How do I put theora/vorbis in a matroska container? (Solved)

faern · Last edited by faern on Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:52 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hi.

I want to re encode some movies & clips I have to a free format for archiving.
I want help in deciding upon a codec for audio, video and then a container for it.

My first choice was Theora for video and vorbis for audio. Then ogg as it's container.
The problem is that ogg doesn't seem to be too compatible with jumping in files and so on.
So I wanted to put my theora/vorbis into a matroska container, but ffmpeg doesn't like that

kKDu · Apprentice Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Posts: 187

You could first make an ogg-file with ffmpeg and than use mkvmerge or mmg (graphical tool) to make your mkv-file. But theora video not always works with matroska (don't ask me why). Also I think you should use h.264 (x264) as your video codec for achieving, because it's output quality is better.

But one question: why you would reencode avi-files? You will always loose quality.
_________________
http://www.vim.org

faern · Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:41 pm Post subject:

I know I loose quality.

I'm not going to do it on files where the quality is the most important thing (HD-video). I just want to store stuff in a free format. Thats why I cant use x264 either, I know it has better quality that theora, but from what I have heard there are some patents surrounding it.

Thats why I ask you, do you know any better free codecs?
_________________
http://www.faern.net - My page & blog about software & gadgets

beandog · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:27 am Post subject:

When it comes to free, or at least, completely free codecs, there really aren't many choices. Everything in multimedia is patented, it's better to just get over it and move on with using whatever fits you best.

But, there is some other stuff, for audio at least. There's flac for lossless audio. musepack is free, but it's somewhat based off of MP2. I don't think there's other choices for video right now.

Also, I agree with kKDu in recommending to use mkvtoolnix to create the .mkv file instead of ffmpeg or another encoder. You'll have less problems that way, since I think the muxers for matroska are still new.
_________________
If it ain't broke, tweak it. dvds | blurays | blog | wiki

faern · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:47 am Post subject:

Ok. maybe Ill go with x264 or something.

But for audio, isn't vorbis a good choise? Does it have any downsides?
_________________
http://www.faern.net - My page & blog about software & gadgets

yngwin · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 11:40 am Post subject:

Personally, I use x264 video and ogg vorbis audio in a matroska container for things like DVD-rips. As Avidemux' matroska support is not yet fully dependable, I use Avidemux for just the video encoding (sometimes with avisynth in wine as frameserver, when I need its more advanced filtering possibilities). I do the audio separately with oggenc, then mux the two (and sometimes subtitles as well) with mmg.
_________________
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln
Free Culture | Defective by Design | EFF

cjubon · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:33 pm Post subject:

kKDu · Apprentice Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Posts: 187

linga · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 131

faern · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:23 pm Post subject:

Yes I can seek in it, I just noticed that it is slightly "buggier" than in other containers.

Thanks for all the help, all of you
_________________
http://www.faern.net - My page & blog about software & gadgets