Convert AVI (DIVX/XVID) to MKV (H.264)

[Cazz]

Hi
I running now Plex and Everything works great.
But I have notice I can get sometime problem with AVI and I was thinking maybe convert the AVI to MKV and from DIVX/XVID to H.264

What I know is always give a less good quality then the original but I wonder how much and if that any good settings to make it as good quality as possible when I convert.

I like to use VidCoder so is that any good settings there to make it works??
Or even terminal FFMPEG I can use

[netmask56]

Simple just use MKVToolnix. Drag and drop the avi file and pres start multiplexing button. A few minutes late you will have your MKV file. No re-encoding, no loss of quality, same size. MKV is actually a container.

[jagabo]

Of course, simply remuxing into an MKV container doesn't change the quality. But if your device is having problems playing the AVI file it may also have problems playing the MKV file. That is, the Divx/Xvid video may use features that aren't supported by the playback device.

[netmask56]

I've not had that problem with my Popcorn A-500 or my older C-200 indeed putting every video file in a MKV container has solved the few problems I've had with the Popcorn, mainly navigation on mp4, and some high rate mpeg files. The universal problem solver for me! Sometimes with older AVI or Divx running them through AVIDemux and saving to a new file can fix problems.... Anyway I'm a great believer in experimenting and trying out different options rather than mulling should I or shouldn't I

[Cazz]

Hmm ok I can try, not sure if it going to work but I have nothing to loose

I just Think that Plex trying to transcode the AVI to something else to make it easy for me to see the file, that why I wonder what I can do so I do not loose to much quality of the file

[jagabo]

What is Plex sending the video to for display? It's probably not transcoding because computers have no problem with advanced Divx/Xvid features like GMC and QPEL. But most devices don't support them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_motion_compensation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter-pixel_motion

If you have to re-encode the video: First you have to figure out what containers and codecs are supported by your player device (media player built into TV, standalone media player, Blu-ray media player, DVD media player, etc.) and any limitations (bit depth, bitrate, resolution, reference frames, b-frames, etc.). Then encode with those codecs and those limitation. Commonly supported these days is h.264 and aac in an mp4 container. I'd stick with Blu-ray limitations for h.264.

You can probably get away with x264 at CRF 18. That gives pretty good quality at normal playback speed though you will see differences if you look at enlarge still frames. If you want higher quality use a lower CRF value (file size will increase). If you want smaller file sizes use a higher CRF value (quality will be worse).

[Cazz]

Ahh ok

I did try to use MKVToolnix like the netmask56 suggested and the file I did try did works greate and that did gave me a big suprise.

But to make sure I going to do that with another AVI file before I start to do that on all my AVI files

[netmask56]

Sometimes it's worth unpacking the avi file if it is packed - avidemux will do that

[Cazz]

ok now I have think a little and I think I going to try to convert my files from AVI to MKV and H.264
I was thinking maybe use handbrake or FFMPEG because I have work with both of them before and I can create a script file that runs through a folder.

But I have no idea what kind of settings I can or going to use. I do not loose to much of the quality and I do not make the file bigger then the original.
I also need to make it resolution dynamic because the file does not all have same size.

It is maybe a impossible question but is that any recommended settings I can use??

[pandy]

Use CRF encoding - preset depends on your patience, i always highly recommend to use HP@L4.0 as limit with enabled BD compliance, even ancient h.264 decoder should work OK.

[jeffshead]

So I'm guessing the only option is to re-encode if using AVIDemux and MKVToolnix do not help? I updated Kodi from 17.6 to 18 on a Shield TV and it will no longer play any of my AVI files. No issues with Kodi 17.6. None of my AVI's have packed frames. Simply converting the container to MKV doesn't make any difference.

I have a ton of AVi files (SD) that are under 800 pixels wide. What's the best batch software option to re-encode hundreds of files without loosing quality and increasing file size if I'm forced to re-encode? Also is there anything out there that can convert the files and keep the file structure and original file names? I have a few TV Show collections with each season in it's own directory on a Windows server.

Example:

TV Show Name
Season 01
episode 01.avi
episode 02.avi
Season 02
episode 01.avi
episode 02.avi

Here is one of the files:

General
Complete name : C:\1.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 136 MiB
Duration : 22 min 26 s
Overall bit rate : 845 kb/s
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.1.1a (build 1639/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 1639/release

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L3
Format settings : GMC2 / QPel
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, QPel : Yes
Format settings, GMC : 2 warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 22 min 26 s
Bit rate : 643 kb/s
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.087
Stream size : 103 MiB (76%)
Writing library : XviD 0.0.09 (UTC 2003-03-25)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Format settings : Joint stereo / MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 22 min 26 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 30.8 MiB (23%)
Alignment : Split accross interleaves
Interleave, duration : 42 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 464 ms

[davexnet]

Are you sure none of them play? Hardware players have been known to balk at GMC and Qpel, which you
can see in the file above

[jeffshead]

Are you sure none of them play? Hardware players have been known to balk at GMC and Qpel, which you
can see in the file above

I haven't found one of my AVI's that plays, yet, but that doesn't mean that some other AVI's won't play.

From the info I've been able to comprehend, Kodi 17.6 used SW for files under 800 pixels wide. Kodi 18 uses HW acceleration for everything by default.

[davexnet]

Here's a method you could probably use:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/356314-How-to-batch-convert-multiplex-any-files-with-ffmpeg

[jeffshead]

Thanks for the info. I think, for now, I'm going to go back to Kodi 17.6. I had zero issues with it and I've encountered other bugs with Kodi 18. I truly don't think 18 should have come out of beta yet.