[SOLVED] How to Convert and/or Trim 1080p 30GB MKV file?

[YasathDias]

Hello all

I have this nice, high-resolution MKV of a two-hour concert, and I want to trim it down into the single songs. It's a 33.1GB, 1920x1080 video, 29fps with 193kbps on video and audio, and it lasts 2 hours and 16 minutes. Although I have quite a mediocre computer setup, I could easily edit 1080p video before but this specific one has been a nightmare.

First of all, I tried just dropping the MKV into Vegas Pro and Premiere Pro, but they don't support MKV, so the next best solution was to convert to MP4/AVI. And this is when it became impossible. I tried mkvtoolnix and mp4box, took ages then crashed at like 10%. I tried Avidemux but it just crashed as soon as it tried to load in the Matroska stuff. I tried rebox.NET which finished, and seemed perfect, but it turned it had massive audio-sync delays and had way too many dropped frames. I tried a NCH Prism conversion but that turned out so bad it was crazy. Video to Video Converter was, again, dropping too many frames. MkvToMp4 took ages before crashing.

I thought maybe I could just trim it like it was. I tried Solveig Video Splitter and their separate AVI splitter, both seemed fine but had tons of dropped frames. I tried DVDVideoSoft's video splitter but it crashed from the massive file.

None of this worked, so I kept on researching. I found tools like Machete or MKV Cutter but I feel like it would be best to ask some people who know what they're talking about! Hopefully someone can suggest a software that doesn't cripple due to the massive file.

TL;DR: I have a 33GB 1080p MKV that I need to trim and no software will just convert or trim it. Are there any tools that can handle this even on a mid-range(-ish) setup?

EDIT: I've now managed to do it. Using Machete 4.4 worked really quickly with no dropped frames. Would recommend

[sneaker]

I have handled 50 GB files with mkvtoolnix without problems. Maybe your file or even your hardware is broken? (Mkvtoolnix supports splitting, btw)

[YasathDias]

I have handled 50 GB files with mkvtoolnix without problems. Maybe your file or even your hardware is broken? (Mkvtoolnix supports splitting, btw)

I don't understand how you can split (as in, just lift a section of the video) with Mkvtoolnix. It only seems to split the file into smaller ones, which isn't very helpful. Any softwares that could at least convert to MP4 would be helpful

[sneaker]

I don't understand how you can split (as in, just lift a section of the video) with Mkvtoolnix.

Time to read the documentation:
https://mkvtoolnix.download/doc/mkvmerge.html#d4e760 (same options available in GUI in the "Output" tab)

Any softwares that could at least convert to MP4 would be helpful

Why mp4?

[YasathDias]

Any softwares that could at least convert to MP4 would be helpful

Why mp4?

It doesn't have to be MP4, I just thought that if I couldn't directly split the MKV, I could split an MP4 way easier.

[johnmeyer]

First of all, I tried just dropping the MKV into Vegas Pro and Premiere Pro, but they don't support MKV, so the next best solution was to convert to MP4/AVI.

I have used Vegas every day for the past fifteen years. It will read anything if you have a codec for that video format installed.

However, if that is not possible, you can convert the MKV into either an lossless video format or into an uncompressed video by using ffmpeg. I do that all the time with video formats that people send me that won't go into Vegas. I do this all the time with MKV. The ffmpeg code to convert pretty much any video into uncompressed is this:

ffmpeg -i "my video.mkv" -an -vcodec rawvideo -y "output.avi"

Of course your file will be huge. Here's the code for converting to HuffYUV which, despite being superseded by newer lossless codecs, seems to work just fine for me:

ffmpeg -i "my video.mkv" -an -vcodec huffyuv -y "output.avi"

Finally, I created an Excel spreadsheet that will take a Vegas EDL (you export or save in this format, depending on the version of Vegas) and convert it into a series of ffmpeg commands. You put all these in a batch file, run that batch file, and ffmpeg will cut your video based on the edits you've done in Vegas. The only downside is that the cuts will be on the nearest GOP boundary. Because of this, I added a "head/tail" value in my spreadsheet that will make the cuts a little before and a little after each cut point, just to make sure you keep all the video you wanted. Here is a typical ffmpeg call, generated by that spreadsheet:

ffmpeg -i   "V:\Trail Camera Tests\New Year\MFDC0544.AVI" -ss 0  -c copy -t  9.9166667 "V:\Trail Camera Tests\New Year\MFDC0544_1.AVI"

I also have a way to get cuts from Vegas into VideoRedo which can do exact cuts, re-encoding only those frames around the beginning of each original GOP.

[YasathDias]

You can convert the MKV into either an lossless video format or into an uncompressed video by using ffmpeg. I do that all the time with video formats that people send me that won't go into Vegas. I do this all the time with MKV. The ffmpeg code to convert pretty much any video into uncompressed is this:

ffmpeg -i "my video.mkv" -an -vcodec rawvideo -y "output.avi"

Of course your file will be huge. Here's the code for converting to HuffYUV which, despite being superseded by newer lossless codecs, seems to work just fine for me:

ffmpeg -i "my video.mkv" -an -vcodec huffyuv -y "output.avi"

I also have a way to get cuts from Vegas into VideoRedo which can do exact cuts, re-encoding only those frames around the beginning of each original GOP.

Ok, I'm not too confident in using these non-GUI tools, but I'll try ffmpeg if VideoReDo doesn't work. Thanks for the detailed response

[YasathDias]

I've now managed to do it. Using Machete 4.4 worked really quickly with no dropped frames. Thanks for all the help from everyone