Begging for help converting or transcoding MKV's. Losing my mind.

[msp1518]

I cannot find an appropriate forum for this so mods, move it if you have to but tell me where it is going.

For months I have been going through hell with MKV's. I am forced to use numerous MKV files in Premiere Pro for some editing, but have to convert them first. Premiere Pro cannot read MKV's.

But no program is working right and I have downloaded and tried over a dozen. Many just crash. I can spend days trying to get one stupid file converted for Premiere Pro. Today I am 8 hours in and have accomplished nothing (I lost my voice from yelling). The programs either crap out, or the converted file crashes Premiere Pro.

So I am BEGGING for help here. I have DVDfab, mkvmerge, MakeMKV, TsMuxer, PgcDemux, Handbrake, Yamb, mkv2avi encoder, etc. etc. I have no more money at the moment to buy anything. If there is an inexpensive program that will work RELIABLY tell me and I'll get it down the road.

But I need a solution today.

The problem is whatever conversion i get usually crashes Premiere Pro. Another problem is I get so lost trying to understand how to use the program. i have spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours over the last year with this issue.

MKV is supposed to be a container, but I am clueless trying to get rid of it. I am at the point where I even hate the letter M, K and V.

Clients are giving me MKV's. I have no choice but to use what they give me (please, nobody tell me 'Don't take the work.' I have to eat, ok).

I AM ON A PC. I have CS5 Production Premium and again, it cannot use MKV's.

Please help me with a solution.

[Guest]

Demux the audio and video and remux them to a container supported by Premiere Pro.

[Asmodian]

Have you tried videoeditorskit (http://sourceforge.net/projects/videoeditorskit/)?

I believe it has a plugin for AviSynth support in Premiere.

You can then use the simple script:
DSS2("file.mkv")
to feed the video to Premiere.

Or if you want you could just use AviSynth and VirtualDub to convert the video to some format that Premiere supports.

Or, as suggested by neuron2, I have had better luck with MP4Box (http://gpac.wp.mines-telecom.fr/mp4box/) than Yamb when transmuxing to mp4 (I assume Premiere supports mp4?).

[msp1518]

Demux the audio and video and remux them to a container supported by Premiere Pro.
*sigh* I have explained that I have multiple programs and am having nothing but trouble.

I need specific help. "Demux the audio and video and remux them" doesn't tell me anything.

And I should mention my system can handle uncompressed 1080p QT in Premiere Pro so this is not a horsepower situation.

I just don't know HOW to convert or WHAT to use to convert.

Avisynth is far beyond me. I have looked at it and tried it but I can never understand how to actually use it.

[Guest]

What formats does Premiere Pro support?

[Asmodian]

mkv-demux-all (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mkv-demux-all/) I have never tried it but it sounds easy!

Then just use MP4Box or whatever to remux.

You should figure out demux/mux if you are trying to do digital video work in 2013. :)

[msp1518]

I am able to mux and demux some things but MKV's are killing me. It seems I am forced to try six or seven programs on each file before I can get a solution that works and each MKV is different. There just has to be an all-in-one solution.

Premiere Pro can support almost anything (MPEG2/4, H.264, QT, ProRes, AVI)... But not MKV's. It doesn't like TS files. M2TS is fine though I have to render them to edit without choppy video (no big deal, just time consuming).

Some MKV's area read by TsMuxer and I can then easily and quickly get a M2TS file. I love it when that happens. But frequently TsMuxer will not read MKV's I throw at it and when that happens, I am in hell because then I end up spending hours trying to get something useful.

So I have responses with four different programs to try. Four MORE programs! :) I want to cut my own head off. But I'll give them a look. mkv-demux-all first.

[Groucho2004]

The most reliable solution for demuxing MKVs I know is mkvextract from the mkvtoolnix (http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/downloads.html#windows) package. There is also a decent UI for it, MKVExtractGUI2 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mkvextractgui-2/files/).

[Asmodian]

One thing to remember:

MKV is a container that can hold lots of different video formats. The container is less important than the codec. Saying "MKVs" doesn't tell you very much about the video. A sample, or at least the MediaInfo (http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en/Download) report, of a troublesome MKV might help us offer working solutions.

