The only settings I change in ripbot are, CQ-18, crop to automatic, movie format to mkv.

That's it. It is still 1080p when it's done but you do have a smaller file size, the size will vary by movie. But
the image I have found, in most cases, is indistinguishable from the original.

h.264 tutorial using RipBot264 (DVD and Blu Ray!)

Introduction

It’s time for a new h.264 guide. We all know that, to be honest, SUPER is bag of crap. I’ve also become
aware that it is now being bundled with a program that can be considered spyware. With this new guide
though, there is no need to use SUPER again for S9 or J3 conversion. As a bonus, this new method will also
work for Blu-Ray rips. Enjoy!

The first thing to state is that this guide DOES NOT cover how to rip DVDs or Blu-Rays. I believe that
there is another sticky somewhere (here? Thanks Urne!) on the S9/J3 forums for ripping using DVDFab.
Otherwise, well known software is DVDDecrypter and Slysoft AnyDVD HD. I’ll leave it there.

The piece of software I’ll be using is called RipBot264, which is freely available. Ripbot264 requires the
installation of a few other bits, such as up-to-date FFDShow filters and AVISynth. Simply download
RipBot264 and unpack it to a handy directory – it does not need installing. When you run it the first time it
will tell you what other things it needs you to get. Dead easy! Let’s get going.

Temporary Folders

Before we go about adding files, you need to consider hard drive space. Ripbot make a Temp folder which
can be large, usually at least as big as the ripped disc. In older versions, RipBot would place this folder in
the root of the drive letter with the most free space. BEWARE if you have external hard drives connected,
this will take a long time! The new version appears to want to create it in the C: drive every time. Therefore,
make sure you have enough space for the ripped disc again. It will speed things up if you can put the rip on
a second hard drive.

Guide

First off, click the ‘Add’ button and navigate to the folder of your ripped disc. For a DVD, just select one of
the biggest .VOB files. In most cases you can actually select any of the files. For a Blu-Ray rip you will
need to navigate to the BDMV/STREAM/ folder and select the biggest .m2ts file. Again, in most cases,
clicking any file will do.
If you have selected a Blu-ray .m2ts, you will now see the following box:

You now have a bit of a wait whilst it merges the VOBs or de-muxes the m2ts. Don’t worry, this really can
take some time.
When it’s finished, you’ll see this:
We’ll look at the following:
When it’s ready, click the small “…” box for Profile (1). If it hasn’t appeared, click where it should be,
sometimes this happens :P You’ll need to set this box as follows, delete any text in the box and paste in the
commands below.
--profile baseline --level 3.0 --no-cabac --filter 0,0 --ref 1 --no-mixed-refs --bframes 0 --b-adapt 0 --no-
weightb --weightp 0 --b-pyramid none --subme 6 --aq-mode 0 --trellis 0 --partitions p8x8,b8x8,i4x4 --no-
8x8dct --me hex

Make sure you set a name for your new profile before clicking OK

Next, set the Audio to FHD AAC-LC 128kbps (2)

For the Mode (3) I would use CQ, as 2-pass is excessive for a mobile player. It also takes quite a lot longer.
I find that 20-22 are sensible settings for a film. Set to 22, you can expect a ~600MB file for a typical film.
Setting to 20 will increase this to 750+MB.

Click the Properties box (4), and in the Size box, select PSP.iPhone 480x272. This is also the place where
you need to select any subtitle tracks, if applicable. You may also want to set Crop to Automatic. I do not
like to stretch the video in any circumstances so I do not select this, but it’s personal preference. Click OK
in the bottom right to return to the main screen. If the button is not there, aim for where it should be and it
will appear.
Make sure that Normalize (5) is set to 100%, as some films are very quiet!

Finally, set the file type to .MP4 (6) and then click Done!

You’ll now be back to the job list, so providing you’re happy, click Start!
__________________

From 800MB to 250MB is AWESOME. I re-encode 800MB video file .avi format to .mkv format and
lock the file-size to 250MB using RipBot264. RipBot264 also have many other options; crop, add subs,
re-size resolution and more. This small app written in Delphi is specially for people looking for
something simple without exotic filters and unnecessary settings. For a basic computer user, you may
need some other apps to be able to run RipBot264. But dont worry coz RipBot264 will let you know
about it. Btw, i got a lot of PM's about re-encode, thats why today i 'reveal' this XD

u can set the file size by yourself la. chose '2 pass option' the tick 'lock size' box to set the file size u want.
can set to 100mb for example but for best result, make sure the kbps is 430-500kbps

The only settings I change in ripbot are, CQ-18, crop to automatic, movie format to mkv.
That's it. It is still 1080p when it's done but you do have a smaller file size, the size will vary by movie. But
the image I have found, in most cases, is indistinguishable from the original.
By downconvert I mean the resolution. Using ripbot with the default level 4 profile, you should get a
smaller file obviously, but unless you change it, the resolution (1080p) should be the same.

I have AnyDVD-HD and it works great. I just have a problem with the VOBs ... With MakeMKV I get a
single file.

An alternative to VobEdit, PgcDemux demuxes a DVD/VOB,IFO (PGC) in its elementary streams,

video(m2v), audio(ac3,wav,dts,mpa) and subtitles(sup).

MKVEXtractGUI and MKVE Wizard are demultiplexer GUIs that allow you to demux mkv streams, split
video, audio and subtitle to separate files, from an MKV file. GUI for mkvtoolnix (mkvextract/ mkvmerge).
Requires mkvtoolnix in same folder as mkvextractgui.exe/mkvewizard.exe.

