Demux AVI to mux into MKV

[john3voltas]

Not sure if I am using the right section, even because this not about reencoding. At least that's what I hope...
I have a network media player (Asus O!Play) that has issues playing some video files.
So when someone comes to me with a video taken with a camcorder I usually demux the video/audio and remux it to MKV.
This time I have an AVI file with WMV v7 and WMA v8 but apparently Avidemux is not being able to mux these video/audio formats to MKV container.
Is that by MKV's design not to accept WMV/WMA?
If so, what are my best options? Do I have to reencode? I would hate to do that because I would lose quality.
Or maybe I can mux it in MP4? Would that work instead? My player can easily read MP4 files.
Here is MediaInfo report on my AVI:

General
Complete name                            : C:\Remux\any_name.avi
Format                                   : Windows Media
File size                                : 125 MiB
Duration                                 : 7mn 51s
Overall bit rate                         : 2 217 Kbps
Maximum Overall bit rate                 : 328 Kbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 1970-01-01 00:00:00.000
WM/EncodingSettings                      : Lavf52.93.0

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : WMV1
Codec ID                                 : WMV1
Codec ID/Info                            : Windows Media Video 7
Description of the codec                 : wmv1
Duration                                 : 7mn 51s
Bit rate                                 : 1 992 Kbps
Width                                    : 488 pixels
Height                                   : 360 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate                               : 25.000 fps
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.454
Stream size                              : 112 MiB (90%)

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : WMA
Format version                           : Version 2
Codec ID                                 : 161
Codec ID/Info                            : Windows Media Audio
Description of the codec                 : Windows Media Audio V8
Duration                                 : 7mn 51s
Bit rate                                 : 128 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 7.20 MiB (6%)

Thanks in advance.
Cheers

[Baldrick]

You can try mkvtoolnix (Mkvmergegui).

But I doubt the asus will play it. Maybe better to try make an wmv/asf file.

[john3voltas]

You can try mkvtoolnix (Mkvmergegui).
But I doubt the asus will play it.

I still haven't tried MkvMergeGUI yet because I can't seem to find the proper way to demux the audio/video out of the AVI container.
I only know Avidemux and I am used to set both video and audio output fields to "copy" and Output Format field to mkv muxer. That usually gives me a nice MKV media file that my player can handle.
How do I simply extract the audio and the video? The audio seems pretty straightforward: Alt+A -> Save Audio.
But for video the only thing I can find is Output Format set to Video Only. Is that it? Because when I do that I end up with a file that MediaInfo cannot read as being multimedia.
Once I find out how to demux it I can try MMG because I know how it works. I even know mkvtoolnix's CLI syntax by heart.

Maybe better to try make an wmv/asf file.

I honestly don't think it'll work on my STB player but how do I do that? What tool do I use? My PC doesn't have neither Windows Movie Maker nor Windows Media Encoder installed and I can only afford freeware or opensource.
It's a Windows 7 N edition.
TIA
Cheers

[Baldrick]

mkvmergegui supports many input formats including avi. But maybe not avi with wmv/wma...

I think WMVMuxer can do avi with wmv/wma to wmv.

[john3voltas]

mkvmergegui supports many input formats including avi. But maybe not avi with wmv/wma...

Just tested and confirmed that MMG does support AVI as input but NOT with wmv/wma.

I think WMVMuxer can do avi with wmv/wma to wmv.

Will look into this option.

How about this?

(on Avidemu) How do I simply extract the audio and the video? The audio seems pretty straightforward: Alt+A -> Save Audio.
But for video the only thing I can find is Output Format set to Video Only. Is that it? Because when I do that I end up with a file that MediaInfo cannot read as being multimedia.

Can you (or anyone else) help me with that?
Thanks a bunch.
Cheers

[john3voltas]

Sorry for being such a PITA but I really would like to understand this:

(on Avidemu) How do I simply extract the audio and the video? The audio seems pretty straightforward: Alt+A -> Save Audio.
But for video the only thing I can find is Output Format set to Video Only. Is that it? Because when I do that I end up with a file that MediaInfo cannot read as being multimedia.

Can anyone help me with this?
Thanks a bunch.

[poisondeathray]

ffmpeg can do it for sure , and probably gdsmux as well

But very unlikely your oplay will play it

ffmpeg -i input.avi -vcodec copy -acodec copy output.mkv

[El Heggunte]

The MKV container indeed supports WMV and WMA, as long as these are muxed in the VfW-mode and ACM-mode, respectively.

