Print

[Bitwize]

OK, I very much appreciate all the tutorials out there but I kept running into "problems" so I sort of came up with my own method to convert MKV to WMV-HD 5.1 360 Ready files. Here's the process I now use and that has worked "flawlessly" every time thus far...

VISTA/XP USERS W/ MICROSOFT EXPRESSION ENCODER:
(Note:  For XP users, you can follow this tutorial, but install a different and comparable codec pack)

Setup:

1) Uninstall all codecs and then use the Codec Removal Tool 2.12 (I believe) to fix and remove broken codecs

2) Install the Vista Codec Package and leave all options/configuration at defaults (including ffdshow audio and ac3 filter settings)

3) Install Avisynth 2.5.7

4) Extract the standalone WMENicEnc

5) Install the MKVtoolnix and the MKVmerge GUI (if not included with MKVtoolnix)

6) Install Windows Media Encoder (includes the Windows Media Stream Editor and Profile Editor which we will use)

7) Install Microsoft Expression Encoder


After that is done, here's the process I use:

1) Open the MKV in MKVmerge and uncheck the audio track and all subtitle tracks. Set the height and width for video track to the actual height and width of the MKV movie. Then save MKV to a new file which now only contains a video track.

2) Create an AVS file for the original MKV (with audio) and open that file in WMENicEnc. Uncheck the video option and select Windows Audio Pro 10 with a setting like this: 384 (640)kbps 48kHz 5.1 24 bit CBR. This will depend on the sources audio quality. You should at this point reload the AVS file to make sure it saves out the audio as WMA (bug in WMENicEnc?) NOTE: if your audio track is a DTS file you will have to convert it to AC3 first using something like Tranzcode and BeLight (Besweet).

3) Open the Window Media Profile Editor and create a new profile, for example:
NO audio (uncheck), Video=CBR, aspect ratio=1280x720 (1280x544, etc.), frames/sec=23.976 (29.97), key frame interval=2, bitrate=10M (10000K), buffer time=5, video smoothness=100 (sharpest).
(Note:  I would recommend creating a new profile for each aspect ratio and/or frames per second)

4) Open up the new MKV (which now has just a video track) in Expression Encoder using the Import button. (You should now be able to delete the original MKV file as you have converted the audio track to WMA)

5) Load the profile you created.  Uncheck the 2 pass encoding if it's checked and then select the down arrow below the checkbox--set the video complexity to Fastest=0.  Since the profile has no audio settings in it, just disregard the audio settings in Expression Encoder.  For good measure, you can change the Resize Mode to Stretch, but this shouldn't matter as the Profile should match your video's aspect ratio.  You can now check the output settings to select where you want the WMV output to save to.  Then hit the Encode button in Expression Encoder.

6) Now use Windows Media Stream Editor to create a new file. Since Expression Encoder does not publish 5.1 audio, you will open the newly encoded WMV in the Stream Editor and then select the video track (you shouldn't have an audio track in the output file). Then open the 5.1 WMA you made with WMENicEnc. Select the audio track from the WMA file.  Create the new file with the selected video and audio tracks.

You should now have a 720p (544p) Xbox 360 WMV-HD movie with 5.1 audio (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I have tested many conversions using this process via network streaming, USB 2.0 hard drive, and DVD+R DL. All of them look fantastic and have synced audio.This method has produced nothing but compatible, smooth playback, 720p WMV-HD, 360-friendly files for me.

Note:  For a 2.5 hour movie, it only took 3.5 hours to encode on my AMD 3800+ with only 1gb of ram!  The key is selecting Fastest=0 for the complexity setting in Expression Encoder.  The video smoothness=100 and 10M bitrate make up for whatever video quality is lost due to using the Fastest=0 settings.  The goal was to encode an mkv to wmv-hd file as quickly as possible while still retaining great video quality and a file size that is still reasonable to work with.

If anyone is interested in trying this out and has further questions, plz don't hesitate to ask. I know this has been somewhat truncated and someone out there might not be able to track down all the needed software, etc. I can post file links if necessary. Hope this helps someone!

[impimpin206]

Why aren't you using 2 pass encoding?

[MaxP]

my last attempt to convert MKV gave me audio sync issues.
cant hurt to try this method.

[Bitwize]

QUOTE(impimpin206 @ Nov 6 2007, 11:18 AM)

Why aren't you using 2 pass encoding?

Just for the sake of time  But 2 pass encoding is just fine.  The first encode I did with Expression Encoder was 2 pass VBR, 6000-10000K, with complexity at Best=5.  Took around 12 hours on my 3800+, 1 gig ram.