1. Introduction + Installation
You can enjoy self made high quality HD videos with full framerates. Of course, encoding time is the real
problem at the moment since it could take more than 10 hours to encode a full movie even on the fastest
CPUs. Future technology promises accelerated encoding, but for now, encoding small clips or having a
dedicated computer running overnight is the only option.

RipBot264 (and despite having the name "Rip", it doesn't rip DVDs, so to the copyright police, please don't
get too excited just yet) makes the whole process a lot more user friendly than MeGUI, and encoding speed
is top notch too. For people that have been around for a bit, you might say that RipBot264 is to MeGUI as
AutoGK is to Gordian Knot. In other words, it's aimed at beginners and so is this guide.

For the PS3, the original H.264 encoding guide also provided two alternative container formats that one can
use, VOB and M2TS. Both container formats have their advantages over MP4 (mainly in the file size limit
and support for 5.1 channel audio). The VOB method will not be covered as it has problem with file
seeking, but if you still want to use it, use our original guides instead. The M2TS method will be covered to
allow you to skip past the MP4 file size limitation and have AC3 5.1 audio.

The appendix section of this guide will include instructions on how to get what RipBot264 has produced to
these two other container formats (without having to re-encode the video, which means that "conversion" is
almost instantaneous), but these instructions are for more advanced users and beginners (which this guide is
mainly aimed at) can happily ignore these instructions. The Xbox 360 only supports H.264 through the MP4
container, so it's somewhat less complicated.

Note that the file produced will have a file size limit of 4 GB if using MP4, so be wary of this limit and split
your files accordingly.

It is obviously advantageous to make sure you are able to playback H.264 clips on your computer first.
Otherwise, you can't test what you have encoded until you get the file to your Xbox 360/PS3. Consult our
H.264 Playback Guide if you are unsure.

As stated before, this guide is aimed at beginners. But it would be better if users already have some
knowledge in regards to video conversion. You will also need to know some network basics for PS3/Xbox
360 to TVersity connection, such as knowing what your network IP address is, configuring your firewall or
port forwarding if your computer is not on the same LAN as your PS3/Xbox 360.
Software you'll need (all freeware):

 RipBot264 - which also requires:

o ffdshow rev. 2014 or newer
o Avisynth 2.57 or newer
o Haali Media Splitter
 TVersity
 Optional: YAMB
 Optional: tsMuxeR

Hardware you'll need:

 PS3 (with firmware 2.01 or above)

 Xbox 360 (with Spring 2007 Update or later)

Step 1: Installation

Installation is probably the hardest part of RipBot264's usage. Unlike other software, RipBot264 doesn't
come with an installer, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's good because it's easy to uninstall. It's bad
because you will have to manually install other pieces of software before RipBot264 would even start.

The first thing you need to do is to download and install Microsoft's .NET Framework version 2.0. It's a
fairly large file and installation could take more than half an hour (typical Microsoft software then).

The author of RipBot264 states that you should not have any codec pack installed prior to installing
RipBot264, and this is sort of true because different codec packs use different versions of the required
software packages, or different packages altogether, which might cause RipBot264 to not function.
However, I use the K-Lite Codec Pack and I was able to use RipBot264 without any problems, so it's worth
trying to use RipBot264 without uninstalling anything first.

The next thing you need to download and install AviSynth. If you are using a codec pack, most likely this is
already installed, but it doesn't hurt to install the latest stable version.

The next piece of software you need is Haali Media Splitter. Installing this software might interfere with
your current encoding setup if you have certain software that doesn't like this splitter, but in most cases, it
should not affect anything (and you are probably already using it anyway). Download and install.

Lastly, you need a fairly recent revision of ffdshow, which many codec packs also use (K-Lite is built
around it). Now many people don't like ffdshow as compared to using individual codecs (eg. DivX, Xvid),
but ffdshow is very easy to configure to make it still use your individual codecs, or to switch back to
ffdshow usage, and all without even restarting your computer. It's easy to uninstall too. I also prefer ffdshow
based playback rather than DivX or Xvid, and of course, encoders like RipBot264 love ffdshow as
compared to DivX and Xvid. So download and install ffdshow. Follow the installer until you get to the
"Select Additional Tasks" screen, where I recommend you select any video format that you wish to convert
with under the option "Decode the following video formats with ffdshow":
As you can see from my above setup, I have ffdshow decoding a whole bunch of stuff. But if you only want
to convert DivX files to H.264, then I recommend selecting DivX and so on. Scroll down to the "Decode the
following audio formats with ffdshow" section and here I have "AAC" selected. To be honest, I'm not quite
sure how RipBot264 uses H.264, so even these selections might not be needed, but RipBot264 won't run
unless it detects ffdshow installed, so there you go. You can still change these settings after the installation
is complete by locating the "ffdshow" start menu folder and using the configure audio/video decoder
functions (see screenshot below). Simply run it, go to the "Codecs" section and under the "Decoder"
column, select a decoder to have ffdshow do the decoding (same as checking the check box in the installer),
or select "disabled" to not let ffdshow decode it (and go back to using your previously installed codecs).
Anyway, continue with the installation of ffdshow until it completes. You can now finally go and download
RipBot264. RipBot264 uses the .7z compression format, so you will need to decompress the package. If you
have WinRAR installed, it will do the job. If not, use the free 7-Zip software to extract the entire contents of
the package to a folder on your computer (I created a folder located at "C:\Program Files\RipBot264\" and
extracted the contents of the package to this folder). When you are ready to start RipBot264, simply go to
the folder that you extracted the package to, located the executable file "RipBot264" and run it.

That's the installation finished. I told you it was a bit hard.

