Converting MKVs to AVI, but they're not cooperating!

[eaglebtc]

I want to convert a series of MKVs into AVIs for use on a standalone DVD player -- the Philips DVP-642. As of now, these videos will only play correctly in VLC; all other apps crash or refuse to play them. VLC says that the video stream is DIVX, so I shoudln't have to re-encode. Right? Also, according to the tags this video was muxed 9 months ago by mkvmerge.

Well here's the weird part: it seems that VirtualDubMod doesn't recognize the video track. Nothing at all. The video has one DIVX track and one OGG audio track. I am familiar with converting either.

I've got 20 videos to process, each approximately 22 minutes long. Could you help me figure out why these videos are not loading in VirtualDubMod?

:thanks:


PS: If you need more information, I'd be happy to assist.

[stephanV]

What error does VDM give? Have you examinded the file with MKVInfo?

[eaglebtc]

Yeah, but this is where I get lost.

Feel free to have a look; it's attached to this post.

I'm not sure exactly how to interpret the data, other than it says the FourCC is DIVX.

Re: VirtualDubMod, the video "Parses" normally, but then looks like this:
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/8391/tintin2fl.th.png (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tintin2fl.png)

If I try to play the video, I get this error message:
The decompression codec cannot decompress to an RGB format. This is very unusual. Check that any "Force YUY2" options are not enabled in the codec's properties.

I ignore it, and go to Streams List, right-click, choose Full Processing and select MP3 as the compressor. Then I click File/Save As, choose Direct Stream Copy for the video, and I get the following error on export:

VideoSourceAVI error: The source image format is not acceptable (error code -2)

It thinks the video is some weird size.

Here is the text, in case the attachment isn't working for you:
(MKVInfo) + EBML head at 0
(MKVInfo) + Segment, size 130073733 at 24
(MKVInfo) |+ Seek head at 36
(MKVInfo) | + Seek entry at 41
(MKVInfo) | + Seek ID: 0x15 0x49 0xa9 0x66 (KaxInfo) at 44
(MKVInfo) | + Seek position: 4099 at 51
(MKVInfo) | + Seek entry at 56
(MKVInfo) | + Seek ID: 0x16 0x54 0xae 0x6b (KaxTracks) at 59
(MKVInfo) | + Seek position: 4272 at 66
(MKVInfo) | + Seek entry at 71
(MKVInfo) | + Seek ID: 0x11 0x4d 0x9b 0x74 (KaxSeekHead) at 74
(MKVInfo) | + Seek position: 130062057 at 81
(MKVInfo) | + Seek entry at 88
(MKVInfo) | + Seek ID: 0x1c 0x53 0xbb 0x6b (KaxCues) at 91
(MKVInfo) | + Seek position: 130037481 at 98
(MKVInfo) |+ EbmlVoid (size: 4027) at 105
(MKVInfo) |+ Segment information at 4135
(MKVInfo) | + Timecode scale: 1000000 at 4141
(MKVInfo) | + Muxing application: libebml v0.7.2 + libmatroska v0.7.4 at 4148
(MKVInfo) | + Writing application: mkvmerge v1.0.1 ('October Road') built on Dec 15 2004 20:40:40 at 4186
(MKVInfo) | + Duration: 1387.304s (00:23:07.304000000) at 4251
(MKVInfo) | + Date: Tue Jun 21 03:17:47 2005 UTC at 4258
(MKVInfo) | + Title: TinTin In America at 4269
(MKVInfo) | + Segment UID: 0x37 0xd8 0xeb 0x2e 0x3e 0x0a 0xe0 0x45 0x30 0x22 0x44 0x63 0xb3 0xdd 0xcd 0x3d at 4289
(MKVInfo) |+ Segment tracks at 4308
(MKVInfo) | + A track at 4314
(MKVInfo) | + Track number: 1 at 4316
(MKVInfo) | + Track UID: 1153209611 at 4319
(MKVInfo) | + Track type: video at 4326
(MKVInfo) | + Default flag: 1 at 4329
(MKVInfo) | + Lacing flag: 0 at 4332
(MKVInfo) | + MinCache: 1 at 4335
(MKVInfo) | + Timecode scale: 1.000000 at 4339
(MKVInfo) | + Codec ID: V_MS/VFW/FOURCC at 4347
(MKVInfo) | + CodecPrivate, length 40 (FourCC: DIVX, 0x58564944) at 4364
(MKVInfo) | + Default duration: 40.000ms (25.000 fps for a video track) at 4407
(MKVInfo) | + Language: und at 4415
(MKVInfo) | + Video track at 4422
(MKVInfo) | + Pixel width: 0 at 4424
(MKVInfo) | + Pixel height: 0 at 4427
(MKVInfo) | + Display width: 0 at 4430
(MKVInfo) | + Display height: 0 at 4434
(MKVInfo) | + A track at 4438
(MKVInfo) | + Track number: 2 at 4441
(MKVInfo) | + Track UID: 2177776549 at 4444
(MKVInfo) | + Track type: audio at 4451
(MKVInfo) | + Default flag: 1 at 4454
(MKVInfo) | + Lacing flag: 1 at 4457
(MKVInfo) | + MinCache: 0 at 4460
(MKVInfo) | + Timecode scale: 1.000000 at 4464
(MKVInfo) | + Codec ID: A_VORBIS at 4472
(MKVInfo) | + CodecPrivate, length 3874 at 4482
(MKVInfo) | + Language: und at 8360
(MKVInfo) | + Audio track at 8367
(MKVInfo) | + Sampling frequency: 48000.000000 at 8369
(MKVInfo) | + Channels: 2 at 8375
(MKVInfo) |+ EbmlVoid (size: 1024) at 8378
(MKVInfo) |+ Cluster at 9405

[stephanV]

(MKVInfo) | + Pixel width: 0 at 4424
(MKVInfo) | + Pixel height: 0 at 4427
A video with a res of 0x0 is rather unusual...

you can play this file?

[eaglebtc]

Yes. VideoLAN Client plays it without any trouble, on Mac or Windows. Everything else chokes.

[stephanV]

Maybe you can get videolan to mux it to something useful then. This file is rather b0rked.

[eaglebtc]

That's a good idea, and it's actually the second thing I tried after using VDM. I transcoded into an AVI container, with DIV3 video and MP3 audio. It produced an AVI with garbage video. Completely unwatchable.

Should I try another setting?

[stephanV]

Maybe, but i wouldnt know which one... these are really weird files :(

[eaglebtc]

Okay, I used the commandline tool MKVExtract to pull out both tracks. The AVi still causes Media Player Classic to crash, and VLC can play it OK. Here is what GSpot has to say about the video:

http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/1815/gspottintin4lw.th.png (http://img75.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gspottintin4lw.png)

[[)370|\|470!2]

Well, try to render it in gspot(On the bottom left press 1 under MS A/V), and tell us what
happens.