MKV to AVI suggest a free conversion tool

[loninappleton]

I've used the program MakeMKV on a dvd and show the playboack opf the large 5Gb file with good results.

Most recently I've attempted to use the Pazera free conversion program. It seemed to run ok but the file result was a 35mb piece of-- nothing. The procedere showed to be advancing properly-- not too fast to be reasonable-- but I have that strange output.

The playback time is about 2 1/2 hours. What is a good MKV to AVI conversion tool to get a file of 1.3 Gb at a reasonably good resolution?

I have also tried Handbrake to make an MP4 various times. But I may be the only one that gets a bad result with the output file having glitches in the video as if the process is not 'keeping up.'

The MKV format was used because I first tried DVDFab. This DVD is a so-called Region-Free item and DVDFab gave a strange result-- many distortions of the output file.

Eventually I want to move to MEGUI but haven't set it up yet.

This may be a common question but I didn't readily see a search result.

[Baldrick]

Many converters has problems with mkv with mpeg2 video that makemkv creates.

For best dvd to avi divx/xvid results would I still use old autogk, fairuse wizard, staxrip, etc and convert directly from the dvd/video_ts folder. Rip to the hdd with dvdfab decrypter.

[loninappleton]

Ok. I have AGK on here but I've only used it to resize some AVI's.

Is there any tutorial on this? Else I'll fire it up with a dvd in the transport and see if it finds it.

IIRC DVD FAb Dycrypter is a free program unlike Platinum etc. I've seen Fair Use Wizard but not staxrip.

What's the method of work in a Step One step two etc. If there's a tutorial, advise.

[hello_hello]

I agree mpeg2 in an MKV can be problematic when encoding. For the DVDs you've already ripped with MakeMKV, try remuxing those MKVs as .ts files using tsmuxer and then use the .ts files for conversion. I'm pretty sure even AutoGK can open/convert those.

I still use DVDShrink for ripping. It won't handle newer copy protections so for those I simply run AnyDVD in the background and open the disc with DVDShrink to rip/re-author it. Using DVDShrink's re-author function allows you to rip just the movie as a set of vob files ready for encoding (or individual episodes). Just make sure you set the "target DVD size" in DVDShrink's preferences to something large so it only copies the video from the disc when ripping and doesn't try to "shrink" it.

[loninappleton]

I have found a guide in the AGK download page here:

http://www.divx-digest.com/articles/autogk.html

It appears to be a good guide for beginners. I am always beginning.

It seems these questions always come up and I do not intend to be repetitive. The questions come up for me when one tool fails and I do not know a new direction to turn.

AnyDVD--- hmmm. I never understood more of that than the fox icon down in the tray. It is not a screen oriented program.

HH, I recall a couple of those tips from an earlier discussion but got sidetracked with other things.

I'm back to Step one: put the dvd in the transport.

What winds up happening is Step two branches into discussions of three programs such as the ones above.

Tomorrow I will see how far I get with AGK. Quite frankly I don't know why the always reliable DVD Fab had such problems. I could only guess it was the Region Zero dvd format.

[davexnet]

AutoGK is a pretty nice program. Installs its own version of Xvid.
You can choose 2-pass VBR, or CQ mode. Choose 2-pass if the output size is imporatant.
Usually you would encode the main movie, so you find the IFO file associated with the main movie
and open it in AutoGK. This pulls in the relevant VOB files.

It's all mentioned in the guide. Where exactly are you having problems?

[hello_hello]

AnyDVD, if it's icon is in the tray to show it's running, will decrypt the disc in the background so you can open/rip it with pretty much any program (ie DVDShrink). It'll also rip the disc via a click of the tray icon, but if memory serves me correctly it'll only rip the whole disc.

I prefer to use DVDShrink as I can open the disc, use the re-author button to drag just the movie title (from the right pane to the left in DVDShrink) and then use the backup function. When it's done, l have a single set of ifo and vob files etc which almost any conversion program can open and convert.

[loninappleton]

No problems yet. I'll read the guide (only 4 pages it seems) this AM.

