Need helping converting MKV files for WD TV Live

baronobeefdip · 12-15-2013, 11:08 AM

I have a WD Live TV hub and some MKV files that won't play on it. I have some other MKV files that do play on it but I don't understand why. Is there a video converter tool for Linux that I can use to convert these MKV files to a format that can be played on my device?

yooy · 12-15-2013, 12:16 PM

i use "pazera mkv to avi converter" it runs in wine, i know it is a lame solution, but it is easy to use.

Mkv is only container, that may include encoded video/audio with codecs that you player won't support.

baronobeefdip · 12-16-2013, 01:04 PM

Will this program be able to convert it into a format that is recognizable no matter what?

schneidz · 12-16-2013, 01:10 PM

maybe you can sort the working ones from the broken ones by running something like:

Code:

[schneidz@mom breaking-bad]$ mplayer  breaking-bad-46-face-off.mkv
MPlayer SVN-r36171-4.8.1 (C) 2000-2013 MPlayer Team
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing breaking-bad-46-face-off.mkv.
libavformat version 54.63.104 (external)
libavformat file format detected.
[lavf] stream 0: video (mpeg4), -vid 0, breaking-bad-season-4-disc-4--ac3
[lavf] stream 1: audio (ac3), -aid 0, -alang eng, AC3 5.1
VIDEO:  [MP4V]  720x480  0bpp  29.970 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
Clip info:
 title: breaking-bad-season-4-disc-4--ac3
 creation_time: 2012-07-21 04:21:44
Load subtitles in ./
vo: couldn't open the X11 display ()!
vo: couldn't open the X11 display ()!
vo: couldn't open the X11 display ()!
vo: couldn't open the X11 display ()!
vo: couldn't open the X11 display ()!
VO XOverlay need a subdriver
[VO_SDL] SDL initialization failed: No available video device.
vo: couldn't open the X11 display ()!
vo: couldn't open the X11 display ()!
vo: couldn't open the X11 display ()!
Can't open /dev/fb0: Permission denied
[fbdev2] Can't open /dev/fb0: Permission denied
vo: couldn't open the X11 display ()!
VO: [aa] cannot open /dev/vcsa00 for writing,so we'll not use linux driver


Exiting... (Quit)

yooy · 12-16-2013, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Will this program be able to convert it into a format that is recognizable no matter what?

pazera converts to all sorts of formats, you should try xvid for example.

baronobeefdip · 12-17-2013, 11:19 AM

And if there a way to make a que to ake the program convert all of the videos without me having to set it up every single time it finishes a file and just make it automatically start converting a new one.

schneidz · 12-17-2013, 11:27 AM

you should figure out what file formats/codecs/resolutions/audio/... the device is capable of decoding then you can rip/convert your dvd's to the proper format. heres the output i saved from xvidenc; feel free to modify it.

Code:

[schneidz@hyper stuff]$ cat ~/bin/xvidenc-ac3-mkv.ksh
#!/bin/bash
################### START OF COMMANDS ###################

dvd=`lsdvd $1 | head -n 1 | awk '{print tolower($3)}' | sed s/_/-/g`
#mkdir /home/xbmc/win/stuff/clips/$dvd
titles=`lsdvd $1 | grep ^Title: | cut -b 8-9 | tail -n 1`
i=1
while [ $i -le $titles ]
do

/usr/bin/mencoder "dvd://$i" -dvd-device $1 -o /dev/null -vc mpeg12 -vf pp=al:c,softskip,unsharp=l5x5:.25:c5x5:.25,harddup -aid 128 -channels 6 -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=ac3:abitrate=192 -a52drc 1 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=1:turbo:me_quality=6:vhq=4:threads=2:max_bframes=2:bvhq=1:nopacked:quant_type=h263:noqpel:nogmc:trellis:nointerlacing:chroma_me:chroma_opt:hq_ac:nolumi_mask:rc_reaction_delay_factor=0:rc_averaging_period=100:closed_gop:autoaspect -passlogfile "$dvd-$i.log"

/usr/bin/mencoder "dvd://$i" -dvd-device $1 -o "$dvd-`zero-pad-2.x $i`".avi -vc mpeg12 -vf pp=al:c,softskip,unsharp=l5x5:.25:c5x5:.25,harddup -aid 128 -channels 6 -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=ac3:abitrate=192 -a52drc 1 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=2000:me_quality=6:vhq=4:threads=2:max_bframes=2:bvhq=1:nopacked:quant_type=h263:noqpel:nogmc:trellis:nointerlacing:chroma_me:chroma_opt:hq_ac:nolumi_mask:rc_reaction_delay_factor=0:rc_averaging_period=100:closed_gop:autoaspect -passlogfile "$dvd-$i.log"




sleep 2

/usr/bin/mkvmerge   --title "$dvd-$title-ac3" --track-name 0:"$dvd-$title-ac3" --language 1:en --track-name 1:"AC3 5.1" "$dvd-`zero-pad-2.x $i`.avi"      -o "$dvd-`zero-pad-2.x $i`.mkv"
sleep 2

i=`expr $i + 1`
done
#################### END OF COMMANDS ####################

yooy · 12-19-2013, 05:04 AM

Quote:

And if there a way to make a que to ake the program convert all of the videos without me having to set it up every single time it finishes a file and just make it automatically start converting a new one.

pazera allows multiple files at queue. just try it..

schneidz · 12-19-2013, 08:02 AM

fyi: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

Quote:

File Formats Supported
Video - AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9, FLV (h.264)
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle - SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

Note:

MPEG2 MP@HL up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30 or 1280x720p60 resolution.
MPEG4.2 ASP@L5 up to 1280x720p30 resolution and no support for global motion compensation.
WMV9/VC-1 MP@HL up to 1280x720p60 or 1920x1080p24 resolution. VC-1 AP@L3 up to 1920x1080i30, 1920x1080p24 or 1280x720p60 resolution.
H.264 BP@L3 up to 720x480p30 or 720x576p25 resolution.
H.264 MP@L4.1 and HP@4.1 up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30, or 1280x720p60 resolution.
An audio receiver is required for multi-channel surround sound digital output.
Compressed RGB JPEG formats only and progressive JPEG up to 2048x2048.
Single layer TIFF files only.
Uncompressed BMP only.
For details, please refer to the user manual.

File Formats Not Supported
Does not support protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes Store, Movielink, Amazon Unbox, and Vongo

assuming your mkv's encoded using xvid (op still hasnt confirmed what format/codec the trouble files are encoded in) it seems like my script above wont work since wdtv doesnt support xvid in mkv format. what you can do is convert the xvid-mkv's to avi (although avi doesnt support 5.1 audio) or convert the xvid's to x264-mkv's.

agentsteel · 12-19-2013, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baronobeefdip

I have a WD Live TV hub and some MKV files that won't play on it. I have some other MKV files that do play on it but I don't understand why. Is there a video converter tool for Linux that I can use to convert these MKV files to a format that can be played on my device?

Try Handbrake or Arista video converters (for Linux).