Video File Conversion

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May 2012

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May 28 - Memorial Day

Guardian Angels
Kia Purity's Site
Surtur's Fuge of the Damned
Malachit Room
The Nisan Sanctuary

[SLDFKnight]

So I got an mp3 player for Christmas and I want to stick some videos on it, but the machine isn't liking the .mkv extension most of my shows use. Is there an easy way to convert the container format into something simple it will recognize? I could always find a different torrent, but that would be, you know, annoying...

[TheContact]

you'll need to give more info than that, guy.  For all we know, you have a phone that plays MP3s.  They dont' all use the same format for playback.

[SLDFKnight]

Cellphones are evil! I got a Creative Zen Vision W and it supports WMV9, MPEG4-SP, MPEG1, MPEG2, MJPEG, DivX 4.x, DivX 5.x and XviD-SP formats.

[TheBug]

Good stuff.  I've got a Zen Vision M myself

Anyway, the tool you need is Virtualdubmod.  I'm not sure if it's still actively developed now, but any decently recent version will do.  Open your video file in mkv format, go to the Video menu, and select Direct Stream Copy.  This will avoid doing any actual re-encoding.  By default audio streams are direct copy, so you needn't worry about those.  Then just go to File->Save, and choose AVI for the output container.  It MAY give you warnings if you have a subtitle track, since AVI can't support them.  I assume its smart enough to not copy it, but if it won't let you save due to that, then go to Streams->Stream List, and disable the Subtitle track.

The menu names are approximate, since you know, I don't make a habit of memorizing item names exactly, but you should be able to do it with the info I gave you.

Good luck!

[SLDFKnight]

Thanks that sounds fairly easy. One thng though: if there's no english and I need subtitles to understand what's going on am I just SOL?

[TheBug]

======[ Short Answer ]======
Here are your options, ordered by what I think is more preferable:

0.) Grief Surtur.
1.) Download a hard-subbed version.
2.) Live with no subs.
3.) Live with not watching said show on your Zen.
4.) Use Virtualdub to convert the soft-subs into hard-subs (see long answer)

======[ Long Answer ]======
If you want to convert soft-subs into hard-subs, then you aren't technically SOL, but it's a pain, and takes away the advantage of owning a media player that supports such a broad range of codecs.

Depending on what format the subs are (you can find out by looking at the stream info, usually its .srt), you basically need to find a filter for Virtualdub (Virtualdubmod is just an extension to Virtualdub, all filters are compatable with either one).  I believe a filter comes default with the download something like Subtitler.  Anyway, what it all boils down to is a complete reencode of the whole video.  Depending on your CPU, this could take quite a long time.  Generally speaking, with any MPEG4 variant (XVix, DivX, etc), you will end up doing 2-passes (only way to get predictable file-size and quality).  On a moderate speed, single-core CPU, expect this to take about 1.5 to 2 times the play time of the video (assuming something around 640x480 resolution).

Re-encoding DOES technically lower quality.  But you aren't doing it just for the fun of it, and frankly, I think you have to be quite anal to care (the difference is noticible when you blow the thing up to a 52'' screen, but not on the Zen).

If you really want to put the time and effort into this, I could write up a little guide for you, or point you to a few sites that have guides better than I would have the time and energy to write up.  Chances, are, though, that you will be better served simply downloading a hard-subbed version of whatever show (but c'mon, we both know its anime) you want to watch on the go.  It's probably only marginally slower (assuming its a vaguely recent show), and BT doesn't sap your whole computer while it's doing its thing.

A note on subtitles:
The Vision W has a larger screen by the M, but still smaller than the PSP (though higher resolution, I think).  Reading subs (as mentioned by TheContact in your previous thread) is a pain.

[SLDFKnight]

Thanks for the help. Now I just have to find hard subbed stuff with non-annoying colored subtitles. To the torrents!