Convert MKV to WMV w/5.1 channel surround?

[Spdngblt56]

Hey everbody!

I was wondering if anyone could suggest a guide/provide me with the tools or a link about how to convert MKV files to WMV files.

What I am trying to do, is play an MKV movie file that has a 5.1 channel audio track in it on my Xbox360.

I have already tried converting to mp4, and AVI using Gotsent, and AVImuxer... respectively.

However, in both cases, I cannot seem to get the audio to pass through to my reciever as 5.1 channel surround sound (and my Xbox360 is hooked up to the receiver via an S/PDIF optical cable).

I was given the suggestion on a different post to convert the MKV file to a WMV file and use a converter that has "wma 10 audio settings for 5.1" --> However, I cannot seem to find such a converter. So if anyone knows of one or of a guide on how to do this, I would really appreciate the help!

[Baldrick]

Tried hdconverttox ? Or tried stream with ps3 media server(it works for xbox also)?

[yoda313]

Hey there,

I was the one who made the suggestion.

You should check out encode360.

However on the links it says it is discontinued (but you should be able to still download it - if you can't pm me and I can email you the file (20mb but requires microsoft net 2.0). There is a replacement encodehd but on my first experiement with the xbox 360 profile it only outputs mp4.

Also you might be able to use windows media encoder.

My experience was converting hd-dvd to wmv with 5.1. I had searched the forum and there was a post on a successful mkv to wmv conversion with 5.1.

Please note in encode360 it defaults to downmix 5.1 in the advance settings. You'll need to deselect it in advanced settings.

These are freeware options.

More advanced payware like tmpgenc works or other apps might have a direct path to wmv with 5.1 as well.

I don't have any hd mkv's with 5.1 on the pc I'm on right now so I can't do more experimenting at the moment.

Edit - Format factory seems to also be an option.

I ripped a track off a dvd that had 5.1. This will be a standard def converion - you did not mention whether or not it was a high def mkv.

I then used makemkv to get a mkv with 5.1 ac3 from the ripped vob. I am now using format factory to convert to wmv. In the settings you have to manipulate it to select 6 channel 5.1 audio and change the frequency to 48khz.

I will copy this to a memory stick and test it on my 360 to see if the 5.1 is retained. If so this will work.

Edit 2 - for some reason I can read the mkv file i made and import it into format factory but it says "fail to decode" when it starts the conversion.

I'll see if I can make a mkv with another program and try again.

Edit 3 - Hey encode360 is taking the mkv file I made with makemkv! I made sure it was set to keep the 5.1 audio (the original ac3 audio). Hopefully it will convert it to wma audio 5.1. If not I don't know if ac3 inside wmv will work on the 360. It should theoretically since it supports ac3 in dvd and divx/xvid.

I'll let you know when its done converting.

Edit 4 - It worked! Here are the confirmations. Like I said I first ripped a chapter out of a dvd with 5.1 ac3 (dts may be a complication). I then used makemkv to make an mkv. Then opened that mkv with encode360. I selected 720x480 and made sure it retained 5.1 in the advanced settings. THan after it encoded I got a wmv with 5.1 audio. I played it on my xbox and it worked perfectly! No synch issues. I also got the full blue light on my sony amp indicating the full 5.1 audio.

Here are the screen grabs - all from media player classic - for some reason it did not report the ac3 5.1 audio in the mkv file.

matroska.JPG
wmv details.JPG

encode360.JPG

Please note this was a straight sd dvd conversion with ac3 audio. It does allow output of up to 1080p. As mentioned I haven't tested this with dts audio. I have also not done a straight conversion with dolby true hd or dts master audio (or uncompressed multichannel pcm audio for that matter).

If it chokes on hd audio you'll need to convert with eac3to or some other conversion program to downconvert to sd audio. I don't know if you can go higher than 192kpbs audio. But remember this is wma bitrate language not ac3 so the scale is different but it is definitely 5.1 audio.

Edit 5 - don't forget the 4gb limit for fat32. The xbox 360 doesn't support ntfs.

HOWEVER you can use a mac hfs formatted drive. It is the mac version of ntfs without a file size limit. There is macdrive plus software that can run on windows and format portable or internal harddrives to the mac standard. Than you can transfer files over 4gbs to the drive.

I have the software and it does work. I tested a drive with it and acts like ntfs without limits.

However it is payware. I don't use it anymore since I got the wdtv media player. That way I didn't have to do as much conversion.

FYI that is another option to consider.

The wdtv media and similar devices can play mkvs directly off ntfs drives. Also they are only 120.00 USD or so new. I'm sure they are cheaper on auction sites. Certainly something to consider. I have one and does what they are advertised to do (hdmi out only though but does have spdif out - also it does have composite for analog but no component on the original model - one other note it does not downconvert dts but does passthrough so dts would have to be piped to a dts capable amp naturally).

[Spdngblt56]

WOW! THANK YOU SO MUCH YODA!