Page 2 of 3: Configuring and Encoding in RipBot264

Step 2: Configuring and Encoding in RipBot264

Start RipBot264. It looks pretty simple now, because this is only the job queue screen. A job is one unique
encoding, so RipBot264 supports multiple jobs, which means you can queue them one by one and encode
many files overnight or something without human interference. Anyway, click on the "Add" button to add in
our first RipBot264 job.
Now the screen looks a bit more complicated, and rather blank (but don't worry, we will fill in the details
soon enough). Next the video input box, click on the "..." button to select your input video file(s).
If you are converting from a DVD source, then RipBot264 will only support unencrypted DVD files. If you
are using a commercial DVD, you will need to rip the DVD to your hard-drive. Because ripping a
commercial DVD may be illegal in your country, we won't cover these steps here.

For DVD sources, the DVD folder (video_ts folder) will contain a lot of files, but you only need to load in
the first file in the VOB set that contains the content you want to convert. For example, if you want to
convert the main movie, then locate the set of VOB files that are largest in size. For example, I have this
DVD folder with 15 VOB sets (VTS_01 to VTS_15). I determined that the VTS_04 set was the largest since
it had two files with 0.99 GB (the largest that VOB files can be), with the entire set 3.02 GB in this 4.35 GB
folder. So obviously, the VTS_04 set would be the main movie. I would then load the first file in this set
(VTS_04_0.VOB) into RipBot264 ... RipBot264 will automatically load the other files in the set for you.

For other sources, simply load in the file.

Regardless of the type of input, RipBot264 will then scan the file and demux the audio (everything will be
put into a temp folder). This could take quite a long time depending on the length of the movie, possibly 10
minutes or so for a typical DVD movie, for example. Once the processing is complete, the "Encoding
Settings" screen now looks a bit less empty.
Let's go through section by section and explain the settings you need to configure. First up is the audio and
video input boxes, which has now been filled with details of your input file. By default, the audio track used
will be the one found in your input video file, but you can also load in a separate audio file if you wish. For
DVD sources that have multiple language tracks, you might need to use the "..." button next to the audio
input box and select a different audio track - they should be in the temp folder that the current loaded audio
file (most likely an .ac3 file) is in. What's also interesting is that above the input boxes on the right hand side
is a grey box that will list what kind of audio/video format is being inputted. Not very useful, but interesting.

Next up is the video and audio profiles. A profile is a set of encoding settings that will be compatible with
certain types of devices. Clicking on the "..." button next to the video profile lets you see the details of the
video profile settings (which this beginner's guide won't cover), and even allows you to create/delete
profiles. For the purpose of this guide, select the "[ level 4.1 ] HD . BluRay . Consoles" profile. For the
audio profile, you again have several choices, but for compatibility, I recommend one of the LC profiles. 96
Kbps should roughly equal a 128 Kbps MP3 file, but for extra quality, select the "AAC-LC 128 Kbps"
profile. If your audio input file is 5.1 channels, you will also get some 5.1 channel options. Note that the
PS3/Xbox 360 using the MP4 container does not support outputting the full AAC 5.1 channel audio (it will
downmix to 2 channels). If you want 5.1 channel audio, then you will have to follow the instructions in our
appendix to make a M2TS file - if this is what you want to do, select one of the 5.1 channel profiles here.
Otherwise, select one of the LC 2.0 channel profiles.

The next set of boxes show the duration/FPS information for the loaded files. Nothing to change here except
making sure the FPS and duration matches your inputs. If it doesn't, then your output might not be 100%
working.

The next set of setting are the most important, as it will determine the output file size and quality. First up,
click on the "Properties" button. The new window that opens will let you specify quite a few options, like
de-interlacing, crop or resize. If your input video has black bars, and you can use the "Automatically" option
under "Crop" to automatically crop out the black bars (which is a good thing to do). RipBot264 will take a
while to analyze the video and then automatically give you the crop settings. Resize does exactly what it
says, allowing you to resize the video - "Do not resize" is probably what you will be using. Press the ">"
button to skip to two further sets of configuration options, but you won't need them in most cases so I won't
cover them. The only option that might be slightly useful is on the last screen for "Denoise". If your source
is recorded from VHS or something, then it might be useful, otherwise, it will just soften your picture too
much. Press "OK" to close this window.
Back to the main "Encoding Settings" screen, to the left of the "Properties" button is what we will configure
next. There are two video encoding mode options, "CQ" (constant quantizer) and "CRF" (Constant Rate
Factor). The higher the CRF, the lower the file size/quality. A CRF of 18 will give you almost lossless
quality (100% quality), while a CRF of "22" (default) will look quite good indeed. The only problem with
using this is that the file size is not predictable, as the encoding is based on a quality factor, not a file size
factor. To have a predictable file size, use the "2-Pass" option instead - a new "Lock Size" option will show
up under the "Output" text box - check the "Lock Size" check box and enter in the file size you want for the
output file (includes audio track). Alternatively, if you don't check the "Lock Size" box, you can specify a
bit-rate to use in Kbps. For a 720p HD video file, a minimum Kbps of 5000 is required for decent quality.
For the audio equivalent, there is a "Normalize" option which will "even out" the audio volume to give you
a more constant volume. If you have a high quality sound system, leave this option to "Off" to here the full
dynamic range. There is also an option to specify what RipBot264 should do if the audio and video lengths
do not match (cut of the audio, or stretch or do nothing).

We're nearly done. You can also select a subtitle file to load. RipBot264 will include this SRT subtitle file
with the encoding, as a selectable subtitle file (ie. you can turn it on and off is the player supports subtitle
files). Neither the PS3 nor the Xbox 360 supports this type of subtitle files so it's all a bit pointless to
include them.