On Windows, the DirectShow filter MatroskaMuxer.ax does accept ASF files. OTOH, MKVmerge does not accept ASF files, even when they contain VC-1 streams However MKVmerge (usually) has nothing against the MKVs with WMV and/or WMA generated by MPC's MatroskaMuxer

Speaking in general, Avidemux doesn't understand ASF files, therefore don't use it
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/357618-x265-vs-x264?p=2262099&viewfull=1#post2262099

As for AVIs that contain WMA... well, this EVIL audio format was designed for depending on the timestamps stored in the container, and the AVI container really has no such thing as "audio timestamps". In the "best" cases, this may mean the audio goes out-of-synch when you use the seek bar of the player/editor; in the *worst* cases, i.e., shorter clips that were joined into a longer clip, the audio goes more and more OOS after each "joining point"

Last but not least, Mr. DeathRay has a point:

But very unlikely your oplay will play it

[john3voltas]

Guys, thanks a bunch for your replies.
Baldrick had already alerted me that MMG+MKV+AVI+ASF was a no go.

(on Avidemu) How do I simply extract the audio and the video? The audio seems pretty straightforward: Alt+A -> Save Audio.
But for video the only thing I can find is Output Format set to Video Only. Is that it? Because when I do that I end up with a file that MediaInfo cannot read as being multimedia.

What I meant on my last question was that I can't understand how to split audio and video with avidemux. Is it done how I mentioned in the quote?
Thanks guys

[El Heggunte]

You have two choices --- either you remux to MKV, or you re-encode and use other containers than AVI (i.e., MP4 or MKV).

Either way, you'd better NOT USE Avidemux in this case, as I tried to explain in my previous post
( https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/357618-x265-vs-x264?p=2262099&viewfull=1#post2262099 )

[john3voltas]

But El Heggunte, remux is exactly what I want to do. I want to split audio and video so that later I can mux them back together.
All I can use is avidemux and I am quite sure it can split the audio and the video. I just don't know how. That's what I am asking: how do i split video using avidemux?

[Hoser Rob]

You didn't specify what avidemux reported when you tried the file with wma audio, but I've had instances where I tried to convert wmv/wma files to xvid and avidemux reported it didn't understand the codec.

I fixed it by loading the video file into audacity. Despite it being just an audio editor/processor, you can open video files with it and it will just load the audio stream. Very handy. Then I just converted it to a more compatible format. In avidemux then you just select the file as the audio source and select copy audio.

Don't know if that helps but what the hey.

Also, after a quick peek on their site I see there are several models of those O!Play boxes and they don't all have the same format compatibility specs. You may want to look there yourself.

[john3voltas]

Hoser Rob, I just want to split the video from the media file using avidemux. Still don't know how to do that.
I will worry about compliance issues later.
Thanks for your reply.

[poisondeathray]

Even if it were possible to demux it properly with avidemux (and it's not) , mkvmerge would reject it. WMV/ASF streams are not allowed because of licensing issues . ffmpeg works for sure, and plays ok with software media players like VLC , valid mediainfo data (but that indicates nothing about your oplay compatibility)

[john3voltas]

Even if it were possible to demux it properly with avidemux (and it's not) , mkvmerge would reject it.

Guys, right now I am not worried about compliance. How on earth do I split the video out of a multimedia file using avidemux?
I know how to demux the audio and I think I know how to demux the video but I am not sure.
Can someone answer this simple question about avidemux?

[sambat]

Don't you just go to audio > Select track and uncheck the 'enabled' box then save the video as 'copy'.

[jagabo]

Install ffmpeg then put this in a batch file and drag/drop files onto it:

"c:\program files\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg" -i %1 -vcodec copy -acodec copy "%~n1.mkv"

Change the path to ffmpeg if necessary.

[john3voltas]

...then save the video as 'copy'.

You've got my attention.
The audio part I already know. It's the video part that I still don't know.
What do you mean by "save the video as copy"?
There is no such option in menu > video.
On the main window there is an option to set the "Video Output" and I have that set up for "copy". Is that it?
If so, which "Output Format" should I choose? "Video only"? Because otherwise avidemux will try to put the video inside a container, right?
Thanks in advance.
Cheers