This is exactly what I needed.... hopefully it wasn't much trouble for you. I probably should have mentioned a few things in the original post:

1. I am pretty computer savy, so the shorthand method would have probably worked lol (BUT I REALLY APPRECIATE THESE THOROUGH DIRECTIONS AS WELL!)

2. I forgot to mention whether or not I was using an HD MKV or not because I didn't want to bore anyone reading my post with details --> However, it is indeed an HD MKV and it is in 1080p. (This method should still work w/out any flaws though)

I'm glad you tested it using a USB flash drive on your Xbox 360 because I noticed in the last pic you uploaded (the one of encode360 itself), it says next to "set bitrate for encoding: Xbox360 over LAN".... but I don't actually have my system set up to stream videos. Rather I just plug in my external HDD and play them off of that.

Also, I like the fact that you included the description of the "blue light" on your Sony receiver comming on when you played the video. That is EXACTLY what i'm trying to acheive as well!

I am going to do the conversion today, within the next hour or so... and I will be posting my restults once I have succeeded. That way I can provide anyone else who may be looking at this post with some feedback!

Again, I appreciate your efforts and I thank you for your time in helping me out with this task

P.S. If you're thinking about making your post into a guide (because after all it is a very good post), you're free to use any of the material I post on this thread for it, and you don't have to quote me or anything. (This includes any of the feedback I will be posting up later today including screenshots, etc...)

[yoda313]

WOW! THANK YOU SO MUCH YODA!

You're quite welcome.

HD MKV and it is in 1080p. (This method should still work w/out any flaws though)

Yes but as I mentioned you may run into issues if its dts or hd audio. I can't confirm encode360 handles those well or not.

I'm glad you tested it using a USB flash drive on your Xbox 360 because I noticed in the last pic you uploaded (the one of encode360 itself), it says next to "set bitrate for encoding: Xbox360 over LAN".... but I don't actually have my system set up to stream videos. Rather I just plug in my external HDD and play them off of that.

Yes but as I mentioned remember the fat32 4gb limit. Especially with hd sources you probably have a 8gb or so file. You may be better off burning the final .wmv to a dl dvdr and go that route (assuming of course you encode the .wmv under 8gb for a dl disc. It should work but I haven't tried it myself.

Also regarding the lan setting - that is actually just a preset bitrate setting. You do get a full .wmv file that is exported to a folder on your harddrive. It is not just in the ether and streaming it outputs a physical .wmv file that you can copy and archive and export out to media of your choosing. And by the way there is a manual setting available as well.

If you're thinking about making your post into a guide (because after all it is a very good post), you're free to use any of the material I post on this thread for it, and you have to quote me or anything. This includes any of the feedback I will be posting up later today including screenshots, etc...

Actually I've never written a guide for anything.

I'm pretty sure there are already tutorials for encode360. In fact this may have been the tool I used originally to create my first 5.1 wmv file way back when. Unfortunately I don't have those records on hand so I can't confirm that.

Hopefully this will help your effort.

As far as the guide goes as long as videohelp stays up and running this information will remain searchable.

Good luck and enjoy!

[Spdngblt56]

Yes but as I mentioned remember the fat32 4gb limit.

I did take this into consideration after you originally mentioned it to me a while back. I used MKVtoolnix to split my MKV into 4GB increments. So now i'm technically working with 3 individual MKVs (all of the same movie of course).

you may run into issues if its dts or hd audio. I can't confirm encode360 handles those well or not.

I figured this was going to end up being a problem... (and unfortunately my MKVs did have 6 channel DTS audio in them). But an easy solution was PopCorn MKV AudioConverter, which I used to convert the DTS to AC3.

[yoda313]

Good luck. Let us know how it works out.

[Spdngblt56]

Well so far things are not going very well.... I've had no luck with encode360 -->despite the fact that if I could only get it to work, i'm sure it would do exactly what I need.

I stopped it after about 7hrs yesterday, but i'm going to let it run through the night today and into tomorrow, just to give it one more chance and see if it will change from "Pre-processing: no preview"

I'm currently trying HDconvertTox... as suggested above by Baldrick.

If that doesn't work i'll go ahead and give ps3 media server, format factory, or windows media encoder a try.

Thanks to both of you for trying to help out and cooperating with me lol... I don't know why I have such a hard time doing the most simple of things!

[rickydavao]

Not sure if this will help, as it would involve streaming the video from your PC to the XBox 360. The latest version of DivX (DivX Plus) when installed under Windows 7, will stream MKV's natively (without transcoding) to the XBox 360 as a media centre extender (that is, you need to use Media Centre on the XBox to watch the videos). I have used this successfully to view MKV's with 5.1-channel AAC audio (and h.264 video) on my XBox. Cannot say definitively that it will work with 5.1-channel AC3, as I haven't personally tested it, but don't see any reason why not. The DivX Plus MKV support is free, and if it doesn't do what you need, you can always uninstall it after. Just a thought.

