are hardencoding subs I would suggest adding them to the avs for encoding.

[The Elf]

I tried to mux the subs using VDmod, but I got some errors in the process. I tried to save the file anyway, but the subs weren't included in the end. The errors look like this:

Description : SRT (ASCII) file
Length : 00:23:48.310
Some errors were found :
Subtitle [11] (line 41) collides with the previous one.
Subtitle [12] (line 46) collides with the previous one.
Subtitle [72] (line 286) collides with the previous one.
...


I'll try divx labs fuse this evening and I'll give you feedback soon concerning the results.

[Stormin Norman]

If your making a file with hard subs, your gonna have to script it using Avisynth, adding borders to the script. The overscan will hide some of the subs.

[Abond]

Use Subtitle workshop (as suggested) to fix the errors.

[celtic_druid]

VDudmod doesn't mux subs for avi output anyway. You need something like AVIMuxGUI for that. However a srt muxed into an avi won't display any better than an external one. well other than the fact that maybe it won't display at all.

All DivX certified standalones should support xsubs muxed by fuse.

[The Elf]

Since we aren't talking about conversion anymore, I decided to start a new topic about the subtitles here.

I abandonned the concept of subsubs, because:
1 - The original subs were very well done with nice editing and colors
2 - The DVP 642 has a very bad softsub support: the subs were either too small and totally white (see my previous post), or way too big (it was scary!) and getting out of the picture (using DivX Labs Fuse).

Thanks for your help everybody! Come to see my next topic!