A new method of work is the problem for me. Teaching the old dog new tricks. The dvd is back from 2009. I don't know if that plays in to any new protection schemes problems.

Viewing the output of the 5Gb file looks good from MakeMKV. But that is a space hog and I have all low rez settings and smaller screens.

[loninappleton]

First operation ran into an error.

After reading the guide which says to load the D: drive location as the source (input file)
then find the TS files (main movie) and open the fiolder
after that select the initial IFO file to begin the conversion.

I got an "Error Parsing IFO" error. Then I did a search for auto gk parsing IFO error and found a post by Baldrick. However the only videohelp given was to another link and that was about someone making
CAMs with a program called Camtasia.

That was my first trip to the haystack.

So I am stymied with AGK.

In the meantime, I am trying to get a copy using DVDFab from a different dvd drive. My initial attempt in this round of dvd recodes caused an older dvd recorder to give what sounds like a bad motor operation and may be failing. It sounded to be continually restarting, slowing speeding up again etc.

If the IFO error persists on a different drive I am stopped from proceeding.

[loninappleton]

Update: changing dvd drive and running DVD Fab Paltinum (my older version) did not help. The same errors resulted. However I know the disk is not bad because MakeMKV has made that playable file.

I am using DVD Decrypter to make the TS/vob file set of the problem disk. Perhaps we can proceed from there and use a minimum set of tools. Maybe I can use this opportunity to finish setting up MEGUI?

[loninappleton]

Just another idea on this. Previously I had a job on videohelp which started with the need to balance audio. I know that this current piece has audio which requires a lot of volume. Whether that is called 'gain' I forgot.

But the demultiplexing (demux) mentioned earlier by HH may come into play here again. That is a complex procedure. For those interested I looked up the thread again:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/347485-How-to-reapir-audio-in-AVI

[loninappleton]

Playback of the MKV file on my other machine seemed to give an adequate volume level.

At this point I have the VOB set made with DVDDecrypter. DVDFAb tells me that the audio is DTS PCM/2.


I should be able to proceed to make an AVI which I prefer over the size and problems still associated with MKV containers. MEGUI does not do this task from my loading and looking at the options.

At this point what is the right way to proceed? I'll review that other thread for more clues tomorrow since I had the original disk to use for that as well.

[loninappleton]

One error I found and wanted to report earlier was that when trying to use AGK I repeatedly got the "Error Parsing File" message and could not proceed. Is this my error or something that AGK cannot overcome when looking at the original dvd?

To this point I have used DVDDecrypter on the DVD and have output the TS file folder

I used videohelp search and got a selection of 20 tools using the search command 'vob to avi.'

Here it is for those with interest:

https://www.videohelp.com/tools?convert=VOB%20to%20AVI


I sampled WinFF. WinFF would not run. It gave a permission denied error when trying to run the file or folder from C: and from within Windows Explorer folder. It seems like the problems never end or I manage to find content prone to finding roadblocks to program usage.

Staxrip was mentioned at the beginning of this I will try that next.

For future discussion: It may be necessary to eliminate subtitles. I have the orginal dvd and it runs in my Sony player without loading subs. But I have seen that subs always are part of that first MKV conversion I did.

Now in working with an AVI converter I do not know if subs or their removal will be an option in Staxrip.

[hello_hello]

Playback of the MKV file on my other machine seemed to give an adequate volume level.

At this point I have the VOB set made with DVDDecrypter. DVDFAb tells me that the audio is DTS PCM/2.


I should be able to proceed to make an AVI which I prefer over the size and problems still associated with MKV containers. MEGUI does not do this task from my loading and looking at the options.

At this point what is the right way to proceed? I'll review that other thread for more clues tomorrow since I had the original disk to use for that as well.

If you have a correctly prepared set of vob files (using DVDDecrypter or DVDShrink etc) you should have an ifo file followed by a sequentially numbered set of vob files which contain nothing but the movie.
Using AutoGK you should be able to open the ifo file and start encoding. If not, you can open the first vob file in the set and the rest will be included as part of the single encode.