I have found that CBR at higher bitrates produces a video that looks great, but I know file size will be larger.  Not an issue to me though.  Also, the encode time was only 3.5 hours for the same movie!  The output looked better as well.

Are you happy with VBR from 6000-10000K?  I'm just not happy with the results.  The VBR encodes at those bitrates seem to show more compression artifacts, whereas the CBR 10000K encodes I'm doing look more true to the source.

Maybe I'll try 2 pass VBR at 8000-12000K, wih complexity at Fastest=0.

QUOTE(MaxP @ Nov 6 2007, 12:30 PM)

my last attempt to convert MKV gave me audio sync issues.
cant hurt to try this method.

yeah, i had that problem with other methods.  so far i've had no sync issues using this method.

[jamrop]

Hey

thanks for the guide, will try it out tomorrow , been using your moviemaker method which worked great with 720p videos , but 1080p i was having problems


Many thanks

[Bitwize]

Just a side note...

I have been trying other custom profiles and have decided to use Quality Based VBR with a setting of 95.  I am still using the Fastest=0 setting in Expression Encoder.  I'm also still not using 2 pass for the sake of time.  The file sizes are much more reasonable with QB VBR at 95.   This works great for converting hi def tv shows to wmv-hd.

[jamrop]

Hey Bit

Tried the CBR approach, using 2 1/2 hour video clip, and got slighty out of sync issues near the end of the movie. Video quality was great tho and did not take very long at all

Will try the VBR soon

[Bitwize]

QUOTE(jamrop @ Nov 8 2007, 04:51 PM)

Hey Bit

Tried the CBR approach, using 2 1/2 hour video clip, and got slighty out of sync issues near the end of the movie. Video quality was great tho and did not take very long at all

Will try the VBR soon

I know this is obvious, but did you check that the source was not out of sync?  So Far I've not had any sync issues with dozens of encodes.

I did a 2 pass VBR at full quality last night.  The file size was identical to the CBR 1 pass encode I did and believe it or not, the video quality was actually slightly worse with the 2 pass VBR.

I'm convinced that using CBR at high bitrates (10+M) is going to produce virtually the same quality as VBR.  The downside is file size, which tends to be larger with CBR, but not always.

For TV shows I'm finding that VBR at 95 quality using 1 pass and Fastest=0 complexity works very well.  The file sizes are usually double that of the MKV source, but the quality is great.

[Bitwize]

Jamrop:  I have finally decided on some settings that yield great results at decent file sizes.  Here's what I'm using...

2-pass CBR, bitrate=8000K (8M), buffer=5, key frame=2, video smoothness=100 (sharpest), fastest=0 (complexity)

This equates to a 21 minute video being approximately 1.35gb, which includes 384kbps 5.1 48hz 24 bit CBR audio.

This puts a 2 hour movie right around 8gb, which is great for backing up to a dual layer dvd+r.  Doing a 2nd pass with CBR is acutually quite beneficial and gives significant improvement to the overall video quality.  I decided to try the 2nd pass for CBR after reading some Microsoft documentation for WME.

Hope you have good luck with your encodes!

impimpin:  no surprise, the 2nd pass is crucial.  thx for keeping me in check

[jamrop]

Thanks Bitwise, will try it out

[jamrop]

Hey Bit

Started to encode now, but i am still not sure about the key frame interval, is having it lower better, or higher, done some searching, but no one really answers the question well

[Bitwize]

QUOTE(jamrop @ Nov 13 2007, 07:39 AM)

Hey Bit

Started to encode now, but i am still not sure about the key frame interval, is having it lower better, or higher, done some searching, but no one really answers the question well

The key frame interval does not seem to affect file size and from what I can gather, it should be lower (default=2) for streaming.  The more key frames, the easier it is to seek through the file when streaming.  

Did you make a 2 pass CBR encode at 8M?  My files are turning out great thus far.

[JaSoN]

how come it takes forever for me to encode it with expression encoder?? i have a p4 3.2ghz with 2gb...and it takes forever...any way to make it faster??..

[Bitwize]

QUOTE(JaSoN @ Nov 13 2007, 12:52 PM)

how come it takes forever for me to encode it with expression encoder?? i have a p4 3.2ghz with 2gb...and it takes forever...any way to make it faster??..

Expression encoder uses Windows Media Encoder technology, so your speeds are still going to be limited by quality settings and your computer.  For the fastest encodes, don't use 2-pass encoding and set complexity to Fastest=0.

[skippy911jp]

Any idea what a different and comparable codec pack for xp would be? TIA