Edit: I missed that mkvtoolnix wasn't in the your list of programs you tried, this is also what I use when handling MKVs. I think of mkvtoolnix as the "official" MKV toolset but I realize there really isn't an official one. I use it via command line but it is easy to figure out and is well documented.

[msp1518]

OK, tried mkv-demux-all and how the **** are you supposed to use it? Seriously, no instructions. no settings. Nothing.

As for mkvtoolnix, that is crazy confusing because I have installed it but cannot figure out how to use it. Or I installed the wrong version. I don't know. And the webpage you linked for me might as well be written in Egyptian. What am I supposed to install? I have to write the code myself? That website makes absolutely no sense to me.

Here is a screen-grab of some of my desktop. Maybe you guys can look and tell me what I am missing.

UPDATE: I have uninstalled mkvtoolnix thinking I screwed up, but now I don't know what to do. Can someone please give me EXACT instructions on what I need to do here? Honestly, I am not stupid, but I have no clue what I am supposed to do here. I built my computer with no help so I am not a moron. But I am also not a programmer.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h323/msp1518/WTF.jpg~original

[Groucho2004]

As for mkvtoolnix, that is crazy confusing because I have installed it but cannot figure out how to use it. Or I installed the wrong version. I don't know. And the webpage you linked for me might as well be written in Egyptian. What am I supposed to install? I have to write the code myself? That website makes absolutely no sense to me.
1. Install Mkvtoolnix
2. Download MKVExtractGUI2.exe and copy it into the same directory where you installed Mkvtoolnix.
3. Run MKVExtractGUI2.exe and demultiplex your MKVs (the interface is self-explanatory).
4. Import the resulting elementary streams in Premiere (that should work).

[Asmodian]

For mkv-demux-all I think you just drop the file on it and hit extract but as I said I have never used it.

mkvextract docs (http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/doc/mkvextract.html). This isn't programming, just command line software.

Here (http://www.downloadbestsoft.com/MKVToolNix.html) is the download page for the Windows installer but it looks like you already found it.

Or you can just drop that GUI Groucho2004 linked (MKVExtractGUI2.exe) into the mkvtoolnix directory created by that installer and then run it.

Edit: Groucho2004 was faster

[msp1518]

My head is spinning. I installed Mkvtoolnix from softpedia because it is the only place I figure out how to download it. No idea if that site is safe.

I downloaded MKVExtractGUI2 and dropped it into the Mkvtoolnix folder.

I just ran MKVExtractGUI2 and it opened up the program. I placed the MKV into the Input Folder and checked both tracks. It finished extracting, but now I am lost.

There is an aac audio file. No problem. OK.

But there is a blank white icon with an h264 extension. Now what? Do I use TsMuxer to combine them into an M2TS file?

[Groucho2004]

There is an aac audio file. No problem. OK.

But there is a blank white icon with an h264 extension. Now what? Do I use TsMuxer to combine them into an M2TS file?
Premiere should be able to import these elementary streams. If not, then yes, use tsmuxer.

[msp1518]

The only problem with that is I will need the audio and video together. CS5 has no way to merge them together. Premiere Pro in CS6 does, but I don't have CS6. :(

I'm going to try TsMuxer and see if Premiere Pro can accept it.

EDIT: Well, it worked, but only sort of. The sound lags once they are merged. So this isn't solving my problem. I'll try some other MKV's and see if it's common or just that file is messed up (the MKV plays perfectly in VLC).

EDIT 2: Premiere Pro can see the aac file but it does not see the h264 file. Again, the version I muxed together with TxMuxer is fine, but with sound that lags (more as the film plays on). But when I choose to add files into my project, it will not even see the video file (the one without the audio). My PC just gives that a blank white icon so something isn't right.

[Asmodian]

From want I can find in the Adobe docs Premiere allows you to import the audio and video separately, at least it did in CS3.

[msp1518]

Yes, you can. But you cannot merge the files. So no sync sound. I need them merged.

[Sparktank]

If you're importing h264+aac, why not try using MyMP4box GUI to mux the two?
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/My-MP4Box-GUI

The GUI comes with everything but you can download/install the nightly builds for MP4box (installs in separate directory) and then copy (not move) and overwrite the existing files in the GUI folder (MyMP4box GUI\tools\etc), if you want. You should do fine with the standard ones in the GUI though.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MP4Box

[Sparktank]

Most NLE programs have functions that when you import any media, you can "link" multiple tracks together.
Video and audio are always on separate tracks and you can have multiple audio tracks.

