Trouble converting mkv footage to avi.

Delta Four · Post by **Delta Four** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:23 pm

I've been trying to convert several RAW files that are mkv encoded in h264 w/ aac audio codec into an avi format VirtualDubMod can use. I've tried two different programs and whatever they render either crashes VirtualDub or can't even be played back on media player. If anybody has any suggestions I'd appreciate it.

Bauzi · Post by **Bauzi** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:35 am

-Install Avisynth
-Write a textfile with:
DirectShowSource("C:\path of the file\file.mkv")

in it.
-Rename the extension of the .txt file into .avs
-Load the new .avs into VDM. Tada: It should work and now you have the possibility to convert it into an looseless avi format.

Qyot27 · Post by **Qyot27** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 1:38 pm

Bauzi wrote:-Install Avisynth
-Write a textfile with:
DirectShowSource("C:\path of the file\file.mkv")

in it.
-Rename the extension of the .txt file into .avs
-Load the new .avs into VDM. Tada: It should work and now you have the possibility to convert it into an looseless avi format.

Instead of DirectShowSource, use FFmpegSource. It's frame accurate; DirectShowSource isn't.

You can get it here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127037

You need to put FFmpegSource.dll and the HTML documentation file in AviSynth's plugins directory (C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins) - all the other .dll files go in C:\WINDOWS

Mosc · Post by **Mosc** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 3:11 pm

Bauzi was talking about converting to a lossless format, in which case frame accurate seeking isn't needed because it would just require linear access. If you'd like to use your AviSynth file directly in your favorite video editing program, then yes, either DSS2 (a frame accurate version of DirectShowSource by Haali) or FFmpegSource is a far better idea. By the way, copying all the DLLs in the FFmpegSource archive to your Windows directory isn't needed anymore (not that it was ever really needed, but it was indeed the most easy way) thanks to the included ffmpegsource.avsi. Just paste everything in your AviSynth's plugin directory and you should be okay.

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 3:19 pm

you really don't want to be encoding entire episodes losslessly. It's possible, but not practical... most people just use avisynth +vdub/mod to take small clips, in which case frame-accuracy is wanted

moral of the story, use dvd footage when possible