Converting an 1080p MKV (AVC1 H264 with DTS audio) to an AVI

[cpaqf1]

Hey there,

Since I can't really do frame accurate editing on that type of mkv, my only option is to re-encode it to avi and then to cut it with VirtualDub. I have 2 questions, first of all, what codec should I use to convert it (I need to be able to cut it without re encoding)? My first priority is QUALITY, I wanna lose the least quality possible, I really don't care much for file size. Second question, what should I use to convert it ?

thank you in advance

[Wolfen]

Just extract (Demux) the streams(vid,aud) out of the .mkv container and mux (put together) into an .avi container, no quality lost whatsoever. There are lots of apps in the tools section for download just look at the operating system requirements to see if they'll work on your system.

[cpaqf1]

thanks for your reply,

that sounds awesome, but would I be able to edit accurately (frame accurate) ? I'm asking because I thought that wasn't possible with x264..

[Wolfen]

I suggest maybe take a look at this post for possible solutions.

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/cutting-x264-video-files-t357738.html

[cpaqf1]

yeah... I think I wont have a choice but to re-encode. Is there an easy way to figure out the frequency of key frames ?

[redwudz]

H.264 is probably the the same as Xvid/Divx, about 300 keyframe interval by default.

If you need frame accurate editing and very little quality loss, maybe HuffyUV or Lagarith. But huge filesizes. (About 250GB for a regular movie length.) If you can open the MKV in AVIDemux, it may be able to do it at least with HuffyUV. Worth a try, anyway. I see AVIDemux has a 'Rebuild I & B frames' option, but not sure how it works. I've never tried to edit MKVs before.

The DTS audio may be a problem. Maybe convert to AC3 5.1, 640Kbs to minimize losses. I normally use VirtualDub to edit, but AVIDemux can probably do that also.