to DJMORBID and anyone else still struggling with mkv. Ive done it!!!! Nobody in the forum mentioned about the Matroska pack being a vital part of the conversion process. I found by accident elsewhere that someone had managed to convert mkv to mpeg using TmpGenc. So this is what you need go to http://ld-anime-faireal.net/guide/matroska-en you can read a bit about it but within that site you go to http://packs.matroska.org Download Pack Full v 1.0.2 When you run TmpGenc and open H Potter or whatever your mkv is, it will open up (at long last thank god) then just carry on to the end clicking the various boxes to get to next page and of course ensure you have compressed it to under 4070 GB, then hit the okay button or whatever it is, and it will start encoding. The bad news is that it takes around 5 hours (bearing in mind this particular film is around 2 hours 15 mins long) so I went to bed and left it "cooking", this morning, I opened up TmpGenc DVD author ran the file through, another 30 minutes, then used their burning program which is a bit slow but onto a dvd+RW, another 30 mins - I usually use vso's CopytoDVD, much quicker, but I wasnt expecting any great shakes, so went along with the existing program. So I have quite a reasonable copy on DVD, one slight disadvantage, the sound is not that loud, also some of the scenes are a little yellowy at times but all in all acceptable. However, I would not bother with mkv again and as the guy was pretty clever who actually produced it and evidently had a dvdrip, it could have been converted into avi which would have been better quality and I would have used Direct from Divx2dvd, which would have taken, considering the length of the film, around 75 minutes on a dvd rw for the whole process. Anyway, thanks to Shiroh and all for your help and I hope this post will help others.
re mkv etc. P.S. to Last one, forgot to mention, but you probably all already know this. If you dont use the burning program in TmpGenc DVD Author, you can just go to the Video TS Ifo folder (Vol 1 I think it is called) that it has made, run that through DVD Shrink, hit re-author and then just drag the main movie up and hit back-up. This cuts off the horrible looking blue menu that TmpGenc DVD Author makes which is no use anyway unless you have chapters. This morning, I just put my dvd+RW through DVD Shrink with the same result and burned it with my normal CopytoDVD program.
Nice work. One problem, the link you gave for the guide doesn't work. Is it written correctly? I got few anime in this format and cant get them to work yet. Thank you
Reaper 2K - if you are referring to the ld-anime-faireal guide yes it is correct but I have just clicked on it and the page wont open. I have exactly the same thing as a desktop shortcut and it will open, so dont know whats up with it, anyway, the guide is not that informative anyway, but the next link which is within that page ie, the packs.matroska, for the downoad pack, that link is working and that is what you need anyway. Once you get that you should be able to open the mkv in TmpGenc
What's Matroska? Read this guide in your language: 日本語 English suomi Polski Deutsch Русский Norsk Magyar français español Nederlands Português (Brasil) Italiano Slovenský Bahasa Melayu Jargon::Matroska So you want to play MKVs? Get the newest official Packs at: http://packs.matroska.org/ Mirror You don't like bloated codec packs? Try our multilingual installer, which will install minimal components: 2 Splitters (Core) and VSFilter (Needed for subtitles). You might need additional decoders (Codec) for the audio/video. Follow the link for more information: http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA022257/matroska/ Various Matroska Video Samples: Test your settings: http://matroska.free.fr/samples/ How to Play MKV (Matroska Video) Lazy Man's Guide to MKV http://ld-anime.faireal.net/guide/matroska PDF Version: http://m17n.cool.ne.jp/matroska-en.pdf 7 June 2003 Liisachan & fiveam Team #LD-Anime Matroska is a cross-platform, patent-free, open-source media file format, which is even newer than OGM. Matroska is not a codec (like MPEG-1, XviD, DivX, or VP3), but a container (like OGM) where you can put video(s) + audio(s) + sub(s). Supported audio formats include Ogg Vorbis, AAC, MP3, and AC3. What are the Pros and Cons? Matroska is more compact (roughly, OGM 175MB = Matroska 174MB): Higher quality than OGM in the same file size. Matroska files are either of a higher quality or more compact than OGM (roughly 174MB compared to 175MB for OGM), thanks to a new flexible file structure called EBML, also known as "Binary XML". The exact same A/V information in an OGM can be stored more efficiently in Matroska, resulting in a significantly smaller file size. Matroska has the same capabilities, if not more, than OGM, while saving (roughly) 4MB of storage for every 700MB of information. For these reasons, should Matroska's technology stabilize, OGM may even become obsolete. In other words, if the size of Matroska file and OGM file