How do I convert .mkv format?

[Beev]

I downloaded a film off BitTorrent the other day, and it is a .mkv file. I am told it was something to do with the ogg Vorbis format.

Anyway, I used TMPEGEnc Plus 2.5 and although it read the file when it came to encode it just hung, and when I tried Canopus ProCoder 2, it wouldnt read the file at all.

Any ideas? I even tried converting it to avi with VirtualDub, but that would not accept the file as it is an unsupported format!

Yours,
Beev

[drjtech]

If you have an unknown file extension go to filext.com:

http://filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=mkv

Here, for instance, you will find that mkv (Matroska Video Stream) is not a codec but a container.

For more info go to the Matroska site:

http://downloads.matroska.org/packs/

-drj

[Beev]

Hi DrJ,

I can watch the film fine on the PC, it plays through Windows Media Player, but I am unable to convert it with the programs I mentioned.

I wanted to convert it to a PAL DVD.

Yours,
Beev

[Baldrick]

try then MKVExtractGUI. Try then open the separated video and audio in for example tmpgenc. Be sure to try raise the directshow priority in tmpgenc if it wont open , www.videohelp.com/tmpgenc#problems .

[AVNerd]

Beev, mkv files are containers... the actual vid could be divx, xvid, avi, mpg etc... as well as the audio could be mp2, mp3, ac3, etc... Us MKVExtractGUI to get the different streams seperated from the MKV. You could also use MediaInfo to see what kind of Vid/Aud/Subs your MKV has in it before you demux it if you like.

[Beev]

Okay, Ill try the GUI and see what that does.

Yours,
Beev

[stillmars321]

Try DVDSanta. This program has accepted everything I've thrown at it!

[Beev]

Okay, the gui has extracted the audio and video, but the file also contains SubTitles from vobsub. What is the file extention for vobsub files?

[Beev]

When I try to output the .sub files, they do not appear, does anyone know what is going on?

[AVNerd]

Ive heard of people havin lots of trouble when trying to convert a MKV with a VobSub stream. VobSubs are suposed to be a .sub file and a .idx file. Problem is mkv streams are 1 file. Ive never encountered this problem so you are gonna have to search around.

You could also try VirtualDubMod to demux the subtitle stream. If it works you will get a .srt file (subrip). They are a bit easier to manipulate. But I dont know if VDubMod will handle that mkv very well (because of the subvob stream). Worth a shot though.