.MKV High Definition to Xbox 360

Hey guys. I have finally gotten my hands on a high definition video clip, but it is in the dreaded .MKV file format. I have tried several different ways to convert it to .AVI with no loss in quality, but none of them worked. I have tried FFMPEGX, MoKgVm2DVD, and VLC to convert it. FFMPEGX just didn't work at all. The second one made an .AVI file, but quicktime says that the video file isn't a video file . Then, I tried VLC, and it did the exact same thing.

Does anyone here know how to convert a high definition .MKV file to a format playable on the XBOX 360 (using Connect360)? Please help me!!

::UPDATE::

I have downloaded the Perian pref tool, and decided to try quicktime pro. I have arranged the settings for a 720p h.264 mp4, and am currently attempting to convert the mkv file. It has been running for nearly 7 hours, and is about 25% done. Is there no other faster way? I read about a QTPro "passthrough" method, but that option is greyed out in my selections for some reason.

Any hints?

FFMPEGX will definitely convert MKV.

Check the log (press the i button on the progress window) it'll give you an idea why it's not working. Usually it's something simple like an incompatible screen ratio etc.

Post the log here if you like and I'll have a look.

mrplow

Sounds good, here's the log::

Encoding started on Mon Apr 21 13:13:52 CDT 2008
MEncoder dev-CVS-060307-04:23-4.0.1 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
Mac OSX static build for ffmpegX
FIXME:Hardenabling SSE and SSE2 without detection
CPU: Intel Pentium III Katmai/Pentium III Xeon Tanner (Family: 6, Stepping: 6)
CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 SSE SSE2
success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0x8c34fef3
[mkv] Track ID 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC), -vid 0
[mkv] Track ID 2: audio (A_AAC), -aid 0, -alang eng
[mkv] Track ID 3: subtitles (S_TEXT/), -sid 0, -slang und
[mkv] Will play video track 1
[mkv] Will play audio track 2
Matroska file format detected.
VIDEO: [avc1] 960x528 24bpp 23.976 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:31 fourcc:0x31637661 size:960x528 fps:23.98 ftime:=0.0417
Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
Opening video filter: [scale w=960 h=528]
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
Forcing output fourcc to 58564944 [DIVX]
Audio format 0x4134504d is incompatible with '-oac copy', please try '-oac pcm' instead or use '-fafmttag' to override it.
Exiting...

A Pentium III? Are you serious? How long is the clip? Also, the resolution is not HD. It's higher than DVD and SD, but not strictly speaking HD.

Either way, a PIII will realy struggle with a h.264 conversion, even at SD.

Its the newest model macbook. I have no idea how it could be p3??????

anyone have any ideas? How could my cpu be considered a P3???

Your problem is you're audio codec. Try changing the output audio codec to passthrough, aac or PCM

ok, yea I had it on passthrough, ill try the others.

UPDATE::
Tried all of them. There is an output file, and ffmpegx just spits it out automatically. The error message I get from VLC when trying to open it is::
access_file: file /Users/Wayne/Desktop/Rat.avi is empty, aborting
access_file: file /Users/Wayne/Desktop/Rat.avi is empty, aborting
main: no suitable access module for `/Users/Wayne/Desktop/Rat.avi'

Output from ffmpegx::

Encoding started on Mon Apr 21 15:32:25 CDT 2008
FIXME:Hardenabling SSE and SSE2 without detection
MEncoder dev-CVS-060307-04:23-4.0.1 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
Mac OSX static build for ffmpegX
CPU: Intel Pentium III Katmai/Pentium III Xeon Tanner (Family: 6, Stepping: 6)
CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 SSE SSE2
Audio format 0x4134504d is incompatible with '-oac copy', please try '-oac pcm' instead or use '-fafmttag' to override it.
success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0x8c34fef3
[mkv] Track ID 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC), -vid 0
[mkv] Track ID 2: audio (A_AAC), -aid 0, -alang eng
[mkv] Track ID 3: subtitles (S_TEXT/), -sid 0, -slang und
[mkv] Will play video track 1
[mkv] Will play audio track 2
Matroska file format detected.
VIDEO: [avc1] 960x528 24bpp 23.976 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:31 fourcc:0x31637661 size:960x528 fps:23.98 ftime:=0.0417
Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
Opening video filter: [scale w=960 h=528]
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
Forcing output fourcc to 58564944 [DIVX]
Exiting...

Depending on how the Matroska container was put together (older codecs etc) you may have an issue with the ffmpeg encoder.

Try changing to one of the mencoder options for video.

I was using the mencoder, and I am trying to use one of the ffmpeg ones now. I took a look at the log, and it keeps saying this::

Error while decoding stream #0.0
[matroska @ 0x5597b8]FIXME: implement support for BlockDuration
[h264 @ 0x54340c]AVC: Consumed only 82 bytes instead of 825637164
[h264 @ 0x54340c]Unknown NAL code: 16
Error while decoding stream #0.0

Don't know what that means, will the file not work again??

Your log from last time says ffmpeg not mencoder....hence the suggestion...

Running out of ideas... I'll keep looking. Might be worth cross posting on the ffmpegx forum.

If you have Quicktime Pro and Perian installed you can open and export it from there.

thanks for all of your help mrplow...

I have gotten it to where it will output a video file that will at least play. Problem is, there are only SOME of the frames of the movie. Like in Quicktime, it will show one frame of the movie, the progress bar keeps moving for awhile, then it will show another frame, etc...

how can I fix this???

don't really know why I didn't think of it before, but I just did a save as from quicktime pro, and got the mkv into the the mov format. Is it easier to convert from mov to mp4 or avi or something like that to stream to the xbox 360? What settings should I use on ffmpegx?

Thanks for any help at all!

What is it you want to do? Are you planning on storing your films on your mac, sharing a folder on the network and connecting to that share on your xbox?

If that's the case then I'd go for xVid - there's a preset in ffmpegx. Though if you have perian installed you will be able to convert mkv to xvid from there.

mrplow

I'm trying to create a file that can be shared with connect360. It can be divx or xvid. I will try the xvid because thats what you recommend. Thank you for your help!

The video is in a very high resolution (near hd, I thought it was HD), and I would like to keep that resolution. How can I do this??

Just export from QT Pro as xVid. Use the same resolution/aspect ratio as the source video and use xVid.

the only option i have is movie to divx....

Do you have Perian installed?