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converting mkv to mp4

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Hello, I’ve been trying to convert an mkv that I ripped from my TROS blu-ray for fan-editing, and I can’t edit the video track as currently I’m just using iMovie until I can buy FCPX and they don’t support mkv. I’ve tried numerous times to convert this mkv to mp4 using vlc and I tried on handbrake, but for some reason every time I load it into the editor, the video is just fine but the audio is always messed up. It plays descriptive audio and all of the dubs of the movie at the same time as the normal english track causing the mp4 to be basically worthless for editing purposes. I’ve been trying to do this for a while now and it’s been pretty frustrating, needless to say I am a first time fan editor. Does anybody have any suggestions on how I can properly convert the mkv to mp4 for editing reasons?

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 (Edited)

1- MKV does not work with many editors, as you know. MKV is a container, like a “folder” in very simple terms. Inside this “folder” is an h264 AVC video track most likely, which is very common, and fits in MP4s too, which DO work in editors. You need to either use ffmpeg to convert the mkv to mp4 (which will be quick and will not lose quality), or re-encode it while also switching the container (like using handbrake) but this will take longer and can slightly reduce quality.

Look up how to use ffmpeg on a mac, put your movie in the folder, and use this command

ffmpeg -i title.mkv -codec copy title.mp4

This will copy over everything into an mp4. BUT, the audio might not work, as you’ve said.

Regardless, you can still do the easy way with handbrake, just make sure to go to the audio tab and delete every audio channel except the one you want (usually the best quality one), set it to AC3 and make sure it’s all maxed out for quality etc

Or, here’s what I do without having to convert things and re-encode.

2- If we go back in time, before you do the mkv->mp4, we can work with it to extract the audio first. The audio is most likely DTS, or some other type used in blu-ray releases. You should convert to it to 24 bit 48kz wav so that you can work with it.

There’s a couple options. First off, it’d just be MUCH easier if you didnt need them attached. You can have the movie & audio tracks be seperate, you just load them in, and then make sure they both start at 00:00 and are lined up.

Youll want to find a program that will let you remove ALL the audio tracks except the main English 5.1 audio. If you load it into handbrake… it should show you them and you can X them all out, or you can use ffmpeg.

Im on windows, but my method is:
-Rip blu ray, I have mkv
-Remove all random audio tracks/subtitles using MKVToolNix (Idk if its on mac)
-Or, you can use MediaInfo (view->text) to see all audio tracks and see which ones you need to remove, and then use ffmpeg to remove audio tracks, youll need to google how
-I now have an mkv with 1 audio and 1 video
-I convert the mkv to mp4 using ffmpeg, so it can be loaded into programs, the audio can be lost here, idc
-Then I load that mkv into Audacity and it’ll automatically load in the 6 mono channels of audio and obviously ignore the video since its an audio program, I then export each as mono wavs, and then I set up 5.1 in my editing program manually

To do things perfectly, it’s gonna be a couple hour process, but I assure you everything can be done to get it work

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sidshady12 said:

1- MKV does not work with many editors, as you know. MKV is a container, like a “folder” in very simple terms. Inside this “folder” is an h264 AVC video track most likely, which is very common, and fits in MP4s too, which DO work in editors. You need to either use ffmpeg to convert the mkv to mp4 (which will be quick and will not lose quality), or re-encode it while also switching the container (like using handbrake) but this will take longer and can slightly reduce quality.

Look up how to use ffmpeg on a mac, put your movie in the folder, and use this command

ffmpeg -i title.mkv -codec copy title.mp4

This will copy over everything into an mp4. BUT, the audio might not work, as you’ve said.

Regardless, you can still do the easy way with handbrake, just make sure to go to the audio tab and delete every audio channel except the one you want (usually the best quality one), set it to AC3 and make sure it’s all maxed out for quality etc

Or, here’s what I do without having to convert things and re-encode.

2- If we go back in time, before you do the mkv->mp4, we can work with it to extract the audio first. The audio is most likely DTS, or some other type used in blu-ray releases. You should convert to it to 24 bit 48kz wav so that you can work with it.

There’s a couple options. First off, it’d just be MUCH easier if you didnt need them attached. You can have the movie & audio tracks be seperate, you just load them in, and then make sure they both start at 00:00 and are lined up.

Youll want to find a program that will let you remove ALL the audio tracks except the main English 5.1 audio. If you load it into handbrake… it should show you them and you can X them all out, or you can use ffmpeg.

Im on windows, but my method is:
-Rip blu ray, I have mkv
-Remove all random audio tracks/subtitles using MKVToolNix (Idk if its on mac)
-Or, you can use MediaInfo (view->text) to see all audio tracks and see which ones you need to remove, and then use ffmpeg to remove audio tracks, youll need to google how
-I now have an mkv with 1 audio and 1 video
-I convert the mkv to mp4 using ffmpeg, so it can be loaded into programs, the audio can be lost here, idc
-Then I load that mkv into Audacity and it’ll automatically load in the 6 mono channels of audio and obviously ignore the video since its an audio program, I then export each as mono wavs, and then I set up 5.1 in my editing program manually

To do things perfectly, it’s gonna be a couple hour process, but I assure you everything can be done to get it work

i converted a video from mkv to mp4 and when i tried to open the mp4 file in sony vegas, it appeared as a green screen with no audio file.
I was told to rename a dll file. i did that, & then sony vegas crashed.

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I generally work with smaller sized files, using free applications.
Pazera Free Converter may work, as should Wondershare Video Converter free.
Results often vary, and I don’t know how “professional” they will be.
Either may be useful for evaluating projects.

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DVDFab works great and is super easy to use.
Just drop the file, pick the format, and click start.
You can even upconvert.

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Have you tried avidemix, it can copy your video and audio stream into MP4 rather than needing to convert it. It can also extract audio files and convert them to various formats and also trim down video files.
I use this quite a lot especially for extracting audio.

Avidemux link: https://www.avidemux.co.uk

Hope this helps👍