Not totaly newbie

[Paxmilitaris]

Ok, i'm not completely new to video editing and convertion, but i still haven't found what i'm looking for and i'm starting to wonder if it exists.
All i want to do is convert all my video files (no matter the format) to a more convenient and smaller format like MKV.
The problem i encounter is that in all software i'v found, I have to decide the settings for quality codecs and other stuff.
Is there such a thing as converting with the same quality? I'd just like to keep everything that is already in the video files but better organized and compressed so it takes less space.

[setarip_old]

Hi! (no matter the format)

To better determine what software you may need - What formats and containers did you use when you initially created the files you now wish to convert and compress?

[Keiyakusha]

Is there such a thing as converting with the same quality?
In the way you wan it to be - no.
If the content of the file is different (different shows, movies, whatever), I can't even imagine how we can compare their quality to say which ones are the same, which ones are not. And even if we make some rules that will make this possible, we will absolutely need to apply different settings for every file (even if we'll use on codec for all), because every single case is different.
Also, if you want to "keep everything that is already in the video", you shouldn't touch this video at all, since any lossy compression can only degrade quality, not keep it the same. It will degrade it even if the resulting file will be of the same size or bigger (in this case it just be less noticeable).

[Guest]

You're still newbie eough that you are violating our forum rules, specifically, rule 9: use a proper thread title. :D

http://forum.doom9.org/forum-rules.htm

[Asmodian]

Ok, i'm not completely new to video editing and convertion, but i still haven't found what i'm looking for and i'm starting to wonder if it exists.
All i want to do is convert all my video files (no matter the format) to a more convenient and smaller format like MKV.
The problem i encounter is that in all software i'v found, I have to decide the settings for quality codecs and other stuff.
Is there such a thing as converting with the same quality? I'd just like to keep everything that is already in the video files but better organized and compressed so it takes less space.

Pretty new!

You are misunderstanding what a MKV is and how video is stored in your source and destination.

More reading to do. ;)

[hello_hello]

All i want to do is convert all my video files (no matter the format) to a more convenient and smaller format like MKV.

MKV is a container, not a video format. It can hold all sorts of audio and video.


The problem i encounter is that in all software i'v found, I have to decide the settings for quality codecs and other stuff.
Is there such a thing as converting with the same quality? I'd just like to keep everything that is already in the video files but better organized and compressed so it takes less space.

If you're looking at encoding with the x264 encoder, then yes it's possible to encode each video with the same quality... relative to the original.... which I assume is what you meant.
If you use CRF encoding and use the same CRF value for each encode, then relative to the original videos all the encodes should be pretty much the same quality. You have no control over the file size with CRF encoding though, it'll be whatever it needs to be according to the CRF value you use.
I think a CRF value of 18 is supposed to be "transparent" (although I've read where others use a CRF value of 16). The higher the CRF value the lower the quality and the smaller the file size.

MeGUI is a good program for encoding using the x264 encoder and will encode a fair variety of file types.

[Paxmilitaris]

MKV is a container, not a video format. It can hold all sorts of audio and video.



If you're looking at encoding with the x264 encoder, then yes it's possible to encode each video with the same quality... relative to the original.... which I assume is what you meant.
If you use CRF encoding and use the same CRF value for each encode, then relative to the original videos all the encodes should be pretty much the same quality. You have no control over the file size with CRF encoding though, it'll be whatever it needs to be according to the CRF value you use.
I think a CRF value of 18 is supposed to be "transparent" (although I've read where others use a CRF value of 16). The higher the CRF value the lower the quality and the smaller the file size.

MeGUI is a good program for encoding using the x264 encoder and will encode a fair variety of file types.

I know MKV is a container and i read that it has less overhead then avi for exemple and that you can have everything in the MKV file, even subscripts if need be.

Ok, i did try to use FFCoder (uses mkvmerge) to convert my video files (mkv, mpg, avi, flv) using x264 and aac but in some cases my files got bigger. Is x264 the best compression for video and what would be the best for audio?

You got it, the same quality as the file i currently have. I'll look in FFCoder to see if it has this CRF you'r talking about.

It seems i didn't make myself clear. My video files are already in compressed formats. I just want to convert them all to the best container (MKV i think), the best video compression (x264 i think) and the best audio compression (I thought aac was the best, but i saw avc and wondered). Is there a software that would do that kind of batch processing?

[Asmodian]

While I do think x264 is one of the better options for video compression, going from a lossy compressed video to a lossy compressed video will lose quality even if the second one is slighly bigger than the first.

mpeg4 AVC is another way of saying H.264.

[7ekno]

Project that does exactly what you looking for (well kind of):
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=163289

Personally, I would just remux everything to MKV keeping video and audio formats without loss of quality at all (or remux the H.264 ones already and convert everything else) ...

7ek

[hello_hello]

Ok, i did try to use FFCoder (uses mkvmerge) to convert my video files (mkv, mpg, avi, flv) using x264 and aac but in some cases my files got bigger. Is x264 the best compression for video and what would be the best for audio?

When you say "convert" I assume FFCoder can simply remux the original video without converting it? I've never used it.
MKV does seem to have less overhead than other containers so generally the file sizes should decrease if you're simply remuxing, but it probably won't be by any significant amount... in the overall scheme of things.
If I'm converting audio I generally use AAC but I tend to keep compressed audio streams such as AC3 without re-encoding them as using the AAC quality setting I use for encoding (Q0.5) there's generally not much space saved when converting to AAC. For audio such as DTS it's a different story.


It seems i didn't make myself clear. My video files are already in compressed formats. I just want to convert them all to the best container (MKV i think), the best video compression (x264 i think) and the best audio compression (I thought aac was the best, but i saw avc and wondered). Is there a software that would do that kind of batch processing?

I think MKVMerge does batch processing but probably only from the command line. I'm not sure what'd be the best utility for that job as batch remuxing isn't something I've ever had to do.
Personally I don't know if I'd bother remuxing AVIs unless there's a specific reason, such as adding subtitles to the container etc. Any player capable of playing MKVs should play AVIs without a problem. Same with mpeg. I generally use MKV these days but I've still got a bucket load of AVIs and even the odd mpeg file. For less commonly supported formats such as FLV it'd possibly be worth doing.