.mkv and VirtualDubMod

[JazzyDJ]

What if your source mkv file has 2 languages of subtitles in your mkv file? How would you go about removing them and to just get the video when you convert into a proper editing codec?

[JazzyDJ]

Another Question: Isn't AMVApp like 5 or 6 years old?? Isn't there anything else that's more updated and works better with Vista to use? (All the errors that comes up makes it unbearable to work with.)

[LivingFlame]

@JazzyDJ: Are you using AviSynth to open your MKV file in Vdub? I've never had a subtitle stream open on Vdub before. (I use AviSynth.) Without AviSynth I assume you can go to the "Streams" pull down menu and then go to the Stream List and disable subtitle streams there. Vdub alone doesn't handle MKV files well on XP or Vista, though, so maybe that's where your errors are coming from?

[Qyot27]

What if your source mkv file has 2 languages of subtitles in your mkv file? How would you go about removing them and to just get the video when you convert into a proper editing codec?

If you use FFmpegSource to load it, then there is no 'removing' necessary, as it doesn't load subtitles. With DirectShowSource, you have to disable subtitle rendering completely either through VSFilter or Haali's Media Splitter (unless you want to go through the hassle of remuxing the whole file without them there).

Another Question: Isn't AMVApp like 5 or 6 years old?? Isn't there anything else that's more updated and works better with Vista to use? (All the errors that comes up makes it unbearable to work with.)

Depends on which AMVapp you're referring to. The beta version is only about 2 or 3 years old, I think. And AMVapp will have errors during the installation tests, but from everyone else's reports it works fine on Vista.

But I just update each program myself, which would eliminate any sort of Vista incompatibility weirdness (since you'd be using the newest versions; and by now, most of those apps have solid Vista support). If you need the collection of AviSynth plugins it comes with, you can probably extract them from the installer with 7zip.

[LivingFlame]

With DirectShowSource, you have to disable subtitle rendering completely either through VSFilter or Haali's Media Splitter (unless you want to go through the hassle of remuxing the whole file without them there).

That's odd. I've never once had DirectShowSource open a subtitle stream, even if Haali is set to display it. Have all versions of DirectShowSource been that way?

[JazzyDJ]

Thanks guys. Looks like you made a couple posts while i was typing my reply to LivingFlame. Which was this:

I get all kinds of errors from trying to install amvapp everytime, so I just installed avisynth on it's own but I don't use it much because it seems like alot of unescessary steps that makes things more complex than it needs to be. I haven't attempted any of the methods discussed yet. I have searched over the internet and there seems to be endless numbers of opinions about what is the best way to convert mkv files so I thought I would come here and learn some more about it before I attempt anything. I've read so many different variants on this task in the last couple hours that my head is spinning.

My main goal is to simply to get the mkv files into Lagarith with out the subtitles showing up (and keeping as much quality as possible without breaking my hard drive). When I opened the file in Media Player they were set as default to come on until I told vobsub not to import the stream. So to answer your question, since I'm still determing the best way to go about this task, I haven't tried it yet to see if the subs show up in virtualdubmod or any other of the other conversion software I have. (I also have TMPEG 4.0 Xpress, and DGIndex/Avi2DVD, and HCenc/HCgui). Other places are saying to use other tools like MKVconvert, AVIdemux, or MKVToolNix. I've got a headache because everyone is saying something different. So for right now I thought I'd just get some council from other org members on what direction to take since you guys know what they're primary use will be for: editing

MKV files are a new frontier for me. So is FFmpegSource, actually.

Another question to ask, I have all the codecs I need from the Vista ultimate codecs pack that's out there. Do I really need CCC?

Thanks for your help guys.

[Qyot27]

With DirectShowSource, you have to disable subtitle rendering completely either through VSFilter or Haali's Media Splitter (unless you want to go through the hassle of remuxing the whole file without them there).

That's odd. I've never once had DirectShowSource open a subtitle stream, even if Haali is set to display it. Have all versions of DirectShowSource been that way?

It isn't DirectShowSource that does it. It's the filters themselves. If Haali's has been set to display subtitles, then it depends on how ffdshow or VSFilter are set up. If ffdshow has subtitle rendering enabled, it's there, end of story.

VSFilter, on the other hand, can be finicky, and not always render the way you expect it to. If you go into VSFilter's settings, the option for 'Pre-buffer subtitles' is what I pinned the behavior down to. If it's unchecked, then the subtitles display as they should no matter what you're opening them in. If it's checked, it seems to be kind of hit-or-miss. I ran into this when trying to hardsub some stuff for easier playback and no subtitles showed up in the encode because VSFilter was set wrong, even though they showed up just fine in WMP. Not to mention unchecking the Pre-buffer option makes clicking on the timeline to make the subs show up unnecessary, which was always a major annoyance for me anyway.