And finally, choose where you want to output the file and the output format. The PS3 and Xbox 360 only
supports the MP4 container, and not the MKV container, so select MP4 here. Press the "Done" button to
close and save these encoding settings and return to the job queue screen.

You can see that a job has been created from the encoding settings we just configured. We can start the
encoding now by pressing the "Start" button, or we can add in more jobs by repeating the above
instructions.

When RipBot264 finishes encoding your job, you will have a MP4 file ready to play on your computer and
on the PS3/Xbox 360. If you want to play the file on your Xbox 360, please follow the instructions on this
page. The PS3 equivalent of the instructions can be found here.

Finito!

(Unless you want to read on about turning this MP4 file into a M2TS file for playback on your PS3, with the
added advantage of having no file size limit and AC3 5.1 audio)
 Page 3 of 3: Appendix A: MP4 to M2TS Conversion

Appendix A: MP4 to M2TS Conversion

As mentioned previously, this method allows you to use a M2TS container to hold your H.264 file, and
allows for increased file size supports (MP4 playback on the PS3 is limited to 4 GB, which is pretty useless
for HD video files). M2TS also allows you to have AC3 5.1 audio, but you will have to separately convert
the 5.1 channel AAC encoded audio we've created using this guide into an AC3 file. This section of the
guide is for more advanced users though, so beware. Xbox 360 owners should be skipping this page since
the 360 cannot play M2TS files.

The process is as follows: first, we extract the H.264 and AAC track from the MP4 file created using the
earlier parts of this guide using YAMB. Then if the audio is 5.1 channels, we convert the AAC audio to
AC3 using MeGUI. Next, we use tsMuxeR to create our M2TS file.

We will first use YAMB to extract the H.264 (.h264) and AAC streams from our newly created MP4 file.
Yes I do know that the temp folder that RipBot264 creates will already contain these two files, if you don't
close RipBot264 that is (it will then delete the temp files), but hunting around for temp files and possibly
accidentally closing RipBot264 is not a great all around solution. So YAMB it is. Download YAMB and
install it. Start it up and click on the "Editing" button on the left hand side, select the "Click to extract
streams ..." option (demuxing).

From the Input box, load in your MP4 file. The info box below will now list all the streams found in this
file, which should be a H.264 stream and an AAC stream. Select the H.264 stream first, with the option
down below set to "Extract to Raw Format" and then click on the "Next" button to extract out this stream
from the MP4 file (the MP4 file will be untouched). Then select the AAC file and repeat the same step.
After YAMB processes both streams, you should now have two additional files - one .h264 and one .aac in
the same folder as your original MP4 file.
Now if your AAC file was 5.1 channels, we will now have to convert that to AC3 so the PS3 can decode it
properly (the PS3 cannot decode AAC 5.1 at time of publishing). I've searched around for a good tool to do
it, and ffmpeg is the best but it is a command line tool. None of the GUIs I tried supported AAC input, so
basically I'm going to use MeGUI. It's not my ideal choice because I would rather have a simple tool that
does the encoding, but alas, I could not find one (I know VideoLAN does it, but it doesn't support 384 Kbps
encoding for some reason). Luckily, MeGUI shares the same set of pre-requisites as RipBot264, so you
should already have .NET framework 2.0 and AviSynth installed. So go on and download MeGUI.

Install MeGUI. Start it up and most likely, it will prompt you to update the software used by MeGUI - click
"Yes" to launch the update Manager.
Press the "Update" button to start the update process - MeGUI will automatically download and launch the
install for the required software. When all the updates are completed, you can now close the MeGUI
updater.

In the Audio section of MeGUI, load in the AAC file that YAMB extracted. Select an output
location/filename. From the "Codec" section, select "FFMPEG AC-3" and press the "Config" button. The
codec configuration window should show up.

Ensure "Output Channels" is set to use "Keep Original Channels". You can adjust the bitrate to use - 384
kbps is the minimum used by commercial DVD AC3 5.1 tracks, while many use 448 kbps for extra quality.
You can press the "New" button and save the current profile (eg. name it "AC3 5.1, 384 kbps") for future
use if you wish. Press "OK" to close the codec configuration window.
Press the "Enqueue" button at the bottom of the "Audio" section to queue the encoding job. Click on the
"Queue" tab at the top and then click on the "Start" button to start the encoding. Once it is done, you will
now have a new 5.1 channel AC3 file. You don't need the original AAC file anymore, but better keep it
around until we've finished everything.

Now we should have an .h264 file and either an .aac or .ac3 file. We will now recombine these two files into
a M2TS file using tsMuxeR.

Download and extract the tsMuxeR ZIP file to a folder on your hard-drive, and run the "tsMuxerGUI"
executable file to start tsMuxeR. In the "Input files" section, first use the "add" button to load in your .h264
file, and then to load in the .aac/ac3 file (in this order, .h264 first and then the .aac/ac3 file). In the "Output"
section below, select "M2TS muxing" and use the "Browse" button to select an output filename/location.
Press the "Start muxing" button at the bottom to beging the muxing process.
After tsMuxeR finishes process (it should say "Done!" in the text log area), we should now have a .m2ts
file. You can delete all the other files, other than this .m2ts file. In order for TVersity to function, the .m2ts
file must be renamed to have a .m2t extension (basically get rid of the last 's' in the extension). For playback
from a USB/CD/DVD, the renaming is not necessary. You can now use the TVersity instructions in my
original PS3 H.264 guide to get TVersity to stream this .m2ts file to your PS3. We're done!

