Extracting streams from mkv for conversion

[DRP535]

Sorry if this is a bit of a n00balicious question. I normally hang out in the videohelp forums, but for this particular query I was redirected here for advice instead.

Anyway here's what I'm trying to do...

I've branched out and obtained my first Matroska file hoping I'd be able to handle it when it arrived. Sadly I can't. It plays on the computer just fine in MPC, but I want to convert it to SVCD using TMPGEnc in the same way I do every other conventional DivX/XviD file.

My mkv file contains video (obviously), 3 audio tracks, 3 different subtitles as well as chapters and covers (!!!). I don't need all that, but that's the way it came so whatever. All I want to do is get the english audio track and the video out of it in a format that TMPGEnc can accept as input. Does anyone here know how to do that relatively straight forward task?

Things I've already tried and had no success with are listed in the following thread on the videohelp forum. Can anyone here help me to take apart this mkv file?

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1100761#1100761

[celtic_druid]

So you never got mkvextract working with or without the GUI? TMPGEnc should be able to handle MKV files via dshow, you actually need the filters installed though. MPC has internal ones. Also, the multiple streams could be an issue.

Could try something like mencoder.exe -oac pcm -ovc copy -aid ? input.mkv -o output.avi or avidecompress, which I think uses dshow, so should work. Once again you need the filters installed.

Also possible that it contains RV9/10 which I don't think you can extract.

[DRP535]

Originally posted by celtic_druid
So you never got mkvextract working with or without the GUI? TMPGEnc should be able to handle MKV files via dshow, you actually need the filters installed though. MPC has internal ones. Also, the multiple streams could be an issue.

Could try something like mencoder.exe -oac pcm -ovc copy -aid ? input.mkv -o output.avi or avidecompress, which I think uses dshow, so should work. Once again you need the filters installed.

Also possible that it contains RV9/10 which I don't think you can extract.


The file contains the following: [RV10c.ehq.100+He-AAc{FR-ENG-COM}+Sub.{FR-ENG-COM}+Chap+Covers]. Does that help at all?

Can you please direct me to the mkv filters I need to install to see if TMPGEnc can input the file as is?

[celtic_druid]

Yeah RV10, I guess that was the problem. I would suggest that you feed the file through MMG first and untick all the streams that you don't want first to avoid any issues. You can grab the same filter used in Media Player Classic from the same sourceforge download page, well actually unless you are running my or someone elses CVS compile of MPC, then they are newer.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli

You need the Matroska Splitter, RealMedia Splitter and perhaps coreaac or equiv as MPC also has built in aac decoding which you may have been using.

You could also just grab the latest Matroska pack, should have everything that you need.

[DRP535]

MMG?

I've downloaded the Matroska Splitter, RealMedia Splitter and CoreAAC filters and dropped them into System32. I already had the RealMedia Splitter in there - I guess courtesy of the Real Alternative codec I have installed.

I had a look at the Matroska "pack" as well, but I've learnt my lesson installing such "packs" before and I prefer to not do that if possible. The last time I installed a supposed one-size-fits-all codec pack I ended up reinstalling windows shortly thereafter.

FWIW TMPGEnc still doesn't recognise the mkv file as readable when I use it as input. I just get the unsupported file type message.

Where do I go from here?

[celtic_druid]

You need to register the .ax files, well not the realmedia one if it was already there. You are fine with installing real alternative but not a matroska pack? I tend to agree though, for me it would either be re-installing stuff I already had, didn't want or older versions than I already had. But I think for most users the packs are a good idea.

[DRP535]

Doh!! Sorry, I'm an idiot. Yes, you're right. Okay done that, and yep now it opens up in TMPGEnc as it should. No preview though. I can't search the video frames in the various filters inside TMPGEnc. Whilst not absolutely critical I guess as long as the encoding itself is good, it does fairly effectively prevent me using the crop filter to remove any anamorphic black bars not completely got rid of in the conversion to mkv in the first place. Any idea why that is? I can search the video stream okay, ie. the scroll bar can be moved but the image just remains completely black.

Also, what do I do about the audio side of things now? TMPGEnc doesn't automatically enter the file as the input for audio like it does with DivX/XviD. I suppose that's because it doesn't know which of the multiple streams to take?

Yeah I'm fine with the Real Alternative pack. I guess the only other alternative is to install the full-on bloatware that is Real One Player, and *that* is never gonna happen on my computer!

I just object to packs that come packaged up with other third party codecs like this Matroska one seems to come bundled with. If it was strictly *just* Matroska stuff only, then I'd be fine with it, but it seems to come with DivX 3/4/5 & XviD and a few others as well. I already have XviD and I don't want DivX 4 or 5, so rather than install and then have to get rid of them again with codec sniper, I just choose to not install them in the first place.

I'm well familiar with DLL hell and have no desire to repeat it.

[celtic_druid]

I have real player installed, I just never use it.

The light pack only contains MatroskaSplitter, MatroskaMuxer, VSFilter and CoreVorbis. None of the packs include DivX or XviD.

The black screen thing is probably a colourspace issue with the real video decoder.

[DRP535]

Originally posted by celtic_druid
None of the packs include DivX or XviD.


Matroska Pack Full v1.0.3 (2004-08-21)
Download (3.26 MB / 3'416'305 Bytes) - permalink

Downloads so far: 503235 since 2004-04-01 (this version only: 269896)
The famous full pack will not only allow playing matroska media files (.mkv and .mka), but it will also allow playback of most modern video formats on any DirectShow player, even with WMP 6.4/7/8/9 (Windows Mediaplayer). For this reason the Matroska Pack Full has gathered some attention from the video compression scene, and has established itself as a very slim and intelligent alternative to the usually overloaded codec packs out there. Most of the hard work is being done by the great ffdshow decoder Filter based on FFMPEG and enabling playback of

DivX 3/4/5
XviD
WMV7/8
but the pack also adds playback support for

Vorbis using CoreVorbis (for Ogg Vorbis audio files, install also the Ogg Splitter from Tobias Waldvogel)
AAC and AAC+SBR (HE-AAC) audio, using CoreAAC
AC3 audio, using AC3filter
FLAC lossless audio, using CoreFLAC
TTA another lossless audio codec
Subtitles, using vsfilter (DVobSub)

[celtic_druid]

Well if you want to play the quoting game...

Most of the hard work is being done by the great ffdshow decoder Filter based on FFMPEG and enabling playback of

The pack includes a decoder only version of ffdshow which can handle DivX and XviD. It doesn't actually include DivX or XviD codecs.