need to convert .mkv to .avi [SOLVED]

[Browncoat]

Did forum search here..results:

"No results found for 'video converters'."

Ice films.info is down, they provided links to .avi files the alternatives only point to .mkv

which my machine needs a little more oomph to use, then i found out that the linkers do their own converting

spent all morning looking for a converter that doesn't need extra crap like GDI+ or Dvix6, latest VLC can handle

720p avi on my machine OK but .mkv gets pixelation, stuttering, I take that to be the single core P4 I need to run the one

MDP-130 in DVD mode in the workstation. Figure converting would help.

Might as well delete your responses guys.

addendum: Sept 1st.

I found SUPER © and a basic guide for it,simply put it is a GUI for all those command line converters out there.

I've had success after a few hiccups, mostly with downgrading AC3 to MP3 2 channel {there's also a Windows AC3 filter

available] getting excellent results in 720p for two of my favourite shows that are running their current seasons.

SUPER © at majorgeeks and Filehippo guide here:

http://forum.videohelp.com/images/guides/p1608146/basicsuperguide.pdf

Edited September 1, 2011 by Browncoat

[allen2]

I don't see how converting would increase quality as every time your encode with a non lossless codec (like xvid/divx/wmv/x264...) you loose quality.

Also, when you encode something, it should be decoded first so if the decoded part is bad (like the one you see when playing it on vlc or mediaplayer) then the encoded will at least have the same default unless you filter it.

There are specials forums for this kind of discussion: google is your friend.

[bphlpt]

I can see how this would help the OP. It's not that he's trying to improve the quality of the image by converting, just the effectiveness of the the display of the image, if you will. ie for his particular system, OS, CPU, memory, media player, codec, etc displaying .mkv files takes just a little more "horsepower" than he can provide, so the display suffers from pixelation. He does not have the same problem with .avi files. I had the same problem a couple of years back. I wish I had the answer then, and I wish I had it now to give you. Please let us know if you find a program that is effective for you.

Cheers and Regards

[allen2]

Then there are solutions: if the mkv is x264 based, he can try core avc (not free) one of the codec using the less cpu power or mediaplayer HC.

Also nobody does miracle, if its cpu is not enough to playback x264, he could decode it using a lossless codec (like huffyuv or mjpeg...) which would use less processor time but would take a lot of space on the drive and then the bottleneck might become the drive.

At one point, he'll need to buy new hardware to improve playback quality.

If you still want to convert the mkv to divx and thus lowering its quality (not its playback quality), you'll to reduce its size i you had 720p then i would go for at max a res at 480p. There are all in one tools that might do this sometime properly but it heavily depend on the source codecs and quality and the targeted avi. One of those tools is free and is named super (i hate it because of it's working like pretty badly and sometime doesn't do what you wanted). The others free ways need encoding knowledge and most use avisynth but it is a lot more complex.

The encoding might take a lot of time (days) depending the number of passes and wanted quality on a P4.

A good recent computer (i7) should be able to do realtime encoding with two passes (one the best way to process xvid movie).

Adobe should have its own all in one solution for doing this but i never used it.