Can i convert a .MKV movie file so i can play it via the Xbox 360?

[SnoopZ]

For all you file pros out there, is it possible to convert a high definition movie that's in a .mkv file format to allow me to watch it on the Xbox 360 like i can a xvid? If it's possible do you have a very simple guide!

Cheers

[popper]

im busy right now but in essence it should be simple, in reality it not so easy.

first up grab a copy of http://tversity.com/ and use that as your transcoding/streaming server, simple.

howevr the 360 had problems with mkv wrappers and wants everything in wmv wrappers.

see theres the biggest problem, ms choses not to allow non wmv wrappers to play unless its on a dvd.

theres 3 main parts to this,
1: the video codec
2: the audio codec
3: the wrapper that these two get put inside

if your mkv is avc/h.264 and your audio is aac then it should be a simple case of a quick transcode were you take the avc/aac out of the mkv wrapper and put them unchanged into a wmv wrapper or mpeg for that matter.

however finding a good tool for this is another matter, all the tools the novices tell you to use always re-encodes the A/V rather than simply transcode on the fly in real time, re-encoding can take hours ,looses quality, and doesnt always work at keeping the audio and video in sync.

ill revisit this later when i have time, but if you find a good app for this simple and quick mkv to wmv transcode then let me know as the lads just got the 360, and im using tversity right now to stream and realtime transcode old divx/xvid wapped in avi containers and it works great.

vlc transcoding my first few mkv to mpeg wrapper didnt go to well, but i only tryed this 2 days ago and have some ideas to try yet

There's quite a few converters about, but which to use, I don't know.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mkv...dd&sa=N&tab=fw

[SnoopZ]

Thanks everyone, i'll look into it at the weekend, for now i can watch a 720p xvid but i have to change the display settings of the Xbox360 to 720p otherwise i get it in letterbox, this is via component so i'm unsure if it'll auto switch over VGA when i buy the lead.

[Acathla]

MKV to Xbox360?

GOTSent is the best program for doing this as easily as you would want.

linky: http://sentry23.googlepages.com/

You do need AC3Filter and the Haali Media splitter installed for GOTSent to work but its pretty darn simple to get to work and the results are smashing. Gives you an MP4 file which you can view on your box. (It will also convert to PS3 for those who have this).

[Matt D]

Originally Posted by popper

howevr the 360 had problems with mkv wrappers and wants everything in wmv wrappers.

see theres the biggest problem, ms choses not to allow non wmv wrappers to play unless its on a dvd.

The 360 will happily play various other containers - not just .wmv (although yes, no .mkv sadly).

It'll play .avi containers, using Xvid or Divx; .mp4 containers, using H.264 or Xvid; .wmv containers, using WMV or VC-1...

http://a8t8.spaces.live.com/blog/cns...13E8!188.entry

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/support/sy...laybackfaq.htm

Originally Posted by popper

however finding a good tool for this is another matter, all the tools the novices tell you to use always re-encodes the A/V rather than simply transcode on the fly in real time, re-encoding can take hours ,looses quality, and doesnt always work at keeping the audio and video in sync.

Transcoding on the fly won't be any better quality than transcoding in advance - could even be worse, as you may need to decrease the quality so the PC can keep up with it while streaming at the same time (whereas doing it in advance of streaming, you can just leave it to it & let it do multi-pass high quality conversions).


When I still streamed stuff to my 360 (before switching to using my PS3 for videos due to greater video support & less noise), I used to use Encode360 to transcode stuff the 360 can't play to WMV - AFAIK it will also transcode .mkv files to wmv.

http://dcunningham.net/encode360/

---------------------------------------------------

It's also possible to get WMP11 to stream .mp4 files:

http://a8t8.spaces.live.com/blog/cns...13E8!156.entry

[Matt D]

Ah, another option:

AutoMKV.


It can take a variety of containers & codecs as the input (including .mkv/H.264), & transcode to...

.avi/Xvid

.mp4/Xvid

.mp4/H.264

.m2ts/H.264

.mkv/H.264

.wmv/WMV

etc.


I don't use it to convert from .mkv files, but it can do it.


As the 360 can play .mp4 containers with H.264 video, I'd go for that if the source is an .mkv container with H.264 video. Although obviously WMV would be a good option too, as the 360 is definitely happy with that.

[SnoopZ]

I hope the next update allows it to play native .mkv without any messing about.

[Matt D]

Hmm.

Would be nice, although the general opinion on various sites seems to be "No way!".

The .mkv container is primary used for...well, you know I'm sure

So the argument seems to go "Microsoft/Sony will never allow the 360/PS3 to play that!!!"


But, then again...

The 360/PS3 plays MP3s...

The 360/PS3 plays .avi files with divx/xvid

And what are they all normally used for?


So, you never know...


EDIT:

And of course, before divx/xvid support was added, people said "They'll never let it play that! The only use is for..."

[popper]

Originally Posted by Matt D

The 360 will happily play various other containers - not just .wmv (although yes, no .mkv sadly).

It'll play .avi containers, using Xvid or Divx; .mp4 containers, using H.264 or Xvid; .wmv containers, using WMV or VC-1...

http://a8t8.spaces.live.com/blog/cns...13E8!188.entry

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/support/sy...laybackfaq.htm




Transcoding on the fly won't be any better quality than transcoding in advance - could even be worse, as you may need to decrease the quality so the PC can keep up with it while streaming at the same time (whereas doing it in advance of streaming, you can just leave it to it & let it do multi-pass high quality conversions).


When I still streamed stuff to my 360 (before switching to using my PS3 for videos due to greater video support & less noise), I used to use Encode360 to transcode stuff the 360 can't play to WMV - AFAIK it will also transcode .mkv files to wmv.

http://dcunningham.net/encode360/

---------------------------------------------------

It's also possible to get WMP11 to stream .mp4 files:

http://a8t8.spaces.live.com/blog/cns...13E8!156.entry

first of all thanks Matt for the links they turned out useful....


second , i think you misunderstand me, when i say transcode im refering to taking the video and/or audio directly out of one container and putting it directly into another container untouched, and within a few minutes.

NO messing about re-encoding the original codec content and making it into something else and taking hours or even days with 1920 × 1080 to do so.

so, what do we/i know so far about this MKV HD container content, and converting it in a fast way for useability on tversity or directly playable on the 360 from a USB2 stick etc

that xbox info url moved since you posted it btw.
http://support.xbox.com/./support/en...aybackfaq.aspx

for MP4 container A/V,the 360 lets you play upto 10Mbit/s AVC/H.264 streams reasonably well, 11Mbit/s streams play badly there, so try and keep any AVC at around the 9.5Mbit/s mark or lower, for lower HD/widescreen formats that can take it, see below.

for AAC MS only allow you to play AAC Audio at only 2 channel stereo,
if your original MKV content is AAC 5.1 it would NOT play even after you have placed it directly inside an Mp4 container.

several places online say the current 360 firmware will auto down convert it , but in my limited testing, it did NOT, and infact refused to even try and play the new perfectly valid MP4 contained AVC video codec part if the Mp4 also contained anything but 2 audio channels AAC.

only real 2 channel stereo AAC seems to work right now (on my lads new 360 arcade/HDMI PCB machine at least).

perhaps the new MS firmware/middleware(software apps running on the PPC CPU 's inside the 360 device to you and me) update in a few weeks will allow more, but for now this is their/its set limit.

check your original Mkv's for these AVC 10Mb/s, AAC stereo top limits and your fine.

you can then use Avidemux to simply copy the AVC/AAC mkv contents directly to an mp4 container for instance
http://avidemux.berlios.de/index.html

and on very limited testing, it also seems to convert/re-Encode AAC 5.1 audio inside a few Mkv etc to AAC stereo quickly, so if you have to, that is an option for making the audio part compatable for 360 playback if its above the max 2 channel stereo allowed for playback.

re-Encoding any over bitrate AVC video part to a 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps 9.5Mbit/s stream looks like it will take days though.

we need to find some better tool that can do that part faster if your just looking to drop the bitrate to an acceptable 360 bitrate without loosing video data/quality.

the only other data we need to keep in mind for these HD screens is the aspect ratio for the given content.

and http://www.ctoforaday.com/articles/000055.html gives you that


"...
The 360 VGA, pre-November 2006 update (or whenever it actually ships) is 640x480 (4:3, 1.33, aka VGA), 848x480 (16:9, 1.77, aka Widescreen 480), 1024x768 (4:3, 1.33, aka XGA), 1280x720 (16:9, 1.77, WXGA), 1280x768 (15:9 1.66, aka 720p), 1280x1024 (5:4, 1.25, aka SXGA), and 1360x768 (16:9, 1.77, also aka WXGA) ...

There are, however, HDTVs out there in at least two other resolutions - 1440x900(16:10, 1.6), and 1680x1050(16:10, 1.6) - in common use in HDTV units today; other common resolutions include 1600x1200(4:3, 1.33), and 1920x1200(16:10, 1.6).
...
"

so the basic choices to keep HD widescreen ratios when you get the choice to Encode your content are 848x480 (16:9) ,1280x720 (16:9) , 1360x768 (16:9) , and OC 1920x1080

it explains why Tversity Transcoding is set for the lowest 848x480 (16:9) to keep your codeing upto speed without so much need to keep buffering the original, at least on my lads laptop 1.6 mhz toshiba celeron

so check your Mkv's with say
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

if they are already within these AVC 10Mb/s, AAC stereo top limits and your fine, just use Avidemux in direct dopy mode for both the AVC video and the AAC audio to an MP4 container and a few minutes later depending on the speed of your CPU and Harddrive you will have the same quality as the original but inside an MP4 container that the 360 can play.

if the AVC/H.264 codec video's below the 10Mbit/s limit, but your AAC audio is not generic 2 channel stereo, then you can try a direct copy on video, and set the convert to stereo on the AAC audio content part, and it may or not work quickly, more testing is needed for that to be sure.

if you want some HD content to play with Big Bunny

http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/

and Elephants Dream
http://orange.blender.org/download
are good/best quality original CC content ,but their cartoon rendering so not so good for live action shot at 1920 × 1080 or above...

[Matt D]

Originally Posted by popper

second , i think you misunderstand me, when i say transcode im refering to taking the video and/or audio directly out of one container and putting it directly into another container untouched, and within a few minutes.

AFAIK that's considered "remuxing", not "transcoding".

e.g. taking AVC & AC-3 from within an .mkv container & re-muxing it - untouched - into an .m2ts or .vob container for PS3 playback. Used when although the container itself is not supported, the contents are, so you just change the container. If the contents of the container aren't supported, then you need to transcode (re-encode).


When TVersity converts something the 360 will not natively play, it is AFAIK transcoding it (re-encoding) not re-muxing it*. So there will be a quality drop, as it has to do it quickly so you can stream at the same time. Whereas transcoding it yourself in advance can be done with much less loss of quality by doing a decent multi-pass re-encode etc. etc. (prob. is of course time as you've said). While yeah, re-muxing if poss. would be even better, as it's quick & doesn't lose any quality.

[*Quick Google finds that does seem to be the case, although they do plan on their "roadmap" to add remuxing eventually.]

[popper]

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

Thanks everyone, i'll look into it at the weekend, for now i can watch a 720p xvid but i have to change the display settings of the Xbox360 to 720p otherwise i get it in letterbox, this is via component so i'm unsure if it'll auto switch over VGA when i buy the lead.

did you try it yet?, that http://www.ctoforaday.com/articles/000055.html
above says for you to use VGA (the most flexable) 720P you would set your 360 at 1280x768 (15:9 1.66, aka 720p) but its not clear if its auto switched or not when you pick that port on your handset.

i assume it will as your 360 is useing only one type of connection at a time, and most TVs switch to the last powered device that sends a signal to a port.

my HDTV doesnt have a VGA (they were out of stock of the two that did) so i cant use it OC ;(

"i have to change the display settings of the Xbox360 to 720p otherwise i get it in letterbox" ?

you mean in the blade generic setting, so that everything is then 720P even if your HDTV is 1080i/p as its top setting!

for video playback at least, i was asking and reading around about why some video only comes up in letterbox and massive black borders around it.

it turns out that while inside the player you can on the fly select 360 up-scaling by pressing "A" and/or right until you get to the 3rd from the right icon ,"display mode" for "Auto", "letterbox" , "fullscreen", "stretch", and "native" scaling options.

as far as i can find out , it appears this Auto choice all depends on the original bitrate the video uses as to what size setting the 360 gives you as its default auto scaleing.

there does'nt seem to be any text or related info i can find as regards these default bitrates MS have set in the current 360 firmware for each auto scale video bitrate setting.

did anyone find this bitrate info and/or run any tests to find these bitrate/s levels?

im unsure right now if i use "DVI to component" lead as i have that port and its unused right now.

i read, and assume i will get only the default 1080i my HDTV has in HDMI mode, when i plug the ATI HD 3650 PC card with a "DVI to component" lead in there.

but im unsure right now, it may display 1080i but auto to a letterbox mode as you say above, or one of the other modes above for all i know right now.

can you confirm the options i might see from a PC "DVI to component" port lead !

i could also get a "DVI to HDMI" lead and have to swap them out, as the TVs only got one HDMI port, and i cant seem to source an HDMI auto switch in local shops right now.

i assume "DVI to HDMI" pc lead at 1080i would be my better option even if i swap them when needed ?, its not a real problem as its eather one device (PC)or the other (360)right now ?