MKV
A MKV file is a container format that can be used to store audio and video formats and is considered a
competing format to the MP4 and AVI container formats. MKV (Matroska) is an open source format based
on EBML (Extensible Binary Meta Language), and includes a greater number of features than supported by
other container formats used in industry. The standard stores data in a compressed state along with an
encoder. In order to play MKV files, a supporting codec is required.

What is a MKV File?

The MKV multimedia file container is designed to support an unlimited number of multimedia tracks or
files in a single container file. The primary goal of the project team that develops and supports the format is
to provide a universal format for multimedia storage based on open standards. The format is also known as
the Matroska Multimedia Container, and has several file types associated with the project to include:
MKV – Video formats to include audio and subtitles
MKA – Audio only files
MKS – Subtitle only files
MK3D – Stereoscopic video

The use of different file extensions for known content saved within the container file is used to help improve
speed and quality of file playback (similar to Apple’s use of slightly changing MP4 file extensions).

History of the MKV File Format

The Matroska project was originally announced on December 6th, 2003 and was a fork of the MCF
(Multimedia Container Format) project. The fork came after Steve Lhomme (Matroska founder) and MCF
lead, Lasse Kärkkäinen disagreed on the use of EBML versus a binary format for the MCF work. After the
disagreement, work on MCF stalled, and many of the community developers departed to work on the
Matroska project. The WebM audio/video format project announced in 2010 that the format would use the
Matroska container format combined with Vorbis audio and VP8 audio.

What Are the MKV File Features?

MKV files are very similar to the competing AVI and MP4 container file formats except it is developed as
an open source project. MKV possesses the following features:
-          Has both HTTP and RTP audio and video streaming capability (Internet or LAN).
-          Menu system similar to a DVD.
-          Designed to be supported across all platforms or operating systems.
-          Samsung, LG TV, and Blu-Ray players provide comprehensive support.
-          Supports direct playback on televisions that support USB playback.
-          Supports reliable error restoration mechanisms.
-          Includes tools and libraries that developers can use to add MKV support to applications.
MKV File License
All Matroska file types (to include MKV) are open and free to use without license fee. Businesses are free to
use the standard in commercial projects with the source code of MKV licensed under the GNU L-GPL by
the Matroska Development team. The Matroska name and logo use do have some restrictions based on the
specific circumstances. This measure was put in place by the development team to ensure that their
technology was not devalued through defamation or incorrect implementations. The name and logo can be
used without permission in non-commercial contexts; however, for commercial use the development group
asks that companies contact them for permission.

What Are the Benefits of the MKV File Format?

The Matroska development team has had the advantage of the preceding AVI and MP4 container formats to
identify shortcomings to address over the life of the project. As a result, MKV files have the following
benefits:

-          Are able to handle Variable Bitrate audio encoding (VBR) and Variable Framerate video encoding
(VFR).
-          Permit fast seeking using chapter markers similar through DVDs leveraging metatags embedded by
the content author.
-          Robust error correction even when the file is damaged.
-          Selectable audio/video streams and subtitles.
-          Support Internet and LAN streaming.
-          Is an expandable container format that can have new codecs implemented in the future without
significant re-work.
-          Is free and does not require any licensing fees.
-          MKV files are easy to change using software editing tools.
-          Compact file size. MKV files are approximately 40% smaller than Blu-ray and 10% smaller than
DVD files.

How Do You Play MKV Files on Windows?

In order to play Matroska or MKV files on a Windows computer, you will need the most recent CCCP
playback codec installed on your computer. Once installed, players based on Microsoft DirectShow will be
able to play the files (Windows Media Player, BSPlayer, Winamp, and Radlight Player).

Step 1 – Launch your computer’s web browser and visit the CCP Project website or download the Matroska
Pack.

Step 2 – Download the Windows build of the codec to your computer. Once the file is downloaded, double-
click the executable file and accept the default menu prompts that are subsequently displayed.

Step 3 – Once the installation is completed, the Zoom player will now be installed on your computer if
downloading the CCCP project. Depending on the version of Windows and audio playback applications
installed, you may have to use program specific directions to associate the file format with the player.

Step 4 – Right click a MKV file that you desire to play. Then, select or click the “Open With” menu option
and choose either the “Zoom Player” or alternative multimedia playback application for the file such as
Windows Media Player if you have installed the Matroska Pack.
The Matroska group recommends download and install of alternative MKV playback applications if you are
not successful at using Zoom or Windows Media Player due to potential issues with the installation of
DirectShow on your computer. These applications include The Core Media Player, VLC, Media Player
Classic, Zoomplayer, Xine, Mplayer, Foobar2000, and The Core Media Player.

How Do You Play MKV Files on Mac OS X?

Mac OS X does not have native support for playback of MKV files at the time of this writing. The
QuickTime, .MOV, format is the default video format installed on the operating system (OS). Two of the
more popular codecs and players for MKV files on the OS include MPlayer and VLC. On Mac OS X 10.4
or newer installations, VLC is able to acquire or grab both audio and video from EyeTV programs and
compatible capture devices. A plugin will have to be installed to the EyeTV app to use the feature with the
VLC user interface (0.9.0 or newer) providing additional instructions on how to enable the feature.

Step 1 – Download the VLC or MPlayer codec onto your computer.

Step 2 – Select the download file to install.

Step 3 – Enter the administrator password for your computer when prompted on the subsequently displayed
dialog box.

Step 4 – Launch the VLC or MPlayer application and use the program’s file chooser to select and run the
MKV file.

Why Do People Use MKV Files?

The primary reason that consumers use MKV files are for the added features in the standard as compared to
AVI and MP4. AVI does not natively support the newer codecs emerging in the marketplace such at AAC,
H.265/AVC, or Vorbis without work-arounds being installed. Additionally, there are other items that can be
added to a MKV file which is not supported by AVI such as soft subtitles that are displayed on-top of the
video (and turned off if desired). The format also supports chapters similar to the traditional DVD format
and other technical features or hooks that can be used by encoders. When compared to MP4 format, MKV
supports more features such as functional VFR.

Troubleshooting MKV Files

The first problem that consumers run across when trying to play MKV files is not having a codec or player
installed on their computer that supports the file format. Once the proper codec is installed on the computer,
one of the most common error messages encountered by end-users is:  “First element of file isn’t EBML” or
something similar. This message is displayed to the end-user  when the MKV file structure has become
damaged or corrupted. The two most likely causes of the error are: 1 – The complete MKV file was not
downloaded or was corrupted during the download process or 2 – The MKV file is mis-labeled and is really
a different file format. After downloading the file again, if it does not play it will need to be obtained from
an alternative source.
How to Convert MP4 to MKV Format?
A common task that arises for MKV users is figuring out how to convert MP4 to MKV format. Both
formats are essentially containers, and since MP4 has less features available thank MKV, consumers do not
generally see a loss of video quality when converting from MP4. One of the most popular, open source
toolkits available to conduct the conversion is the mkvmerge program created by Moritz Bunkus that is part
of the mkvtoolnix package. The mkmerge GUI application is a front-end application designed for use by
end-users who are not comfortable with the command-line or terminal interface of the primary toolkit. The
applications are available for GNU/Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows operating systems and are licensed
under the GPL.
Step 1 – Download and install the mkvmerge application on your computer. There are specific builds
available for installation on various Linux builds, Mac OS X, and the Windows OS.

Step 2 – After installation, open the mkvmerge application on your computer.

Step 3 – Select the “Add” menu button located near the top of the program. On the subsequently displayed
window, use the program’s file chooser to locate the MP4 video that you want to convert to MKV.

Step 4 – Select the “Open” menu button and the MP4 file will be loaded into the mkvmerge program.

Step 5 – Select the “Browse” menu button that is located near the bottom of the application window. You
will need to select a destination folder for the file once it is created and then select the “Save” menu button
to save the location in the application.

Step 6 – Choose the “Start Mixing” menu button located at the bottom of the program. The MKV file will
now be created which will take several minutes to convert the MP4 file to MKV.

Step 7 – After the file is converted, a “congratulations” window will be displayed. The folder can now be
opened to run or upload the MKV file.
How to Convert MKV to MP4 Format?
A common task that arises for MKV users is to convert the format to MP4 or AVI so that the content can be
played back on alternative playback devices that do not natively support the MKV format. Although not all
features will convert form MKV to AVI or MP4, the quality is considered sufficient for the majority of end-
users who have a desire to watch the files on the various portable and other video playback devices.
Step 1 – Download and install the Wondershare MKV to AVI Converter on your computer. The application
is available for free and the company now provides separate installations for both the Windows and Mac OS
Step 2 – After the Wondershare application is installed on your computer, double click or select the
program icon.
Step 3 – Once the program is opened, you can use the “Add Video” menu option to load a MKV file to
convert to MP4 or drag the MKV file onto the open application screen. More than one MKV file can be
loaded at a time to create a single, larger AVI or MP4 file.
Step 4 – Select the “Advanced” menu option and then choose “MP4” as the output file format from the
software program. Other file formats that the application supports converting MKV to include MOV, 3GP,
FLV, and SWF.
Step 5 – Select the “Edit Video” menu option to add effects or style changes to the video before starting the
conversion to MP4.
Step 6 – Select the “Start” menu button option and the file conversion process will commence.
Step 7 – Select the “Find Target” menu option to find the output directory of the MP4 file.
Step 8 – Repeat the process for additional MKV files that you desire to convert to alternative formats for
playback.

How to Transform MKV to AVI on Mac/Windows

March 21, 2012 5:57 AM

Looking to store TV shows and movies in a compressed format, I use the MKV format a lot, but
unfortunately, my PSP don't recognize them but AVI, so I have to convert my MKV to AVI so that it could
play correctly on the device. I mean, I am looking for a good way to convert MKV. Any tips, pls?

- tonnie       

Tonnie's situation is one of the main situations in which we need to convert MKV. And it's not a tough work
actually, only if you have a good assistant. The article shows you how to convert MKV file to AVI file on
Mac and Windows OS easily and quickly with the help of MKV file to AVI file converter (Video Converter
for Windows and Video Converter for Mac (Snow Leopard,  Lion included)). Here we take the guide of
converting in Windows for example while the Mac MKV video to AVI video conversion is quite similar
with it:

Step 1. Get the MKV converter prepared

Download the proper version of MKV to AVI converter according to your operating system, then install and
launch it. For Windows, you will see the program like this:
Note: If you wanna convert MKV on Mac, you can go to the User Guide of Video Converter for Mac for get
more detailed information. By the way, you can edit your files during the Mac conversion for enhancement.

Step 2. Add MKV videos to this MKV to AVI Converter

You can add your files by dragging and dropping them to the converter or clicking "Add video" button then
browsing your hard drives and importing the MKV videos you want to convert. With the function of batch
converting, you can here import more than one MKV file into the tool for converting.

Step 3. Set the output profile

Click the "Advanced" button and select AVI as the output format. You can define the encoder on the
"Advanced" menu.
Step 4. Convert finished
Click "Start" when everything is set and then the conversion will be completed automatically for you. You
can find the converted files by clicking "Find target".
This MKV video to AVI video converting tool can not only convert MKV video to AVI video, but also
convert between many other media formats like MOV, 3GP, FLV, SWF and MP4.
Tips:
This MKV video to AVI video Video Converter can edit videos before the conversion. If you want to edit
an imported video, select it and click "Edit video", and then make the videos your own styles!