It's different how each allows you to do this.
But once you import the video and audio separately, you should be able to select/highlight the two tracks you want joined by holding the "Ctrl" button down while left clicking on the tracks. And then either by right-clicking on the track you should see an option in the context menu for "joining tracks" so their statically linked to each other (as if you were to import them as a single file). Or the option is in the menu at the top somewhere.
I can't say specifically where, as I don't use APP.

But generally all NLE work the same.

You should be able to unlink the two as well.
And also link other audio tracks as well.
For instance, if you have a second audio track with sound effects riddled throughout the entire length and want them to keep in synch with the video and first audio track, you should be able to select all three tracks (1 video + 2 audio) and link together.

Some NLE's use the term "link", some use "combine", etc.

With Sony Vegas, I've always converted the audio to WAV and imported separate from the video and link them together.
Since most NLE's decide to convert the audio, anyway, (doesn't seem to have any option to "copy" the audio or use "smart rendering" the same way video has "smart rendering") I work with a lot of WAV's.

[msp1518]

Premiere Pro is a royal pain for linking audio and video. The functions you are talking about are in 5.5 and 6 but not in CS5. You have to jump through hoops to get the audio and video locked up. It is a HUGE pain. For most projects I tell clients to give me their ProRes DSLR footage with the sound already merged.

For what I am working on now (a Mood Reel) I have to take current films and make a trailer so I need the audio and sound together. AVI's are pretty much the best to work with, but I am normally given MKV's. It makes me insane. What is it with the love for MKV's?

I want to thank everyone here for their help. I have made progress.

[nhakobian]

AVI's are pretty much the best to work with, but I am normally given MKV's. It makes me insane. What is it with the love for MKV's?


AVI's have many technical limitations. The format was designed 20+ years ago, before many of the modern video codecs were even thought about. The first (and foremost) issue is that it can't support filesizes above 4GB (and in some cases I believe that is 2GB). For many cases this is a big deal.

AVI's don't have internal support for B-frames and out-of-order decoding (which, if my memory serves me correctly, is why B-frames are unsupported). There have been "hacks" for certain formats to make them work in AVI's but they are not universally supported, and not part of the standard.

AVI's also only support fixed frame lengths. I.e., there is no support for per-frame individual timecodes. While most distributed files only contain a single framerate, there are many cases where it is necessary.

So, why MKV? Its an independent and "open" container format which is simpler than MP4. I'm not sure if the latter point has had really any impact on its adoption, but recently many devices and companies are openly supporting it such as Google with its WEBM format (which is MKV with restrictions).

In my experience I've found that Non-linear editors generally have really bad support for many video formats except for a small number with specific codec combinations that may or may not be documented. It might be easier to re-encode the incoming footage into an intermediate format for editing. I know at least one professional editor who does this for much of her incoming material (sometimes she encodes a low bitrate / frame size for easier editing, then only swaps in the original for the final export).

The "stuttering" you mention while working on a video until you export/render it might be due to the incoming video file having long GOP sizes. If you are srubbing your timeline for a specific position, and that position happens to be in the middle of a GOP, the decoder has to decode the whole (or at least part of) a sequence before your frame can be displayed. You probably don't notice this with AVI files since fewer frames have to be decoded to seek to a specific position. This can be reduced or eliminated by re-encoding the video using only I-frames in MKV/MP4, but the file sizes will be much larger than the source files.

With audio being slightly delayed in AAC files, I believe that there is a fraction of a second of silence at the beginning of each file, which, if you don't delay by, will be noticeable if trying to resync the audio/video manually. There was recently a thread in one of the audio forums which discussed this extensively (unfortunately, I can't find it at the moment).

Hopefully some of this can point you in the right direction or maybe give some insight into why certain things are used. There are a lot of utilities that are out there at significantly varying technical levels, and it can be difficult to figure out which one is the best to use. From my experience, while the lower level command-line utilities have a much steeper learning curve, it worth while to spend the time learning them. The "front end" utilities sometimes gloss over certain details or make assumptions about your material that aren't universally applicable.