MKV -> AVI yields Still frames

[gilbert1111]

Hi from a real newbie.
I just tried to convert a movie from MKV to AVI. It seemed to be going well, and the audio is fine, but instead of a movie I have a series of stills. The MKV file is i Gig, but the AVI that resulted using FFmpegX is only 128 Megs, As I have very little understanding of the settings, I'm at a loss at what to do.

TIA,
Michael

[theewizard]

mkv's are a real PITA, you never know what the source file was that was used and put into the mkv container

try super, no guarantees but it has worked for to convert mkv

also try mkvtoolnix with mkvextractgui

install mkvtoolnix then un-zip mkvextractgui and place the files in the folder when mkvtoolnix was installed

this will 'sometimes' extract the source video file and source audio file

for me i had to run the extraction twice , once for each file

but it doesn't always work

[Ai Haibara]

mkv's are a real PITA, you never know what the source file was that was used and put into the mkv container

There's a number of utilities you can use to easily tell what the streams in an MKV video file are. One that enables Windows Explorer tooltips and properties-pages can be found here:
http://www.matroska.org/downloads/shellextension/index.html

try super, no guarantees but it has worked for to convert mkv

Except the OP is using a Mac, so SUPER may not be an option.

SUPER is really just a GUI to ffmpeg, mencoder and a handful of other programs, anyway. FFMpegX uses ffmpeg and mencoder as well, so the same problem might occur.

also try mkvtoolnix with mkvextractgui

install mkvtoolnix then un-zip mkvextractgui and place the files in the folder when mkvtoolnix was installed

this will 'sometimes' extract the source video file and source audio file

for me i had to run the extraction twice , once for each file

but it doesn't always work

There is indeed a version of mkvtoolnix for OS X, but I'm not sure about MKVExtract (not MKVExtractGUI, mkvextract)... haven't looked at the Mac tools to work with MKVs in a while. But extracting the source streams in the MKV and having FFMpegX process those instead of the original MKV, remuxing them back together later, might work better.

[RioCreations]

Hi gilbert1111,

I have encoded lots of MKV containers without a hitch with help of others from this forum. I convert them all to XviD AVI with mpeg2enc. I then encode the XviDs with Toast or iDVD and the quality is great. I watch the finished DVDs on any standalone DVD player.

If you require more details, let me know and I could detail my steps for you.
I do the same thing for OGM, MKV and AVI containers.

Rio.

[gilbert1111]

Thnanks, and sorry for not getting back here sooner. I tried again using ffmepgx, and again got a n avi file that was a series of still pictures with normal sound. The program, when I told it to encode looked lie in the tiff below. I guess I don't kow what is meant by an mpeg2.enc as stated by Riocreations. So i wold take you up on your offer of more details.

In th meantime, I'll poke at the other software mentioned. And, btw, another film I have is in BIN, and yet another arrived in abuot twenty parts, each ending in a chapter number. Is there a FAQ or quide to these issues?

many Thanks,
Michael

ffmep-mkv.tiff

[BeardFan]

Your problem is the automatic framerate recognition of ffmpegx that often won't work with mkv. Your tiff displays a framerate of 0.08 fps so you will get like 1 frame every 12 seconds or so.

Before hitting encode, go to the video tab and select a framerate from the dropdown menu. The correct framerate will probably be NTSC film. Then hit the "Best" button on the left side to get a optimal bitrate. Then you can encode the movie and it should yield good results.

[gilbert1111]

IT WORKED!!!! Bravo and thanks! Danke! You've no idea how many times I've tried to get this film on a DVD.

Thanks a bunch,
Michael