DXVA
Q
What is DXVA?
:
A
: DXVA is an abbreviation for DirectX Video Acceleration. It is a DirectX API for using a graphics
card to assist with the decoding of video.
Q
Which players are capable of using DXVA?
:
A It depends on the video decoder if it is capable of using DXVA. At this moment only few of such
: decoders exist.
Media Player Classic Home Cinema contains internal DXVA decoders for H.264 and VC-1 video.
There are certain rules that need to be following in order to make DXVA work. You can find a list of
rules below.
Q
What are the requirements to make DXVA work?
:
A DXVA will only work if you follow these rules:
:  You must have a compatible graphics card.
 On Windows XP you must use one of the following video renderers: Overlay Mixer, VMR-7
or VMR-9. It is recommended to use VMR-9 (renderless), since that is compatible with the
internal subtitle filter of MPC.
 On Windows Vista you must use one of the following video renderers: EVR or EVR Custom
Presenter. It is recommended to use EVR Custom Presenter, since that is compatible with the
internal subtitle filter of MPC.
 There may be no intermediate filters between the video decoder and the video renderer!
 No intermediate filters means that you can't use ffdshow for processing raw video. This is
already disabled by default.
 No intermediate filters means that DirectVobSub should not be used for displaying subtitles.
You should enable the internal subtitle filter of MPC (Options -> Playback -> enable
"Autoload subtitles") if you want to be able to view subtitles. Don't forget to select a video
renderer that is compatible with the internal subtitle filter, for example VMR-9 (renderless) or
EVR Custom Presenter.
 DirectVobSub will automatically get blocked by MPC when the internal subtitle filter becomes
active. If you haven't enabled the internal subtitle filter, or if you use a video renderer that is
incompatible with the internal subtitle filter, then it is recommended to manually block
DirectVobSub. You can do that in the "External Filters" section of MPC options. This filter
that you need to block is "DirectVobSub (auto-loading version)".

 The video stream itself must be DXVA compliant. For example, H.264 video with more than
11 reference frames are not DXVA compatible.
Q
Which graphics cards are compatible with the internal DXVA decoders of MPC-HC?
:
A Below you can find a list of brands and model types of graphics cards that should be compatible with
: MPC-HC. This list is likely to be incomplete.

ATi Radeon HD 2xxx series

ATi Radeon HD 3xxx series
ATi Radeon HD 4xxx series
ATi Radeon HD 5xxx series

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 2xx series

NVIDIA GeForce 9xxx series
NVIDIA GeForce 8xxx series
NVIDIA GeForce 7xxx series

Intel G45
Intel GMA500

S3 Chrome

Guide: Setting up Codecs using FFDShow

22 I found this helpful 0 This is not helpful
BEFORE COMMENCING WITH THIS GUIDE, IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED TO
CREATE A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT. It is also advised to remove all codec packs and 3rd party
decoders prior to continuing.

WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOUR PC STOPS FUNCTIONING AS NORMAL

OK, over with the formalities, now lets get down to business

You may be asking why go down this route rather than installing Shark007 codec pack or CCCP etc. Well,
“These codec packs” take little bits of standalone decoders and chop them into their own application making
them very difficult to know what you have installed and can create conflicts if set up incorrectly. So let me
tell you the few reasons why this is a better method(In my Opinion) of setting up a HTPC and
Mediabrowser.

 You can manage your decoders and splitters manually and update them yourself as updates become
available without breaking your setup or having to go thru setting it up again. With Shark007 and
CCCP you have to wait for the authors to release updates to continue using their packs if new
features are released.
 FFDShow caters for “all” codecs required by any modern HTPC setup (video/audio/subtitles) and
also offers some great post processing filters in order to improve on image quality and sound quality.
 By installing only one decoder (FFDShow) you eliminate decoder conflicts which makes finding the
root cause of a problem much easier to find. (Shark007 uses many different decoders, haali is not
updated enough and doesn’t support subtitles in Win7)
 FFDShow using the Matroskasplitter allows for flawless playback of HD audio bitstreaming in
MKV’s (providing your hardware allows this), which as we all know play natively in MediaBrowser
(unlike .ts, .m2ts files ripped from BD discs)

What is FFDShow???

FFDShow is an excellent Decoder for Video formats, Audio formats and now incorporates DXVA 1.0 & 2.0
(Hardware Acceleration) decoding for h264 & VC-1 formats and copes with subtitles in WMP & MCE.
3 Items are required to be installed in order to get almost all formats working on your HTPC flawlessly.
Also the requirement to install the “Preferred FilterTweaker Tool”. This allows you to set up your decoder
preferences to override Windows 7 Media Foundation.
What we aim to do in this guide is to help setup what you might need to get your codecs working right, add
post processing filters, resizing your movies to fill your screen. Also how to turn any 2.0 mp3 audio stream
into full Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC3) output.
**INFO – If you wish to update your MP4Splitter, MatroskaSplitter or FFDShow install here are the
sources to do so. These builds have not been tested as yet so please use at your own descretion. The Guide
does have links for builds that have been tested at the relevant points.
FFDShow SVN Builds x86/x64
MPC-HC Standalone Filters x86
MPC-HC Standalone Filters x64

Download and Installation

Firstly you will need to download and register a couple of filters. These are both from MPC-HC Standalone
filter Pack. The first being MP4Splitter (this allows native playing of Apple’s movie formats natively) and
the second is the MatroskaSplitter (this is a much better MKV splitter than Haali and is constantly being
improved on to work with FFDShow).
You will need to disable UAC in order to register the filters
The following 2 files allow for both of these splitters to be registered using a batch file. Ensure you select
the correct version for your OS, extract and run the bat file.
32Bit Filter Registration Pack
64Bit Filter Registration Pack
When you run the bat file you should see these windows pop up, click ok once successful and the reg will
close on its own

You will need to download the latest SVN build of FFDShow. If you are on an x86 (32bit) setup then select
the “sse icl11” build. On both x86 & x64 bit you will then go to a warning screen saying that these are not
official releases would you like to continue. Select the “I agree” Radio Button and click “Continue”.

