What I know about Matroska

Not directly related to asian films/tv, but these days lots of shows are being mux'd to Matroska so it's good to know.  ANd for myself, it's good to keep this as a reminder...

AVI and MKV are both container formats, which is to say they are not video formats but contain video streams.

AVI stands for Audio-Video Interleave and so is set up to carry a video stream (say DivX) and an audio stream (say HE-AAC).  Since it's Microsoft, naturally there's no forward thinking or future proofing ("Give 'em 640K, there's no way they'll ever need more than that!")

Meanwhile, Matroska (MKV) is an open-source format that allows for (apparently) arbitrary streams to be contained within.  So video stream, audio stream, 2nd audio stream, subtitle stream, chapter stops, ...?

For AVIs to have subtitles, they need to either be burned in (ugh) or accompanied by a subtitle file.  Often the subtitle file is .srt and naming the .srt file the same as the .avi causes them to match.  It's a kludge but it works.

To watch a Matroska file, you need to get the Matroska Pack [link] and then you can watch it on WiMP; however, I prefer to get The Core Media Player (TCMP) [link] as it's much cleaner and nicer than the stupid WiMP.  Plus it provides easy access to subtitles (not sure how WiMP handles it).

The Matroska Pack should have all the codecs necessary to watch/listen to any of the .MKV files, however, I did notice that at home, i couldn't get any audio until i downloaded an AAC codec.  I found this out b/c the Matroska Pack has a really nice utility called MKVDiag which analyzes a .MKV file and tells you what codecs were used, furthermore it gives the URLs to get the appropriate codecs.

MKVToolNix [link] is another very useful utility if you want to make your own MKV files.  So if you have .AVIs + .SRTs lying around and want to clean them up, you might want to use MKVMerge from the MKVToolNix package.

For Ripping DVDs to MKV, use FlaskMPEG or XMPEG.  Make sure you install the appropriate codecs first.  I mostly use LameMP3 160kbps CBR, b/c when I use VBR, there's an AV sync problem.  I haven't yet tried the HE-AAC as I've only just now figured it out.

HE-AAC which seems quite popular is a High Efficiency mp4 audio stream and is available from NERO.  As far as I can tell, you have to convert TO HE-AAC using Nero's utility.  So ripp to an audio stream (say .WAV) and then convert to HE-AAC and then mux into .MKV

XviD is a very popular video codec and there are a couple of flavors of them.  You can get it here [link].  I use Nic's binaries [link].

SubRipper [link] is needed to rip the subtitles from a DVD.

Divx-Digest.com and Doom9.org are seemingly the best resources for all this stuff

Comments

[Nick]

hey u said u used a srt. file right could u tell me where u got it i d/l FF7AC and its in japanese and ive been looking for an srt thanx if u can

[sildenafil]

I hate to imagine the changes that will be presented shortly, we have seen 3D movies in HD, BlueRay and want to see who will come after this I'm anxious.

[viagra online]

Oh man, how could you not have put down "Amelie"? I watch that over and over again for her hair...her clothes...and just the basic richness of the movie. The premise sure sounds interesting...most movies today are about a load of nonsense...

[Xatwaqupu]

http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/how-to-make-scopolamine/ - pharmaceutical action of scopolamine http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/at-home-sunburn-treatment/ - gypsy woman sunburn radio mix http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/adverse-effects-of-imuran/ - imuran wikipedia http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/acne-and-water/ - prescriptions for acne http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/lentes-de-contacto-en-santa-barbara/ - lente insulin half life http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/ammonium-succinate/ - recall of metoprolol succinate http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/oxaliplatin-injection-200/ - oxaliplatin for injection http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/the-compleat-sally-forth/ - compleat cuisine http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/backache-and-pregnancy/ - backache during period http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/spearmint-rhino-norwich-gallerie/ - use of spearmint in aromatherapy http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/loz-oot-rom/ - loz lorrimar http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/monobenzone-benoquin/ - instruction for making monobenzone http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/home-remedy-anti-biotic/ - biotic silver herb http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/parenteral-analgesics/ - opiate analgesics http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/levothyroxine-for-dogs/ - levothyroxine and calcium http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/dogs-hydroxyzine-dosage/ - hydroxyzine vs cetirizine http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/pyridoxine-hcl/ - pyridoxine heart block http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/sys-programs-in-vc/ - cough syrup prometh vc purchase http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/medicine-micardis/ - afro americans and micardis http://iolakylan.chica-web.es/black-plating-on-zinc-castings/ - zinc countertop