are equal, the Matroska's quality would be higher. For instance: 175MB OGM = 160MB Video + 13.5MB Audio + 1.5MB Overhead for muxing 175MB Matroska = 160MB Video + 14.5MB Audio + 0.5MB Overhead for muxing Because of the smaller overhead, you would be able to use a higher bitrate in the Matroska and still end up with the same file size. The subtitles in OGM are incompatible with Unicode / ISO The subs in OGM can support various languages by switching so-called Code Pages. For instance, the same code E8 in hex can mean U+00E8 è (e with grave accent) in the Western-Europe Code Page, U+010D č (c with caron) in the Central-Europe Code Page, or U+0438 и (Russian small letter i) in the Cyrillic Code Page. A different character has a different code point in Unicode, like U+00E8, U+010D, and U+0438 in the above example. Windows 2000 and XP work in this way internally. But older operation systems like MS-DOS use the same code (E8 in the above example) for different characters, and distinguish them by switching Code Pages. Those Code Pages are incompatible with Unicode, even for European languages. Currently, subtitles embedded in OGM utilizes this older method. Basically, in order to view subtitles in different languages, the Code Page must be switched manually, which can be a nuisance. In some cases, the subs still cannot be viewed correctly despite the manual change. Matroska, which uses subs based on the Unicode, is expected to bypass these messy problems. If the language settings of your OS happen to be "Western Europe," you may feel that OGM is a great system. However, a good software should have universal appeal and be used with the same ease by everyone. All softsubs in a Matroska video would viewed correctly in the same amount of ease by people all over the world. Unfortunately, OGM does not have this versatility. If you are an avid anime fan, you may feel a desire to view Japanese kanjis in your subs, even if you cannot read them. While there is no harm in having the capability of viewing all the languages properly, it would be a disservice to not be able to. Embedding Unicode-based softsubs has been a long-awaited desire for us (at #LD-Anime), who are multi-subbing in more than 10 different languages. That is one of the many reasons why we are looking forward to using Matroska. Unlike the closed-source format developed personally by Tobias, a genius in Europe, Matroska is being developed by many people with roots in various languages. The subs in Matroska will be richer. The softsubs in OGM does not allow for notes (usually in a smaller font size) to be added to the top of the screen. Editorial notes are used as a tool by subbers to explain a word or cultural background that may be unfamiliar to the general viewers. This is currently the practice with hardsubs (in AVI); but is impossible with OGM softsubs. Furthermore, subbers are frustrated by the lack of freedom in the style of the subtitles in OGM. Subtitles are designed to not only convey the idea of the spoken dialogue, but also to help create the mood or setting. For example, special fonts may be used for a magical spell, a radio announcer, an AI's synthetic voice, etc. However, these tools are surrendered when working with OGM. (Some fansubbers feel that OGM is useless for this reason.) Matroska will be supporting SSA and ASS, which means, everything that can be done in hardsub, will be available in softsub. What's more, Matroska is going to support an even newer, XML-based sub format: USF. Stability Despite all the promising features, Matroska is still not a practical format to use at the moment. As of 7 June 2003, Matroska is still in the beta stage (version 0.4.x.) Since Matroska has not stablized yet, OGM is still the practical and realistic format to use. Added 2004-02-06: Matroska (MKV) has already shown good stability, and quite a few groups have switched to MKV from OGM. Where Can I Find Out More About Matroska? Visit the Matroska Official Site. Ask your question in the CoreCodec Forum. Another place to visit is the "New A/V Formats" section in the doom9 forum. The Project guliverkli provides alternative matroska splitter for directshow. Last but not least, we are big fans of OGM. We are still using OGM for our multi-language subbing needs. We are even devoted to spreading the use of OGM by web-publishing the Lazy Man's Guide to Ogg Media (OGM Files). So, please do not misunderstand us. We are looking forward to Matroska not because we hate OGM; but in actuality we are quite fond and familiar with OGM, and so we look forward to working with softsubs in ways we couldn't with OGM. Just because Matroska may have some advantages over OGM, that does not mean that OGM should be abandoned. If your project isn't very ambitious, OGM may be more than sufficient. We just want to try new things.
Sorry about the looooooong guide, was doing my best but must have kept my finger on the Cntrl V for too long, but at least you have got the Matroska guide now!!!!!! Fixed now, sorry about that, never quoted a site before.