[Spdngblt56]

Thanks for the advice rickydavao... I think I might eventually just do that and set my xbox up for streaming. I know its generally the easier way to go, the only reason I've been refraining from going in that direction is because I heard the quality is not as good. But I don't usually notice small differences anyways.

The other reason I haven't already decided to stream all my videos to my xbox is because I have a lot of freinds and family who also like to watch the movies i've ripped to my external HDD. And being portable makes things a lot easier (for me at least), when I want to share my files with them. (18:30)

UPDATE (21:00) --> I have tried HDconvertTox with no success, so before installing PS3 Media Server... I figured I'd try one of my other (already installed) programs first. So being that Encode360 required Windows Media Encoder 9... I tried using that (as Yoda suggested above), and I'm pleased to say I think I'm finally making progress.

Windows Media Encoder 9 is a good program (being that it was designed by microsoft for Windows), but it required a lot of tweaking with the settings (including making a custom conversion profile -->i'll provide the details later)... in order for the audio to stay 5.1 channel and the video bitrate to remain the same as the original file.

Again, and as always... I really appreciate the help/cooperation from everyone on this! If it works w/Windows Media Encoder 9... I will provide some feedback and let everyone know how it worked out.

[yoda313]

So being that Encode360 required Windows Media Encoder 9... I tried using that (as Yoda suggested above), and I'm pleased to say I think I'm finally making progress.

Good luck.

So you were able to at least access and start encode360 right? It's just apparently hanging then huh?

What version of windows are you using? Is it win7? Do you have access to xp or vista? My test sample that I did the other day were done on an old pentium single core win xp machine. I don't know if that would have any bearing on your success or failure. Also I did also have windows media encoder 9 installed. I don't know if you have to have both installed in tandem for them to work properly or not.

Let us know how it turns out.

[poisondeathray]

another option is to use avisynth + wmnicenc

it requires avisynth knowledge, but it's really simple 1 line script

DirectShowSource("video.mkv")

[Spdngblt56]

@Yoda,

Yeah encode360 seems to start up and recognize the mkv just fine... the problem is that it gets hanged up when trying to encode and stays in a "pre processing" mode the whole time. I noticed that it did start to make the wmv file --> but only amounted to about ~5 kb before quitting.

Ironically, the same thing happened when I was using certain settings on Windows Media Encoder... the first time I tried it, it only resulted in the same sized (~5kb) wmv file before quitting.

Then I changed some settings around and gave it another go... and It worked! -->EXCEPT the file was over 11GB when done (even though the input file was only ~3.6GB) ?? So I figured the best thing would be to keep those setting but just change the "output format" to limit the file size at 3650Mb... however... it still has about 7hrs to go, and already its at 2.77GB... so i'm guessing that didn't work??

Either way though... its better than no progress at all --> perhaps if I could only figure out now how to limit my file size correctly, I would be able to get the seetings just right! Here are some pics about the things i've mentioned so far:


Unfortunately... as you all can see in the picture just above this the file is 3.35GB (once the file reached this size the encoding stopped, and now i'm missing half of the movie!

I think I have to edit the bitrate somehow, instead of limiting the output file size so that I get a correct ~4GB WMV... rather than simply getting a 3.35GB file with only half of the movie on it, all because the program stopped encoding once it reached that file size.

As far as a Win XP computer goes... i've read something somewhere else that all of the Win 7 OSystems come w/XP built in as a virutal machine... perhaps it would be worth a try getting that up and running and then giving encode360 another go.

[yoda313]

Well I'm glad wme is at least encoding.

You know in that one pic you posted it did show windows media audio 10 in there. THat must have been where I got that idea on needing it for 5.1 wma audio. However it is only 9.2 or something in encode360 but I can get 5.1 wma out of encode360.

Here's hoping you get it going this time.

It might be worth a test on xp just to see if encode360 does behave differently for you. Just be sure you have wme installed also (though I guess the virtual machine should have access to both??).

[Spdngblt56]

<<>> EDIT: There is some added info in my last post along with *updated* pictures (things circled in red)

I'm almost there...

I just need to figure out what I need to set the bitrate of the encoder to be so that I get the fully encoded movie --> but in a normal 4GB file rather than 11GB!

Thanks to everyone for helping me through this!

<<>> EDIT 2: I found an awesome bitrate calculator on our own videohelp.com! I put in all the info about my MKV, and it popped out an awesome bitrate for me --> I just copy and pasted it into my encoder...

I'll let you all know tomorrow whether it worked or not (keeping my fingers crossed)


<<>> EDIT 3: IT WORKED!!!! I finally did it.... All of the 3 MKVs files I had were successfully converted to WMVs with NO LOSS of quality or audio

As a matter of fact, the outcome was quite amazing... once I used the bitrate calculator to figure out how to limit the file sizes so that they wouldn't be over 4GB, that is.

Thanks to everyone who helped me through this, and for all of the wonderful advice --> Its definitely much appreciated!