[SOLVED] Video convertrers output quality

[phonic-otg]

G'day, I'm trying to help a friend convert video Mpeg4 & MKV to AVI as avi codec is the only one played in his DVD media player as well in his LCD tv media player. (both of us use 12.04 lts with current "67" kernel update, on dualcore pc)

Yes I've used google to search converters and help for them.

Winff has errors saying to use avconf in place of ffmpeg.

FF multi converter works but has very poor avi (video) quality after transcoding from either mpeg4 or mkv. Audio is fine and in sync. but the video is blocky pixels.

Handbrake no longer supports avi.

DivX in wine cant open the transcoder

May someone please assist in giving me some pointers for quality conversion.

Cheers

Well google searching was bleak but I think I'm finding what I need here.

[Rog132]

Quick

Both the AVI /1/ and the MKV /2/ are container formats - there could be many kind of things&codecs inside...


(earlier: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post345474 )


cli/avconv/ffmpeg

Earlier: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post349039

Using the '-qscale:v 10' and the avconv to conversion from the 'mkv' to the 'avi'. Kubuntu 12.04.4.

$ avconv -i Input.mkv -qscale:v 10 -acodec copy Output.avi
avconv version 0.8.12-4:0.8.12-0ubuntu0.12.04.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the Libav developers
built on Jun 10 2014 15:31:10 with gcc 4.6.3
[matroska,webm @ 0x1ec4760] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'Input.mkv':
Duration: 00:03:57.54, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
Stream #0.0: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1280x720 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 24 fps, 24 tbr, 1k tbn, 48 tbc (default)
Stream #0.1: Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16 (default)
[buffer @ 0x1eebbe0] w:1280 h:720 pixfmt:yuv420p
Output #0, avi, to 'Output.avi':
Metadata:
ISFT : Lavf53.21.1
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 1280x720 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 24 tbn, 24 tbc (default)
Stream #0.1: Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo (default)
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 -> mpeg4)
Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)
Press ctrl-c to stop encoding
frame= 5700 fps=204 q=10.0 Lsize= 44687kB time=237.50 bitrate=1541.4kbits/s
video:40635kB audio:3660kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.882577%

With a gui

Using the Avidemux



Picking the video/audio output codecs and the quality.


Links

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Interleave
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matroska

[phonic-otg]

Thanks Rog132, I comprehend the situation much better now.

Avidemux was the option for me, as with a GUI the learning curve is lessened.
Confused though to see the AVI option as Mpeg4 AV (Xvid).

The actual transcodeing to avi resulted in better video quality with Avidemux. The sound is nearly perfect just out by a fraction (a few hundred milliseconds) in some places, not all though so I don't know if using the Shift +/- in Audio will correct it or make it worse.

Very happy today, thanks again.

I'll report on the audio situation for future readers, hopefully before I go on my road-trip.

[perspectoff]

I'm not a fan of GUI's (such as Avidemux), where many of the options are hidden and automatic (and not always ideal). I prefer mencoder to ffmpeg (and, I agree, ffmpeg/Winff can give a lot of pixelation, so I don't use ffmpeg anymore).

While Avidemux is pretty good, I prefer mencoder and its more fine-tuned options. I've experienced no audio lag issues with mencoder.

Here's what I do (on now hundreds, if not thousands, of video and DVD conversions):

(K)Ubuntguide:

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Video_Conversion

[HalationEffect]

Confused though to see the AVI option as Mpeg4 AV (Xvid).

AVI is the container, and Mpeg4 AV (Xvid) is the codec within the container.

The first ~5 minutes of the video linked below gives a decent explanation of containers and codecs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpBjGUlBTHU