[MEncoder-users] how to convert mkv to avi?

[James Hastings-Trew]

rulet1 at meta.ua wrote:
>> rulet1 at meta.ua writes:
>>     
>
> Well... I have used command mencoder -ovc copy -oac pcm -o your_output.avi
> your_mkv_file.mkv
> and got not readable file at all -- I even can't to know the size of the
> output file...
> I cannot use mencoder -ovc copy -oac copy -o your_output.avi
> your_mkv_file.mkv command because it is says:
>
> r at NGF:/media/disk-1/ФИЛЬМЫ$ er -ovc copy -oac copy -o 1.avi Дурное
> воспи_воспита
> ние.mkv
> MEncoder 2:1.0~rc2-0ubuntu19 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
> CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz (Family: 15, Model: 4, Stepping: 9)
> CPUflags: Type: 15 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
> Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
> success: format: 0  data: 0x0 - 0x56eec1a6
> [mkv] Track ID 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC), -vid 0
> [mkv] Track ID 2: audio (A_AAC), -aid 0, -alang und
> [mkv] Will play video track 1.
> Matroska file format detected.
> VIDEO:  [avc1]  720x304  24bpp  25.000 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
> [V] filefmt:31  fourcc:0x31637661  size:720x304  fps:25.00  ftime:=0.0400
> videocodec: framecopy (720x304 24bpp fourcc=31637661)
> Audio format 0x4134504d is incompatible with '-oac copy', please try '-oac
> pcm' instead or use '-fafmttag' to override it.
>   
Chances are then that the audio is in a format that isn't compatible 
with the .avi container (DTS, AC3, etc). I've seen a lot of "scene" 
releases that re-encode the video but drop the audio in "as is" from the 
source. So, you might have to re-encode the audio, as in:

mencoder -ovc copy -oac mp3lame -lameopts br=192:cbr:mode=0 -o 
your_movie.avi your_mkv_file.mkv

This is much less objectionable than re-encoding the video. However, 
with caution, I might mention that this will probably introduce a/v 
desync unless the input file is pristine. In general I've found mkv 
files have an audio delay of around 1 to 3 frames so you might need to 
fiddle with a -delay parameter (a good starting point is -delay 84). You 
also might need to include -noodml in the command-line depending on if 
your player supports ODML avi files or not. Some don't. Some need them 
if the file size exceeds 1Gb. Your mileage may vary.