Once downloaded, Install FFDShow.

Note: it is NOT important to ensure that you select the correct options when prompted by the installer as we
will change them later in the various configurators FFDShow offers from the Start menu. So just do the
usual and keep clicking next until the program has installed.

On the Last Screen of Installation, you will need to select the following configurations, as in screen shot
below.
Configuration
Lets select the Video Decoder Config first. I've highlighted and annotated the images with notes on the left.

Video Codec Filters

Please note that if you are having issues with DXVA decoding then you can disable the highlighted
h264/AVC decoder to allow for DXVA to take over but you will lose FFDShow’s Video decoder for AVC
streams (which means no subtitles for those AVC streams)
Resizing your movies
Post Processing Filter

Subtitles – You can have subtitles selected in both DXVA and Video Decoder Configs.
Sharpening your movies – Experimental for user
By clicking Apply it will apply the settings, by clicking OK you will save and close the Video decoder
window. Click OK now.

DXVA Decoder Configuration

There really isn’t a lot to this new feature at the moment however these areas will be of interest. However if
using a low Power CPU but with decent graphic capabilities such a small form factor hardware, like the
Asus Ion or Acer Aspire then DXVA will off load video processing to your GPU.

Setting the merit of the DXVA Decoder

DXVA decoder selection – note post processing is required for subtitles to be enabled.
Subtitles using DXVA Decoder – If you have either h264 and/or VC-1 ticked then the subtitles for which
ever codec is ticked will use the DXVA Decoder. You can have subtitles ticked for both DXVA and Video
Decoder Configs.
FFDShow Audio Config

Now this is probably one of the most easiest things to set up, but can also cause a lot of issues if not set up
correctly. So just take things one step at a time and test all types of media after you make a change before
moving onto a new tweak or changing a codec. This way you will know what you've just changed and be
able to revert back.

Audio Codecs
Multiple Instances of FFDShow’s Audio Decoder
Outputs – I would be careful on this section as you can break audio streams depending on what hardware
you are using. The following config is for my setup and HD Audio Bitstreaming.
Mixer – If you are receiving dts/ac3 streams but are connected to TV then set your speaker setup to 2.0
Stereo, this will ensure that everything is downmixed to 2 Ch stereo and should allow you to play all types
of audio streams including HD audio streams. However you must ensure that none of the SPDIF Passthru
formats are ticked in the OUTPUTS page in the previous screen shot.
DirectShow FilterTweaker Tool

This tool allows you to override/set what decoder YOU want to use for each video/audio format.

Download the Tool – Install and run.

Before tweaking these settings….. ENSURE YOU CREATE A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT

Again instructions are down the left hand side of screen shots. Click Apply to move to the next page

Page 1 of the Tweaker Tool

Page 2 of the Tweaker Tool
Finally, Page 3 of the Tweaker Tool
history
 Thanks for the guide, only a small problem, If the MKV has chapter the win7 MC player crash! Any
solution? – vasma about 1 year ago
 Please note the bat file contained in the 64 registration pack might be wrong for your setup.
regsrv64.exe does not exist in certain OS. I had to edit the file replacing 64 with 32 in both lines
before it would work. Thanks for writing this up Jon! – skynet600 3 months ago
 Thanks for this write up.. it’s helped me resolve a few niggling issues I’ve been having with my set
up. However I have had to change a few things when installing and configuring on a Win7 x64
machine. Disabling the Microsoft DTV-DVD Audio Decoder via the Tweaker Tool broke live TV
for me. I left that Enabled and everything is working fine. So not sure exactly how important that
step is. I’ve also turned off all post processing on the Video Decoder as quite frankly every tweak
seems to make the picture worse for almost every file type. I had a issue with certain MKV files
failing to play in Media Browser. Whenever I tried to play them I would get a message telling me
Media Browser was unable to find the file or codec. After a bit of detective work I found out this
was caused by the audio sample rate of the files, it appears that FFDShow Audio does not support
PassThrough for any Audio Stream under 48Khz. In Resample set In “Resample to” put “48000”, in
“Mode” select “libsamplerate sinc high quality” and check “Resample always” – and this problem
went away and all of my audio sources were correctly passed through as 5.1 Dolby Digital. I was not
able to select ffmpeg-mt as a H.264 decoder in the Video Decoder but the default seems to work
well enough so didn’t lose any sleep over it. – cow666 about 1 month ago
 Nice effort but this is now outdated as all of the screenshots are different from my installer.
Furthermore I still cannot playback MKV files and VIDEO_TS/VOB files. Also it is unclear if I
have Windows 7 x64 can I just use the x64 installer or must I install both 32-bit and 64-bit and
configure each one as per guide? – Bernd about 1 month ago
 Install them both – run Media Browser in a window.. play a movie and watch for FFDShow in the
bottom right corner of the tool bar. Once it pops up double click and yu’ll see what version of
FFDShow is being used. – cow666 about 1 month ago

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