MKV to AVI keeping 5.1 audio??

[jasjeet]

hi guys my first post
so anyone know how i can convert my .mkv to .avi/divx while keeping the AC3 5.1 audio intact?
thanks :D

[DJ Bobo]

You should be able to do that using VirtualDubMod.
Open your mkv file there, click on "Streams", "Stream List", make sure the audio track is selected (grey background), then click on "Demux" and enter a filename with "ac3" as extension (example: audio.ac3).

[jasjeet]

right, so i have the ac3 file with audio
now how do i get the video stream into avi from mkv.

from there is it possible to then mux (i think is the word:D) the avi with the ac3??

also when opening the mkv file in virtualdub i get these errors:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2345/2133135249_6affa0ccba_o.jpg

anything to worry about?

*edit
is this possible
if i convert the video with winavi from mkv to avi
then open the avi in nandub or virtual dub
then disable the audio stream
then add the original audio stream demuxed previously???

[DJ Bobo]

*edit
is this possible
if i convert the video with winavi from mkv to avi
then open the avi in nandub or virtual dub
then disable the audio stream
then add the original audio stream demuxed previously???

Yes, this is possible.

[jasjeet]

ok it worked
but now another problem
i have a 4.29Gb MKV HD video file and am having trouble converting it to AVI.
WinAvi crashes all the time when i try to start converting.
Is there a program anyone can recommend.
thanks

[DJ Bobo]

If you havn't already, download Avisynth and install it.

Open your standard text editor, and type the following:

DirectShowSource("filename.mkv", audio=false)

Of course, replace filename with the real filename.
Save -in the same directory where the mkv file is stored- under "something.avs" (make sure you don't save with a .txt extension).
You can now open that .avs file in VirtualDubMod and process it.

[jasjeet]

for the video should i do direct stream copy or full processing
also shall i use XviD to compress?
The file is very large at 4.29Gb and at the moment Riverpast Video cleaner is predicting around 3hours to convert it without audio.
Whats the fastest way to do this?

i have been able to get the above method to work too, so thanks for that as well. It will be useful in the future.

thanks for your help so far

*edit*
well it didnt work on the xbox 360, the codec message didnt appear, it said it wasnt supported
im trying this now

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=611163&st=0

*edit*
that took to long, so after converting with the xvid codec i used virtualdubmod to recomress in divx and it worked flawlessly with ac3 on my xbox 360 in HD.
i hear some peoples video jitters but are you using wireless or wired connections?
with my wired connection i had no problems.

[DJ Bobo]

Don't forget that you're in the DivX forum, so it's not very smart to talk about XviD here.

And then if you're going to convert from MKV, convert to DivX directly (Home Theatre Profile for best compatibility, unless you know for sure your hardware is capable of more). There is no point in compressing to XviD to compress afterwards to DivX. That's a waste of time and quality.

For VirtualDub, check the Doom9 guides.
Just 2 words: Use "Fast Recompress" if you're not going to do any more filtering or resizing, else use "Full Processing Mode" to add filters within VirtualDub.
Needless to say that "Fast Recompress" is faster than "Full Processing Mode"...

[jasjeet]

some of the files i converted to AVI are larger then 2gb.
I heard there is a file size limit for AVI's, what are the consequences of going over the limit and what should i do.
Should i mux the audio in first then split the avi?
or split the avi then mux the audio in.
If i need to do the latter, how should i do this?

atm i am using virtualdubmod to open the avs script for the MKV file, then saving it as an AVI.

thanks

[DJ Bobo]

I suppose you're using Windows Vista and your hard disk is formatted in NTFS. Like all NT based operating systems, it accepts AVI files of any size.
The only limitation I can think of is your stand-alone player. You should burn a DVD-RW with an AVI file bigger than 2GB and see if your player accepts it.
If it doesn't, you'll have to split, in which case you better mux the audio track with the video first, to avoid sync problems.

[Pete3142]

Hi,

I've got the error messages that JasJeet listed in his post (24th December). Can anyone tell what I need to do to make them go away??

Thanks

Pete

[unskinnyboy]

I've got the error messages that JasJeet listed in his post (24th December). Can anyone tell what I need to do to make them go away??Don't use VirtualDubMoD for MKVs - it cannot handle all the content an MKV can contain (e.g. AVC). Use MKVToolnix (http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/).