My main goal is to simply to get the mkv files into Lagarith with out the subtitles showing up (and keeping as much quality as possible without breaking my hard drive). When I opened the file in Media Player they were set as default to come on until I told vobsub not to import the stream. So to answer your question, since I'm still determing the best way to go about this task, I haven't tried it yet to see if the subs show up in virtualdubmod or any other of the other conversion software I have. (I also have TMPEG 4.0 Xpress, and DGIndex/Avi2DVD, and HCenc/HCgui). Other places are saying to use other tools like MKVconvert, AVIdemux, or MKVToolNix. I've got a headache because everyone is saying something different. So for right now I thought I'd just get some council from other org members on what direction to take since you guys know what they're primary use will be for: editing

MKV files are a new frontier for me. So is FFmpegSource, actually.

I have no clue what MKVconvert is. AVIDemux is a VirtualDub-like program that isn't quite as tethered to Windows as VirtualDub is, and MKVToolNix is just a muxing program, it doesn't convert (it allows you to create MKV files, including simply opening them up, not checking certain streams, and then making a new MKV without those streams there).

FFmpegSource is tricky, as there are two separate versions: 1.21 and the 2.00 beta (currently at beta 5). They also take different input parameters, unless you've gone to the trouble to copy the stuff in the Code box in this post (link), and save it as ffmpegsource2.avsi in C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins - which is also where FFmpegSource.dll, FFMS2.dll, etc. should have been placed. That wrapper function makes FFmpegSource2 recognize the parameters from version 1.21, which makes it easier for those accustomed to how 1.21 worked (although, frankly, 1.21 still works fine - it just uses an older version of ffmpeg). The only difference is that it requires you to use FFmpegSource2() instead of FFmpegSource(). That way you can have both versions available without conflicting with each other.

But the basic workflow is like this. With FFmpegSource 1.21:

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FFmpegSource("source.mkv")

Open that up in VirtualDub or VirtualDubMod and you're good to go (if using VDubMod, do NOT use Open via AviSynth to do it*, use the regular open dialog to select the .avs file).

For FFmpegSource 2.00 beta 5 and the wrapper function:

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FFmpegSource2("source.mkv")

Both versions require a bit more time than usual to open the file the first try. This is because it generates an indexing file. On subsequent opens, it refers to that file instead (this is why it's generally a good idea to open the script in Windows Media Player 6.4 or Media Player Classic first, as it tends to be less annoying than going through all the hassle of only using VDub). Version 1.21 will also decode the audio to a separate cache file if you use the atrack=-1 option. The atrack option is necessary if you want audio, because neither version loads audio by default (-1 will take the first available stream, and is roughly equivalent to using a positive 1. Positive 2, 3, 4, etc. choose other audio streams, if they exist. -2 disables audio - or video, if you use vtrack=-2).

*There is a fix for this, if you create your own templates for FFmpegSource that VDubMod can recognize and use. In VirtualDubMod's folder there's a subfolder called templates - you put these in there, making sure the templates have a .avst extension.

ffmpegsource.avst

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#ASYNTHER FFmpegSource
[FFmpegSource("%f",atrack=-1)]

ffmpegsource2.avst

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#ASYNTHER FFmpegSource2
[FFmpegSource2("%f",atrack=-1)]

After putting those in there, you can select FFmpegSource or FFmpegSource2 from the Open via AviSynth dialog (still, though, you don't use that option to open already-written scripts; you use it to open the video file, but you tell VDubMod which AviSynth source filter to use for generating a script for opening the video).

Another question to ask, I have all the codecs I need from the Vista ultimate codecs pack that's out there. Do I really need CCC?

Codec packs are evil. They give computers cancer if you don't know what you're doing with them. CCCP is the only exception to that, as it only installs what's absolutely necessary. Most of the CCCP's decoding abilities are actually from ffdshow, plus other relevant splitters like Haali's and the Gabest RealMedia splitter, along with VSFilter (maybe? considering ffdshow can render subs).

[JazzyDJ]

Thank you for your help everyone. I've settled on using virtualdubmod from your advice and I have managed to get my MKV h264 to open in VDubMod. However I did not write an avisynth script. How do I do that so I can add the aforementioned ffdshow tag into it? Do I just make an avisynth script and put only that in the script with the file location or do I have to write in more tags/info?

Or is having it open like it is via ffdshow and virtualdubmod sufficiant? If it is, here's my biggest and final question. Since I only see options to save the file as .avi, .ogm, or .mkv, how do I get it it into Lagarith? In TMPEGXpress this would normaly be under .avi settings but I don't even see any sub-settings to do that with.

It's opened up in Vdub and in perfect quality. Now... how do I get it into Lagarith lossless format and into Vegas? (Without losing that quality?) For the record it is High Definition video.

[JazzyDJ]

OK nevermind I just asked a really dumb question up there. I must have had a brain fart when I posted because I just remembered how to do it. It's under the compression settings.

[molitar]

I am trying the fmpegsource method but I get error AVI import filter error:(unknown)(800401f0)

Any idea why and how I can fix?