[Acathla]

Popper, my link to GOTsent will not recode the video. AFAIK the audio format is extremely strict in the 360 so it still needs to be recoded but I don't think there is any getting out of that.

[SnoopZ]

No not yet Popper, i might get around to it eventually but at the moment i'm downloading .wmv movies and streaming from Vista to the 360. I also could connect the PC to the TV when i have time as this will be easier, although i might need to upgrade the graphics card.

Yes i had to change the 360 res to 720p otherwise i get letter box on a 720p xvid, however i can stream a 720p wmv. movie over VGA to my TV which then outputs it at 1080p full screen.

Since streaming wmv. bluray rips to the xbox 360 i've learnt that you usually get huge black borders top and bottom(just like a true bluray disc i guess), but after a while you get used to them.

If i was to connect my PC to an HDMI port would i be able to output 1080p for my TV and 1080i for the PC monitor at the same time?

[popper]

Originally Posted by Acathla

Popper, my link to GOTsent will not recode the video. AFAIK the audio format is extremely strict in the 360 so it still needs to be recoded but I don't think there is any getting out of that.

thanks for that link but Gotsent doesnt work for me with its supplyed mencoder/ffmpeg and i cant find the time to replace them with the latest code pulls and compile to match them to my other running apps right now.

ill get around to doing a clean XP install one day on this VNCed machine and give it another try perhaps, but im mostly happy with VLC multicast streaming on here right now, so finding another app for recoding/transcoding and that "remuxing", i keep getting mixed up with is more suited to my options right now.


i have seen on the fly and offline video bitrate changers before but i cant seem to find this info any more, its been a long time...

---------- Post added at 00:28 ---------- Previous post was at 00:15 ----------

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

No not yet Popper, i might get around to it eventually but at the moment i'm downloading .wmv movies and streaming from Vista to the 360. I also could connect the PC to the TV when i have time as this will be easier, although i might need to upgrade the graphics card.

Yes i had to change the 360 res to 720p otherwise i get letter box on a 720p xvid, however i can stream a 720p wmv. movie over VGA to my TV which then outputs it at 1080p full screen.

Since streaming wmv. bluray rips to the xbox 360 i've learnt that you usually get huge black borders top and bottom(just like a true bluray disc i guess), but after a while you get used to them.

If i was to connect my PC to an HDMI port would i be able to output 1080p for my TV and 1080i for the PC monitor at the same time?

MS giving WMV preferential treatment as seen by their 15Mbit/s allowance for their VC1 codec over the far better AVC/H.264

even the single PPC/Altivec SIMD part of the PS3 Cell chip can run HD upscalers with the right Altivec SIMD optimisations on its own with no problem , so the 360 with its 3xPPC plus extra undocumented Altivec extensions can do it fine too.

MS are chosing not to let you use it to its full potential and/or using crappy unoptimised PPC CPU code on there, but then their old PPC based NT wasnt very optimised eather and ran slower than it could have done on those old PPC chips/motherboards.

lets hope this new Firmware updates these codecs and upscaler PPC code to be far more efficient and (finally!)make good use of its Altivec SIMD etc.

try setting your video back to your highest HDTV setting, and do that on the fly upscaling thing in the player, i suspect it might work for your video over component as it does here on HDMI.

"If i was to connect my PC to an HDMI port would i be able to output 1080p for my TV and 1080i for the PC monitor at the same time?"

you have a 1080P capable HDTV right?, then i assume so, as 1080P chipsets/SOC can do all the other modes below it, including 1080i ASAIK.

you feed the port with a 1080P signal from a device, it will use 1080P, you feed it 1080i it uses that instead and so on down the line....

if your TV is speced for 1080i at best then thats its best option even if you feed it 1080P,it will only use 1080i or lower, is that clearer!

assuming a PC GFX card with two HDMI or DVI ports you could "picture AND picture" one port for 1080P and the other for 1080I if you like i think , but i suspect your refering to one port into your old monitor, and the other into the HDTV at another scan rate p or i as most people will use them.

---------- Post added at 00:50 ---------- Previous post was at 00:28 ----------

"i get letter box on a 720p xvid, however i can stream a 720p wmv."

one other thought try using that http://www.headbands.com/gspot/ on your working wmv's and xvids to see the difference in bitrate.

it might give us a clue about this auto bitrates settings above as a start and thats why your seeing leterboxed xvid's , xvid/divX being restricted to 5 Mbit/s Max playback OC by MS....