If you use MeGUI you must open the first vob file in the set, but it'll include the rest.

AutoGK and MeGUI pretty much use the same tools "behind the scenes" for encoding so if one can open and encode the ripped DVD the other should too.

MeGUI will encode using Xvid and output an AVI just as AutoGK does (you need to select Xvid as the encoder, not x264) but personally I'd stick with AutoGK.

AutoGK can either keep the original audio or convert it to MP3 (or if you leave it in auto mode under Advanced Options it'll make the choice for you based on file size). If it keeps the original audio (usually AC3 or DTS) then the volume won't change. If it converts the audio to MP3 it'll always "maximise" it during the process (the peaks will be increased to maximum level).
MeGUI can also "normalise" the audio when encoding but you need to select the option when setting up the audio encoder.

If you're getting an error when trying to open the DVD for encoding with AutoGK then most likely either it hasn't been "prepared" correctly for encoding when it was ripped, or you're opening the wrong file. If you're opening an IFO file you're probably opening the wrong one. From memory even a DVD rip of nothing but the movie will have two IFO files in the set of ripped files. Try opening the other one. If that fails, open the first vob file in the set instead.

When you've got it working correctly, I still think you can't go past AutoGK for a quality AVI if you're selecting a (reasonable) file size and just leave everything in auto mode. AutoGK will adjust the resolution and audio type etc to give you the best quality it can. You must use the version of Xvid which comes with AutoGK though. If in doubt, look for Xvid in Add/Remove programs and uninstall it, then re-install AutoGK while letting it also re-install Xvid. And of course AVISynth needs to be installed for AutoGK to work, but I'm pretty sure AutoGK will also install it for you.

[loninappleton]

I will do as you say and report any difficulties. Also with regard to preparing the files,
I'll make an alternate set in DVD Shrink.

I will also examine the files on the dvd disk to locate the first IFO and Vob file. As I recall there is Audio TS and Video TS folders on the disk-- just the two.

As the DVD Shrink encode is running under the Backup option and I select to make Video TS and Audio TS subfolder, the preview box shows no subtitles. I'm counting on that for the final transcode to AVI. The preview also shows the 'chapter screens' and main menu select items. I hope there is a way to get around that and just point to the main movie content.

The TS and Audio subfolder install to the desktop. But I'm not going to rename them (since they are another set) for fear of not being able to use the AGK. I believe my most recent reinstall of AGK had all the components but I'll check and see if there's an Xvid also in programs. Alternately I'll do a search and see if there is more than one on the system.

Will report back with any progress.

Thanks for taking the time with detailed explainations.

[hello_hello]

Many conversion programs will let you open a full set of ripped DVD files and select what you want to encode (just the movie or an individual episode etc) but many require you to prepare the DVD properly for encoding first. AutoGK and MeGUI both fit into the latter category. Here's how I do it:

Open the DVD (or the ripped DVD files on you hard drive) using DVDShrink.
Select the Re-author button.
If it's a movie DVD you'll see a large title in the right pane (there might be several titles but generally only one will be long enough to be the movie).
Drag the movie title from the right pane to the left.
Select the title in the left pane, then select the Compression tab at the top of the right pane. You'll see a list of audio streams and subtitles. De-select the ones you don't want.
In DVDShrink's preferences set the output DVD size to something large (I set it to 50,000MB) so DVDShrink won't try to "shrink" the video (you want it to just copy the video). You only need to do that once.
Use the backup function to "backup" the DVD to a new location.
When it's done, the newly saved set of DVD files should be just the movie (or you can backup individual episodes in a similar manner).

It's fine to let DVDShrink create Video and Audio TS folders when backing up, but it's not necessary. It makes no difference. They're only needed for burning a compliant DVD video disc. Just "backup" each ripped DVD to it's own location (folder) and give it an appropriate name.

