Any alternative MKV muxer for Windows?

[banzemanga]

I wonder if there is any alternative MKV muxer for Windows other than mkvmerge.

The reason i ask for an alternative is because mkvmerge removes certain headers when muxing raw AVC/h264 video files.

[poisondeathray]

gdsmux (comes with haali media splitter package, directshow based muxer)

maybe ffmpeg ?

[banzemanga]

Just happened to finish trying GD Mux before checking your post. It doesn't seem to be able to read raw AVC/h264 files.
I also finished trying eac3to, it has the same problem as mkvmerge in removing certain headers.

As for FFMPEG, i thought it was an encoder/decoder not muxer. I will take a look at it though.

[poisondeathray]

Just happened to finish trying GD Mux before checking your post. It doesn't seem to be able to read raw AVC/h264 files.

Sure it can. It might not immediately recognize (Because raw AVC can have different extensions like .264, .h264, .avc )

In the drop down box, select "all files"

What headers are you talking about ?

[banzemanga]

Sure it can. It might not immediately recognize (Because raw AVC can have different extensions like .264, .h264, .avc )

In the drop down box, select "all files"

No it can't. It gives me an error when i try to import a raw AVC file saying: "No combination of intermediate filters could be found to make the connection (80040217)"

What headers are you talking about ?
Raw AVC/h264 files contain certain header information describing the media file. When muxed with mkvmerge, they are removed. You can tell because when you demux the muxed file, you see that there are loss in filesize contents.

[sneaker_ger]

You can disable that behavior in mkvmerge GUI's options: just tick "Disable header removal compression for ....." and all files you open and mux afterwards will not have that problem. Is it that problem? What do you demux with?

[poisondeathray]

As mentioned earlier, it's directshow based. You need to configure your directshow filters properly for it to work.

[sneaker_ger]

I did a short test and filesize increased. Maybe you ask in the mkvtoolnix thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=155732) whether this is a problem, before looking for a different muxer. If it really turns out to be a bug this would help everybody, as this is pretty much the mkv muxer.

[banzemanga]

You can disable that behavior in mkvmerge GUI's options: just tick "Disable header removal compression for ....." and all files you open and mux afterwards will not have that problem. Is it that problem? What do you demux with?
There are two kind of headers being removed by mkvmerge. One of them is the one you mention which is for compression artifacts. The other one are sequence headers which the author admits removing them.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=128768 Post #13

As mentioned earlier, it's directshow based. You need to configure your directshow filters properly for it to work.
I don't think this is DirectShow problem. It seems that DS Mux application checks for certain extensions before checking the contents of the file. If it sees an extension unknown to it, it will reject it. It seems to accept the raw video file after changing from .avc extension to .h264. I am trying to mux the contents but it doesn't seem to move forward and stays at 0.0%

[poisondeathray]

I don't think this is DirectShow problem. It seems that DS Mux application checks for certain extensions before checking the contents of the file. If it sees an extension unknown to it, it will reject it. It seems to accept the raw video file after changing from .avc extension to .h264. I am trying to mux the contents but it doesn't seem to move forward and stays at 0.0%


The error message you gave earlier is most certainly a directshow problem

If you use the drop down box "all files" , it doesn't matter what the extension is

It works for me, perhaps there is something peculiar about the file you are trying to mux ?



You can try ffmpeg as well
e.g.

ffmpeg -i input.264 -vcodec copy output.mkv




The post you referred to is few years old, maybe the author has changed this since? Anyways it might be a good idea to ask in the mkvmerge thread as sneaker_ger suggested

[banzemanga]

You can try ffmpeg as well, it works for me as well

e.g.

ffmpeg -i input.264 output.mkv

Thanks for the example but it seems that ffmpeg actually transcoded the video to something entirely different rather than doing some simple muxing.

[poisondeathray]

Sorry , I edited above, I forgot "-vcodec copy"

But i can't get it to work either on an elementary sample stream, there is a problem with timestamps apparently, but it works ok on a wrapped file

[banzemanga]

Edit: Ya, can't get it work because of the time-stamp problem like you said.

Edit2: I have been playing around with different methods. I tried muxing the raw files into .mp4 container first but it seems that the mp4 muxers so far have the exact same problem too. I wonder if mkv-muxers problem was because the code for muxing 264/avc files for .mkv containers was based on the mp4 muxers available.

Edit3: I have tried different muxers by now. MP4 muxers have the same problem. Some of them include:
-mp4box
-mp4creator
And for the MKV muxers that i tested include:
-ds muxer
-mkvmerge
-eac3to
The only muxer that seemed to work right was avc2avi which is an AVI muxer. But when i mux from the AVI to MKV using mkvmerge, mkvmerge still removes the headers giving me the exact file as muxing the video content from the raw h264 file.
(P.S.> I have worked with VOB and M2TS muxers a lot and they work like charms but they dont have the same capability of multiple video tracks as MKV containers do)

[lovelove]

There are two kind of headers being removed by mkvmerge. One of them is the one you mention which is for compression artifacts. The other one are sequence headers which the author admits removing them.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=128768 Post #13

What are the implications/consequences of those headers being removed, i.e. for video playback, etc.? Any negative effects?

And banzemanga, have you already replied to post #6 to indicate whether you have tried the suggestion there and whether it works4you?

[Video Dude]

What are the implications/consequences of those headers being removed, i.e. for video playback, etc.? Any negative effects?
Yes, there are negative effects.

There will be playback problems if sequence headers change during the video. For example, there could be sequence header change at the end of a movie and start of the credits.

Other problem is if you want to demux the mkv for use in another container format or Blu-ray authoring package. The avc stream no longer contains the sequence headers.





And banzemanga, have you already replied to post #6 to indicate whether you have tried the suggestion there and whether it works4you?

Post #6 refers to header compression and has nothing to do with sequence headers.

[Midzuki]

Any alternative MKV muxer for Windows?

The one from SolveigMM http://forum.doom9.org/images/icons/icon5.gif

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1504961#post1504961

At least over here, their MKV Splitter :cool: did take the place of Haali's :p