The above is how I rip DVDs, although to do it in a single step (rip and re-author the DVD as a single movie in one step). I open the disc directly with DVDShrink. If it can't open the disc due to copy protection I run AnyDVD in the background to do the decrypting. If you can only rip the whole disc though (menus and extras etc included) then I find using DVDShrink to open the ripped files and re-author them as I described above the easiest way to prepare the DVD properly for encoding.

The ripped/re-authored set of vob files will contain the selected subtitles even though you can't see them in the preview while DVDShrink is running the backup.

Sometimes when you open ripped files with DVDShrink it'll display audio and subtitle streams which have a size of 0MB. There's no point selecting those as they're listed in the DVD menu but they aren't actually there (chances are they weren't included when ripping the disc).

If you open the correct IFO file using AutoGK (after re-authoring the DVD) it'll display any audio streams and subtitles it finds (I'm not sure it displays the subtitles if you open the first vob file directly though).

AutoGK always encodes the subtitles you select after opening the IFO file as part of the video (they're encoded "into" the video). If you don't want them encoded, make sure none are selected. If you select more than one subtitle stream it might save the second subtitles as an individual file but it's been so long since I've used more than one set of subtitles I can't remember. Normally you'd just select the single subtitles you want (if there's more than one) and AutoGK will encode them into the video. If you want the subtitles as a separate file you'd need to use a different program to extract them from the vob files (and maybe convert them to a different format), but that's a whole other story......

Episodic DVDs can be re-authored using the same method as above (drag each episode title from the right pane to the left), but instead of a single set of vob files for the movie you'll have a set of vob files for each episode. Each will be sequentially numbered and have a corresponding IFO file AutoGK can open.

A set of vob files re-authored to contain just the movie should like this (although there could be more or less actual vob files depending on the movie size/length). You'd open the second IFO file with AutoGK (VTS_01_0.IFO)


[Attachment 18163 - Click to enlarge]

[loninappleton]

I see from the above that I have made a few errors using DVD Shrink by going straight to Backup rather than that which your procedure describes.

Ok for that I will redo it.

In the meantime. what would cause AGK to quit due to the error "Audio1 is corrupted- Encoding aborted."?

Is that an error on the media (the disk plays fine in my player but has these continuing problems of backup)? I made a fresh install of AGK allowing it to add all it's programs so that should be clean and whole.

Another workaround I'm going to try is to switch DVD recorders to see if one of mine is
on the way out.

[loninappleton]

Progress.

I have followed the instruction up at post #16 accurately and DVD Shrink performed fine.

I have proceeded to making the AVI from the VOB TS set made with DVD Shrink. There have been no problems at this point with audio or a possible AVISynth problem I noted in earlier experiments. The volume is still low on a sample play I did in VLC just by loading the initial IFO of the VOB TS file set created by DVD Shrink. When properly used these older tools seem to work fine. The playback in VLC of the TS files seemed very clear without further processing.

I may tackle the audio yet.

But I have loaded the TS files into AGK and am doing a sample encode just using the 2 cd 1400 mb default. I'm wondering if the split will occur at "act break" which would be a nice feature.

[loninappleton]

AGK has spun it's wheels for a few hours-- looked to be stopped at 33 % and then produced an error called cycling about every 10 seconds and suggests it is a possible 'livelock.' I have no idea what that is, though I did minimize it and listen to the news while it was processing.

I will find the size of the TS file and perhaps a ratio for size output or a suggested size for completion can be made. I may not have had the size selection large enough to complete.

The TS file from DVD Shrink is: (yikes) 8.16 Gb (8,765,979,097) as reported by the Properties command in XP.

This is a 2 1/2 hour filmed play. What can I get for a completion size in AVI?

[hello_hello]

I've almost never had problems with AutoGK, so I'm possibly not the best person to help troubleshoot them. However.....

The type of "lock" you refer to would probably come from VirtualDubMod. It could be caused by VirtualDubMod itself, or maybe a problem with the ripped files (although it sounds like they're okay now). VirtualDubMod hasn't been updated in years, but there were one or two updates released after the version included with AutoGK. I'd probably try replacing the version AutoGK installed with the last one. Wherever AutoGK is installed, there'll be a subfolder called vdub or vdubmod or something like that (I can't remember exactly). Delete everything in it, download the last version from here and unzip it, then just copy the files over into AutoGK's vdubmod folder to replace the ones you deleted.

Which operating system are you running? I vaguely remember some VirtualDubMod oddness caused by a missing system file. If you're running XP, have a look in the "C:\WINDOWS\system32" folder for a file called "msvcr71.dll". If it's not there, I've attached a copy of it you can download and put in the system32 folder. Or try putting it in the folder where the VirtualDubMod files are. I doubt that's the problem though. I think without it VirtualDubMod won't load some plugins but it'll still work, however it can't hurt to have it.

On AutoGK quality......
As I said, if you leave everything under Advanced Options in auto mode, AutoGK will adjust the resolution and choose an audio type based on the selected file size and the compression test result. Therefore if you choose the same file size each time you'll probably find your encodes have different resolutions. AutoGK will also adjust the Xvid matrix used for encoding and pick a resizer (softer or sharper) based on the compression test result. The encoded video should be of a fairly good quality though, unless you pick a very unrealistic file size.

As no two videos compress by the same amount for the same quality, the alternative is to let the file sizes vary. If you choose single pass, quality encoding rather than select a file size (the default of 75% is fine) and choose a fixed resolution and audio type under Advanced Options, the ouput file sizes will vary considerably but the quality relative to the original will be the same every time. If you're not in a hurry you can run a single pass encode at 75%, then make note of the ouput file size. Use the same resolution, audio type and file size for a 2 pass encode of the same video, and AutoGK should report a quality of around 75% when it's finished without having to make any adjustments (AutoGK aims for not much more than 75%, as that's supposed to be the optimum compression/quality ratio for Xvid).

Unless you particularly need to hit a target file size, maybe just run single pass encodes instead (it's faster). Technically two pass encoding is better as Xvid doesn't have a true quality based single pass encoding method (it kind of encodes in dumb mode when running single pass encoding) but at a high enough quality you'd probably never see a difference. If you run a single pass encode at 100% quality the file sizes will vary all over the place but the quality will be about the best Xvid can do.

If you select 1400MB as the output file size AutoGK just splits it into two 700MB halves (I think it keeps the full 1400MB version too). It's a left-over from the dark ages when people burned movies on two 700MB CDs. If you don't want it to split, you can select 1399MB or 1401MB as the file size etc, but it doesn't matter anyway as you can just delete the split files and keep the 1400MB version. I think if you select 2100MB as the output file size it'll split the final file into three 700MB sections.

For the record, at 75% quality, using a fixed width of 720 (under Advanced Options) and converting the audio to 128k CBR MP3, I'd hazard a very rough guess that the average output file size for a movie encode would probably be around 1GB to 1.5GB, so if you're using 1400MB every time you should be getting pretty good quality.

[hello_hello]

PS If you replace VirtualDubMod, run it manually to make sure if it's going to pop up with any "welcome" messages the first time it runs, you get them out of the way. I remember updating it at one stage and wondering why AutoGK seemed to be "stuck", because the welcome screen was hidden in the backgound.

[loninappleton]

I have made the change to VidDubmod as suggested. The msvcr71.dll was apparently in place properly.

This was all after the fact of inspecting the work done yesterday on the file. What it showed was one completed AVI (which I am now reviewing in its natural play time for errors) in a good size of 1.3 Gb plus a partial file (the one that hung, I suppose, marked with the cd1 as is normal when making the 2 cd version in AGK.)

Simply put, AGK worked the first time through and I am inspecting the output. It may have been some keystroke error that started another process which then quit and produced the 'livelock' error found in the (I forget under which tab.)

Even so, your careful explanation of procedure should work well in the future. There may be other things that come up with this so do not close the thread. I'm considering going ahead with the audio adjustments to smooth out quiets and louds produced by the original DTS PCM/2 audio.

A pinned version of the correct technique for using AGK and DVD Shrink might be easier to find for reference since the subject line here became moot.

Thanks again for seeing me through this.